Accused killer ‘obsessed’ with victim
Friends recall postal worker as ‘kindhearted’ man
The stepmother of the man accused of fatally shooting a mail carrier in his truck Thursday in Collier said her stepson had been “obsessed” with the victim for several years and had previously confronted him on his mail route.
Michele Borkoski also said Friday that she believed Eric M. Kortz, who has been charged in federal court with killing Louis Vignone, 58, had an undiagnosed mental health issue, but she doesn’t know why he took issue with Mr. Vignone, his longtime neighbor and onetime friend.
“Eric got it in his head that Lou and his family were poisoning him,” she said. “I don’t know what started it.”
In a statement to police Thursday, Mr. Kortz, 53, said he thought Mr. Vignone had used cyanide on him and his family when they were neighbors, federal agents said.
Last November, three days before Thanksgiving, Pittsburgh police and firefighters responded to a call at Mr. Kortz’s West End home in the 1100 block of Newcomer Street. When they arrived, he told them he had found a white substance in his vehicle and believed it was cyanide.
Firefighters tested for the presence of cyanide inside the vehicle and found no trace, according to Cara Cruz, a city public safety department spokeswoman.
Three months earlier, Mr. Kortz “reported having trouble with several unnamed neighbors and felt he might have been poisoned,” Ms. Cruz said.
He called police and said he felt ill after cooking on a “discarded grill” he found outside the maintenance building of Emerald Gardens, a housing complex on Perry Avenue in Fairywood, where Mr. Kortz worked as a maintenance man, Ms. Cruz said.
He refused to be treated by paramedics and said he would go on his
own to a hospital.
In neither case did Mr. Kortz mention Mr. Vignone, according to Ms. Cruz; the mailman’s name does not appear in any reports on either incident.
Ms. Borkoski was a neighbor of the Vignones for years and watched their three children grow up. She said she moved out of the neighborhood about 10 years ago, and sold her house to Mr. Kortz.
She said Mr. Kortz was supposed to fix up the house and resell it, but instead he became fixated on his neighbors.
Mr. Kortz seemed to blame Mr. Vignone for the death of his father, who died from cancer in 2017, Ms. Borkoski said, adding that she was not sure how Mr. Kortz connected that to Mr. Vignone.
Ms. Borkoski said Mr. Kortz confronted Mr. Vignone on his mail route at least once before the shooting.
“They moved out of their neighborhood to get away from him, and he actually found them,” she said.
Earlier in the day, the mood was somber at the Green Tree Post Office on Trumbull Drive where Mr. Vignone was based.
“We addressed all the carriers this morning,” said Ted Lee, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 84, the union representing Mr. Vignone. “It wasn’t pretty.” About 80 people attended. Mr. Vignone had worked as a mail carrier for 33 years and was contemplating retirement, Mr. Lee said.
“He was the type that was never in trouble,” Mr. Lee said.
That sentiment was echoed by Paul Stemplewski, 58, of McKees Rocks, who said he became friends with Mr. Vignone during their childhood and grew to love him like a brother.
The two knew each other from growing up in McKees Rocks and bonded over playing saxophone in the StoRox School District, Mr. Stemplewski said. Their friendship lasted nearly 50 years.
“Lou was the most kindhearted person you ever want to meet,” he said. “He was an awesome father. He had three kids, two boys and a girl. There’s not anything he wouldn’t do for someone.”
Mr. Stemplewski recalled the help he received following the death of his brother — who had been the caretaker for their mother — from Mr. Vignone.
He said Mr. Vignone flew to Texas — where Mr. Stemplewski was living at the time — to help him get ready to sell his house so he could move back to Pittsburgh and take care of his mom.
Mr. Stemplewski also said Mr. Vignone was a jokester. He recalled the day he introduced his then fiancee, now wife, to Mr. Vignone.
“I told her you’ve got to beat him to the punch,” Mr. Stemplewski said. “And he walks in the door and her first words were, ‘This is it? I flew 1,500 miles for this little short [stuff].”
“So that became his nickname for her,” he continued. “He loved her since then like he had a sister.”
Mr. Stemplewski said he could not understand why his friend had been killed.
“You ask all the stupid questions, you know?” he said. “His son called me, and I just couldn’t believe it.”
Ms. Borkoski, the stepmother of the accused, said she talked with Mr. Kortz infrequently and last spoke to him in May. She described her stepson as a “moody person” — one minute he would be happy and the next minute he’d be angry.
She said she believed Mr. Kortz’s mental health issues were never addressed. Still, she said, she wished she had an answer for Mr. Vignone’s death.
“Lou Vignone was the nicest person in the world. His wife, his three kids, are great people,” she said. “For them to have to go through this, it’s heartbreaking.
“It shouldn’t have come to this.”