HUMMELS WHARF – A “ghost gun” was used to kill a woman and her date outside a Buffalo Wild Wings in Snyder County Friday evening.
The Polymer80 9mm pistol was called that because it cannot be traced due to a lack of a serial number.
The parts are sold as a kit and do not meet the definition of a firearm, explained Agent Robert Cucinotta with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms & Explosives.
It does not become a firearm until holes are drilled and the parts assembled so a projectile can be fired, he said.
The use of “ghost guns” has become rampant in Philadelphia, he said, explaining that individuals can get the kits directly without having to undergo a background check.
This is believed to be the first time this year such a weapon has been used to commit a major crime in northcentral Pennsylvania, Trooper Mark S. Reasoner said.
A Polymer 80 9mm pistol was found in the parking lot of the restaurant where Heather Sue Campbell, 46, of Trevorton, and Matthew T. Bowersox, 52, of Mifflinburg, were fatally shot. Both died from multiple gunshot wounds, autopsies showed.
Witnesses told investigators they observed Campbell’s ex-husband, Christopher T. Fernanders, 55, of the Paxinos area, using such a weapon to shoot at the two.
He has been charged with first-degree murder and other charges but not arraigned because he is hospitalized after being wounded by Troy Adam Sprenkle, 40, of Sunbury, who had been in the restaurant.
Fernanders was not permitted to possess weapons because Campbell had obtained a protection from abuse order against him June 22. In her application for a PFA, she stated her ex-husband also had a homemade AR-15.
Fernanders is accused of getting out of his pickup truck just before 8 p.m. Friday and starting to shoot at Campbell and Bowersox while they were embracing in the parking lot under an umbrella.
She was pronounced dead at the scene and he was dead on arrival at Geisinger Medical Center near Danville.
Charges against Fernanders from a June 21 incident at Campbell’s house allege he threatened to kill her if he saw her out with someone else. Their two children told state police they heard the threats.
Fernanders also is accused of stalking his ex-wife. A GPS tracking device was found attached to the undercarriage of her car and an empty box for such a unit was discovered in his house, police say.
Snyder County District Attorney Michael Piecuch had said Fernanders was seriously wounded but neither Geisinger nor state police would provide an update on his condition.
He will not be arraigned until he is medically cleared, Piecuch said.
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