Kimberley Pack, daughter of murdered radio host April Kauffman, has spoken out about her mother’s killing, which she has long been convinced was ordered by her stepfather, in an emotional interview set to air on Friday
The daughter of a prominent New Jersey radio host has spoken out about her mother’s murder, nearly six months after the man charged with her death died in his jail cell.
Kimberley Pack, the daughter of April Kauffman, who was shot dead by a hired hit man in May 2012, has told of the moment she found out her mother was dead and the brutal accusation she made to police moments later.
When Pack received the phone call her mother was dead, she raced to her home on Woodland Drive. When she was told by police April had not died by natural causes she told ABC she immediately knew who was behind it.
‘Well,’ Pack told the cop, ‘you can go right over there, because that’s the person that killed my mom.’
Pack says she knew from the very start her stepfather, respected local doctor Jim Kauffman, was behind her mother’s murder.
Pack says the second she arrived at her mother’s home in New Jersey, she told the police her stepfather, respected local doctor Jim Kauffman, was behind the murder
Kauffman (left) and April (right) met while Pack was still in high school and married a year later
April and Kauffman met while Pack was still in high school. They married a year later, and the radio host seemed happy with her life and her new husband, Pack said.
Her daughter said she was initially happy for her mother, who had been unlucky in love, and hoped this time would be different for the radio host.
‘She did struggle in love because maybe she was looking for the wrong things,’ Pack told ABC.
‘I think she deserved love… I was hoping Jim Kauffman would make her happy.’
But as the couple continued their lives together, Kauffman’s tales of his time in the military, his Green Beret, and serving in Vietnam were exposed as lies. Devastated, and perhaps feeling duped, April wanted out.
But when she gave Kauffman an ultimatum, threatening to out him as a liar if he did not let her leave, he threatened her right back.
Pack says her mother told her his response to her threats was: ‘If you tell anybody, I will go nuclear on Kimberly and the children’.
Police work the scene of the fatal shooting of April Kauffman, a local radio talk show host, businesswoman and community volunteer found dead in her Linwood, N.J. home in May 2012
Kauffman may have been more concerned about being outed over the alleged opioid drug ring he ran with the local Pagan biker group.
When she asked her mother what ‘go nuclear’ meant, April told Pack not to worry.
‘Don’t worry, he doesn’t have the balls to do anything,’ she told her daughter.
While Kauffman perhaps didn’t have the balls to do anything, police say he knew a lot of people who did.
Kauffman maintained his innocence regarding his role in the opioid drug ring he allegedly ran and April’s murder
Kauffman had allegedly been distributing OxyContin to the Pagan Motorcycle Club, and prosecutors allege he ‘propositioned a number of individuals to murder April Kauffman’, including a man named Francis Mulholland.
On the morning of May 10, 2012, authorities say Mullholland was given a gun – and at least $20,000 in cash – to carry out the murder.
He died of a heroin overdose about a year later.
Kauffman was arrested last summer following an armed standoff with police at his medical practice, five years after the murder.
Kauffman was charged with murder in addition to racketeering related to the illegal distribution of narcotics through his former medical practice.
Authorities said he brandished a handgun as agents executed a search warrant and said, ‘I’m not going to jail for this!’ A hostage negotiator soon persuaded him to surrender.
An unshaven Kauffman made his initial court appearance shortly before he killed himself in January 2018. The man he allegedly hired to kill April died of a heroin overdose about a year after the killing
On January 26 2018, Kauffman, 68, was found dead in his cell at 9:20 am in what authorities termed an apparent suicide at the county jail in Kearney.
According to NJ.com, Kauffman suffocated himself and a six-page suicide note was discovered. He was not on suicide watch.
Kauffman didn’t hang himself, but instead tied something around his neck and laid face down on his bunk.
As a result, it appeared he was still sleeping and staff doing rounds didn’t notice anything wrong until he didn’t respond.
Kauffman had long maintained his innocence, a stance his attorney, Louis Barbone, repeated just weeks before his death.
Kimberley Pack will speak with ABC’s Deborah Roberts on 20/20, Friday, June 22 at 10 pm ET
Kimberley Pack (pictured right with April, left) will speak with ABC’s Deborah Roberts on 20/20, Friday, June 22 at 10 pm ET