Accused Killer In 38-Year 'Cold Case' Waives Hearing

WARRINGTON, PA — The man accused of killing his wife in Warrington 38 years ago has chosen to waive his first court hearing in the case.

William Walter Korzon, 76, was arrested last month at his home in Lower Windsor Township, in York County, accused of the 1981 murder of his wife, Gloria Korzon. Prosecutors accuse him of killing his wife while the two lived in Warrington Township, then taking pains to pretend she was alive after the fact.

On Wednesday, Korzon waived his right to a preliminary hearing in the case, according to a Bucks County District Attorney's office spokesman.

New details in the state's case against Korzon could have been revealed at the hearing. But his attorney, Keith Williams, opted to waive the hearing in exchange for an earlier look at evidence the district attorney's office has compiled in the case, prosecutors said.

His formal arraignment in Common Pleas Court is set tentatively for next month.

Korzon is charged with criminal homicide and other counts. In addition to his wife's death, he is accused of soliciting the murder of a police officer, forging Gloria's signature on tax documents and lying under oath to increase his share of his wife's estate.

He is being held without bail at Bucks County Correctional Facility.

According to the Bucks County District Attorney's office, William and Gloria married in 1967 and lived on Pickertown Road in Warrington. Their relationship was marred by persistent domestic violence in which Gloria was repeatedly battered by her husband, often leaving her with black eyes and broken bones, prosecutors say.

They say Gloria Korzon chronicled the abuse in a series of letters to her lawyer. She was 37 when she was last seen alive at her job on March 6, 1981.

Though her body was never found, she was legally declared dead in 1997.

Prosecutors say that, within days of her disappearance, William Korzon began working to make it appear his wife was still alive. He went to her employer, Bridgeport Controls in Horsham, and told her supervisor she had to leave the job because of physical and mental health issues.

He directed that her final paycheck be sent to their home. In May of that year, he sent a Mother's Day card to Gloria Korzon's mother bearing his wife's signature. While talking about the act years later, Korzon said he did so "to maintain the illusion she was alive," according to the criminal complaint against him.

In the years after Gloria's disappearance, Korzon would claim at times that she had left the marriage, prosecutors say. Despite claiming she'd left him, Korzon kept and hid Gloria's legal documents, including her Social Security card, driver's license, medical insurance card and voter registration, the DA's office said.