PA PA - Edward Fonder, 80, Bucks Co, 25 Aug 1993

The Doe Network:
Case File 3736DMPA

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3736dmpa.html

Edward F. Fonder, III
Missing since August 25, 1993 from Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Classification: Endangered Missing



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Vital Statistics
•Date Of Birth: July 13, 1913
•Age at Time of Disappearance: 80 years old
•Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'9"; 160 lbs.
•Distinguishing Characteristics: White male. Brown, graying hair. No balding. A full beard.
•Marks, Scars: Previous heart-valve operation.
•Medical: Needs heart medication.



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Circumstances of Disappearance
On August 25, 1993 Edward Fonder, a retired machinist, disappeared August 25, 1993, from his family's 11-acre property at 3194 Winding Road, Springfield.
The day he disappeared, his daughter woke about 07.00 to set the table for breakfast. Afterward, she went back to bed. From her room she heard her father walk down the hallway to the kitchen, open and shut the refrigerator, and then leave the house. She assumed that he was going to get the newspaper at the end of the driveway. She fell back to sleep, and when she awoke, her father was gone. She checked his bedroom and outside the house, then called police about 11.00.

Search parties were formed, an infrared helicopter camera was used and scent-tracking dogs were brought in to try and find him. An extensive search around his Springfield Township home turned up nothing. A bloodhound tracked his scent from his front door to the road at the end of his driveway before it was lost.

Other than the clothes he was wearing, his wallet, and the antique rosewood cane he used for walking, Fonder left behind all his belongings. His wallet was found by postal officials in Allentown nearly a year after he went missing.

His children were interviewed by police as persons of interest, but they were never considered suspects. His adult daughter had moved in to care for him and his wife before her death.



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Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Springfield Township Police
610-346-7600

NCIC Number: M-669372714
Please refer to this number when contacting any agency with information regarding this case.

Source Information:
ABC News
The Philadelphia Inquirer

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/f/fonder_edward.html

He is not listed in NamUs at this time.

Articles of interest:

http://articles.mcall.com/1994-09-23/news/2985670_1_disappearance-police-helicopter-state-police
September 23, 1994|by APRIL PETERSON, The Morning Call

snipped:

Fonder, was 80 when he vanished from his home on Winding Road on Aug. 25, 1993. At the time of his disappearance he was said by his daughter, Mary Jane Fonder, to have been restless and upset after a visit from two cousins, both elderly women. The cousins came for a visit about two weeks before his disappearance.

Mary Jane Fonder had said that the cousins upset her father with their criticism of how she took care of him. Edward Fonder had heart trouble and leg problems and needed help getting around his 12-acre property, his daughter reported at the time.

Click to expand...

http://lewistownsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/44219.html?isap=1&nav=5016&showlayout=0
POSTED: April 2, 2008

snipped:

Fonder was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder and possessing instruments of a crime. Defense attorney Michael Applebaum said his client maintains her innocence, and that he believes she will be exonerated after all the evidence is heard.

But when asked about her mental health, the attorney said, ‘‘She’s not a well woman.’’ Fonder was denied bail and is being held at the Bucks County prison.

Fonder was arrested at her home in Kintnersville - the same house where she and her father, Edward F. Fonder III, were living when he disappeared in late August 1993.

Edward Fonder, then 80, was never found. Mary Jane Fonder complained to The Intelligencer of Doylestown in 1994 that police were treating her as a suspect in the case, although police never identified her as such.

The disappearance of the elder Fonder is ‘‘not a closed matter,’’ First Deputy Assistant District Attorney David Zellis said Tuesday. He declined to comment further.

Click to expand...

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1225425974210560.xml&coll=3
Friday, October 31, 2008
Mary Jane found guilty of first degree murder of another woman.

Edward has been missing 17 years. Come home soon.

Mary Jane Fonder Wikipedia Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jane_Fonder

& the book written about her murder of Rhonda Smith "Love Me or Else" by Colin McEvoy & Lynn Olanoff
https://books.google.ca/books?id=D0vXnvExWDQC&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=edward+fonder+missing&source=bl&ots=d62wx6lQwb&sig=mK6CU3_khwzzbFlFxUcltY-r7p8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiD7_mwtfDJAhVJwWMKHZGgB9gQ6AEIWzAJ#v=onepage&q&f=false

The Fonder property was sold and the police have been given the opportunity to search it further by the new owner.

http://www.theintell.com/news/20180...5-year-old-springfield-missing-persons-case/1

http://www.wfmz.com/news/southeastern-pa/police-reopen-search-for-edward-fonder-iii/711870400

An 80 year old man just doesn't disappear from the face of the earth. Ms Fonder probably had something to do with it.

Police hope remnants of Bucks County home, once owned by a murderer, holds clues about long-missing man

Edward Fonder III walked out his front door and into history in August 1993. The home he left behind, built with his own hands, came down this month after weathering a tortured legacy as a place where dark thoughts form and violence takes root among a thick canopy of trees.

In 1993, Edward Fonder III disappeared from his home in rural Springfield Township, Bucks County. He hasn’t been found. Now, the infamous house where he resided is gone, thanks to neighbor John Brunner, who purchased the property and gave the cops free rein to look for any clues in the 25-year-old mystery.

[...]

The case was reopened in 2008, when prosecutors discovered that Fonder had never reported her father’s disappearance to federal authorities and had collected nearly $33,000 in payments from his pension. That issue was settled in U.S. District Court, but it was the least of Fonder’s worries at the time.

Mary Jane Fonder, center, was sentenced to life in prison in 2008 after being found guilty of killing fellow churchgoer Rhonda Smith.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/p...s-county-pennsylvania-20180518.html?mobi=true

Use of radar in Fonder case.

http://www.wfmz.com/news/southeaste...use-radar-in-bucks-county-cold-case/744449894

Bucks DA employs ground-penetrating radar to investigate cold-case murder
"SPRINGFIELD TWP., Pa. (WPVI) --
Armed with ground-Penetrating radar, Bucks County District Attorney Matt Weintraub was on the rural property once owned by Edward Fonder, who went missing 25 years ago.

The hope was that the radar might detect Fonder's remains somewhere beneath the foundation where the family home once stood.

So far though, nothing has been found."

[URL="https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Convicted-Church-Killer-Death-Missing-Father-Bucks-County-Springfield-Muncy-484621221.html"]Convicted Church Killer Dies, Search for Father Continues[/URL]

A woman who shot and killed a perceived romantic rival inside a Bucks County church died in prison Monday as the search for her missing father continues.

Click to expand...

Mary Jane Fonder was the oldest woman ever convicted of murder in Bucks County. Her attorney once described her as “the aunt you don’t want to sit next to at Thanksgiving.”

Click to expand...

It doesn’t sound like Mary Jane ever admitted to anything concerning her father’s disappearance. I wonder where her brother is.

Just saw this recap.

NEWS POST: Killer Mary Jane Fonder Dies in Prison; Search for Father Goes On

Bumping for Edward...it's now been over 27 years.

Mr. Fonder's case is featured this week on the Charley Project homepage.
Edward F. Fonder III – The Charley Project

Moving case up.


Could someone please check for known rule-outs?

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Edward, circa 1993; Mary Fonder, circa 2018

• Missing Since 08/25/1993
• Missing From Springfield, Pennsylvania
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Male
• Race White
• Date of Birth 07/13/1913 (110)
• Age 80 years old
• Height and Weight 5'9 - 5'10, 160 pounds
• 
  
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A plaid shirt, gray pants, black shoes and a blue and gold National Rifle Association (NRA) baseball cap.
• 
  
• Medical Conditions Just prior to his disappearance, Edward had surgery on his heart valves. He needs medication for his heart condition and would be unable to survive for more than ten days without it. His medicine was left behind. Fonder requires the use of a cane to walk. He can't walk very far, only about as far as the end of his driveway. He has numbness in his hands as well.
• 
  
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Graying brown hair, blue/green eyes. Edward had a full beard at the time of his 1993 disappearance. He has had two hip replacements.

Details of Disappearance​

Edward was last seen at his family's 11-acre property in the 3100 block of Winding Road in Springfield, Pennsylvania on the morning of August 25, 1993. He had owned the plot since 1954, and moved there full-time after his retirement in 1981. He called it his "Garden of Eden" and had planted wildflowers and installed statues of cherubs, birds and lions there.

His daughter, Mary Jane Fonder, fixed breakfast at 7:00 a.m., then went back to bed. She heard Edward get up, go to the kitchen, open and shut the refrigerator, then leave the house. She assumed he was getting the newspaper. She fell asleep then, and when she woke up, Edward was gone and the newspaper had not been brought in. Mary searched for him before reporting his disappearance at 11:00 a.m.

A photo of Mary is posted with this case summary. She lived alone with Edward at the time of his disappearance. Their relationship was troubled and they often argued. Mary described her father as temperamental and stated he had been acting hostile towards her and avoiding her in the weeks prior to his disappearance. She said his eating and sleeping habits changed and he spent long periods of time outside.

An extensive search of the area turned up no sign of Edward. Bloodhounds tracked his scent only as far as the driveway before it was lost. He left behind all his belongings, including his medication, but did take his antique rosewood walking cane.

Edward's two children, Mary and her brother, speculated their father either took his own life or deliberately walked away. He was depressed over his wife's death and his own failing health, and his son stated Edward had told him he "couldn't take it anymore." The anniversary of his wife's death was on September 7 and he was troubled by this. They had been married for 55 years, and he was devastated when she died.

His wallet was located in Allentown, Pennsylvania in May 1994; someone dropped it in a mailbox there. The wallet's contents were intact, but it had been wiped clean of fingerprints.

In November 1993, the detective asked Mary if she might have harmed her father. She reportedly answered that she was taking multiple medications when Edward disappeared and might have done something she didn't remember. She said she "had no recollection of doing anything to my dad, but I do of the dog and cats, I felt like I could kill them."

When investigators searched Edward and Mary's residence, they found a dog's corpse in the freezer; it had died of an overdose of diabetes medication. The police described the home as extremely cluttered and filthy. One detective noted Mary's calendar had an X and the time 8:00 a.m. penciled in for August 24. She asked Mary about this, but Mary couldn't remember why she had marked that date.

In April 2008, Mary, then 65, was arrested and charged with murder in the shooting death of Rhonda L. Smith, a member of her church, who was shot in the head in January. Mary was reportedly infatuated with the church's pastor and felt Smith was a rival for the pastor's affection. She was convicted in October 2008 and sentenced to life in prison.

Edward's disappearance received additional media attention after his daughter's arrest. Police discovered Mary continued to collect her father's pension for fifteen years after his disappearance. The payments were deposited in an account held jointly by Edward and Mary, and Mary withdrew and spent about half the money that should have been going to Edward.

Mary had initially refused to allow police to search the property, and when ownership passed to Mary's brother after her murder conviction, he also refused to allow a search. In May 2018, after the property came under new ownership, that owner allowed police to search. Authorities searched the Fonder home again with ground-penetrating radar, looking for Edward's body. They found nothing.

Two weeks later, Mary died in prison of natural causes, at the age of 75. She has been named the prime and only suspect in Edward's disappearance and presumed death. A neighbor who knew the Fonder family and is now owns Edward and Mary's former residence said he never believed Edward left on his own, because he "couldn’t walk off the road if his life depended on it."

Edward is a retired machinist. He formerly lived in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His hobbies include horticulture, trains, airplanes and playing musical instruments. His case remains unsolved.

Investigating Agency​

• Springfield Township Police Department 610-346-7600

Source Information​

• The Doe Network
• MSNBC
• WPVI 6
• The Intelligencer
• The Morning Call
• The Philadelphia Inquirer
• The Bucks County Courier Times

Updated 4 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated June 20, 2018; picture added.

May 18, 2018

March 3, 2018
Interesting interview with Springfield police officer