Odd online postings mark Bucks murder case

The online postings are rambling, bizarre, accusatory - and filled with anger.

The sender, identified as "Dor," is enraged with her husband, Michael A. Burklund. She tells multiple recipients that he has secretly fathered a child with another woman. She seeks the whereabouts of the child. She lectures about Tiger Woods.

"It is time to open Pandora's box," Dor wrote Dec. 13.

Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler said Tuesday he did not yet know whether the allegations, posted on a personal-information website called Zabasearch.com, were true.

But he did know that his office's investigation into murder suspect Dorleen Burklund would include a look at her mental-health history.

On Sunday afternoon, authorities say, Burklund summoned police to her home in semirural upper Bucks County. There lay the body of 46-year-old United Airlines pilot Michael Burklund in an upstairs bedroom, his body riddled with bullets.

Dorleen Burklund, 49, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of her husband of 20 years. The couple's son, 18, was home at the time of the shooting, Heckler said, but did not witness it.

Michael Burklund had been shot "about eight times" in the torso, county Coroner Joseph Campbell said Tuesday.

The shooting took place during an argument, one of many in recent years at the couple's home on Mink Road in Springfield Township, Heckler said.

"It would be far from unusual for there to be harsh words between them," Heckler said. "This just happened to be the time that she used a gun to end their relationship."

The substance of the argument, Heckler said, has not been determined. The .38-caliber handgun belonged to Dorleen Burklund and was not a recent purchase, he said.

The couple married in 1990, when Michael Burklund was an Air Force pilot and Dorleen Virgulti a divorced manicurist, court records show. After 12 years in lower Bucks County, they moved to a $375,000 house in the Kintnersville area, where Dorleen Burklund homeschooled their son.

About two years ago, the couple separated, and Dorleen Burklund moved to the Bethlehem area.

In March, a message from "Dor," this time attacking a neighbor, appeared online.

"You are an evil one," the message says. ". . . Your face will become disfigured. With every passing day your evil will turn inward and attack you."

According to online records, the woman named in the message was a neighbor of Dorleen Burklund's then.

According to Heckler, Burklund had gone to the state police, and possibly the FBI, with her allegations about her husband's infidelity.

"Apparently there are some things out there on the Internet that sound wacky," Heckler said. "It is something we are following up on."

Dorleen Burklund recently had moved back into the Mink Road house, Heckler said, and her husband had been staying with neighbors.

At the time of the shooting, Michael Burklund was packing clothing, including his flight uniform, into a suitcase, Heckler said.

Dorleen Burklund was being held without bail Tuesday in the Bucks County prison.

Before being charged, she had sat at the state police barracks in Dublin, court records say, removing her sweater to give to investigators.

"Oh, my God, I forgot I had these," she allegedly said, reaching into the back pocket of her jeans. In her hand, police said, were one live bullet and five spent rounds.