Man Who Strangled Wife In Hot Tub Killed His First Spouse In Bath Four Years Earlier

A man was convicted of murdering his wife in a bathtub only after his second spouse was killed in similar circumstances four years later.

In November 1994, police found Maryann Fullerton-Boczkowski dead in a hot tub at the home she shared in Ross, Pennsylvania, with her husband, entrepreneur, and denture maker Timothy Boczkowski.

Investigators said the 35-year-old woman was strangled to death and had suffered around 50 bruises, most of which were located on her neck and face, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Police took Timothy into custody, and the Allegheny County district attorney charged him with Maryann’s murder.

Following his arrest, a prosecutor in North Carolina also filed charges against Timothy in connection with the November 1990 death of his first wife, 34-year-old Elaine Pegher-Boczkowski, who died in a bathtub at the couple’s Greensboro residence.

Initially ruled inconclusive, after Timothy was accused of killing his second wife, a pathologist determined Elaine’s manner of death was homicide caused by chest compression and asphyxiation.

Timothy, now 66, was sentenced to life in prison in both cases, but North Carolina paroled him in 2018, and he was sent to Pennsylvania to serve his sentence there.

Todd Boczkowski, the youngest of Timothy and his first wife Elaine’s three children, speculated why North Carolina allowed his convicted killer father to be paroled.

“I’m sure the parole board thought, ‘There’s another conviction in another state, so why do we still have to pay for him?’ Now he’s serving time in Pennsylvania for Maryann’s death,” he told Forensic Files Now.

Todd initially defended his father, but at around 19 or 20, he went through formal law enforcement training and began to suspect Timothy was guilty of the murders.

“That’s when things started to not add up,” he noted. “Just the unusual circumstances, with both happening around tubs. My stepmother’s autopsy showing signs of strangulation. That’s tough evidence to refute.”

Todd now has a theory about why Timothy took Maryann’s life.

“I believe that Maryann started to discover things about my father, ugly things and she was about to blow the lid off them,” he explained. “The week of her death she had reached out to my aunt — my father’s sister — and her friend. She wanted to meet up with them separately because she had something she wanted to talk about. She died before she had those meetings.”

“I have a pretty good understanding as far as who my father is and that’s not the kind of thing I need in my life,” said Todd of cutting off all contact with Timothy in 2007. “I think he’s like a cancer. And I do think if he got out, he would kill again.”

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