Gunshots in the House of God (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

[0] Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad -free on Amazon Music.

[1] Download the Amazon Music app today.

[2] On a cold day in January of 2008, a woman named Judy got out of her car and hustled across the parking lot toward her church.

[3] There was no service this day.

[4] Judy was just here to clean the church.

[5] When Judy reached the side door, she fumbled around in her pocket for the keys.

[6] And then when she found the right one, she pulled it out, slid it into the lock.

[7] and then discovered, the door was actually already unlocked.

[8] Now, Judy knew the door was supposed to be locked right now, so clearly someone had forgot to do that.

[9] And so feeling kind of annoyed, Judy pushed the door the rest of the way open, and right away she noticed the church office door on the other side of the building was open a crack.

[10] And so she walked right over there to tell the person inside that they need to lock the side door, but when Judy actually stepped foot inside of that office, the locked doors quickly became the last, last of her worries.

[11] But before we get into that story, if you're a fan of the Strange, dark, and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday.

[12] So, if that's of interest to you, after the Amazon Music Follow button has spent the whole day cleaning their car, secretly sprinkle a huge handful of breadcrumbs all over the roof, so a gaggle of Canadian geese swarm it and poop all over it.

[13] Okay, let's get into today's story.

[14] story.

[15] I'm Dan Tversky.

[16] In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York, a mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast.

[17] What's the answer?

[18] And what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

[19] Hysterical.

[20] A new podcast from Wondry and Pineapple Street Studios.

[21] Binge all episodes of Hesterical early and ad -free on Wondery Plus.

[22] On Sunday, January 13th, 2008, Rhonda Smith sat in the back pew of the historic Trinity Lutheran Church in tiny Springfield Township, Pennsylvania, doing her best to try to stay calm.

[23] The 42 -year -old choir singer knew that her pastor, Greg Shrieves, would soon call her up to the pulpit to speak, so she was keeping a close eye on him, waiting for his signal.

[24] The winter sun streamed in through the stained glass windows of the 18th century sanctuary, and the rays caught the minister's beautiful pale blue eyes.

[25] And when this happened, Rhonda noticed, and right away she couldn't help but think to herself how unbelievably handsome the minister really was.

[26] At age 56, Shrieves was an unlikely minister.

[27] He had spent decades as a country club golf pro and official on the professional golf tour before answering God's call in 2005.

[28] Shreaves was more than six feet tall and very fit, and he had blonde hair that was still visible amongst his grays.

[29] And he was single.

[30] Now, Rhonda was not romantically involved with her minister.

[31] To her mind, it was just more of a intimate friendship, but she was deeply touched by everything the minister had done for her.

[32] On this particular Sunday, as Rhonda sat nervously in the pew, Pastor Shreaves announced that a fundraising campaign he had launched to help Rhonda with her expenses had brought in $3 ,000.

[33] Then Pastor Shreaves gave the signal to Rhonda for her to come up and say a few words.

[34] And so when Rhonda stood up and began walking towards the pulpit, the hundred or so people in the pews immediately began to applaud and cheer as she walked towards the front.

[35] By the time Rhonda was standing at the pulpit next to Pastor Shreve's, she was totally embarrassed, but also very touched.

[36] Rhonda had actually asked Pastor Shreve's for this opportunity to thank the whole congregation, but now that she was actually up there, she was shaking with anxiety.

[37] She looked over at Pastor Shreaves, who nodded warmly to her, as if to say, you can do this.

[38] So Rhonda took a deep breath, and then she began to speak.

[39] She would tell the members of the church that in the two years, since she had been attending Trinity Lutheran, she had felt welcomed with open arms.

[40] This really felt like her home.

[41] Rhonda's voice broke as she admitted to the struggles in her life, struggles that many in the congregation already knew about.

[42] Rhonda was unable to work full -time because of her battles with mental illness, which had driven her at times to thoughts of suicide.

[43] She had been in danger of being evicted from her apartment because she couldn't afford her bills when Pastor Shrebe stepped in and began raising money for her.

[44] Rhonda tearfully said she owed a debt of gratitude to everyone in the sanctuary as she looked out at all the beaming faces.

[45] Out in the crowd was Judy Zellner, a 60 -year -old grandmother who was Rhonda's best friend at church.

[46] Judy had actually introduced herself to Rhonda on the very first day that Rhonda had shown up at Trinity, and in no time they were having lunches together like old pals.

[47] There was also Mary Jane Fonder, who was also out in the pews, and she was a singer in the choir with Rhonda.

[48] Mary Jane was 65 years old and very eccentric.

[49] she often wore a wig, sometimes backwards, but she was so kind.

[50] One time when Rhonda was not feeling very well, Mary Jane had baked her a blueberry pie as a way to cheer her up.

[51] And of course, there was Pastor Shreve standing right next to Rhonda, who had taken Rhonda under his wing and even offered her temporary work in the church office.

[52] Rhonda had never met a man that was so caring and loving.

[53] To close out her speech, Rhonda again very tearfully told the congregation how thankful she was, and she also said, you know, I don't know what would have happened to me without all of your love and support, so thank you.

[54] And then after that, the room broke into applause again.

[55] As Rhonda stepped down from the pulpit, Pastor Shreaves made a show of smiling really wide and winking right at Rhonda, really letting her know how special she was.

[56] And as she walked back to her pew, feeling very special, she couldn't help but wonder if any of the other women in the congregation felt just a little jealous because of her obvious close relationship to Pastor Shrethes, someone that all the women really seemed to like in this church.

[57] But just then, Rhonda noticed someone unfamiliar sitting in her row.

[58] The man had a gray beard, messy hair, and he wore glasses.

[59] His clothes looked rumpled, and Rhonda noticed that he was actually the only person in the entire church who was not clapping for her.

[60] The following Sunday, Rhonda did not go to church.

[61] Instead, she was sobbing uncontrollably on the phone with a mental health counselor, saying that she was a failure and couldn't drag herself out of bed.

[62] Social workers were so worried about her that they visited Rhonda's apartment just to make sure she didn't hurt herself.

[63] When they got there, they found Rhonda in her pajamas, looking like she hadn't slept for days.

[64] The social workers really wanted her to sign up for an inpatient treatment program, but Rhonda said absolutely not.

[65] She was supposed to start work as a temporary secretary for the church on Monday, and she was not about to miss that, even if it meant giving up going into this treatment program.

[66] She had made a promise to pastor Shreaves that she would do this job, and she was not about to let him down.

[67] Rhonda knew that she was repeating a familiar pattern.

[68] Just when something good was right within reach, she would have a mental breakdown that kind of ruined it.

[69] She had always dreamed of being a teacher, but these bouts of depression and anorexia had kind of doomed her ambitions.

[70] Now she was unemployed in her 40s, and her romantic life was not much better.

[71] Rhonda was a smart and attractive person, but her relationships always fell apart.

[72] At one point, she had poured her heart out to Pastor Shreve's about her history of bad boyfriends.

[73] And when she did, he put his arm around her and he reminded her that it only takes one good person.

[74] Pastor Shreaves called that Sunday night to check in on Rhonda after she didn't come to church.

[75] He wanted to make sure Rhonda was okay, but he also wanted to make sure that she'd be able to work the next day.

[76] The pastor was going to be away at a conference, and so he needed someone there at the church.

[77] church to answer the phones.

[78] And Rhonda promised him she would be there bright and early.

[79] By Wednesday morning, so three days into her temporary job, Rhonda had learned the routine of her new job, but it was making her lonely.

[80] From 9 to 5 every day, Rhonda was supposed to sit in this little plain office inside of the church and just wait for the phone to ring.

[81] With Pastor Shreve's gone, she was the only person in the church, so she had no one to talk to while she worked, and way too much time to think about her own problems.

[82] But on this Wednesday, she did her best to cheer herself up by reminding herself that she had a date that day after work.

[83] He was a nice man that she'd met in a bipolar disorder support group, so maybe he would understand the ups and downs of her life.

[84] But right now, the end of the day when that date was going to start seemed really far off to Rhonda.

[85] Rhonda wished someone, anyone, would call just to break up the monotony of the day.

[86] Even if that call came from the very eccentric, backwards wig -wearing Mary Jane Fonda, who often called the church and seemed totally confused.

[87] In fact, Mary Jane had called the church on Rhonda's first day of work on Monday, and when Mary Jane realized that Rhonda was filling in for the receptionist, Mary Jane promptly wished Rhonda a belated happy birthday.

[88] It was not Rhonda's birthday, but she said that she appreciated Mary Jane's thoughtfulness, but then Mary Jane began asking Rhonda, well, why didn't you invite me to your birthday party?

[89] Rhonda had said there was no party, but Mary Jane just did not believe her.

[90] Rhonda had finally made an excuse to get off the phone.

[91] But now, two days later, sitting in this room feeling so bored, left with these horrible thoughts in her head, Rhonda kind of wished Mary Jane would call.

[92] At least it was something to do.

[93] Rhonda had talked to mental health counselors four times in the past week, as she felt herself slipping into the blackness of depression.

[94] Her parents were really worried about her.

[95] Her dad called her every morning just to hear Ronda reassure him that she was up and at him.

[96] Rhonda wished that she really felt that way.

[97] At 10 .55 a .m. that day, the metallic clunk of the church's side door opening broke the silence.

[98] Rhonda thought it might be Pastor Shreve's back from his conference earlier than expected, and for a moment she was really excited.

[99] Rhonda swiveled around her chair getting ready to greet the minister, but to her surprise, it was not Pastor Shreve's.

[100] It was somebody else, and she couldn't really understand why they were there.

[101] But what surprised Rhonda even more was what this person was carrying in their hand.

[102] Two hours later, at 1 p .m., Judy Zellner, who was Rhonda's best friend at church, parked outside of Trinity Church and stepped out of her van into the crisp winter air.

[103] Judy had long ago lost her tolerance for cold days like this, and so she made a beeline for the church building.

[104] Judy fumbled for her keys, eager to get inside of the warm building.

[105] She glanced into the ground floor window of the church offices, but didn't see anybody inside.

[106] Judy was the sexton of this church, which she would joke was a fancy way of saying she was the cleaning lady.

[107] And on this day, that was why she was at the church, to clean it.

[108] When Judy finally found the right key and put it inside the lock, she was surprised to find the side door of the church was actually already unlocked.

[109] Springfield Township was a community of only 5 ,000 people with very little crime, But the policy was, on weekdays, the church doors were supposed to be locked.

[110] But regardless, Judy stepped through the door and began to peel off her coat, and as she did, she looked up and noticed the door that led into the office where Rhonda was working was open.

[111] Judy walked over and stuck her head in the door and called out hello, but nobody called back.

[112] So Judy opened the door the rest of the way, and she looked into the office, but there was no one sitting behind the desk, there was nobody inside the office, and she was about to leave and go walk around the church to find where this mystery person was who had unlocked the side door when Judy spotted something just on the side of the desk inside of this office.

[113] It was somebody's foot.

[114] Judy at first didn't even know what to do, but then instinct took over and she rushed around the desk and she looked down and she could not believe what she was seeing.

[115] There was a woman laying face down in a pool of blood that had totally saturated the carpet beneath her.

[116] The woman's long brown hair was all maddened.

[117] had read and the side of her face that Judy could see was totally destroyed.

[118] It was like a shattered mess of flesh and bone.

[119] But whoever this woman was, she was still breathing.

[120] Judy could see her chest rising and falling.

[121] Judy wanted to roll this person over and try to perform CPR, but she could tell the woman's injuries were just too severe for her to help.

[122] Then it dawned on Judy, whoever hurt this person could still be inside the church.

[123] And so Judy snatched the church's cordless phone off its cradle, and ran outside without her coat.

[124] Standing in the parking lot, freezing cold and shaking with fear, Judy dialed 911.

[125] When the dispatcher answered, Judy blurted out that somebody was attacked inside of her church.

[126] Paramedics and a state trooper arrived a few minutes later, and Judy showed them to the church office where she had found the woman on the ground.

[127] And when the paramedics went in there, the woman on the ground was still alive.

[128] And so the paramedics asked Judy to leave the office while they attended to this woman, and so Judy nodded and went back outside again, but then looped around to the side of the building and looked into the office through the window.

[129] And when she did, she saw the paramedics lift the woman off the ground and roll her over onto a backboard to take her out to the ambulance.

[130] And it was at this point that Judy finally got a look at this woman, and the woman who had been hurt was her dear friend, Rhonda.

[131] If you're listening to this podcast, then chances are good, you are a fan of the Strange Dark and Mysterious.

[132] And if that's the case, then I've got some good news.

[133] We just launched a brand -new, strange, dark, and mysterious podcast called Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

[134] And as the name suggests, it's a show about medical mysteries, a genre that many fans have been asking us to dive into for years, and we finally decided to take the plunge, and the show is awesome.

[135] In this free, weekly show, we explore bizarre, unheard -of diseases, strange medical mishaps, unexplainable deaths, and everything in between.

[136] Each story is totally true and totally terrifying.

[137] Go follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, wherever you get your podcasts, and if you're a prime member, you can listen early and ad -free on Amazon music.

[138] I'm Dan Tiberski.

[139] In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York.

[140] I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad.

[141] I'm like, stop fucking around.

[142] She's like, I can't.

[143] A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast.

[144] It's like doubling and tripling and it's all.

[145] these girls.

[146] With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the download.

[147] Everybody thought I was holding something back.

[148] Well, you were holding something back.

[149] Intentionally.

[150] Yeah, yeah.

[151] Well, yeah.

[152] No, it's hysteria.

[153] It's all in your head.

[154] It's not physical.

[155] You're, oh my gosh, you're exaggerating.

[156] Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem?

[157] Or is it something else entirely?

[158] Something's wrong here.

[159] Something's not right.

[160] Leroy was the new date line and everyone was trying to solve the murder.

[161] A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios.

[162] Hysterical.

[163] Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[164] You can binge all episodes of hysterical early and ad -free right now by joining Wondry Plus.

[165] 17 miles away, Pennsylvania State Trooper Greg Stumpo was eating lunch at his favorite Italian restaurant when he got a call from dispatch.

[166] A woman had been apparently shot inside of the Trinity Lutheran Church, and she was barely clinging to life, and so could Stumpo report to the scene.

[167] Since Stumpo was the senior officer on his three -man detective team, Stumpo knew he would lead any investigation.

[168] Stumpo wolfed down the rest of his chicken parmesan and then hit the road for the church.

[169] Even though he had been a detective in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania for almost a decade now, Stumpo really had never gotten to investigate many murders.

[170] Springfield Township itself had seen only two murders in the entire last two decades.

[171] And so Stumpo felt a big rush of adrenaline as he drove.

[172] By the time Stumpo arrived, the church was already crawling with police looking for physical evidence from the shooting.

[173] So Stumpo walked up to one of the other troopers and asked where he could find the woman who made the 911 call, Judy.

[174] The trooper immediately turned and pointed out to an idling van out in the parking lot.

[175] So Stumpo walked over and he knocked on Judy's window, which totally startled Judy.

[176] Judy had been sitting in her vehicle with the windows up, heat blasting, staring straight ahead, so shocked she couldn't even muster.

[177] any tears.

[178] But she turned and looked over at Stumpo, and in his suit and tie, he did not look like a state trooper, and he very likely could tell that's what she was thinking, and so he reached down and picked up his badge and flashed it to her to show her who he was.

[179] At that point, Judy lowered down her window, but stayed in her van, as she described for Stumpo, what happened when she walked inside of the church.

[180] She would tell Stumpo that when she first walked into the office, the woman on the floor was so bloody and mangled that June Judy didn't recognize that it was her good friend Rhonda.

[181] And Judy said, at first, she was positive this woman on the ground was dead.

[182] But then she realized her chest was rising and falling, and so she was still alive.

[183] Judy couldn't understand why anybody would want to hurt her friend Rhonda.

[184] Judy described Rhonda as being very sweet and shy, with a kind eyes and a warm smile.

[185] She said the two of them had hit it off immediately when they first met, and they had become very close friends, despite the 20 -year age difference between them.

[186] them.

[187] But Judy also told Stumpo that Rhonda had a dark side too.

[188] She struggled with bouts of depression that at times left her totally unable to function, and one time Rhonda had been so suicidal that she had to be hospitalized five years earlier.

[189] And Judy said, you know, lately it seemed like Rhonda was slipping back into a depression.

[190] Stumpo was expressionless as he listened to Judy, but inside, based on what she was saying, he was beginning to wonder if maybe this was an attempted suicide rather than an attempted murder.

[191] But there was an immediate complication to that theory.

[192] Police had not recovered a weapon.

[193] If Rhonda shot herself, shouldn't the gun be right there at the scene?

[194] Maybe even still in her hand?

[195] After speaking with Judy, Stumpo went back inside the church and over to the church office where Rhonda had been found.

[196] And when he went in there, he noticed there was now a black tape outline of where Ronda's body had been, and it was on this part of the rug that was now totally covered in blood.

[197] Stumpo got down on his hands and knees to see if maybe there was a gun under the desk or some of the other furniture nearby, but there was nothing.

[198] And then an idea occurred to Stumpo.

[199] Did someone help Ronda shoot herself, perhaps disposing of the weapon for her afterwards?

[200] He went back outside to Judy's van and asked directly if she removed a gun from the office.

[201] Judy was totally offended at the very idea.

[202] She had been careful not to disturb anything.

[203] But while Stumpo was inside, Judy said she had thought of someone, that police might want to speak with.

[204] Judy said she recalled a very unkempt -looking stranger who had come to their church earlier in January when Rhonda had stood up before the congregation and that was the first time that Judy had ever seen this guy.

[205] Judy said that on that day, as the donation plate was passed around, she overheard the stranger say something about how this church would be a good place to rob.

[206] Judy had not taken this comment seriously, but now she wondered, did this man shoot Rhonda while he was attempting to rob the church?

[207] Stumpo took down Judy's description of this man and figured it was possible that this stranger had come back to the church to rob it.

[208] Maybe Ronda was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[209] As Stumpo headed to his car, he asked one of the troopers to make sure they spoke to the minister and see if he could figure out if anything valuable was missing from the church.

[210] After that, St. Luke's hospital where paramedics had taken Ronda.

[211] Once he was there, he found Ronda in a process.

[212] private room, heavily bandaged and unconscious.

[213] Her forlorn -looking parents stood vigil at her bedside.

[214] The doctor told Stumpo before he entered that Rhonda was being kept alive by machines, and it was very unlikely that she would survive after so much brain damage and loss of blood.

[215] Rhonda's parents, Jim and Dorothy Smith, who were both in their 70s, agreed to step outside to a waiting area with Stumpo where they could all chat.

[216] Stumpo brought them coffee in styrofoam cups, and he sat down and started by saying how very sorry he was about what had happened.

[217] Then Ronda's father, Jim, told Stumpo about Ronda's long struggle with bipolar disorder and the many times their daughter had flirted with suicide.

[218] Jim said he would never let Ronda keep a gun around her apartment and he would never keep one at his own house.

[219] Luckily, Jim added, the one time Ronda had tried shooting a gun, she had hated it.

[220] And so Jim told Stumpo that he thought it was very unlikely that Ronda would ever shoot herself.

[221] Jim told Stumpo that he and his wife Dorothy had not actually seen their daughter earlier that day.

[222] However, they had spoken to her around 8 .30 a .m. and she sounded like she was in a good mood.

[223] Then again, Jim said, you know, because of Rhonda's condition, her moods could sometimes change on a dime.

[224] Four hours after that conversation, so at about 12 .30 p .m., Jim and Dorothy had driven past the church on their way to lunch, and they saw Rhonda's car in the parking lot.

[225] The parents talked about stopping by and taking their daughter out for a bite, but they figured Rhonda was busy.

[226] Employment had been scarce for Rhonda, so they continued past the church and wound up eating lunch without her.

[227] The detective listened carefully and very sympathetically, but internally, he didn't get the feeling that these parents were going to actually offer up any information that could actually help investigators.

[228] But at the end of the conversation, Jim said something somewhat off the cuff to Stumpo that made Stumpo pause.

[229] Jim said that he prayed his daughter had not tried to kill herself.

[230] He and his wife were very religious, and they believed anybody who even attempted suicide faced eternal damnation, and so they couldn't bear such a fate for their beloved child.

[231] As the parents got up to leave, Jim told Stumpo that he really hoped investigators would not find a gun at the church.

[232] Jim's parting remark left Stumpo wondering whether they were telling the truth when they said they did not stop at the church on the way to lunch.

[233] Maybe, he thought, they walked into the church only to find their daughter lying.

[234] on the floor from a self -inflicted gunshot wound.

[235] The parents could have mistakenly believed their daughter was already dead, and maybe they took the weapon from the scene so it didn't look like a suicide.

[236] Stumpo knew this idea was a total long shot, but it was too early to rule out anything.

[237] Just as Stumpo was about to walk out the front door of the hospital, he spotted a tall, middle -aged man with a priest collar in the hospital lobby.

[238] The man dabbed at his eyes and composed himself before pressing the elevator button.

[239] Stumpo walked over to him and asked the man if he was Pastor Shreve's from Trinity Lutheran.

[240] Shrives nodded and said he was on his way up to minister to Ronda's family.

[241] Stumpo asked him if he wouldn't mind speaking to him for a couple of minutes, and Pastor Shreves agreed.

[242] Shrives was so anxious to get up to Ronda's bedside that he could barely sit still while the two men talked.

[243] Shreve said, you know, he blamed himself for what happened because he had not been at the church to protect Ronda.

[244] The pastor admitted that he really didn't know what he was going to say to run.

[245] Rhonda's parents when he got up there, or what he was going to say to the congregation.

[246] Despite his age, Shreaves had only just graduated from the seminary three years earlier.

[247] Before that, he was competing in golf tournaments, and so nothing in his limited experience as a minister had prepared him for something like this.

[248] The pastor also said he didn't know Rhonda all that well, and he couldn't remember when she actually first joined the congregation.

[249] He described her as a very quiet, lonely young woman who had struggled with mental health issues.

[250] Stumpo sized up the minister as he spoke.

[251] The man was very handsome, as Judy had mentioned to Stumpo, but what really stood out to Stumpo was not the guy's good looks, but the fact that he did not see Ronda as a close friend.

[252] He actually said, you know, he was not that close with her.

[253] Judy had told Stumpo that Ronda saw the pastor as a very dear friend and mentor.

[254] And so to Stumpo, it seemed very clear that Ronda and Pastor Shreaves's relationship was very imbalanced.

[255] However, Pastor Shreaves did know enough about Ronda to suggest to Stumpo that he really should look into Ronda's troubled love life.

[256] Shreve said that Ronda had told him at one point that she had been in a very abusive relationship a few years ago and things had actually gotten so bad that Ronda sought the help of a domestic abuse center.

[257] Shreve said he didn't know who this ex -boyfriend was, but it was clear to him that their relationship still weighed on Ronda years after they parted ways.

[258] Pastor Shreves told Stumpo that Roni that Ronda also had a more recent breakup with a man she had met online who lived in Philadelphia.

[259] Shreve said that as far as he knew, Ronda and this guy had gone on a few dates, but then at some point the guy had stopped returning Ronda's calls, and that had left Ronda feeling very sad and very wounded.

[260] Shortly after this, Stumpo and Shreve's wrapped up their conversation, and Stumpo headed out the door.

[261] And as Stumpo left the hospital, his head was spinning.

[262] He had only been investigating the shooting of Ronda Smith for a few hours, But he already had an array of theories.

[263] Did she shoot herself?

[264] Was she caught up in an armed robbery?

[265] Was she a victim of an abusive former boyfriend?

[266] He couldn't prove or disprove any of these.

[267] Two hours later, around 6 p .m., Stumpo got a phone call from another detective, and they told him that Rhonda Smith was dead.

[268] Her parents had asked the doctors to take her off life support when it became clear she had absolutely no brain activity.

[269] And so the case now was no longer an attempted suicide or murder.

[270] It simply was a suicide or a murder.

[271] Ronda was supposed to go on a date on the night that she died, and so Stumpo wasted no time figuring that out and then tracking the date down.

[272] The man's name was Gregory Dennis Savage, and Stumpo found him at his house just before 8 p .m., and he was still dressed in slacks and a blazer for his date that would never happen.

[273] Gregory said he was supposed to pick up Ronda at her apartment at 6 p .m., but she didn't show, and she didn't send him a message to explain.

[274] And so he had sat outside in his car for a while and then finally just went home, hoping that nothing had happened to her.

[275] Unfortunately, Stumpo said, something had happened to her, but he wouldn't provide any details.

[276] Stumpo asked where Gregory had been late on Wednesday morning, and he had a ready answer.

[277] He said he was taking care of his mother as she recovered from surgery.

[278] Now seeming a bit nervous, Gregory told Stumpo that the last guy Rhonda had been dating might have wanted to harm her.

[279] And so he said, you know, Ronda feared that that guy was just using her for sex, and so she had tried to slow the relationship down.

[280] But when she did that, the guy basically stopped calling her, at which point Ronda began calling him, but he never picked up.

[281] Stumpo thanked Gregory for the tip, and then he left.

[282] However, when Stumpo followed up on Gregory's tip about this previous guy who Ronda had been seeing, who apparently was just using her for sex, well, Stumpo quickly determined that it was a total dead end.

[283] The guy's name was Ray Finkel, and he would tell Stumpo that he had only gone on four dates with Ronda, and he had stopped calling her really just because her house was too far away.

[284] Finkel said he was working all day Wednesday, the day that Ronda was killed, and he had the security card check -in to prove it.

[285] As Stumpo ended the call with Ray Finkel, he was thinking that neither Gregory nor Ray even knew Ronda well enough to want her dead.

[286] These were not exactly Torid love affairs.

[287] However, the abusive ex -boyfriend that Pastor Shreaves had warned about turned out to be a much darker story.

[288] A social worker at the domestic abuse center that Rhonda had called said that Rhonda had accused this man of sexually assaulting her four years ago and getting her pregnant.

[289] Rhonda eventually got an abortion, but the social worker said that Rhonda was haunted by the experience.

[290] Then the social worker said that as part of Rhonda's therapy, she kept a journal of her relationship with her abuser.

[291] and so the social worker told Stumpo that maybe that journal would give investigators the information that they needed.

[292] Ronda's parents gave Stumpo the spare key to their daughter's apartment.

[293] And then when Stumpo went into the apartment, inside of a desk drawer he found all these yellow legal pads that were filled with Rondas writing, and the writing included all the intimate details of her past relationship with this man who had hurt her so badly.

[294] They painted a picture of a very unhappy romance, one that continued even after she accused this man of abuse, but Rhonda indicated in her more recent entries that she had not had any contact with the sky for two whole years.

[295] And so this abusive boyfriend really seemed like a bad person, but he didn't really fit the profile of Rhonda's murderer because he had not interacted with her in years.

[296] And so Stumpo now understood why people said Ronda was unlucky in love, but so far nothing in her past seemed to add up to a motive for murder.

[297] While Stumpo tracked down the rest of Ronda's boyfriends, other members of his team began to look into that strange newcomer to the church, the kind of disheveled -looking guy who Judy had overheard, say, you know, Trinity Lutheran would be a good place to rob.

[298] Well, despite having a great description of this guy within 24 hours of the shooting, he was about 5 '10, he wore wire -rimmed glasses and had scraggly salt and pepper hair.

[299] Despite having this description, none of the state databases of criminals and people on parole or people, probation contained anyone who looked like this stranger.

[300] Now, of course, Stumpo didn't just rule him out as a potential suspect simply because he couldn't find him.

[301] However, at the same time, the whole robbery idea just seemed kind of unlikely to Stumpo.

[302] Pastor Shreaves had told Stumpo that the church rarely had any cash inside, and the pastor actually looked all around the church and couldn't find anything missing following the shooting.

[303] So if Ronda really was the victim of a robbery gone bad, then why wasn't anything stolen?

[304] And so two days into this investigation, and Stumpo had almost nothing to show for all his effort.

[305] He wasn't even sure if he was investigating a murder or a suicide.

[306] A few days later, on Monday afternoon, January 28th, so five days after the murder, Stumpo sat in the balcony of the church as Pastor Shreve's led Ronda's memorial service below.

[307] More than 250 people had packed into the church to show their love for Ronda.

[308] Stumpo looked down and saw Ronda's parents sitting in the front row, and as he did, he considered the possibility that, you know, the parents had covered up their daughter's suicide.

[309] It seemed extremely unlikely, but it was still possible.

[310] Then Stumpo scanned around the rest of the teary -eyed parishioners and thought to himself, you know, if Ronda did not kill herself, then the culprit was probably in this room.

[311] After the service ended, Stumpo waited for the crowd to thin, then he asked Pastor Shreves if he had a few minutes.

[312] Shreaves walked Stumpo out of the church and across the parking lot to the small ranch house where he lived.

[313] As they reached his porch, Stumpo noticed an apple pie sitting in front of the side door to the house, but Pastor Shreves was not happy about this pie.

[314] As soon as he read the note that was sitting on top of the pie, Shreaves expressed his irritation.

[315] He explained to Stumpo that one of the members of the church would often leave food for him even though he had asked her to stop.

[316] Stumpo asked Shreaves who this woman was, and Shreves would say her name was Mary Jane.

[317] The same Mary Jane, who was very eccentric and wore her wigs backwards, and at one point had actually baked a pie for Rhonda.

[318] Shreves would say, you know, Mary Jane was a member of the church's choir, and she was a talented artist whose paintings hung on the walls of the church, but he said, you know, I think she has a crush on me. And as the pastor talked, Stumpo remembered how people at the church said there was like this running joke that, you know, Pastor Shreaves was single and handsome, and basically all the women who went to this church had crushes on him, and some of them liked to bring him unsolicited gifts like food.

[319] And so Stumpa was pretty sure that Ronda Smith must be one of these admirers, just like Mary Jane was, and, you know, that was probably why their relationship seemed so imbalanced, with Ronda looking at the pastor as this mentor and close friend, and the pastor basically being like, yeah, I know Ronda, she's nice, but that's about it.

[320] Over the next few days, the events on the morning of the shooting became increasingly clear as investigators talked to more people and collected records.

[321] On the day Rhonda died, she had called a mental health crisis line from the church just after 10 a .m., saying she felt suicidal.

[322] Then at 1055, she stopped using the church internet service, suggesting she was either shot right before then or right after that point.

[323] And so in Stumpo's mind, it was easy to imagine a desperate, lonely, person, making one last call for help before just ending it all.

[324] But then, on January 30th, Stumpo received the autopsy report.

[325] Sitting at his desk in the police barracks 15 miles from Springfield Township, Stumpo marveled at what he read in the report.

[326] It didn't solve the case by any means, but it did make one thing clear.

[327] This was no suicide.

[328] The medical examiner found that Ronda had been shot twice.

[329] The first bullet glanced off her forehead.

[330] while the second round penetrated her skull.

[331] What's more, the shots were fired from three or four feet away, suggesting that the shooter was on the other side of the desk from Ronda.

[332] The coroner said Ronda's head had none of the tiny burn marks that are associated with shots fired at extremely close range, like a suicide gunshot would be.

[333] And so Stumpo concluded that, you know, while Ronda may have been depressed, she certainly did not pull the trigger to end her own life.

[334] She was definitely murdered.

[335] About a week later, on the evening of February 6th, Stumpo and another investigator named Bob Egan arrived at Trinity Lutheran Church just before 7 p .m. when choir practice was about to begin.

[336] One of the few members of the church community they had not spoken with yet was Mary Jane Fonder, though they had heard a lot about her.

[337] Mostly that she was very eccentric, wore her wig backwards sometimes, and periodically dropped off pies for the pastor and for Rhonda.

[338] And so Stumpo and the other investigators, walked into the church and right away they spotted Mary Jane along with the other members of the choir getting ready to start their practice and the investigators flagged Mary Jane and asked her to come with them so they could talk to her in a side room.

[339] But as they were walking over to this room, Mary Jane said to them that she had actually been meaning to reach out to them because she had spoken to Rhonda a couple of days before she was killed.

[340] Mary Jane said she had called into the church and was surprised when Rhonda answered and not the normal secretary.

[341] But Mary Jane said, said she had actually just taken the time to talk to Rhonda because Mary Jane had been worried about Rhonda's state of mind, like many other people in the church were.

[342] And so Mary Jane told the investigators that Rhonda apparently had such a crush on Pastor Shreaves that at least to Mary Jane, it seemed like it was clouding her judgment.

[343] And the example that Mary Jane gave to show this was she said the minister had organized a birthday party for Rhonda just before her death, and Rhonda had not invited Mary Jane to attend, even though in Mary Jane, Jane's eyes, they were close friends, and so it just seemed like Rhonda was being weirdly protective of Pastor Shreaves and didn't want other women there.

[344] Mary Jane would also tell the investigators that she was just too upset to even attend Rhonda's memorial service, but she had baked a pie for Rhonda's parents and visited with them after the service.

[345] Then Detective Egan asked Mary Jane point blank, did she own a gun?

[346] And Mary Jane kind of laughed and said, no, and she wouldn't even know how to use one.

[347] So, the detectives thanked Mary Jane.

[348] for her time, and then she turned and headed back over to choir practice, and the detectives walked out of the church, feeling like they were no closer to solving this crime, but having now met Mary Jane, she seemed less like this totally eccentric weird person that people had made her out to be, and more just like a very harmless old lady.

[349] The following day, February 7th, Stumpo learned that the state police were reassigning the other two detectives in his unit to other cases, cases that weren't even murders.

[350] Stumpo knew what that meant.

[351] His bosses were losing confidence in his investigation because he was not making enough progress.

[352] And so now the Ronda murder investigation was down to just him and Detective Egan who was on loan from headquarters.

[353] And as weeks passed by still with no breakthrough, Stumpo began to worry that they might never solve this crime.

[354] But Detective Egan, who was a veteran homicide investigator, kept saying that you never know when a hot tip will come in the door.

[355] And that's exactly what happened on a cold and windy morning on Saturday, March 29th, nearly nine weeks after Rhonda's murder.

[356] Six miles from Trinity Lutheran Church, a man and his eight -year -old son were fishing in Lake Nacomixen under the bridge that runs across it.

[357] At some point, the boy noticed something shiny in the muddy, shallow water at the lake's edge.

[358] He pulled what looked like a toy gun out of the water and showed off his trophy to his dad.

[359] But when the boy's father took a look, he realized his son.

[360] son was not holding a toy, it was a real gun.

[361] The father snatched the revolver from the boy's hands and immediately popped open the cylinder and shook the weapon to make sure it was not loaded.

[362] Three live rounds fell into the mud, plus the casing from a bullet which had already been fired.

[363] The boy's father called the state police barracks where Stumpo worked to report that his son had found a loaded gun in the lake and the man wondered what he should do with it.

[364] The trooper who answered this phone call, whose name was Andrew Mincer, had been the first police officer on the scene at the Ronda Smith shooting, and he immediately thought of the missing weapon from that crime.

[365] Mincer asked the father for the serial number on the gun, and after he got it, he told the father to hang on to the gun and give it to nobody else until he, Mincer, could get there to pick it up.

[366] As soon as Mincer hung up the phone, he ran the serial number through the National Crime Information Center, and in minutes he learned who the Rossi Thur, 38 revolver was registered to.

[367] Stumpo was in the police barracks when this call came in, but he was down in the locker room thinking about how little time he had spent with his five -year -old son lately.

[368] Police work was literally taking over Stumpo's life, and he had so little to show for it.

[369] Stumpo was about to head home when his cell phone rang.

[370] The call was coming from within the station he was standing in, and so Stumpo sighed at the thought of even more police work to do.

[371] But the instant Stumpo answered, Mincer, who was very excited, told him that a little boy who had been fishing out in Lake Nakamixen had just found a 38 -caliber revolver just like the one that had been fired at Ronda Smith.

[372] Mincer said the gun was purchased in 1994, 14 years before Ronda's murder.

[373] But despite being a bit old and having been in the water, it still appeared to be in working condition.

[374] And so Stumpo suddenly felt totally energized and he couldn't help but think, you know, This sounds like we have just found the murder weapon.

[375] The next day was a Sunday, but the ballistics expert at the state trooper barracks happened to be in the crime lab that day, working on another case.

[376] Stumpo convinced him to drop what he was doing and test the gun the boy found in the lake against the slug that the coroner pulled from Ronda.

[377] And the test proved the revolver found in the lake was the one that killed Ronda.

[378] The next day, Detective Stumpo and Egan visited the address associated with the old original owner of the gun, and the property they went to was this run -down cabin at the end of a long driveway sitting on 11 acres of woods.

[379] Stumpo and Egan knew that this address was probably an important break in the case, but it didn't mean the original owner of this gun was definitely Ronda's killer.

[380] It had been 14 years since this revolver was purchased, so plenty of time for the gun to change hands may be off the books.

[381] After Stumpo knocked, an old man wearing a dress shirt and a plastic pocket protector, opened the door just a crack and peered out very suspiciously at the detectives.

[382] Egan asked if it would be okay if they came inside and spoke to him and the man very reluctantly opened the door the rest of the way and stepped aside to let them come in.

[383] Stumpo and Egan were appalled by what they saw inside.

[384] The house was a hoarder's den, junk -filled boxes and papers piled high and covered with cobwebs and bird droppings.

[385] The entire place just totally reeked to the point where both detectives were breathing through their mouths just so they didn't have to smell the air.

[386] Now, the police knew this man was not the original owner of the gun.

[387] It was actually his sister who lived with him.

[388] And so the detectives asked him if his sister was home, but the man said she wasn't.

[389] So the detectives asked him if he knew that his sister had at one point purchased a 38 revolver.

[390] The man said that his sister had trouble with a co -worker several years back and felt kind of threatened so she had bought a gun.

[391] But she only shot it once in the yard for practice, and the noise was apparently too much for her.

[392] Her brother said that she had thrown the gun away years ago, and he didn't know where she threw it away, and he had never seen it or heard about it again.

[393] But Stumbo and Egan were not fully convinced about this story.

[394] They told the brother that the gun had just been pulled out of the lake.

[395] If the gun had been tossed into the water in 1994, shortly after his sister bought it, then by now it would be totally covered in rust.

[396] But the gun had no rust on it, which indicated it had not been in the lake for more than a few weeks.

[397] The brother fell quiet for a moment and then told the investigators that he did have something to show them.

[398] He took them outside to his car and he lifted the driver's floor mat to reveal something which shocked the two investigators.

[399] And it confirmed that they were on the right track.

[400] The old man showed the detectives shiny pieces of metal that were underneath the floor mat of his car.

[401] and the detectives immediately recognized these fragments as being part of a bullet casing.

[402] Now, when that boy had found the gun in the lake, it had contained three live rounds and one spent shell casing.

[403] However, investigators knew that Rhonda had been shot twice, so there needed to be two spent shell casings.

[404] And so far, all they could account for was that one that the boy found in the gun.

[405] And now, these fragments on the floor of the car could be potentially pieces, of that other spent round.

[406] At last, Stumpo finally had his primary suspect.

[407] It was this old man's sister, the original owner of this gun.

[408] And that afternoon, police were able to arrest her right as she left the Trinity Lutheran Church driving her brother's car, the same car that police had just found those fragments from the shell casing underneath the floor mat.

[409] Also, after they made this arrest, police searched the inside of the car and they found a calendar with January 23rd circled the day Rhonda was murdered, and over that date on the calendar were the words, Rhonda murdered.

[410] Based on Stumpo and Egan's investigation, here is what really happened on January 23rd, the day Rhonda was murdered.

[411] At 10 .30 a .m. on January 23rd, the killer slipped into her brother's car and drove to Trinity Lutheran Church.

[412] She pulled into the parking lot, and as she did, she looked over at the first floor office window, and she saw Rhonda sitting inside.

[413] The killer got out of the car, walked up to the side door of the church, they unlocked it, and went inside.

[414] Once inside, the killer looked around the building and determined that Rhonda was the only person inside.

[415] The killer then walked over to the church office where Rhonda was, she went inside, and as soon as she did, Rhonda's face lit up with recognition and a smile, until Rhonda noticed the revolver in the killer's hand.

[416] Seconds later, the killer raised the gun, aimed it at Rhonda, and fired.

[417] The shot struck Rhonda right in the forehead, knocking her off her chair and onto the floor.

[418] The killer rushed around the desk and stood over Rhonda, and right away they noticed the bullet had only grazed Rhonda's forehead.

[419] And so with Rhonda writhing in pain on the carpet, the killer backed up a couple of feet and then raised their gun again, aimed it at the side of Rhonda's head and fired, and this time the bullet went right into Rhonda's head.

[420] satisfied that Rhonda was now dead, the killer casually left the church and drove to a hair appointment.

[421] After the detectives questioned her in connection with the murder, the killer got nervous and decided to get rid of the gun.

[422] So the killer borrowed her brother's car, drove six miles to that bridge that crossed over Lake Nakamixen, and the killer tossed the gun out the window without even stopping.

[423] And then, a month later, the boy and his father would find the gun.

[424] It would turn out the original owner of the gun and Rhonda's murderer was none other than the eccentric, backwards wig -weig -wearing, apple -pie -making Mary Jane Fonder.

[425] Mary Jane did not see Rhonda as a desperately lonely, depressed person on the brink of suicide.

[426] Instead, she saw Rhonda as this pretty young thing who was competing with her, Mary Jane, for the affection and love of Pastor Shrieves.

[427] Mary Jane was convinced that Rhonda and the pastor were having this romantic love.

[428] love affair, even though they totally were not.

[429] In Mary Jane's mind, she believed that she and Pastor Shreaves had this undeniable chemistry, and they were meant to be together.

[430] And she was sure he felt the same way, even though he repeatedly asked her to stop calling him and to basically leave him alone.

[431] The last straw for Mary Jane had been when the pastor had raised money to help Ronda out and then got the whole congregation to clap and applaud for her when she was up there speaking.

[432] No one ever helped out Mary Jane when she lost her job and needed money, and Mary Jane had been a member of the church for 14 years.

[433] Compared to her, Rhonda was a newcomer.

[434] So Mary Jane killed Rhonda out of spite and jealousy, and with the hope that once Rhonda was out of the way, Mary Jane would have the pastor all to herself.

[435] All of this was obviously delusional, but Mary Jane believed it.

[436] And it would turn out this wasn't the first time Mary Jane was connected to a suspicious death.

[437] Back in 1993, her 83 -year -old father disappeared.

[438] Mary Jane, who was his caretaker, claimed that he walked out of the house and never came home.

[439] Now, at the time, police did suspect that Mary Jane had killed her father and either completely destroyed his body or managed to hide it really well, and Mary Jane, you know, she remained under suspicion for this death, but police could never prove it.

[440] In the end, Mary Jane would be convicted of murdering Rhonda, and she would be sentenced to life in prison.

[441] However, she would die in prison only 10 years into her sentence.

[442] Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballin podcast.

[443] If you enjoyed today's stories and you're looking for more bone -chilling content, be sure to check out all of our studios' podcasts, Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries, bedtime stories, and run full.

[444] Just search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts and you'll find them all.

[445] Also, there are hundreds more stories like the ones you heard today, but in video format on our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballen.

[446] So that's going to do it.

[447] I really appreciate your support.

[448] Until next time, see you.

[449] Hey, Prime members.

[450] You can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad -free on Amazon Music.

[451] Download the Amazon Music app today.

[452] And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondry .com slash survey.

[453] She struck him with her motor vehicle.

[454] She had been under the influence and she left him there.

[455] In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O 'Keefe.

[456] It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location.

[457] What happens next?

[458] Depends on who you ask.

[459] Was it a crime of passion?

[460] If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling.

[461] This was clearly an intentional act.

[462] In his cause of death, was blunt force trauma with hypothermia.

[463] Or a corrupt police cover -up.

[464] If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover -up to prevent one of their own from going down.

[465] Everyone had an opinion.

[466] And after the 10 -week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.

[467] To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is.

[468] Law and crime presents the most in -depth analysis to date of the sensational case.

[469] in Karen.

[470] You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondry Plus.

[471] Join Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.