December 1, 2025 • 39 mins
“I don’t know if it is a joke or not. The timer is not ticking or anything, but if it is a joke, it is a very poor one. I would like someone to come over and look at it please.” Those were some of the last words Andrew Puskas ever spoke to a Middlesex, New Jersey police officer. Moments later, his home exploded, killing both Andrew and his wife and stunning an entire community.
The Puskas family was quiet. Middle class. Ordinary in all the ways that usually keep people safe. They had no known enemies, no ongoing disputes, nothing that would make them a target. So why did someone leave a bomb on their porch that morning, wrapped and addressed to Andrew? And who was behind it?
For more than 40 years investigators have searched for those answers. Today we are revisiting one of Central New Jersey’s most baffling unsolved cases, walking through the timeline, the theories, and the haunting questions that still linger in the hope that someone holding a missing piece finally comes forward.
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The Puskas family was quiet. Middle class. Ordinary in all the ways that usually keep people safe. They had no known enemies, no ongoing disputes, nothing that would make them a target. So why did someone leave a bomb on their porch that morning, wrapped and addressed to Andrew? And who was behind it?
For more than 40 years investigators have searched for those answers. Today we are revisiting one of Central New Jersey’s most baffling unsolved cases, walking through the timeline, the theories, and the haunting questions that still linger in the hope that someone holding a missing piece finally comes forward.
TIPS: http://www.middlesextips.com/sitemenu.aspx?P=misc&D=1&ID=924&SID=921
Case suggestions: simplertimecrimepod@gmail.com
IG: @simplertimecrimepod
Youtube: https://youtube.com/@simplertimecrimepod?si=OlCWQ2Ky8qFaof02
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@simplertimecrimep?_t=8s31x9iCrNv&_r=1
Music By Universfield: https://pixabay.com/music/mystery-dramatic-atmosphere-with-piano-and-violin-143149/
Sources: All available on Newspapers.com public username asimplertimetruecrime all will be listed 12/1/25 PM
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/a-simpler-time-true-crime--6665681/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
I don't know if it is a joke or not.
The timer is not ticking or anything. But if it
is a joke, it is a very poor one. I
would like someone to come over and look at it.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Please. Those were some of the last.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Words Andrew Puskis ever spoke to a Middlesex, New Jersey
police officer. Moments later, his home exploded, killing both Andrew
and his wife and stunning an entire community. The Puskis
family was quiet, middle class, ordinary in all the ways
that usually keep people safe. They had no known enemies,
(00:47):
no ongoing disputes, nothing that would make them a target.
So why did someone leave a bomb on their porch
that morning, wrapped and addressed Andrew and who was behind it?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
For more than.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Forty years, investigators have searched for just those answers. Today,
we are revisiting one of Central New Jersey's most baffling
unsolved cases, walking through the timeline, the theories, and the
haunting questions that still linger in the hope that someone
holds a missing piece of information and that they finally
(01:21):
come forward. I'm your host, Megan and Each week on
a Simpler Time True Crime, I cover older unsolved cases
and challenge the idea that a simpler time means a
safer time. This week, I'm bringing to you the unsolved
double murder of Andrew and Patricia Puscis. A quick piece
(02:03):
of housekeeping before I get into this episode, name pronunciations
and places, that type of thing is really important to me,
and I wanted to let you know I could not
verify the exact pronunciation of the last name of this family.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I so I say.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Pooskis, but I'm not certain. I went through all the
news footage, and even the twenty eighteen footage didn't say
their last name. It just talked about the case. So
if I have this terribly wrong, I am so sorry.
Please just send me a private DM and I will
at least correct it and put out a statement about
the correct pronunciation. But I'm going to say poosh GISs
(02:39):
throughout this episode, and that is what I am going
with based on what I could see. And so now
let's get into it. It was just after eight thirty
am on Thursday, February twenty fifth, nineteen eighty two, in
what is probably a relatable morning to many of you.
Married Andrew and Patricia Puskis were trying to get their
(03:03):
three boys out of their Middlesex, New Jersey house and
off to school. Andrew Junior was nine, Scott was seven,
and Brian's age is sometimes referred to as five and
other times as three, but three I see more often
by the way, Andrew puskis the father here. He was
(03:24):
hardly ever called Andrew, And if you listen to me regularly,
you know I usually end up introducing a person by
their legal name and then share what they typically went
by and use that throughout the episode. That's a little
tricky in this episode because he went by different names
to different people, and that actually ends up being relevant
(03:45):
to the full picture. So for that reason, I've chosen
to just refer to him as Andrew when I'm narrating
the overview.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Of this episode.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
His wife Patricia pretty exclusively went by pat so I'll
be referring to her as past from this point forward.
So the couple, who was in their mid thirties, they
were doing the morning routine shuffle. The kids had finished breakfast,
the garbage collection had just occurred, and the two older
boys went outside to pull the toe back up to
(04:16):
the house. Andrew had taken the youngest boy, Brian, outside
and placed him in the family station wagon. In just minutes,
he would be driving all three children to school slash Preschool.
After Andrew Junior and Scott had pulled up the trash bin,
they noticed a box on their front porch. It was
(04:38):
a cardboard wrapped package about two.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Feet long and two feet wide.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Depending on the reporting source, some will say that it
said to Andy Puscis, and some will say it simply
just said to Andy. The boys told their dad about it,
but Andrew was not too interested as he was in
a rush. He grabbed the package, brought inside, and then
told the two older boys to join their little brother
(05:04):
in the car. The boys recalled that their father had
heard bottles rattling around in the box a bit. Andrew
and the boys were barely out of the house when
Pat summoned her husband to come back in Curious, of course,
the two older boys followed their dad back into the house.
Pat had a worried look on her face and pointed
(05:24):
to show Andrew that the box looked like it contained
a bomb. The boys got a good look at it
and noticed the box contained a few bottles and a
forty five second timer. Andrew Puskis had an interesting demeanor
regarding the package. He seemed a mixture of mildly concerned,
somewhat annoyed, and possibly in a bit of denial. Andrew
(05:47):
picked up the phone and phoned Middlesex Police at eight
thirty four am. The call lasted fifty five seconds and
went as follows. The police picked up the line and said,
Middlesex Police Sergeant Benson. The incoming line said, good morning, sergeant.
(06:07):
My name is Puscis p us Kas, one eighty two
First Street. On my way out the door this morning
to take my kids to school, there was this box
on my front porch. I brought it in and it
had some bottles in it. My wife called me back
into the house and it has two bottles of gasoline,
(06:31):
a timer, a piece of pipe, and a bunch of wires.
I doubt, but it appears to be gasoline. I don't
know if it is a joke or not. The timer
is not ticking or anything else. But if it is
a joke, it is a very poor one. I would
like someone to come over and take a look at it, please.
The police line said, okay, what is the house number?
(06:55):
And Andrew replied one eighty two First Street, and the
police said, and you're for name, and he said Andrew,
and the police said, okay, I will send an officer
right over. And Andrew said, okay, I'm going to take
my kids to school and I'll be right back. And
the police officer said okay. And then Andrew said, thank you,
(07:16):
my wife will be here. Just after placing the phone
back on the hook, Andrew Puskis must have seen something
that alarmed him, because the two older boys stated that
he told them with urgency to get out of the house,
and at the same time, mister Puskis grabbed the fire
extinguisher and was spraying the package. The boys opened the
(07:37):
door and walked out onto the front porch. Meanwhile, as
soon as the call with mister Puskis ended, Sergeant Benson
of the Middlesex Police Department dispatched a nearby patrol officer
to the scene, twenty four year old Robert Schwartz. In
a stroke of luck, Officer Schwartz was only a block
away from the Puskis' First Street home when the call
(07:58):
came in, so he was able to get there in
under a minute, but as he pulled up, a tree
in front of the residence obscured his view. Of the
house number, so Officer Schwartz passed the home. When he
realized he had gone too far, he backed up and
parked across the street. As he opened his door to
his police cruiser, he saw the two boys exiting the home.
(08:21):
No sooner had they gotten out of the house and
he out of his car, the house exploded. Officer Schwartz
would recall that the roof lifted off the Cape Cod
home and the front door blasted out. Black smoke began
billowing out.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
The blast flung the.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Two boys forward and Schwartz over the hood of his
police cruiser. At eight thirty six am, a second call
to Middlesex Police came.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
In from a neighbor. It was brief.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
The caller said that yes, there was an explosion on
First Street and the police line said just now, and
they said, yes, just this minute, and black smoke is
pouring out, and he actually said the police officer said
it probably is one eighty two First Street. I just
got a call from there, and then they got off
(09:15):
the phone. Schwartz ran up to Andrew Junior in Scott,
seeing that some of their clothing was on fire. Officer
Schwartz took off his police jacket and put out the flames.
The oldest boy tried to go back to the house,
saying his mom and dad were still in there, but
the heat and fire made it impossible, and the officer
(09:37):
held him back. The other middle boy ran to the
neighbor's house, the Colbs, and he told them that a
bomb had gone off and that his parents were still inside.
Orienting themselves to the situation, the Colbs realized their own
home was catching fire, and they evacuated immediately. The heat
(09:57):
from the blast was so intense that it penetrates did
the fireproof asbestos shingle walls of the cold house. It
set the wood trimend fire, and it melted a television
in the bedroom facing.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
The Puskis house.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Neighbors came outside to the scene, and in very short
time the Puskis home burned down, with Andrew and Pat inside.
The two oldest boys were taken to the local hospital
for treatment of minor burns, and the youngest son, Brian,
was uninjured. The quiet, middle class neighborhood was stunned.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Andrew, Pat and.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Their three children were familiar and friendly faces who seemed
on the outside to have no enemies. Neighbors helped one
another there so who would want to harm this family?
Specifically Andrew as the package was addressed to him, But
more on that in a minute. This case has two
(11:04):
major components to it, the physical evidence like the bomb
and what we know about that, and the Puscis family
and the details.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Of their lives.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So let's first start by going through the bomb and
the crime scene. And it's important to note that in
real time reporting information about the bomb took years to
release in total, and it came out in bits and pieces.
To help tell this story, though, I'm going to tell
you first what we know about the bomb in the
order we learned it, and then circle back to the
(11:36):
beginning to get into the lives of Andrew, pat and
the three boys. The older boys were able to give
police a description of the bomb because they had gotten
a pretty good look at it.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Initially, it was.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Just described as several bottles in a pipe bomb with
a forty five second timer on it. The kids honed
in on some additional details, sharing that they noticed two
blue glass bottles, one dark and one lighter blue, as.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Well as the pipe.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
They also described the forty five second timer, though like
their father, they said it wasn't ticking or counting down
from what they could tell, Andrew Puskis told law enforcement
that he thought it was possibly gasoline in the bottles.
Law enforcement investigating the case brought in the US Department
(12:24):
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, otherwise known as the ATF.
Five large bags of debris were collected to be sent
to the lab in Rockville, Maryland for further evaluation and testing.
It was reported that the flames, unfortunately consumed much of
the evidence, and what was even more surprising was that
(12:45):
in the first day or two, authorities couldn't say for
sure that it was a bomb that had caused the explosion.
Now common sense linking the nine to one one calls
and the timing of the explosion would indicate that, yes,
that's what it was, But in sifting through the rubble,
they couldn't find fragments of the explosive device. And just
a week prior, a vehicle had hit a gas mane
(13:08):
and residents of the first street block had been evacuated
out of precaution, so they wondered if there was any
cause and effect or residual issue with that. But the
ATF and first responders were able to rule out a
gas leak of any sorts. Soon, small shards of glass
would be found among the debris and sent off for testing.
(13:31):
One of the pieces that was a little larger had
parts of what seemed to be a word inscribed on
it with the letters KI and G. The autopsies of
Andrew and Patricia indicated they had died instantly from quote
traumatic shock due to the explosion. Deadly shrapnel was found
in their chest and abdomens, and it was determined that
(13:53):
they had both been facing the package when it exploded,
with Andrew standing slightly closer than pat Within two weeks
of the deadly explosion, Johnny Boras, an official with the ATF,
told the papers quote, from what we can tell, it
was a fairly sophisticated device. He added that it was
(14:14):
unique and did not match bombs they had encountered from
any other crime.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
He also shared that his.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Unit was continuing to test through the debris and that
chemical analysis was still ongoing. William Dietrich, the Resident Agent
in charge of the investigation from the ATF, told papers
that the pipe used in the bomb was two to
two and a half inches long. Dietrich told the papers quote,
everything was incinerated. If you had seen those bodies, you
(14:43):
would want these guys caught. It was horrible that someone
can do that to another human being.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
In addition to that commentary, Dietrich described how they would
do the chemical testing to determine the accelerant. He said
that one method they use is to heat the and
separate it from any volatile accelerants. Then an air sample
of the vapors is injected into a gas chromatograph. I
(15:11):
don't know if I'm saying that right, a laboratory instrument
that can detect the presence of certain accelerants such as gasoline. However,
he added in his interview with The Courier News that
it's not always that simple, and that even though it
is a very sensitive technique, it can be difficult to
determine the precise chemical elements of the bomb because an
(15:32):
intense fire can consume all of the accelerant. By March nineteenth,
the chemical evaluation was complete, but authorities were slow to
release the information to the public. They stated they now
wanted to trace the purchase history of some of the
materials to try to work backwards. One name that is
vitally important in this investigation is that of Middlesex County
(15:55):
Prosecutor Richard S. Reebeck. You'll hear me mention him a lot,
as he was absolute fixated on solving this case. It
bothered him immensely, and I'll get into his investigation more
when I'm done focusing on the bomb part of the investigation.
But by the end of March of eighty two, he
was willing to share more information that had been found.
(16:15):
He told the Central New Jersey Home News that some
of the components of the bomb were a type of
gunpowder and gasoline. Rebeck shared that some of the suppliers
and some materials required buyer identification, but that if they
were purchased in other forms IDA would be unnecessary. Rebec
would not elaborate, so the reporter, Reginald Cavanaugh, called a
(16:37):
local sporting goods store and found out that a person
can walk into a gun shop and buy a box
of shotgun shells without providing IDA at this time, but
he must identify himself when buying gunpowder. Eventually, law enforcement
would confirm that gasoline.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Was the liquid used.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
The jars of gasoline were vaporized and ignited by a
pipe bomb. According to Robert Schultz of the ATF. He
told the Courier News, quote, when you vaporize a liquid
like gasoline, you create an intensely hot fireball and a
blast that's far greater than even dynamite. The only thing
that can even equal that kind of destructive power is
a natural gas explosion end quote. A final piece of
(17:19):
information that is interesting about the bomb is that it
would take a determined, retired detective who wouldn't give up
on the piece of inscribed blue glass eight years to
finally figure out the origin and realize.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
It was a red herring all along.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
You see the shard of blue glass, particularly that one piece,
had been a central element of their investigation. ATF and
Middlesex Police had sent the glass to the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, Corning Glass in New York, and Wheaten Industries,
which is a glass manufacturer, thinking these were fragments of
the bomb. The hope was that if they could identify
(17:55):
the glass, they could trace it to a manufacturer. And
if you could do that, you could trace it to
sales outlets and then see if you can make a
connection to a suspect, possibly even a business that the suspect.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Was tied to.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
But eight years later, it was found that the glass
was part of a rare piece of art made of
antique cobalt glass that was part of the Puscis's home.
It wasn't part of the bomb at all, though they
did have some tiny other pieces of blue glass that
they said might be part of the bomb, but that
was a task they said would be even more of
(18:28):
a needle in a haystack. The ATF and Middlesex Police
did highlight that though this bomb was complex, it didn't
necessarily create an entire profile of the person behind it,
because they said it's sophisticated, but also someone who is
dedicated enough could figure it out. Schultz told paper quote,
it doesn't require a genius, It just requires someone patient
(18:49):
enough to research it thoroughly. Information on improvised explosive technology
is readily available through a variety of sources. Unless someone
comes forward, maybe a deathbed confession, this is destined to
go down as one of the great unsolved crimes in
Central Jersey history. So with all of that and some
(19:11):
background information about the bombs, let's get into the other
side of the investigation, looking at the lives of Andrew
and Pat as well as the progression of the investigation
and the leads behind the scenes. Andrew and Pat were
(19:35):
well loved in the community. Andrew worked for Dodge Newark
Supply Co. As a hydraulic equipment salesman, and he was
a supervisor with a team underneath him. They sold these
parts to different manufacturing firms. And Andrew was known for
having about one hundred or so small accounts. When his
supervisor was asked about what his thoughts were when he
(19:57):
found out that a bomb had been sent to Andrew
and his family, he was choked up and said he
could place no reason why anybody.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Would want to harm him.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
He said that even in sales, Andrew was soft in
his approach.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
He wasn't pushy.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
He was very mild mannered and kind. His coworker said
they literally never saw him angry. They didn't think it
was possible for him to get angry. He was also
well known in his neighborhood. One neighbor recalled how Andrew
shoveled the snow in their driveway during a bad winter storm,
and how when he was hospitalized, Andrew mowed his lawn
(20:33):
and took care of his property without him even asking.
This touched this particular neighbor so much that he would
periodically mow the lawn of the vacant lot months and
months after that horrible day. He felt it was the
neighborly thing to do, and in some way he wanted
to pay it back to Andrew, even if he wasn't
here to see it. Andrew valued his community and was
(20:57):
a member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce. Despite me
talking a lot about Andrew, Pat was actually more outgoing
than Andrew. She was known to never miss a person's
birthday or special event, and she sent cards for everything.
She was a homemaker and took care of all the
invisible labor of the home, and took on many responsibilities
in their community as well, particularly at church. Andrew and
(21:22):
Pat were deeply religious. They had a bit of a
religious shift, having been part of an undisclosed religion when
they got married and then shifting into becoming Jehovah's witnesses.
This was the case when they moved into their home
on First Street, but after sending their older boys to
vacation Bible school at a nearby non denominational fundamentalist church,
(21:44):
they shifted away from their Jehovah's witness beliefs and dove
headfirst into this church. It was called the Middlesex Bible Chapel.
It was such a tiny neighborhood church that for their
funerals they had to both fill the pews and also
have people in the basement with speakers listening up to
the funeral above. Andrew was a lay minister at the
(22:05):
church and on a fast track to becoming a church elder.
Pat taught Sunday school and led several Bible studies, including
one for neighborhood mothers at a park. During the weekday,
the Puskis family spent around five of their seven weekly
days deeply wrapped up in the work with the church.
It was just a huge part of their life. Early on,
(22:27):
one thing became clear to the investigators. They did not
know the exact motive, but they were certain that the
act was one of intense hatred for Andrew Richard Puskis.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
But who and why?
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Police interviewed friends, neighbors, coworkers, and church members, even military,
and they came up empty. But I think it helps
to see the exhaustive path they went down.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
What turned out to.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Maybe hold weight, who they got tips from, and the investigation.
So here here's the path it took. Early on, two
witnesses came forward with descriptions of white vehicles. One was
a young girl who shared that she saw a Mercury
cougar with one possibly two occupants, drive fast in sort
of slam on its brakes and peel out of the
(23:16):
neighborhood that morning. Police told the papers that they found
that account pretty insignificant and probably unrelated. Another person, a
seventeen year old girl leaving her home that morning, recalled
seeing a white station wagon go by and possibly pull
into the Puskis driveway or that of a neighbor. Her account,
on the other hand, was taken very seriously. They put
(23:37):
her under hypnosis and ended up coming up with a
composite sketch. I'll share that on the Instagram. She provided
a lot of detail under hypnosis, including seeing a package
in the car and possibly seeing some lettering on it.
I personally just inserting my opinion here. I have a
hard time believing that you could see that level of
(23:58):
detail just driving by. And I am not saying she
was a liar. I think she probably was trying to help.
But we know eyewitness accounts can be shaky and also
influenced by what has been released or other biases, and
this is all over the news. Before her hypnosis, another
neighbor witness came forward early on and said she heard
(24:19):
one of the sons on the morning of the explosion
say something like I knew they were going to get us.
That neighbor later recanted that tip, and the boys all
confirmed they never said anything like that and knew of
nobody who.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Wanted to hurt their mom and dad.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
And speaking of witnesses, police set up a tip line,
and you know how I usually get on here and
tell you about the tens and thousands of.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Tips to sift through.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
They were tossing out numbers like we had seven phone
calls on that line, and that was after releasing the
composite sketch, which usually causes a flood of calls with
people saying that looks like my neighbor or my uncle
or my teacher.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Seven.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
So they shut it down, and they noted that it
wasn't really worth the resources they were throwing into it.
But Middlesex County Prosecutor Richard Reebeck did continue to plead
with the community that if anybody was in the neighborhood,
even if they were just walking their dog that morning.
Please come forward and share anything, even if it seems insignificant. Next,
(25:20):
they looked into neighbors. I mentioned before how people found
him neighborly. Police couldn't rule out a neighbor, but they
didn't find it to be a strong lead either. There
was a couple of people that they named.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
As possible suspects early on. One of those was.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Someone in the neighborhood, but both of those people were
ruled out. It is worth noting that he had been
at the forefront of a protest for a neighborhood development.
There was some sort of commercial project in the works nearby.
And Andrew led the charge of neighbors opposing the project
to speak up and try to block its progress forward.
(25:58):
So is that related? But none of the other neighbors
seemed to be targeted. And Andrew wasn't the only one.
Next theory the idea that Andrew or Pat were involved
in the bombing themselves, either by a suicide pact or
one targeting the other and accidentally both were killed for
some sort of financial reason.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
All of that was quickly rolled out.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Their small estate was divided up between their sons, and
local fundraisers still had to be held just to ensure
the boys had enough resources to cover their basic needs
as they transitioned to living with Andrew's sister. There was
nothing in their life that indicated this being the possible
direction to go down. Police were also able to eliminate
(26:41):
anything like gambling, debt, illegal activity, terrorism, organized crime and
the like. But two big points of conversation did keep
coming up, religion and work. Let's start with work. As
(27:06):
I mentioned, he worked in sales, particularly pneumatic parts, and
first police wanted to see if Dodge Newark Supply Co.
Sold any automotive parts, and with good reason. In the
last couple of months, two men in the autoparts business
locally had been murdered suddenly. On December thirteenth, nineteen eighty one,
(27:28):
fifty two year old Joseph Victor was shot to death
in a van parked at the Metro Park station in Woodbridge,
New Jersey, approximately thirteen miles away from Middlesex. Joseph Victor
owned an autoparts business in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and
it was thought that he may have been waiting there
to do a large autoparts transaction when he was gonned down.
(27:50):
Just a month later, In January of eighty two, forty
nine year old Carl Grossman was shot dead in his driveway.
He was the owner of five local autoparts to police
theorized that Carl and Joseph's murders were connected, but they
couldn't connect it to Andrew. Andrew's boss said that they
didn't sell auto parts and that their business was kind
(28:12):
of Niche not a lot of competition, not cutthroat, no enemies.
He was well liked at work by colleagues.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
And by clients.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
But before we rule this out altogether, there is something
I haven't told you. I promised we'd revisit Andrew Puskis's
many names. His name was Andrew Richard Puscis, and throughout
different interviews you'd hear rich in, Pat, Dick, and Pat
Andy and Pat. And I was able to map this
out and would later find it confirmed by relatives as well.
(28:46):
His neighbors and family would often call him Rich. Close
friends and church members mainly called him Dick, but his
work they called him Andy. And the package on his
doorstep you'll call to Andy or to Andy Puskis, depending
on who you ask. Investigators have never been able to
(29:08):
prove any connection to a work dispute or someone who
would want him dead. But they haven't ruled it out either,
So let's move on to church. The Puskis family, as
I mentioned, was part of a non denominational, fundamentalist Christian church.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
It's a church that.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
One elder referred to as no frills look at Christianity
that interprets the Bible literally. Andrew was scheduled to preach
that upcoming Sunday after his murder, on a topic that
was huge was of huge interest to him, the Second
Coming of Jesus and the Rapture. In the weeks leading
up to his death, Andrew had shown three films at
(29:47):
the church on that topic, and he had advertised the
film showings and discussion on local radio and the paper.
The viewings had a large turnout, with lots of people
who came from outside of the church. Andrew was also
said to passed out religious comic books of sort that
may have been interpreted to be anti Roman Catholic. Some
(30:08):
of the cartoons may have been offensive to Catholics, and
it has pointed out that his church felt Catholics got
things wrong in their interpretation of the scripture. According to
reporting in the Central New Jersey Home News detectives actually
bought duplicates of the publications that Puscis had ordered, including
the comic book Ones, and those comic book Ones charged
(30:32):
the Vatican with saying that they had a supercomputer listing
of names of all Protestants and intended to.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Conduct a new inquisition.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
But church elder Ray Good, along with other friends of
the Puskises, said that Andrew was not pushy with his beliefs.
If people asked for his opinion, he would give it.
But one of his opinions was that he would share
his voice, but he couldn't force people to find their
way to the Lord, and that was their own personal journey. Still,
that specific type of church that Andrew was a part
(31:05):
of was a pretty intense and sometimes controversial kind, sometimes
described as a fire and brimstone Christian church, and it
held a lot of opposition to things like Catholicism, which
was a big part of the New Jersey community at
that time. And he could have rubbed people the wrong
way with his beliefs. Not only that he had left
the Jehovah's Witness religion and so someone from that religion
(31:27):
may not have taken kindly to him.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Leaving.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Police have never been able to tie a motive to work,
church or anything else. They do believe the white station
wagon that morning and the hypnotized witness that that was significant,
and they cite that as their one credible lead. That
lead would give a possible who if that person was
ever identified, but certainly not a why. Some other random
(31:52):
pieces I'll touch on was that Andrew had a brief
military career as a Green Beret, but investigators looked into
that and found that he mostly just delivered supplies to
a local base. He was a reserve guardsman, so no
real lead there. Investigators did take a lead from a
psychic who said she sensed that two people were behind this,
(32:14):
a young teen about seventeen helping his older father in
his forties or fifties, and that the motive was religious based,
and that the person lived in the neighborhood. And she
claimed there had been a series of three arguments or
conflicts over the last few months between Andrew and this person.
Before you think this is just a psychic that came forward,
(32:34):
police had actually reached out to her the ATF rather,
she was a contact in they had used her before,
but they did kind of take this with a grain
of salt, like they do most psychic leads, but don't
lose track of it yet. That will come back up
near the end of this episode. When you hear of
bombs in the nineteen eighties, you may think of one thing,
the Unibomber, and he was briefly considered as a connection
(32:57):
to the Puskis case. After another in New Jersey bombing
was connected to him from nineteen ninety four. Ted Kazinski,
known as the Unibomber, was a domestic terrorist who carried
out a nationwide bombing campaign from nineteen seventy eight to
nineteen ninety five, targeting individuals linked to modern technology and
(33:18):
industrial progress. His homemade devices were often carefully crafted, disguised
in mundane packaging, and mailed to universities, airlines, and corporate figures.
One of his most devastating attacks occurred in December of
nineteen ninety four, when he sent a package bomb to
Thomas J. Moser, an advertising executive in New Jersey. Moser
(33:42):
was killed instantly when he opened the parcel in his home.
Investigators later discovered that Kazinsky targeted Moser because he believed
the public relations work of Moser's firm had helped Eixon
restore its image after the Eixon Velgie's disaster, which Kazinski
saw as emblematic of the harmful influence of large corporations
(34:04):
on the environment and society. Investigators couldn't link the unobomber
attacks to the Puskis attack, but it did bring up
memories to Middlesex County. The tragedy took its toll on
the community and the family. While I don't know the
details and I don't want to dig into difficult personal
(34:25):
elements of the family, I will just mention that the
boys lived with Andrew's sister for a while, but for
one reason or another, it didn't work out and they
were placed in foster care. The two older boys stayed
together while young Brian was in a different foster home.
They all grew up and stayed connected with their family, though,
and my hope is that they're doing well now. Andrew's
(34:47):
mom went to the grave of her son and daughter
in law just a few months after their deaths, and
she suffered a massive heart attack at their graveside. She
would later die at the hospital. As the years went on,
the Puskis bombing went cold, but it was not forgotten.
Statistics around bombings rose and then fell again. At the
(35:09):
five and ten year anniversary, local news reinterviewed those closest
to the family, and a couple of interesting things did
come out. Remember the immediate next.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Door neighbors, the Colbs.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
This time Al Colb was interviewed and he had a
couple of new observations. He told the papers that Andrew
and Pat were always scraping to get by on a
one income household, and that Andrew would joke about paying
with plastic, implying.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
That he had credit card debt.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
So it puzzled mister Colb when Andrew and Patt installed
an expensive burglar alarm in their home just a couple
of months prior to the explosion. He told the Courier
News quote, it was curious to me that he'd blow
sixteen hundred dollars on it when he was usually strapped
for money. Nobody in this neighborhood has burglar alarms because
(35:59):
they don't have anything worth breaking in for. Dick sure
didn't have anything worth killing for.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
And so with that, more questions and no answers, Why
did they install that security system that's really expensive even
for that time? So it had to be a pretty
fancy one. Answers that still haven't come decades later. There
would be one last peculiar adjacent lead in twenty seventeen. Now,
(36:28):
this man's name is in the papers, but I'm not
going to name him here with his full name and
last name. I'm just gonna call him Joe. He was
a man in his fifties in twenty seventeen and he
was arrested one block over from the Puskis home because
he had possession of pipe bombs, and they were able
to connect him to pipe bombs that had been detonated
(36:49):
nearby and had been under investigation for months. It was
said on community chatter for Hims that this family had
lived in the neighborhood for a very long time, and
that this man would have lived there when the.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Puscuses did too.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
If you go by the psychic lead of the father
and son duo, his father also lived in the neighborhood
back then, and a couple of Smooth Sunline have done
the classic side by side of that father and the
composite sketch, pointing out some pretty eerie similarities. I think
it could be worth police looking into, and maybe they
already have, but I also think it's a bit of
(37:25):
a stretch, and hence why I'm not going to post
the side by side or name names on here, because
I think that would just be irresponsible, But because it
has come up enough in internet chatter, I just did
think it was worth mentioning. In the last seven or
(37:50):
eight years, there's been one new story that came out
saying that Middlesex County is still trying to get to
the bottom of this case. They are hoping there is
possibly evidence still to retell or something they can chase
down with all of the forensic advancements. Richard Reebeck, the
man who wouldn't give up on the case, who went
on to become a successful judge and do so much
(38:12):
for his community, He died just last year, never finding
out who did this crime investigators believed early on it
was highly unlikely that this person committed this bombing and
never told anybody or involved anybody else, and I think
that's a likely conclusion as well. So if you are
the person out there with information, it's never too late
(38:33):
to come forward. If you have any information, please contact
Crime Stoppers of Middlesex County. I'll have the tip link
in the show notes. This has been another episode of
a Simpler Time True Crime. If you appreciate the work
(38:55):
I'm doing, please leave a five star review. I love
discussing these cases. Don't hesitate to reach out to me
on Instagram or Simpler Timecrimepod at gmail dot com. That's
also where you can recommend cases for the podcast. If
you wish to support the show monetarily, you can do
so via the Speaker Supporters Club in the show notes
and as always, thank you so much for listening and
(39:17):
tune in again next Monday
I don't know if it is a joke or not.
The timer is not ticking or anything. But if it
is a joke, it is a very poor one. I
would like someone to come over and look at it.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Please. Those were some of the last.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Words Andrew Puskis ever spoke to a Middlesex, New Jersey
police officer. Moments later, his home exploded, killing both Andrew
and his wife and stunning an entire community. The Puskis
family was quiet, middle class, ordinary in all the ways
that usually keep people safe. They had no known enemies,
(00:47):
no ongoing disputes, nothing that would make them a target.
So why did someone leave a bomb on their porch
that morning, wrapped and addressed Andrew and who was behind it?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
For more than.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Forty years, investigators have searched for just those answers. Today,
we are revisiting one of Central New Jersey's most baffling
unsolved cases, walking through the timeline, the theories, and the
haunting questions that still linger in the hope that someone
holds a missing piece of information and that they finally
(01:21):
come forward. I'm your host, Megan and Each week on
a Simpler Time True Crime, I cover older unsolved cases
and challenge the idea that a simpler time means a
safer time. This week, I'm bringing to you the unsolved
double murder of Andrew and Patricia Puscis. A quick piece
(02:03):
of housekeeping before I get into this episode, name pronunciations
and places, that type of thing is really important to me,
and I wanted to let you know I could not
verify the exact pronunciation of the last name of this family.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I so I say.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Pooskis, but I'm not certain. I went through all the
news footage, and even the twenty eighteen footage didn't say
their last name. It just talked about the case. So
if I have this terribly wrong, I am so sorry.
Please just send me a private DM and I will
at least correct it and put out a statement about
the correct pronunciation. But I'm going to say poosh GISs
(02:39):
throughout this episode, and that is what I am going
with based on what I could see. And so now
let's get into it. It was just after eight thirty
am on Thursday, February twenty fifth, nineteen eighty two, in
what is probably a relatable morning to many of you.
Married Andrew and Patricia Puskis were trying to get their
(03:03):
three boys out of their Middlesex, New Jersey house and
off to school. Andrew Junior was nine, Scott was seven,
and Brian's age is sometimes referred to as five and
other times as three, but three I see more often
by the way, Andrew puskis the father here. He was
(03:24):
hardly ever called Andrew, And if you listen to me regularly,
you know I usually end up introducing a person by
their legal name and then share what they typically went
by and use that throughout the episode. That's a little
tricky in this episode because he went by different names
to different people, and that actually ends up being relevant
(03:45):
to the full picture. So for that reason, I've chosen
to just refer to him as Andrew when I'm narrating
the overview.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Of this episode.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
His wife Patricia pretty exclusively went by pat so I'll
be referring to her as past from this point forward.
So the couple, who was in their mid thirties, they
were doing the morning routine shuffle. The kids had finished breakfast,
the garbage collection had just occurred, and the two older
boys went outside to pull the toe back up to
(04:16):
the house. Andrew had taken the youngest boy, Brian, outside
and placed him in the family station wagon. In just minutes,
he would be driving all three children to school slash Preschool.
After Andrew Junior and Scott had pulled up the trash bin,
they noticed a box on their front porch. It was
(04:38):
a cardboard wrapped package about two.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Feet long and two feet wide.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Depending on the reporting source, some will say that it
said to Andy Puscis, and some will say it simply
just said to Andy. The boys told their dad about it,
but Andrew was not too interested as he was in
a rush. He grabbed the package, brought inside, and then
told the two older boys to join their little brother
(05:04):
in the car. The boys recalled that their father had
heard bottles rattling around in the box a bit. Andrew
and the boys were barely out of the house when
Pat summoned her husband to come back in Curious, of course,
the two older boys followed their dad back into the house.
Pat had a worried look on her face and pointed
(05:24):
to show Andrew that the box looked like it contained
a bomb. The boys got a good look at it
and noticed the box contained a few bottles and a
forty five second timer. Andrew Puskis had an interesting demeanor
regarding the package. He seemed a mixture of mildly concerned,
somewhat annoyed, and possibly in a bit of denial. Andrew
(05:47):
picked up the phone and phoned Middlesex Police at eight
thirty four am. The call lasted fifty five seconds and
went as follows. The police picked up the line and said,
Middlesex Police Sergeant Benson. The incoming line said, good morning, sergeant.
(06:07):
My name is Puscis p us Kas, one eighty two
First Street. On my way out the door this morning
to take my kids to school, there was this box
on my front porch. I brought it in and it
had some bottles in it. My wife called me back
into the house and it has two bottles of gasoline,
(06:31):
a timer, a piece of pipe, and a bunch of wires.
I doubt, but it appears to be gasoline. I don't
know if it is a joke or not. The timer
is not ticking or anything else. But if it is
a joke, it is a very poor one. I would
like someone to come over and take a look at it, please.
The police line said, okay, what is the house number?
(06:55):
And Andrew replied one eighty two First Street, and the
police said, and you're for name, and he said Andrew,
and the police said, okay, I will send an officer
right over. And Andrew said, okay, I'm going to take
my kids to school and I'll be right back. And
the police officer said okay. And then Andrew said, thank you,
(07:16):
my wife will be here. Just after placing the phone
back on the hook, Andrew Puskis must have seen something
that alarmed him, because the two older boys stated that
he told them with urgency to get out of the house,
and at the same time, mister Puskis grabbed the fire
extinguisher and was spraying the package. The boys opened the
(07:37):
door and walked out onto the front porch. Meanwhile, as
soon as the call with mister Puskis ended, Sergeant Benson
of the Middlesex Police Department dispatched a nearby patrol officer
to the scene, twenty four year old Robert Schwartz. In
a stroke of luck, Officer Schwartz was only a block
away from the Puskis' First Street home when the call
(07:58):
came in, so he was able to get there in
under a minute, but as he pulled up, a tree
in front of the residence obscured his view. Of the
house number, so Officer Schwartz passed the home. When he
realized he had gone too far, he backed up and
parked across the street. As he opened his door to
his police cruiser, he saw the two boys exiting the home.
(08:21):
No sooner had they gotten out of the house and
he out of his car, the house exploded. Officer Schwartz
would recall that the roof lifted off the Cape Cod
home and the front door blasted out. Black smoke began
billowing out.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
The blast flung the.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Two boys forward and Schwartz over the hood of his
police cruiser. At eight thirty six am, a second call
to Middlesex Police came.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
In from a neighbor. It was brief.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
The caller said that yes, there was an explosion on
First Street and the police line said just now, and
they said, yes, just this minute, and black smoke is
pouring out, and he actually said the police officer said
it probably is one eighty two First Street. I just
got a call from there, and then they got off
(09:15):
the phone. Schwartz ran up to Andrew Junior in Scott,
seeing that some of their clothing was on fire. Officer
Schwartz took off his police jacket and put out the flames.
The oldest boy tried to go back to the house,
saying his mom and dad were still in there, but
the heat and fire made it impossible, and the officer
(09:37):
held him back. The other middle boy ran to the
neighbor's house, the Colbs, and he told them that a
bomb had gone off and that his parents were still inside.
Orienting themselves to the situation, the Colbs realized their own
home was catching fire, and they evacuated immediately. The heat
(09:57):
from the blast was so intense that it penetrates did
the fireproof asbestos shingle walls of the cold house. It
set the wood trimend fire, and it melted a television
in the bedroom facing.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
The Puskis house.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Neighbors came outside to the scene, and in very short
time the Puskis home burned down, with Andrew and Pat inside.
The two oldest boys were taken to the local hospital
for treatment of minor burns, and the youngest son, Brian,
was uninjured. The quiet, middle class neighborhood was stunned.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Andrew, Pat and.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Their three children were familiar and friendly faces who seemed
on the outside to have no enemies. Neighbors helped one
another there so who would want to harm this family?
Specifically Andrew as the package was addressed to him, But
more on that in a minute. This case has two
(11:04):
major components to it, the physical evidence like the bomb
and what we know about that, and the Puscis family
and the details.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Of their lives.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
So let's first start by going through the bomb and
the crime scene. And it's important to note that in
real time reporting information about the bomb took years to
release in total, and it came out in bits and pieces.
To help tell this story, though, I'm going to tell
you first what we know about the bomb in the
order we learned it, and then circle back to the
(11:36):
beginning to get into the lives of Andrew, pat and
the three boys. The older boys were able to give
police a description of the bomb because they had gotten
a pretty good look at it.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Initially, it was.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Just described as several bottles in a pipe bomb with
a forty five second timer on it. The kids honed
in on some additional details, sharing that they noticed two
blue glass bottles, one dark and one lighter blue, as.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Well as the pipe.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
They also described the forty five second timer, though like
their father, they said it wasn't ticking or counting down
from what they could tell, Andrew Puskis told law enforcement
that he thought it was possibly gasoline in the bottles.
Law enforcement investigating the case brought in the US Department
(12:24):
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, otherwise known as the ATF.
Five large bags of debris were collected to be sent
to the lab in Rockville, Maryland for further evaluation and testing.
It was reported that the flames, unfortunately consumed much of
the evidence, and what was even more surprising was that
(12:45):
in the first day or two, authorities couldn't say for
sure that it was a bomb that had caused the explosion.
Now common sense linking the nine to one one calls
and the timing of the explosion would indicate that, yes,
that's what it was, But in sifting through the rubble,
they couldn't find fragments of the explosive device. And just
a week prior, a vehicle had hit a gas mane
(13:08):
and residents of the first street block had been evacuated
out of precaution, so they wondered if there was any
cause and effect or residual issue with that. But the
ATF and first responders were able to rule out a
gas leak of any sorts. Soon, small shards of glass
would be found among the debris and sent off for testing.
(13:31):
One of the pieces that was a little larger had
parts of what seemed to be a word inscribed on
it with the letters KI and G. The autopsies of
Andrew and Patricia indicated they had died instantly from quote
traumatic shock due to the explosion. Deadly shrapnel was found
in their chest and abdomens, and it was determined that
(13:53):
they had both been facing the package when it exploded,
with Andrew standing slightly closer than pat Within two weeks
of the deadly explosion, Johnny Boras, an official with the ATF,
told the papers quote, from what we can tell, it
was a fairly sophisticated device. He added that it was
(14:14):
unique and did not match bombs they had encountered from
any other crime.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
He also shared that his.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Unit was continuing to test through the debris and that
chemical analysis was still ongoing. William Dietrich, the Resident Agent
in charge of the investigation from the ATF, told papers
that the pipe used in the bomb was two to
two and a half inches long. Dietrich told the papers quote,
everything was incinerated. If you had seen those bodies, you
(14:43):
would want these guys caught. It was horrible that someone
can do that to another human being.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
In addition to that commentary, Dietrich described how they would
do the chemical testing to determine the accelerant. He said
that one method they use is to heat the and
separate it from any volatile accelerants. Then an air sample
of the vapors is injected into a gas chromatograph. I
(15:11):
don't know if I'm saying that right, a laboratory instrument
that can detect the presence of certain accelerants such as gasoline. However,
he added in his interview with The Courier News that
it's not always that simple, and that even though it
is a very sensitive technique, it can be difficult to
determine the precise chemical elements of the bomb because an
(15:32):
intense fire can consume all of the accelerant. By March nineteenth,
the chemical evaluation was complete, but authorities were slow to
release the information to the public. They stated they now
wanted to trace the purchase history of some of the
materials to try to work backwards. One name that is
vitally important in this investigation is that of Middlesex County
(15:55):
Prosecutor Richard S. Reebeck. You'll hear me mention him a lot,
as he was absolute fixated on solving this case. It
bothered him immensely, and I'll get into his investigation more
when I'm done focusing on the bomb part of the investigation.
But by the end of March of eighty two, he
was willing to share more information that had been found.
(16:15):
He told the Central New Jersey Home News that some
of the components of the bomb were a type of
gunpowder and gasoline. Rebeck shared that some of the suppliers
and some materials required buyer identification, but that if they
were purchased in other forms IDA would be unnecessary. Rebec
would not elaborate, so the reporter, Reginald Cavanaugh, called a
(16:37):
local sporting goods store and found out that a person
can walk into a gun shop and buy a box
of shotgun shells without providing IDA at this time, but
he must identify himself when buying gunpowder. Eventually, law enforcement
would confirm that gasoline.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Was the liquid used.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
The jars of gasoline were vaporized and ignited by a
pipe bomb. According to Robert Schultz of the ATF. He
told the Courier News, quote, when you vaporize a liquid
like gasoline, you create an intensely hot fireball and a
blast that's far greater than even dynamite. The only thing
that can even equal that kind of destructive power is
a natural gas explosion end quote. A final piece of
(17:19):
information that is interesting about the bomb is that it
would take a determined, retired detective who wouldn't give up
on the piece of inscribed blue glass eight years to
finally figure out the origin and realize.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
It was a red herring all along.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
You see the shard of blue glass, particularly that one piece,
had been a central element of their investigation. ATF and
Middlesex Police had sent the glass to the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, Corning Glass in New York, and Wheaten Industries,
which is a glass manufacturer, thinking these were fragments of
the bomb. The hope was that if they could identify
(17:55):
the glass, they could trace it to a manufacturer. And
if you could do that, you could trace it to
sales outlets and then see if you can make a
connection to a suspect, possibly even a business that the suspect.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Was tied to.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
But eight years later, it was found that the glass
was part of a rare piece of art made of
antique cobalt glass that was part of the Puscis's home.
It wasn't part of the bomb at all, though they
did have some tiny other pieces of blue glass that
they said might be part of the bomb, but that
was a task they said would be even more of
(18:28):
a needle in a haystack. The ATF and Middlesex Police
did highlight that though this bomb was complex, it didn't
necessarily create an entire profile of the person behind it,
because they said it's sophisticated, but also someone who is
dedicated enough could figure it out. Schultz told paper quote,
it doesn't require a genius, It just requires someone patient
(18:49):
enough to research it thoroughly. Information on improvised explosive technology
is readily available through a variety of sources. Unless someone
comes forward, maybe a deathbed confession, this is destined to
go down as one of the great unsolved crimes in
Central Jersey history. So with all of that and some
(19:11):
background information about the bombs, let's get into the other
side of the investigation, looking at the lives of Andrew
and Pat as well as the progression of the investigation
and the leads behind the scenes. Andrew and Pat were
(19:35):
well loved in the community. Andrew worked for Dodge Newark
Supply Co. As a hydraulic equipment salesman, and he was
a supervisor with a team underneath him. They sold these
parts to different manufacturing firms. And Andrew was known for
having about one hundred or so small accounts. When his
supervisor was asked about what his thoughts were when he
(19:57):
found out that a bomb had been sent to Andrew
and his family, he was choked up and said he
could place no reason why anybody.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Would want to harm him.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
He said that even in sales, Andrew was soft in
his approach.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
He wasn't pushy.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
He was very mild mannered and kind. His coworker said
they literally never saw him angry. They didn't think it
was possible for him to get angry. He was also
well known in his neighborhood. One neighbor recalled how Andrew
shoveled the snow in their driveway during a bad winter storm,
and how when he was hospitalized, Andrew mowed his lawn
(20:33):
and took care of his property without him even asking.
This touched this particular neighbor so much that he would
periodically mow the lawn of the vacant lot months and
months after that horrible day. He felt it was the
neighborly thing to do, and in some way he wanted
to pay it back to Andrew, even if he wasn't
here to see it. Andrew valued his community and was
(20:57):
a member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce. Despite me
talking a lot about Andrew, Pat was actually more outgoing
than Andrew. She was known to never miss a person's
birthday or special event, and she sent cards for everything.
She was a homemaker and took care of all the
invisible labor of the home, and took on many responsibilities
in their community as well, particularly at church. Andrew and
(21:22):
Pat were deeply religious. They had a bit of a
religious shift, having been part of an undisclosed religion when
they got married and then shifting into becoming Jehovah's witnesses.
This was the case when they moved into their home
on First Street, but after sending their older boys to
vacation Bible school at a nearby non denominational fundamentalist church,
(21:44):
they shifted away from their Jehovah's witness beliefs and dove
headfirst into this church. It was called the Middlesex Bible Chapel.
It was such a tiny neighborhood church that for their
funerals they had to both fill the pews and also
have people in the basement with speakers listening up to
the funeral above. Andrew was a lay minister at the
(22:05):
church and on a fast track to becoming a church elder.
Pat taught Sunday school and led several Bible studies, including
one for neighborhood mothers at a park. During the weekday,
the Puskis family spent around five of their seven weekly
days deeply wrapped up in the work with the church.
It was just a huge part of their life. Early on,
(22:27):
one thing became clear to the investigators. They did not
know the exact motive, but they were certain that the
act was one of intense hatred for Andrew Richard Puskis.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
But who and why?
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Police interviewed friends, neighbors, coworkers, and church members, even military,
and they came up empty. But I think it helps
to see the exhaustive path they went down.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
What turned out to.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Maybe hold weight, who they got tips from, and the investigation.
So here here's the path it took. Early on, two
witnesses came forward with descriptions of white vehicles. One was
a young girl who shared that she saw a Mercury
cougar with one possibly two occupants, drive fast in sort
of slam on its brakes and peel out of the
(23:16):
neighborhood that morning. Police told the papers that they found
that account pretty insignificant and probably unrelated. Another person, a
seventeen year old girl leaving her home that morning, recalled
seeing a white station wagon go by and possibly pull
into the Puskis driveway or that of a neighbor. Her account,
on the other hand, was taken very seriously. They put
(23:37):
her under hypnosis and ended up coming up with a
composite sketch. I'll share that on the Instagram. She provided
a lot of detail under hypnosis, including seeing a package
in the car and possibly seeing some lettering on it.
I personally just inserting my opinion here. I have a
hard time believing that you could see that level of
(23:58):
detail just driving by. And I am not saying she
was a liar. I think she probably was trying to help.
But we know eyewitness accounts can be shaky and also
influenced by what has been released or other biases, and
this is all over the news. Before her hypnosis, another
neighbor witness came forward early on and said she heard
(24:19):
one of the sons on the morning of the explosion
say something like I knew they were going to get us.
That neighbor later recanted that tip, and the boys all
confirmed they never said anything like that and knew of
nobody who.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Wanted to hurt their mom and dad.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
And speaking of witnesses, police set up a tip line,
and you know how I usually get on here and
tell you about the tens and thousands of.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Tips to sift through.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
They were tossing out numbers like we had seven phone
calls on that line, and that was after releasing the
composite sketch, which usually causes a flood of calls with
people saying that looks like my neighbor or my uncle
or my teacher.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Seven.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
So they shut it down, and they noted that it
wasn't really worth the resources they were throwing into it.
But Middlesex County Prosecutor Richard Reebeck did continue to plead
with the community that if anybody was in the neighborhood,
even if they were just walking their dog that morning.
Please come forward and share anything, even if it seems insignificant. Next,
(25:20):
they looked into neighbors. I mentioned before how people found
him neighborly. Police couldn't rule out a neighbor, but they
didn't find it to be a strong lead either. There
was a couple of people that they named.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
As possible suspects early on. One of those was.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Someone in the neighborhood, but both of those people were
ruled out. It is worth noting that he had been
at the forefront of a protest for a neighborhood development.
There was some sort of commercial project in the works nearby.
And Andrew led the charge of neighbors opposing the project
to speak up and try to block its progress forward.
(25:58):
So is that related? But none of the other neighbors
seemed to be targeted. And Andrew wasn't the only one.
Next theory the idea that Andrew or Pat were involved
in the bombing themselves, either by a suicide pact or
one targeting the other and accidentally both were killed for
some sort of financial reason.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
All of that was quickly rolled out.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Their small estate was divided up between their sons, and
local fundraisers still had to be held just to ensure
the boys had enough resources to cover their basic needs
as they transitioned to living with Andrew's sister. There was
nothing in their life that indicated this being the possible
direction to go down. Police were also able to eliminate
(26:41):
anything like gambling, debt, illegal activity, terrorism, organized crime and
the like. But two big points of conversation did keep
coming up, religion and work. Let's start with work. As
(27:06):
I mentioned, he worked in sales, particularly pneumatic parts, and
first police wanted to see if Dodge Newark Supply Co.
Sold any automotive parts, and with good reason. In the
last couple of months, two men in the autoparts business
locally had been murdered suddenly. On December thirteenth, nineteen eighty one,
(27:28):
fifty two year old Joseph Victor was shot to death
in a van parked at the Metro Park station in Woodbridge,
New Jersey, approximately thirteen miles away from Middlesex. Joseph Victor
owned an autoparts business in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and
it was thought that he may have been waiting there
to do a large autoparts transaction when he was gonned down.
(27:50):
Just a month later, In January of eighty two, forty
nine year old Carl Grossman was shot dead in his driveway.
He was the owner of five local autoparts to police
theorized that Carl and Joseph's murders were connected, but they
couldn't connect it to Andrew. Andrew's boss said that they
didn't sell auto parts and that their business was kind
(28:12):
of Niche not a lot of competition, not cutthroat, no enemies.
He was well liked at work by colleagues.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
And by clients.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
But before we rule this out altogether, there is something
I haven't told you. I promised we'd revisit Andrew Puskis's
many names. His name was Andrew Richard Puscis, and throughout
different interviews you'd hear rich in, Pat, Dick, and Pat
Andy and Pat. And I was able to map this
out and would later find it confirmed by relatives as well.
(28:46):
His neighbors and family would often call him Rich. Close
friends and church members mainly called him Dick, but his
work they called him Andy. And the package on his
doorstep you'll call to Andy or to Andy Puskis, depending
on who you ask. Investigators have never been able to
(29:08):
prove any connection to a work dispute or someone who
would want him dead. But they haven't ruled it out either,
So let's move on to church. The Puskis family, as
I mentioned, was part of a non denominational, fundamentalist Christian church.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
It's a church that.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
One elder referred to as no frills look at Christianity
that interprets the Bible literally. Andrew was scheduled to preach
that upcoming Sunday after his murder, on a topic that
was huge was of huge interest to him, the Second
Coming of Jesus and the Rapture. In the weeks leading
up to his death, Andrew had shown three films at
(29:47):
the church on that topic, and he had advertised the
film showings and discussion on local radio and the paper.
The viewings had a large turnout, with lots of people
who came from outside of the church. Andrew was also
said to passed out religious comic books of sort that
may have been interpreted to be anti Roman Catholic. Some
(30:08):
of the cartoons may have been offensive to Catholics, and
it has pointed out that his church felt Catholics got
things wrong in their interpretation of the scripture. According to
reporting in the Central New Jersey Home News detectives actually
bought duplicates of the publications that Puscis had ordered, including
the comic book Ones, and those comic book Ones charged
(30:32):
the Vatican with saying that they had a supercomputer listing
of names of all Protestants and intended to.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Conduct a new inquisition.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
But church elder Ray Good, along with other friends of
the Puskises, said that Andrew was not pushy with his beliefs.
If people asked for his opinion, he would give it.
But one of his opinions was that he would share
his voice, but he couldn't force people to find their
way to the Lord, and that was their own personal journey. Still,
that specific type of church that Andrew was a part
(31:05):
of was a pretty intense and sometimes controversial kind, sometimes
described as a fire and brimstone Christian church, and it
held a lot of opposition to things like Catholicism, which
was a big part of the New Jersey community at
that time. And he could have rubbed people the wrong
way with his beliefs. Not only that he had left
the Jehovah's Witness religion and so someone from that religion
(31:27):
may not have taken kindly to him.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Leaving.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Police have never been able to tie a motive to work,
church or anything else. They do believe the white station
wagon that morning and the hypnotized witness that that was significant,
and they cite that as their one credible lead. That
lead would give a possible who if that person was
ever identified, but certainly not a why. Some other random
(31:52):
pieces I'll touch on was that Andrew had a brief
military career as a Green Beret, but investigators looked into
that and found that he mostly just delivered supplies to
a local base. He was a reserve guardsman, so no
real lead there. Investigators did take a lead from a
psychic who said she sensed that two people were behind this,
(32:14):
a young teen about seventeen helping his older father in
his forties or fifties, and that the motive was religious based,
and that the person lived in the neighborhood. And she
claimed there had been a series of three arguments or
conflicts over the last few months between Andrew and this person.
Before you think this is just a psychic that came forward,
(32:34):
police had actually reached out to her the ATF rather,
she was a contact in they had used her before,
but they did kind of take this with a grain
of salt, like they do most psychic leads, but don't
lose track of it yet. That will come back up
near the end of this episode. When you hear of
bombs in the nineteen eighties, you may think of one thing,
the Unibomber, and he was briefly considered as a connection
(32:57):
to the Puskis case. After another in New Jersey bombing
was connected to him from nineteen ninety four. Ted Kazinski,
known as the Unibomber, was a domestic terrorist who carried
out a nationwide bombing campaign from nineteen seventy eight to
nineteen ninety five, targeting individuals linked to modern technology and
(33:18):
industrial progress. His homemade devices were often carefully crafted, disguised
in mundane packaging, and mailed to universities, airlines, and corporate figures.
One of his most devastating attacks occurred in December of
nineteen ninety four, when he sent a package bomb to
Thomas J. Moser, an advertising executive in New Jersey. Moser
(33:42):
was killed instantly when he opened the parcel in his home.
Investigators later discovered that Kazinsky targeted Moser because he believed
the public relations work of Moser's firm had helped Eixon
restore its image after the Eixon Velgie's disaster, which Kazinski
saw as emblematic of the harmful influence of large corporations
(34:04):
on the environment and society. Investigators couldn't link the unobomber
attacks to the Puskis attack, but it did bring up
memories to Middlesex County. The tragedy took its toll on
the community and the family. While I don't know the
details and I don't want to dig into difficult personal
(34:25):
elements of the family, I will just mention that the
boys lived with Andrew's sister for a while, but for
one reason or another, it didn't work out and they
were placed in foster care. The two older boys stayed
together while young Brian was in a different foster home.
They all grew up and stayed connected with their family, though,
and my hope is that they're doing well now. Andrew's
(34:47):
mom went to the grave of her son and daughter
in law just a few months after their deaths, and
she suffered a massive heart attack at their graveside. She
would later die at the hospital. As the years went on,
the Puskis bombing went cold, but it was not forgotten.
Statistics around bombings rose and then fell again. At the
(35:09):
five and ten year anniversary, local news reinterviewed those closest
to the family, and a couple of interesting things did
come out. Remember the immediate next.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Door neighbors, the Colbs.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
This time Al Colb was interviewed and he had a
couple of new observations. He told the papers that Andrew
and Pat were always scraping to get by on a
one income household, and that Andrew would joke about paying
with plastic, implying.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
That he had credit card debt.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
So it puzzled mister Colb when Andrew and Patt installed
an expensive burglar alarm in their home just a couple
of months prior to the explosion. He told the Courier
News quote, it was curious to me that he'd blow
sixteen hundred dollars on it when he was usually strapped
for money. Nobody in this neighborhood has burglar alarms because
(35:59):
they don't have anything worth breaking in for. Dick sure
didn't have anything worth killing for.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
End quote.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
And so with that, more questions and no answers, Why
did they install that security system that's really expensive even
for that time? So it had to be a pretty
fancy one. Answers that still haven't come decades later. There
would be one last peculiar adjacent lead in twenty seventeen. Now,
(36:28):
this man's name is in the papers, but I'm not
going to name him here with his full name and
last name. I'm just gonna call him Joe. He was
a man in his fifties in twenty seventeen and he
was arrested one block over from the Puskis home because
he had possession of pipe bombs, and they were able
to connect him to pipe bombs that had been detonated
(36:49):
nearby and had been under investigation for months. It was
said on community chatter for Hims that this family had
lived in the neighborhood for a very long time, and
that this man would have lived there when the.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Puscuses did too.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
If you go by the psychic lead of the father
and son duo, his father also lived in the neighborhood
back then, and a couple of Smooth Sunline have done
the classic side by side of that father and the
composite sketch, pointing out some pretty eerie similarities. I think
it could be worth police looking into, and maybe they
already have, but I also think it's a bit of
(37:25):
a stretch, and hence why I'm not going to post
the side by side or name names on here, because
I think that would just be irresponsible, But because it
has come up enough in internet chatter, I just did
think it was worth mentioning. In the last seven or
(37:50):
eight years, there's been one new story that came out
saying that Middlesex County is still trying to get to
the bottom of this case. They are hoping there is
possibly evidence still to retell or something they can chase
down with all of the forensic advancements. Richard Reebeck, the
man who wouldn't give up on the case, who went
on to become a successful judge and do so much
(38:12):
for his community, He died just last year, never finding
out who did this crime investigators believed early on it
was highly unlikely that this person committed this bombing and
never told anybody or involved anybody else, and I think
that's a likely conclusion as well. So if you are
the person out there with information, it's never too late
(38:33):
to come forward. If you have any information, please contact
Crime Stoppers of Middlesex County. I'll have the tip link
in the show notes. This has been another episode of
a Simpler Time True Crime. If you appreciate the work
(38:55):
I'm doing, please leave a five star review. I love
discussing these cases. Don't hesitate to reach out to me
on Instagram or Simpler Timecrimepod at gmail dot com. That's
also where you can recommend cases for the podcast. If
you wish to support the show monetarily, you can do
so via the Speaker Supporters Club in the show notes
and as always, thank you so much for listening and
(39:17):
tune in again next Monday
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