BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP/CBS) - Police said they've issued a nationwide alert to law enforcement agencies for a Buffalo, N.Y., trauma surgeon sought in connection with the hospital shooting death of his ex-girlfriend.
Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda said Thursday that authorities don't believe 49-year-old Timothy Jorden crossed the border into neighboring Ontario.
He said all vehicles registered to the former U.S. Army weapons specialist have been accounted for as police continue to search for him.
The search began Wednesday morning when 33-year-old Jacqueline Wisniewski was found shot to death in a stairwell at the Erie County Medical Center, where she and Jorden both worked.
Earlier Thursday, police dogs searched the ravine near Jorden's luxury lakeshore home. A neighbor had reported he heard a gunshot the day before.
Heather Shipley, a friend of Wisniewski, told CBS Buffalo affiliate WIVB-TV that Wisniewski feared Jorden. Wisniewski used to live with Jorden but left him because she believed he was having affairs with other women, Shipley said. When they broke up, he wouldn't let go, Shipley said.
She said 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.
"She told me if anything happened to her, that it was him," Shipley told the station.
Calls to several family members of Wisniewski were either to outdated phone numbers or were not immediately returned.
Jorden's colleagues told the Buffalo News that he had been acting strangely in recent months, avoiding eye contact and basic communication. They also say he had lost a lot of weight — as much as 75 pounds, estimated Michael Carr, who works in the surgical recovery room.
"All I know is he was a good doctor, really polite," Carr told the newspaper. "He always had something good to say."
Jorden has 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 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.
Jorden is certified in advanced-trauma life support and has received numerous awards recognizing his relationships with patients, his teaching skills and his involvement in the community, the newspaper said.
Calls to two listings in Washington state for Jorden's ex-wife, Frances, were not returned.
Officials said as many as 400 patients and about half of the hospital's 2,000 employees were on the grounds at the time of the shooting.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press/CBS News. All Rights Reserved.)
Dr. Timothy Jorden, inset, is seen in an undated picture provided by the Buffalo, N.Y., Police Department. In the background, an Erie County Sheriff's helicopter searches the scene of a shooting at Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP)
