Police Arrest Suspect In Church Murder

On Jan. 23, a woman was found shot to death at the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Springfield, Bucks County. Yesterday, the police arrested the alleged murderer and say she shot the victim because she was getting more attention from the pastor.

State police say Mary Jane Fonder, 65, thought Rhonda Smith was getting more attention from the Rev. Gregory Shreaves and believed there was a romantic relationship as well. (There wasn’t, cops say.) So she went to the church before her hair salon appointment and allegedly shot her twice.

The Rev. had rebuffed her advances and had her number blocked. And why not: “Once, she went into his unlocked house, leaving food in his refrigerator,” the Courier-Times writes. This is the kind of scandal you don’t get in a Catholic Church, at least.

Police: Jealousy spurred murder [Bucks County Courier Times]

Man Commits Sin In Church

The Trentonian — cute headline, guys, though I’m not quite sure what he was “preying” on — reports today a civilian employee of the New Jersey state police has been arrested for allegedly looking at porn on a nun’s computer in Hamilton.

Thomas G. Findler, 42, was arrested after a sexton caught him looking at porn on the Episcopalian nun’s computer. Then, for some reason, he chased him out of the building.

The suspect had been logging on overnight to “hotyoungteens” and other fetish Web sites in a nun’s office at Grace St. Paul Episcopal Church (3715 East State Street), according to police and the maintenance man.

John Jones, the 35-year-old sexton (maintenance man) at Grace St. Paul, said he flushed out the intruder upon arriving at work about 8:30 a.m. yesterday.

“He said he was just looking at the computer,” Jones said, “but he was looking at porn.”

More »

If Only We Could Make The City One Big Church

It’s been a tough year, violence-wise, for Philadelphia. 400-odd murders and such will do that.

But it hasn’t been all bad, according to State Rep. Curt Thomas. While proposing new legislation to restrict guns and make offenders work in prison, etc., he also points out there is one place where there hasn’t been any murders. He tells KYW 1060’s Steve Tawa:

While there have been more than 400 homicides this year in Philadelphia, State Representative Curt Thomas says there has not been one act of violence inside a house of worship: ”Our places of worship have remained sacred ground.”

And the Spectrum. Nobody’s been killed at the Spectrum.

Legislator Wants Faith-Based Help to Make ‘07 Year of Peace [KYW 1060]

Garden Of Eaton

Over the weekend, French gothic revival-style church Eden Hall — inexplicably in Far Northeast Philadelphia — caught on fire, and police now suspect an arson.

Right. It’s probably just some stupid kids, and, while the church was pretty, it had been boarded up and abandoned for years, etc., etc. Let’s get to the Action News report:

The flames that devoured a historic former church in Philadelphia were started intentionally according to fire investigators. Firefighters struggled against the blaze at the former church early Sunday.

Action News was in Philadelphia’s Torresdale neighborhood overnight as flames shot through the roof of what was most recently called Eaton Hall.

Actually, I’m kind of surprised it wasn’t called Eatin’ Hall.

Church Fire Ruled Arson [6 ABC]