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Personal problems led to murder Burial information: BG Wm C Doyle Vets Mem Cem, NJ
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Date posted on this site:
03/10/2024
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By JASON HARRIS
PhillyBurbs.com, 1/20/2008 7:33:49 AM
EVESHAM The prosecutor's office said yesterday
that a local executive who killed his wife before
leaping from the Delaware Memorial Bridge was
driven by the couple's personal problems and not
their worsening financial situation.
Walter Buczynski, 59, killed his wife 37-year-old
Marci Buczynski at their home at 10 Atlanta Drive
on Friday, then apparently committed suicide.
Investigators are still searching for his body.
Burlington County Prosecutor Robert Bernardi said
an autopsy performed yesterday found that Mrs.
Buczynski died of blow to the head which broke her
neck. Police believe Buczynski called Evesham
Township Police and asked them to check on his
wife.
Buczynski was an executive vice president at
Fieldstone Mortgage Co. in Columbia, Md. The
company filed for bankruptcy in November and laid
off most of its employees, and published reports
say Buczynski owed hundreds of thousands in
back taxes.
Bernardi said investigators found Buczynski's blue
Acura sport utility vehicle parked on the bridge
Friday afternoon. Inside the vehicle was a note
saying that his wife could be found at the
couple's home, that he had jumped from the bridge
and that his children were safe.
Bernardi said that in the note, Buczynski said the
motivation for the killing "was not related to the
economic situation of the family but rather was
based upon the personal relationship of the
couple."
The prosecutor's office said it would not provide
additional details on the couple's marital
problems.
Jack Smith, spokesman for the prosecutor's office,
said the couple's 14- and 8-year-old sons are
being taken care of by immediate family.
Walt Buczynski was a member of Class 69-19. I
met Walt at the Federal Building in Newark on Aug
11, 1968, the day I enlisted in the Army. There
were six of us from NJ enroute to flight school
that day. So I went to basic with Walt, flight
school at Wolters and Hunter. We took weekend
leaves together to Savanah Beach and Daytona
Beach. I took Walt's sister to our flight school
graduation ball. All 6 of us Newark inductees
survived Vietnam, 3 of us including Walt flew in
the NJNG. Of the original 6 four of us have stayed
in touch the last 40 years. The last time I saw
him alive was the DC reunion of 2006 but we had
talked on the phone since then, probably as late
as Oct. 2007.
I can't tell you how dumbfounded I am by this. As
of this day his body has not been recovered from
the Delaware Bay so as yet no service is
scheduled.
Rich Thompson was one of the original NJ 6 but
also a high school classmate of Walt's.
From: Don Clarke
Body found near river identified as Evesham
wife-killer
By LEO STRUPCZEWSKI • Courier-Post Staff •
March 12, 2008
PENNSVILLE _ A body found along the Delaware
River was identified Tuesday as that of Walter
Buczynski, the Evesham man who plunged to his
death in January after killing his wife, officials
said.
Buczynski's body, found Sunday by people walking
along the river's shoreline here, was identified
through dental records.
Burlington County Prosecutor Robert Bernardi,
whose office determined Buczynski killed his wife,
Marci Buczynski, said an autopsy determined he
drowned.
Officials have said Buczynski jumped from the
Delaware Memorial Bridge around 12:20 p.m. Jan.
18, about 20 minutes after calling police and
asking them to check on his wife in their Atlanta
Drive home.
When police arrived, they found Marci Buczynski,
37, dead in her second-floor bedroom, officials
said. She had been beaten to death.
The couple's two sons were not home when their
mother died, officials said. Following the
incident, the boys were placed in the care of
family members, officials said.
Officials have said Buczynski left a note inside
his blue Acura sport utility vehicle stating he
had jumped from the bridge, his children were safe
and he killed his wife because of their personal
relationship.
Neighbors said there was no indication their
relationship was strained -- the two often threw
parties -- but records show the family was in poor
financial standing.
The 59-year-old mortgage banker was the executive
vice president for Fieldstone Mortgage company,
the now-bankrupt but once-flourishing lender based
in Columbia, Md.
Buczynski was the company's third-highest ranking
executive, earning $330,800 in base salary last
year, according to a filing with the Securities
and Exchange Commission. At the time of his
death, the company was seeking to pay Buczynski
a bonus of about $100,000 to help wrap up its
operations, according to court records.
In July 2006, the federal government put a
$656,203 tax lien on the house the Buczynskis
purchased seven years earlier for $230,000, county
tax records show.
From: Reach Leo Strupczewski