Bucks murder defendant wrongly got pension, suit says

A woman awaiting trial in the slaying of a fellow congregant inside a Bucks County church is now suspected of illegally collecting the pension of her father, who disappeared 15 years ago.

Mary Jane Fonder, 66, is accused in U.S. District Court of wrongfully accepting nearly $33,000 in benefits paid to Edward F. Fonder 3d, who went missing on Aug. 25, 1993.

The civil petition says that Fonder "withheld the information of her father's disappearance" from the federal government's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., allowing his benefits to flow until as recently as mid-May.

Fonder, of Kintnersville, was charged in April with the Jan. 23 slaying of Rhonda Smith in the office of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Springfield Township.

Smith, 42, of Hellertown, was working alone as a volunteer secretary when Fonder shot her in the head, authorities allege. Prosecutors say that Fonder saw Smith as a rival for the affections of their minister, who was involved with neither woman.

Her murder trial is scheduled for Oct. 20 in Bucks County Court. Fonder, who is being held without bail, has pleaded not guilty, claiming she was having her hair done at the time of the slaying.

Her attorney, Michael Applebaum, said yesterday that he had not yet studied the petition or discussed it with Fonder.

"As far as I know, the police still consider [Fonder's father] to be a missing person," Applebaum said. "I know my client had power of attorney for both parents' finances. So I'm not sure she's done anything for which she should be held accountable."

Since her arrest, police have revisited the disappearance of Edward Fonder, a retiree whose daughter had been living with him on his wooded 12-acre lot in Upper Bucks County.

Edward Fonder was 80 when he vanished on the evening of Aug. 25, 1993. His daughter reported him missing the next day, and later complained publicly that police seemed to be focusing their suspicions on her.

Despite an extensive search, complete with infrared cameras and scent-tracking dogs, Edward Fonder, who suffered from heart problems and depression, never was found. Only his wallet turned up, eight months later in an Allentown mailbox.

Had Mary Jane Fonder reported her father's disappearance to federal authorities, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. contends, Edward Fonder would have been presumed dead as of Aug. 25, 2000. Instead, PBGC's petition says, she has collected $32,913.63 since that date, much of which she may have withdrawn from her father's bank account and spent.

"[I]t is also clear that about half of the $62,642.07 deposited into the account by PBGC since Mr. Fonder's disappearance has, itself, disappeared," PBGC lawyers contend.

According to bank records, Mary Jane Fonder has withdrawn $9,500 since 2002 alone. Authorities say she may have pocketed about $30,000 since 1993.

If alive, Edward Fonder would be 95 this month. His wife died in September 1992.

He had been sent monthly pension payments of $353.91 since April 1979, the court documents say. In recent years, the payments were made by direct deposit to a Wachovia Bank account.

"PBGC might still be sending benefit payments to Mr. Fonder's bank account," a court memorandum says, "but for the fact that in May 2008, PBGC was notified by the Bucks County District Attorney's office that Mr. Fonder had been missing all of these years."

Under Pennsylvania law, Edward Fonder would have been presumed dead seven years after his disappearance. Bucks County Court records show that no estate file ever was opened for him.

After Mary Jane Fonder's arrest on April 1, Bucks County detectives reopened her father's missing person case. They discovered the pension payments while serving a search warrant for Edward Fonder's bank records.

Mary Jane Fonder has never been charged in connection with her father's case.

PBGC officials are asking that Fonder pay restitution, plus interest, for the money received since her father's presumptive death. The government corporation also has asked for a court order freezing the assets of the bank account.

Fonder held power of attorney over her father's bank accounts, but not over all of his assets, court papers say. While she never told federal authorities of her father's disappearance, she did contact PBGC in 1999 to change the number of his bank account, the papers say.

PBCG lawyers say Fonder still has access to the account from prison. She "may have an immediate need for the assets," they note, "given the expenses that will arise from her murder trial."