Police: Breakup led NY doctor to kill lover, self
BUFFALO, N. Y. — A former Army weapons expert wanted for fatally shooting his ex- girlfriend killed himself with a gunshot to the head, quelling the risk of more bloodshed and silencing perhaps the only voice that might have answered the central question: Was a break- up enough to cause a gifted trauma surgeon widely beloved as a lifesaver to end two lives in a spasm of violence?
After a two- day nationwide manhunt, police found Dr. Timothy Jorden’s body in thick brush a half- mile from his Lake Erie shoreline home. A neighbor had reported hearing a gunshot from the area on Wednesday morning, and police with dogs found the body, dressed in surgical scrubs, on Friday morning.
Authorities had been searching for Jorden since Wednesday morning, when 33- year- old Jacqueline Wisniewski was found shot to death in a stairwell at the Erie County Medical Center. Friends said Wisniewski was afraid of the 49- year- old Jorden and had broken off their relationship some time ago.
Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda said Jorden went to the hospital with a shotgun and a .357 Magnum pistol intending to kill Wisniewski because of their breakup. Jorden lured her to the hospital basement, where he shot her five times at point- blank range. He then ran from the hospital and drove home, where surveillance video showed him arriving about 30 minutes later.
Just four minutes later, Jorden is seen leaving the house, down a path to a ravine and disappearing into the woods.
Derenda said Jorden killed himself with one shot to the head from the .357 Magnum and didn’t leave a suicide note. He had withdrawn large sums of money recently and had given friends gifts.
As Jorden’s tailspin accelerated, friends, neighbors and colleagues painted a picture of a man in decline. Jorden, once 250 pounds and clean- shaven, had lost up to 75 pounds and let his face get scraggly. His neatly manicured lawn got overgrown. He just didn’t seem the same; not as “nice” as before, was how neighbor June Dupree put it.