Crime & Safety

Neighbors Near a Housesitter's Fatal Shooting Remain on Edge

Kathleen Korbel's fatal shooting while housesitting in Gloucester Township is still unsolved.

Neighbors on Mayflower Drive near Johnson Road in this Sicklerville community remain on edge.

Ten days after Kathleen Korbel, 54, a Washington Township woman was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds in a home in the first block of Mayflower Drive, police have reported few clues about what happened, who may have done it and why.

A middle-aged man with a graying goatee answered the door recently at the home, which became a crime scene on Sept. 20, shortly after 5 p.m. He politely declined to answer most of a reporter's questions.

He did say he knew the homeowners, who, according to neighbors and published reports, where vacationing when Korbel was killed in their home. He said he knew when they were returning, but declined to say when. He then closed the door, while puffing on an electronic cigarette.

Margaret "Marge" Jones, a neighbor on Mayflower Drive said rumors about what happened have been swirling around her community.

"My brother-in-law and my sister, their backyards are a couple of doors away (from the house)," said Jones, 49, a secretary. "They said they were home all afternoon, their windows were open. They didn't hear any gunfire. They were wondering if she had been in there for a while.

"These are the kind of questions that are gnawing on everybody."

Camden County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Jason Laughlin said last week police were called to the residence on Mayfair Drive near Johnson Road by a friend who found the victim. The friend came to the home when they could not reach Korbel, Laughlin said. 

NJ.com reported a neighbor near the home said a police source told him the killing was targeted.

Fox 29 TV Philadelphia reported a "source" told them "there is a trail of blood in the living room and the office appears as if it had been ransacked. The safe was left empty and wide open."

Authorities refused to comment on either of these accounts, or to identify a suspect or motive for Korbel's death.

Jones said she nor her sister know the owners of the house.

"I know it's two older women," she said. "I've seen two, white-haired ladies coming out. The landscapers are always there."

Jones said she also saw a large, white van pull up a week ago and men in blue jumpsuits got out. She said she believed they were an industrial cleaning company called to clean the home after the killing.

Korbel's shooting is the third criminal investigation into deaths in Gloucester Township since June. 

The remains of Carol Reiff were found in a wooded area of the Lakeview Apartments on Lower Landing Road on June 24. There is a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest for her unsolved death.

Lamar Ortiz, 20, was gunned down on July 15 outside of his residence at the Autumn Ridge Apartments on Little Gloucester Road. A 16-year-old Edgewater Park boy was arrested and charged in the killing.

 





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