On January 23, 2008, Rhonda Smith was found face down in an office at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Springfield Township, Pennsylvania.

Smith, 42, had been shot twice. Judy Zellner, a close friend of the victim, stumbled upon the horrifying scene when she arrived at 12:30 p.m. to clean the church that she was a member of. 

Zellner’s frantic 911 call can be heard in the “Sinner and Saint” episode of Philly Homicide, airing Saturdays at 9/8c p.m. on Oxygen.

“She’s dead,” Zellner told the dispatcher. “There’s blood all over her head and around her head.” But when paramedics arrived, they’d found that Smith was still clinging to life, and she was rushed to the hospital. 

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Investigators try to figure out what happened to Rhonda Smith

Pennsylvania State Troopers processed the scene. They collected bullet fragments that could help determine the kind of gun the shooter used. 

“The police also took possession of the office computer for an expert to do a forensic analysis,” said David W. Zellis, who was then a First Assistant District Attorney in the Bucks County DA’s Office. 

As troopers interviewed church members, the subject of suicide came up. The fact that Smith was shot twice didn’t automatically rule that out. 

Louis Gober, a sergeant with the Pennsylvania State Police, said that he had seen suicides “where there are multiple gunshots from a victim into themselves.”  

But there was no gun at the scene, which led to more questions. “Detectives asked me, did I kick a gun, did I see a gun, did I hide a gun?” said Zellner. “There was no gun.”

Several hours after the shooting, Smith’s parents made the difficult decision to end life support. “We circled around her, holding hands,” Zellner told Philly Homicide.

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Investigators developed a theory of the crime. “The first gunshot would have stunned or knocked down Rhonda,” said Webb. “The second one was much closer, apparently, standing over her.” 

When they analyzed the church computer, detectives saw that Smith logged on at 9:40 a.m. and made her last entry at 10:58 a.m. She was found at 12:30 p.m. Troopers determined the murder to have occurred at around 11 a.m.

Pastor’s tip leads to a suspect

Investigators focused on Smith’s close circle, including Pastor Shreaves. He’d been out of town at a conference for three days. 

Being away “ruled out the possibility that he could have been involved,” said Webb, adding that Shreaves knew his parishioners better than anyone. “He became a valuable tool to try and home in on a suspect.”

A one-time person of interest was a man who showed up at the church on a couple occasions. “He said to one of our parishioners, ‘This would be a good place to rob,’ so we were a little skeptical,” said Zellner. 

When troopers couldn’t find that stranger, he was put on the back burner. Detectives investigated two men in Smith’s mental health support group whose rock-solid alibis cleared them, according to Philly Homicide.

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Shreaves also shared the name of Mary Jane Fonder, a 65-year-old parishioner and longtime community member who frequently left rambling phone messages for the pastor. 

It was a game-changing tip. “It refocused our investigation,” Webb said. 

Mary Jane Fonder becomes key suspect

The pastor had described Fonder as a “lonely soul.”

“He invited her to help decorate the church, but whatever interest he had shown toward her, she misinterpreted,” said Zellis. 

Shreaves was adamant that he’d never had a romantic relationship with Fonder, said Gober.

Through a background check, detectives learned that Fonder grew up in West Philadelphia and had worked as a health care aide. 

She’d moved to Springfield Township to care for her aging parents. She had a .38 caliber handgun registered to her.

Phone records showed that Fonder had called the church on the morning of January 23. Two days later, Fonder was questioned by detectives. 

Fonder shared that congregants had never offered financial help to her or the chance to socialize. “[She] was bothered by the attention that Rhonda got, not just from the pastor, but from the entire church,” said Durante.

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Fonder told police that she’d bought a handgun in 1993, which was the same year that her dad disappeared. By this time, her mother had died. Fonder claimed that she threw the gun off a bridge into Lake Nockamixon, a local reservoir. 

A search at the time for Fonder’s missing father turned up that she was cashing his Social Security checks. “Her father’s investigation, from our understanding, was still open and active,” said Gober.

When asked to account for her whereabouts on the day of Smith’s murder, Fonder said that she’d had an 11 a.m. hairdresser appointment. Police learned that she was about 20 minutes late for it and had left her wig.

The hairpiece, which hadn’t been washed at the salon, was tested for gunpowder residue but came up negative. 

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While a police search for a gun at Lake Nockamixon was unsuccessful, analysis of Fonder’s vehicle showed gunpowder residue on the steering wheel and gear shift.

In late March, detectives caught a big break when fishermen snagged a gun at Lake Nockamixon. It turned out to be the firearm registered to Fonder. Analysis showed that it was the weapon used to kill Smith.

Mary Jane Fonder arrested for murder 

On April 1, 2008, Fonder was arrested for murder. “That shocked some people, but it didn’t shock me,” said Smith’s friend Sue Brunner. 

It appeared that Fonder wasn’t surprised, either. “Mary Jane saw this coming, to the point that she had already consulted a criminal defense attorney,” said Durante.

The trial began in the fall, and people were riveted.

“The prosecutor’s case here is that Mary Jane Fonder was motivated by jealousy, her desire to have the church pastor’s attention all to herself,” Durante added.

How To Watch Philly Homicide, Oxygen’s New Series About Chilling Murders in America’s Birthplace

To learn more about the case, watch the “Sinner and Saint” episode of Philly Homicide, which airs new episodes Saturdays at 9/8c p.m. on Oxygen.

A judge who helped orchestrate one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S.history — a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks — was among the 1,500 people whose sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden this week.

Biden’s decision to commute the 17-year prison sentence of Michael Conahan angered many in northeastern Pennsylvania, from the governor to the families whose children were victimized by the disgraced former judge. Conahan had already served the vast majority of his sentence, which was handed down in 2011.

“I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania,” Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said during an unrelated news conference in Scranton on Friday.

The scandal “affected families in really deep and profound and sad ways,” he added. Conahan “deserves to be behind bars, not walking as a free man.”

A message seeking comment was sent to an attorney who recently represented Conahan, the former president judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas.

In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from a friend of Conahan’s who built and co-owned two for-profit lockups.

Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of children would fill the beds of the private lockups. The scandal prompted the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to throw out some 4,000 juvenile convictions involving more than 2,300 children.

Roman Kozak knows his history.

He’s a high school history and social studies teacher, who also serves as the chair of the Republican Committee of Beaver County, and is the grandson of four Nazi labor camp survivors who immigrated to the United States after World War II and found jobs in western Pennsylvania.

“They found their life here. They found jobs here. They found a community here, and they were part of the post World War II boom that built this country and helped really restore order in the world,” he told the Capital-Star.

Kozak also has experience with the Pennsylvania General Assembly, previously serving as an aide for former state Rep. Jim Christiana and was the campaign chairman for a pair of successful state representative campaigns.

When state Rep. Jim Marshall (R-Beaver) announced in November 2023 that he wouldn’t seek a ninth term in office, Kozak stepped up and became the only Republican on the ballot for the 14th state House District. He defeated Democrat Kenya Johns to keep the seat in Republican control.

Kozak cited “basic kitchen table issues” as a reason he decided to run for office.

“I think Pennsylvania is going down the wrong path, and there’s a reason we are one of the worst with net population losses in the country, and I think it’s because we’re not competitive,” he said.

The issues page of his campaign website lists several bread-and-butter Republican issues that Kozak supports: school choice; lower taxes and less regulation; supporting law enforcement, and defending the Second Amendment.

When Kozak is sworn in, Democrats will have a one-seat majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He believes that there’s “enough common sense Democrats” that want to work together on a wide array of issues, including permitting reform and regulations and support for school vouchers, which he and other supporters have referred to as “Lifeline Scholarships.”

The 14th Legislative District covers northern and eastern Beaver County and includes both urban and rural regions, according to Kozak. 

This interview was lightly edited for length and clarity.

Capital-Star: Tell me a bit about your district, and what makes your district unique. 

Kozak: These river valley communities that exist along the Beaver River here are, generally, have a more small town urban feel, but when you move 10/15 minutes up the hills, you end up in suburbs and in rural areas. 

What’s unique about it is that it really covers a lot of what’s great about Pennsylvania. We have these small river towns that were once industrial, booming towns that are looking to revamp and revitalize themselves, and the rural towns, the agricultural communities that are a significant part of who we are as Pennsylvania, so having that all within this district is something to me that gives me a highlight of what’s important to most Pennsylvanians and the economies that really make this place run, and have made this place run for a very long time.

Capital-Star: What would you say is the most pressing issue in your district?

Kozak: The economy, without a doubt, and what I mean is affordability. 

So I spent hundreds of hours knocking on over 9,000 voters’ doors this past year and across the board, the number one issue was the local economy, not just, you know, there was the economy overall, as far as the cost of groceries, the things that are affecting everybody across the country. But it was also affordability, property taxes, housing prices, job opportunities, there were a lot of people that are feeling that this area is losing some of the opportunities that other places are gaining, and they want to see their children and grandchildren stay here, just like I do. 

Capital-Star: When you’re sworn in, what will be your top legislative priorities? Are there specific bills you’re planning to introduce?

Kozak: I mean, for us in Pennsylvania, it’s really about being competitive with the states around us. We need to, first and foremost, get out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. It is a ball and chain on our energy industry and the future of our energy energy industry here, we need to support our energy industry. It’s really going to be a significant part of the economic engine that can bring about greater growth in Pennsylvania. 

We need permitting reform. We need to overhaul regulations. It takes, sometimes manufacturers multiple years to get permits here, where it can take them to get those same permits just a few months in another state, another state nearby us. 

Our taxation rates need to be more competitive overall with other states. When we look around the country and compare ourselves to others, we just aren’t competing in those areas, and really that overregulation and permitting is a major problem for us.

Capital-Star: Are there other specific pieces of legislation you hope to introduce?

Kozak: Another thing that I’m very passionate about is education, expanded opportunities for children. So, for me, educational opportunities and educational choice for our families, and giving parents more control of their children’s education is something that I’m really looking forward to supporting as well.