A man confessed to killing a U.S. Postal Service worker because he believed he and his family were poisoned with cyanide, federal officials said.
Eric Kortz admitted to killing mail carrier Louis Vignone late Thursday afternoon after investigators found Vignone in his USPS vehicle with multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head. A firearm along with seven shell casings were discovered in a nearby yard, FOX8 reported.
Kortz said he saw Vignone during his mail route and stopped in front of his USPS vehicle. Kortz then told Vignone he was going “to put some bullets in him,” according to Stephen R. Kaufman, acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Kortz said he drove to the Carnegie Borough Police Department afterwards and confessed to local authorities, FOX8 reported. Police put crime scene tape around Kortz’s van, the vehicle he drove himself with to the police department. (RELATED: US Postal Service Is Secretly Monitoring And Reporting Social Media Posts)
#BreakingNews – suspect in the shooting of a postal worker in Collier turns himself in at the Carnegie PD. This is the shooter’s van. #WPXI #PGH #Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/DCZ5DJtiTk
— Tony Ruffolo (@WPXITonyRuffolo) October 7, 2021
Carnegie Police are wrapping the suspects car with crime scene tape. The chief tells me he drove himself to the police department to turn himself in. He is the suspect in the Collier Twp shooting this morning. @WPXI pic.twitter.com/RcOUObtSbq
— Nicole Ford (@NicoleFordTV) October 7, 2021
Agents said Kortz shot the letter carrier because he believed Vignone had poisoned Kortz and Kortz’s family with cyanide when they were neighbors in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Vignone said he and his family moved three years ago to distance himself from Kortz after Kortz became more and more obsessed with them, reported WPXI news.
Kortz has been charged with murder. He faces a maximum total of life in prison or the death penalty, according to the Department of Justice.