Police in Buffalo are hunting a trauma surgeon and former military weapons expert they believe has gone from lifesaver to murderer. Timothy Jorden, 49, is suspected of luring his ex-girlfriend into a stairwell at the hospital where they both worked before shooting her dead at point-blank range, reports the Buffalo News. A SWAT team surrounded the doctor's house for nine hours yesterday before police determined he wasn't there. Colleagues say Jorden, who served in the Army Special Forces, had been acting strangely lately over the last few months and had lost a large amount of weight.
The doctor's ex-girlfriend accused him of stalking her, and filed a police report after finding a GPS device he had placed on her car. Police say it appears the doctor had been having mental health issues and was living in his office, where dirty laundry and takeout containers were found hidden above ceiling tiles. "It's tragic that a doctor who saved countless lives might be accused of taking someone else's life," said the chairwoman of the Erie Country Legislature, who has known Jorden since he was a child. "It puts a dark cloud over the mission of a hospital that's dedicated to saving lives." (More Buffalo stories.)