Up next, the quiet of
the Pennsylvania countryside
is shattered by g*nf*re.
You had a m*rder in a church
in broad daylight.
In my church!!
Shocking.
Absolutely shocking.
A horrified community
looks for answers
and finds none.
It's the kind of stuff
that books
and horror movies
are made out of.
Police have
no suspects and few clues.
There was very little forensic
evidence for them to go on,
and then they hit the jackpot.
♪♪
♪♪
Trinity Evangelical
Lutheran church
in rural eastern Pennsylvania
is one of the oldest
and best-preserved churches
in the region,
dating all the way back to 1763.
Trinity Lutheran
predates the revolution.
You can walk through
their cemetery
and see the old limestone.
You can barely read
the names on it.
And it's still
a very active parish,
even after
a couple hundred years.
The center of
the community for generations,
the church is nestled
in the rolling countryside
of Bucks County,
a getaway destination for people
from New York to Philadelphia
and points in between.
It's a throwback to yesteryear.
People didn't worry
about any crime.
Neighbors knew each other.
Kids played in the backyards.
But that all changed
on a January afternoon in 2008.
The church's cleaning lady
arrived shortly after 1:00.
She opens the door
to the church office,
and at first,
she doesn't see anything
until she approaches the desk.
There's blood
all over the place,
and she places
this hysterical 911 call
to Bucks County dispatch.
Even before paramedics arrived,
the cleaning lady gave
investigators a potential clue.
In the church office,
paramedics found
a woman on the floor,
barely alive, apparently sh*t
at point-blank range.
The fatal b*llet or b*ll*ts...
police couldn't tell yet...
had been fired
at such close range,
they'd actually shredded.
When we heard about
the sh**ting at the church,
it was almost bewildering
to imagine something like that
happening at that church
in that community.
The victim d*ed
minutes after arriving
at the hospital.
Her name was Rhonda Smith.
she was a relatively new member
of the church congregation,
respected and, apparently,
liked by everyone.
She came from a nice family,
but she had had her problems.
She had suffered
from depression.
Whoever wanted Rhonda dead
apparently knew where
she was going to be and when
and came in with
only one purpose... m*rder.
We know
it wasn't a random att*ck
because there was
an execution-style sh*t
in her temple
that was done in anger.
That person, the k*ller,
wanted Rhonda Smith dead.
But who? And why?
Was there something
about Rhonda Smith
that her fellow parishioners
didn't know?
So many questions,
but one thing was not in doubt.
A cold-blooded k*ller
was lurking somewhere
in this normally
peaceful community.
♪♪
Rural eastern Pennsylvania
doesn't see a lot of murders,
and the area around
Trinity Lutheran Church
had never seen
the type of execution k*lling
that claimed the life
of church member Rhonda Smith.
This was not
a robbery situation.
She was specifically targeted,
for whatever reason,
and that was the key
to finding out who did it...
what was the motive
for doing this?
The autopsy showed
two b*ll*ts had been fired
at close range...
so close that Rhonda
had attempted to defend herself.
The g*n was not at the scene.
But even though
the fatal b*ll*ts
had shredded upon impact,
ballistics experts were able
to determine the m*rder w*apon
was a .38-caliber handgun.
The m*rder happened so fast,
the k*ller left no clues besides
the b*ll*ts at the scene,
and in an area this rural,
there were no security cameras.
The timing of the m*rder
was key.
They were looking for someone
who knew Rhonda Smith
was in that office
on that day at that hour.
The problem was
that as far
as police could determine,
only two people knew...
the church pastor,
who was apparently out of town,
and the church
council president.
Both unlikely K*llers,
but their whereabouts
for the time of the m*rder
still needed to be checked out.
The pastor had
a unique background.
He was a golf pro.
He toured around playing golf,
and then he left that lifestyle
and became a pastor to a church
located really in
the middle of Nowheresville.
Police got a possible clue
while trying to determine
the time of the sh**ting.
Rhonda was found
shortly after 1:00.
A search
of the church computer showed
she was online
until around 11:00.
This created a time window
for the sh**ting
and also revealed
something about Rhonda.
We seized the computer,
sent it to the forensic
computer analysts.
They were able to give us
exactly what Rhonda was doing
on the Internet in the moments
before she was sh*t.
And what she was doing
was searching a dating website.
Rhonda's search for romance
was something of a new start
after a couple
of very difficult years.
She was diagnosed
as being bipolar.
She got help for that,
but it set her back,
and it was a debilitating
mental illness for her
that she fortunately
found a church
and found a community
that welcomed her with open arms
and actually gave her
a lot of assistance,
both financially
and also emotionally.
Because of that help,
Rhonda had recently moved
out of her parents' house
and was on her own
for the first time in years.
In fact, the pastor gave her
the job as church secretary
to help her with money.
Approximately 10 days
before her m*rder,
she got up
during church services
and she wanted to thank all
the members of the congregation
for what they had done for her
and how much it meant to her.
She loved this church,
and we loved her.
We embraced her,
and she embraced us.
A beautiful moment
shattered by nagging suspicions
that a church member
could also be her k*ller.
So, the tension in the church
after, you know,
the process of elimination
and figuring out
that it could be somebody
within the community,
somebody within the church,
everybody was on edge.
Police confronted the pastor
with a pointed question...
was there anyone
in his congregation
who might have done this?
There's no question
that the pastor
was in
a very difficult situation.
A situation that
would become even more difficult
when police discovered
a long-simmering
romantic obsession.
And that's when I think
they started to develop the idea
of possibly being
a rebuked love interest.
♪♪
The only people
who appear to know
where Rhonda Smith would be
at the time of her m*rder...
the pastor and the church
council president...
had solid alibis.
Still, the church community
was reeling.
It's not only that
it was a m*rder...
it was probably the worst kind
because it was a m*rder mystery,
and in a small town, nobody knew
who among them was the k*ller.
The shocked pastor
was asked about concerns
he might have about
any member of his congregation.
Reluctantly, he named longtime
parishioner Mary Jane Fonder.
Mary Jane had said
something to him like,
"I know what's
going on between us.
I can feel it.
You can feel it, too."
And this really freaks him out,
and he asks her
to leave the church.
Despite this rebuff,
Mary Jane regularly put food
in the pastor's refrigerator
and left long, rambling messages
on his voicemail.
And they would just
go on and on and on.
He got to the point
he wouldn't listen to them,
and this was just, like,
a daily occurrence.
Whatever conversation
you started,
she would take down
three garden paths
and then make a right turn
and continue.
Mary Jane Fonder never had
a meaningful romantic
relationship in her life,
and she develops a crush
on the pastor.
And that pastor
was helping Rhonda Smith
by giving her
part-time work at the church.
Mary Jane had uttered
some disgruntled words about,
"Why is she being favored
over me?
I've done
all this volunteer work.
I'm the one that's been here,
and no one's done anything
for me."
But this was hardly
proof of m*rder,
and Mary Jane had
no criminal history.
However, she was linked
to yet another
extraordinarily strange case.
disappeared without a trace
from the home they shared.
Mary Jane Fonder
came on our radar in 1993
with the disappearance
of her father
when she reported him missing.
He was 80 years old
and had two hip replacements.
He needed a cane to walk.
He didn't walk away.
Despite a massive search
with helicopters, bloodhounds,
and even
ground-penetrating radar,
no sign of Edward Fonder
has ever been found.
They dug up the basement,
they dug up areas
around the house,
to no avail, with nothing
found there at the property,
but he's out there somewhere.
Back then,
police thought Mary Jane Fonder
might have had something to do
with her father's disappearance,
but they couldn't prove it.
Now they thought she might have
k*lled Rhonda Smith,
and they had
the same problem... no proof.
In terms of physical evidence,
in the church, we have nothing.
All we have is we have a body,
and we don't have a g*n.
But there was one
piece of potential evidence...
the missing m*rder w*apon.
Ballistics showed
it was a .38-caliber,
and Mary Jane once owned
a .38-caliber.
She told police
she got rid of it
after people
started connecting her
to her father's disappearance.
Mary Jane told people
that the reporters
and the police started
showing up at her house
asking those questions about,
you know, her involvement
in her father's disappearance,
and she went to the lake
and threw it away.
Investigators weren't so sure.
Ultimately, we were able
to put together enough
for a search warrant of her car.
And that turned up
the first piece
of possible evidence...
g*nsh*t residue.
This is created
anytime a g*n is fired.
The expl*si*n that
propels the b*llet creates gas
that inevitably blows back
over the hand
and clothing of the sh**t.
g*nsh*t residue is comparable
to flour that you spill.
You clean it up,
but you never clean it.
It's never gone.
It seems like it's always there.
And sure enough,
there were minute traces
of g*nsh*t residue
in Mary Jane's car,
but there was a problem.
We did quite an extensive amount
of research,
and apparently,
the most prevalent place
for g*nsh*t residue,
other than the range where
people go to sh**t their g*ns,
is the police station.
And since analysts
didn't completely clean up
before the search
of Mary Jane's car,
the defense could argue
that they put
the g*nsh*t residue there,
and that meant the investigation
was back to square one.
Until something strange
happened...
something many church members
later called an act of God.
♪♪
Mary Jane Fonder appeared to be
the only person with a motive
to k*ll Rhonda Smith,
who she apparently
considered a rival
for the affections
of their church pastor.
Rhonda Smith was a single woman.
The pastor was single
at the time.
Mary Jane Fonder thought
he was hers.
Mary Jane was not right
in the head.
But despite
an intensive investigation,
police still had
no solid evidence.
The greatest worry on my part
and also on the investigators'
was that we would never be able
to solve this case.
And things were looking bleak,
to be honest with you.
Then, nine weeks
after the m*rder,
a local man was fishing
with his son at a lake
just 14 miles
from the site of the m*rder,
when they made
an unusual discovery.
The boy,
he was 7 or 8 years old.
He's walking along the shore
of the lake, and he finds a g*n.
His father takes it home
and calls the police.
They run the serial number,
and there you go.
It's Mary Jane Fonder's g*n.
Analysis confirmed that the g*n
was the g*n that was used
in the m*rder of Rhonda Smith.
It's a prosecutor's dream.
I mean, they think they have it.
With the g*n in hand,
prosecutors finally had enough
to search Mary Jane's house.
They didn't find
any direct evidence,
but they did find something
unusual in her day planner.
There was a block
for the date of the m*rder,
and she had written in,
"Rhonda Smith m*rder*d."
And underneath that was
haircut appointment.
As odd as this was,
it didn't prove m*rder,
and Mary Jane stuck to her story
that she threw the g*n
in the lake 14 years earlier.
Her story was anybody could have
gotten that g*n
and used that g*n
to k*ll Rhonda Smith.
In the end,
it all came down to the g*n.
Prosecutors had to find a way
to prove
how long the g*n
had been in the water
and turned to Dr. David Rusak,
an analytical chemist
at the University of Scranton.
The task was to determine
the maximum length of time
which the g*n could have been
exposed to the water.
To do this, Dr. Rusak used
a high-speed
chemical analysis process
called laser-induced
breakdown spectroscopy, or LIBS.
A pulsed laser is focused
onto the surface of a sample,
and when the laser
strikes the sample,
it vaporizes a small portion
of it and creates a spark.
The laser is so powerful...
more than
that these tiny sparks expose
the unique chemical composition
of almost any sample.
And the light
from the spark is collected
by a spectrometer
and photographed,
and the photograph
then gives you an idea
of the composition of the sample
that was struck by the laser.
In this case, the g*n
had what's known as blued steel,
a protective coating that gave
the g*n its black color.
The LIBS analysis showed
that the bluing on this g*n
was unusually thin.
As a result, if the g*n had been
in the water for 14 years,
it would show
a lot more corrosion.
There's no way that g*n
laid in the bottom of a lake
for 14 years,
and we know that
because there was no signs
of corrosion on the w*apon.
♪♪
Prosecutors say
the tipping point for Mary Jane
was when Rhonda Smith
got in front of the congregation
and gave a tearful thank-you
for all their help.
That and the church pastor
offering Rhonda work
was simply too much,
and Mary Jane put her plan
for m*rder into action.
As an active member
of the church,
she had a good idea of
when Rhonda worked,
simply drove to the church,
walked into the office,
and sh*t her
at point-blank range.
Then she made
her haircut appointment
in an attempt
to establish an alibi
and threw the m*rder w*apon
into the lake on the way home.
Her key mistake...
she didn't throw it
far enough into the water.
The g*n is the holy grail
of this case.
Had they not found that g*n,
Mary Jane Fonder would not
have been arrested and charged
with Rhonda Smith's m*rder.
It's as simple as that.
Never sh*t Rhonda.
I never k*lled that woman.
As the trial progressed,
prosecutors got
yet another surprise.
The lead trooper
in the case whispers in my ear,
"Hey, Dave, she's wearing
Rhonda's sneakers."
And sure enough, she was wearing
Rhonda Smith's sneakers.
Oddly enough,
Mary Jane got the sneakers
from Rhonda's parents
after she'd gone to their house
to express condolences
about Rhonda's m*rder.
Mrs. Smith looks down and sees
that she's wearing
these b*at-up old-time galoshes
and says to her,
"Listen, my daughter...
I have brand-new sneakers
upstairs.
Let me give them to you."
And in an ironic twist
to an already strange case,
Mary Jane wore them to court.
What kind of a person
would do that
when you're there charged with
m*rder of Rhonda Smith?
And that's somebody who has ice
running through their veins.
It was as cold
as you can imagine.
Are you worried about
spending the rest of your life
in prison?
It doesn't sound appealing.
In October of 2008,
Mary Jane Fonder was convicted
of first-degree m*rder
and sentenced to life in prison.
She d*ed behind bars of
a heart att*ck 10 years later.
This one boils down to the fact
that a woman
who looks like a grandmother
and has a kind face
and a giving nature,
you would never suppose
would be jealous to the point
where she would want to k*ll
another parishioner
who was also down on her luck
and looking for friends
and to be part of a community.
She walked in the church
that day with a g*n in her hand,
and there were
no questions asked.
It was kaboom, kaboom.
I'd like to say hello
to my congregation,
and I miss them all.
And I'm praying for everybody.
It was all an act.
You want to see the real
Mary Jane Fonder?
You take a look
at her prison mug sh*t.
Because you look at her,
she's looking right at you,
and she's gonna k*ll you.
She's gonna take you out.