Local Authors To Discuss Book Based on Bucks Murder

On January 23, 2008, the rural community of Springfield Township was shaken by the cold-blooded murder of 42-year-old Rhonda Smith at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Reporters Colin McEvoy and Lynn Olanoff provided extensive coverage of the investigation and trial that followed the murder for The Express-Times and have since written a book about the crime. McEvoy and Olanoff will be at the at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 13, to talk about the Smith case and their new book Love Me Or Else.

Heading the investigation were State Trooper Greg Stumpo and Corporal Bob Egan. Stumpo was serving as the main investigator on his first homicide case, but Egan had worked on more than 75. Egan had been working out of the Bethlehem barracks since 1993.

Among his high profile cases were Charles Cullen, the male nurse who had killed as many as 40 patients over 16 years while working in New Jersey and Pennsylvania hospitals, and Bryan and David Freeman, the teen skinheads who had murdered their parents in Salisbury Township. Egan’s one unsolved case was the murder of realtor Charlotte Fimiano, who was found strangled to death in Lower Saucon Township.

The Smith investigation concluded on April 1 with the arrest of Mary Jane Fonder, 65 years old and a long-time member of Trinity Evangelical. Mary Jane was thought to be an “oddball” by many in the church and was “well known for her tendency to ramble endlessly once you got into a conversation with her.” Sadly, the murder of Rhonda Smith turned out to be the result of Mary Jane’s perceived slights and unfounded jealousy.

Mary Jane had a crush on Pastor Greg Shreaves, who had been at Trinity for three years. As the new pastor, Shreaves had reached out to Mary Jane, a woman who had few close friends among the congregation and was seldom invited to social gatherings. He got her involved in some small jobs at the church and chatted with her while she was there. Unfortunately, Mary Jane interpreted his pastoral role as the attentions of a lover, telling him he couldn’t “deny what’s between us.”

Apparently, Rhonda Smith became the third party in a love triangle of Mary Jane’s making when she addressed the congregation at a Sunday service just weeks before her death. Mary Jane was among the people who heard Rhonda publicly thank everyone – especially Pastor Shreaves – for their friendship and spiritual and financial assistance. This was news to Mary Jane, who had not been included among the people approached by Pastor Shreaves to help Rhonda.

As in most crime non-fiction, the facts in Love Me Or Else are presented in an objective, non-emotional narrative. McEvoy and Olanoff based the book on their interviews with key individuals in the case, including Stumpo, Egan, and Mary Jane Fonder, and court and police documents.  They were interviewing Mary Jane in prison when she first acknowledged responsibility for her senseless crime.

 The murder of Rhonda Smith is all the more tragic when we consider the motives. She probably had no idea that Mary Jane resented and was jealous of her. We all experience jealousy at some time. There may be a clique at school or a group at work. Or there are pictures of a party posted on a friend’s Facebook page – a party you weren’t invited to.

The stable person can deal with the jealous feelings, but a person like Mary Jane – who already feels excluded – can misinterpret what she sees and feel angry, resentful, and lonely. At the end of the book we learn that Mary Jane is thriving in prison, ironically finding the community that she so badly needed while she was on the outside.

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Love Me Or Else is now on sale at the Main Library and the Palmer Branch and will also be available for purchase and signing after the program. The paperback books are priced at $8.00 each.

           This free program is open to the public and will be held in the Catherine Drake Meeting Room, which is handicapped accessible from the Church St. entrance. Refreshments will be provided by the Friends of the Library, the sponsors of the event.