BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — A body found in thick brush Friday morning is that of a special forces soldier-turned-trauma surgeon who was the subject of a nationwide manhunt after the killing of his ex-girlfriend at a hospital, police said.
Police had been searching for 49-year-old Dr. Timothy Jorden since Wednesday morning, when 33-year-old Jacqueline Wisniewski was found shot to death in a stairwell at the Erie County Medical Center.
Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda said Jorden had planned to kill Wisniewski and the motive appears to be domestic.
Jorden's body was found not far from his suburban home near Lake Erie. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. An autopsy is being conducted.
SWAT teams had spent hours Wednesday searching the home without success.
Neighbor Tom Wrzosek had told police he heard a gunshot from the steep, thick terrain behind Jorden's house on Wednesday morning about 90 minutes after Wisniewski was gunned down at the hospital where she and Jorden worked.
Some of her friends told local media outlets that Jorden stalked her after she ended their relationship. One of her friends told WIVB-TV that Wisniewski told her the doctor had put a GPS tracking device in her car and once held her captive in her home for a day and a half, wielding a knife.
Jorden earned a medical degree from the University at Buffalo and trained at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash. He received his certification from the American Board of Surgery in 2004.
The Buffalo News reported that Jorden joined the National Guard in high school, went into the Army after graduation and served with the Army's special forces, first as a weapons expert, then as a medic. In those roles, he served in the Caribbean, Japan and Korea.
He was honored by various local organizations over the years for his teaching skills and involvement in the Buffalo community.
Jorden's colleagues told local media outlets that he had been acting strangely in recent months and lost as much as 75 pounds from his 6-foot-2, 250-pound frame.