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Shore radio personality found shot dead

April Kauffman had a show on 1400 AM.

By Darran Simon, and Jacqueline L. Urgo

Posted: May 12, 2012

A South Jersey talk radio personality was found fatally shot Thursday in a bedroom of her Atlantic County home, authorities said.

County Prosecutor Ted Housel said a worker called 911 around 11:30 a.m. after he discovered April Kauffman’s body in the home on Woodstock Drive in Linwood. Kauffman, 47, who lived about three blocks from Mainland Regional High School, was shot several times, authorities said.

No arrests had been made as of Thursday afternoon, authorities said.

A person who came to feed a collection of pet birds belonging to Kauffman and her husband, James, found her body, said a neighbor speaking on condition of anonymity. The neighbor also said the Kauffmans kept an arsenal of weapons in a vault in their basement. Public records show her husband is a physician. Attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

Kauffman cohosted a weekly program on Linwood-based News Talk 1400 AM WOND, where she advocated for veterans and other causes, according to the Associated Press.

“She loved our veterans,” Harry Hurley, a coworker and the host of the WOND show Hurley in the Afternoon, said. “That was her true passion.”

Hurley said Kauffman hosted dinners at her home for the Wounded Warrior Project, which offers various programs to help injured servicemen.

“A lot of things she did with no fanfare, with no mention,” he said.

Kauffman, a grandmother, also owned a salon and a catering company, Hurley said.

“April is one of the most special people who you would ever know, one of the most unselfish people,” Hurley said. “She did the work of 100 people.”

The couple were plugged in to regional charities, and Kauffman was a board member of the Southern Shore Chapter of the American Red Cross, her website said.

Another neighbor, Francine Kennedy, 56, said she always attended the large and lavish Memorial Day party the Kauffmans threw every year around their large backyard pool.

“I’m just in shock. I can’t believe this happened on our street, I really can’t,” Kennedy said.

Authorities urged anyone with information to call the major crimes unit of the Prosecutor’s Office at 609-909-7666 or Linwood police at 609-927-4108.

Contact Darran Simon at 856-779-3829 or dsimon@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @darransimon.