A nationwide manhunt continues for Dr. Timothy Jorden, a surgeon in Buffalo, N.Y., suspected of murdering a receptionist, who was also his ex-girlfriend, at the Erie County Medical Center Wednesday.
By msnbc.com staff and wire reports
As authorities search for a Buffalo, N.Y., surgeon suspected of murdering his ex-girlfriend in the hospital where they both worked, new details are emerging about the man who is on the run.
Neighbors and colleagues said they suspected something was wrong with Timothy Jorden, 49, a decorated surgeon and respected community member, when he began putting less effort into things he previously cared about, became less friendly, and changed his appearance.
“I saw him at the beginning of the season and noticed how much weight he had lost,” June DuPree, a neighbor of Jorden’s in an exclusive cluster of homes on the shore of Lake Erie, told the Associated Press. “He said, ‘Yeah, I lost a little bit.’ But it was more than a little bit. It was a lot. He wasn’t too friendly that time I saw him. He just didn’t want to talk.”
One of Jorden’s colleagues estimated Jorden had dropped about 75 pounds in recent months.
Additionally, neighbors say Jorden’s waning attention to maintaining the well-manicured grounds of his half-million dollar home in his Lakeview neighborhood south of Buffalo suggested something might be wrong.
“He had a lot of money invested in his house and the landscaping. And when I came back from Florida in May, it was really neglected. I was just shocked,” neighbor Tom Wrzosek told the AP.
“We presumed he was sick, that maybe he had some sort of major ailment,” he said. “He was sick, but not in the way we thought he was sick.”
Jorden’s colleagues told the Buffalo News that Jorden, normally a soft-spoken and even-keeled man, had been acting strangely in recent months, avoiding eye contact and basic communication.
A police official told the Buffalo Newsthat Jorden may have been having mental health issues or “some type of serious physical ailment that caused the drastic weight loss.”
Jorden's office may offer clues to his mental status. A police source said it appeared he had been living in the office. Hidden above ceiling tiles, police found rancid takeout containers and dirty laundry, the Buffalo News reported.
Police are calling Jorden a “person of interest” in their search, which began Wednesday morning, immediately after witnesses reported hearing four gunshots and then finding hospital administrative assistant Jacqueline Wisniewski, 33, dead in a stairwell at the Erie County Medical Center. Police say Jorden, also a military-trained weapons expert, should be considered armed and dangerous.
A friend of Wisniewski’s told WIVB-TV that Wisniewski used to live with Jorden but left him because she believed he was having affairs with other women. But, Heather Shipley said, “when they broke up, he wouldn’t let go.”
She said Jorden had once held Wisniewski captive in her home for a day and a half, wielding a knife, and he also put a GPS tracking device in her car.
“She told me if anything happened to her,” Shipley said, “that it was him.”
“I find it hard to believe,” neighbor Perry Smith told NBC News. “I mean, the facts will come out, but knowing Tim as I have – it’s got to be close to six years now – I’ve never seen him angry. Ever.”
Jorden, described as a bald, black male, about 6-foot-2-inches tall and weighing 250 pounds, has been licensed to practice medicine in New York for a decade. He has a medical degree from the University of Buffalo and trained at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash. He received his certification from the American Board of Surgery in 2004.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
By msnbc.com staff and wire reports
As authorities search for a Buffalo, N.Y., surgeon suspected of murdering his ex-girlfriend in the hospital where they both worked, new details are emerging about the man who is on the run.
Neighbors and colleagues said they suspected something was wrong with Timothy Jorden, 49, a decorated surgeon and respected community member, when he began putting less effort into things he previously cared about, became less friendly, and changed his appearance.
“I saw him at the beginning of the season and noticed how much weight he had lost,” June DuPree, a neighbor of Jorden’s in an exclusive cluster of homes on the shore of Lake Erie, told the Associated Press. “He said, ‘Yeah, I lost a little bit.’ But it was more than a little bit. It was a lot. He wasn’t too friendly that time I saw him. He just didn’t want to talk.”
One of Jorden’s colleagues estimated Jorden had dropped about 75 pounds in recent months.
Additionally, neighbors say Jorden’s waning attention to maintaining the well-manicured grounds of his half-million dollar home in his Lakeview neighborhood south of Buffalo suggested something might be wrong.
“He had a lot of money invested in his house and the landscaping. And when I came back from Florida in May, it was really neglected. I was just shocked,” neighbor Tom Wrzosek told the AP.
“We presumed he was sick, that maybe he had some sort of major ailment,” he said. “He was sick, but not in the way we thought he was sick.”
Jorden’s colleagues told the Buffalo News that Jorden, normally a soft-spoken and even-keeled man, had been acting strangely in recent months, avoiding eye contact and basic communication.
A police official told the Buffalo Newsthat Jorden may have been having mental health issues or “some type of serious physical ailment that caused the drastic weight loss.”
Jorden's office may offer clues to his mental status. A police source said it appeared he had been living in the office. Hidden above ceiling tiles, police found rancid takeout containers and dirty laundry, the Buffalo News reported.
Police are calling Jorden a “person of interest” in their search, which began Wednesday morning, immediately after witnesses reported hearing four gunshots and then finding hospital administrative assistant Jacqueline Wisniewski, 33, dead in a stairwell at the Erie County Medical Center. Police say Jorden, also a military-trained weapons expert, should be considered armed and dangerous.
A friend of Wisniewski’s told WIVB-TV that Wisniewski used to live with Jorden but left him because she believed he was having affairs with other women. But, Heather Shipley said, “when they broke up, he wouldn’t let go.”
She said Jorden had once held Wisniewski captive in her home for a day and a half, wielding a knife, and he also put a GPS tracking device in her car.
“She told me if anything happened to her,” Shipley said, “that it was him.”
“I find it hard to believe,” neighbor Perry Smith told NBC News. “I mean, the facts will come out, but knowing Tim as I have – it’s got to be close to six years now – I’ve never seen him angry. Ever.”
Jorden, described as a bald, black male, about 6-foot-2-inches tall and weighing 250 pounds, has been licensed to practice medicine in New York for a decade. He has a medical degree from the University of Buffalo and trained at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash. He received his certification from the American Board of Surgery in 2004.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- Suspected military plane wreck, bones found on Alaska glacier
- 'Bad deal' lump pension payouts for veterans draw new scrutiny
- North Carolina lawmakers move to scale back Racial Justice Act
- Video: 911 call reports kid behind the wheel
- Cops: Parents left 2 kids bound, blindfolded in Wal-Mart lot