
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, December 2, 1993                   TAG: 9312020141
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GATE CITY                                LENGTH: Medium

POLICE SEEK WHEREABOUTS OF WOMEN IN PHOTOGRAPHS

At least two of 16 women pictured in sexually explicit bondage photographs found at a farm may have been dead when their pictures were taken, police say.

Special agents with the Virginia State Police and FBI have been called in to help investigate.

Police believe foul play may be involved because of the circumstances in which the photos were found, the various states of bondage, and the poses of the two women, Scott County Sheriff Jerry Broadwater said Tuesday.

By Wednesday afternoon, however, three of the women in the photos were found "alive and well" in the Panama City, Fla., area, Broadwater said.

Capt. Frank McKeithen of Bay County Sheriff's Office in Panama City said he did not know the circumstances surrounding the pictures.

"We didn't inquire how they got into the photos," he said. "At this time, we're just trying to verify if they're alive and well, or if they are injured."

About 500 photographs were found along with bondage items in a metal locker in a barn on James Harvey Lewis III's farm in Southwest Virginia. Lewis was arrested this summer on drug charges.

Authorities raided his farm Sept. 11, 1992, after an informant told them about a marijuana operation. They found about 3,000 plants in a two-acre field.

Police also "found a box in the barn that had handcuffs, whips, choker chains, pendants and other bondage paraphernalia in it," Broadwater said.

Lewis spent a year on the run and was captured in Panama City in August. He was extradited to Scott County, where he is being held without bond on a charge of manufacturing marijuana with the intent to resell.

No charges have been filed against Lewis in connection with the photographs, authorities said.

A set of photos of the 16 women has been distributed to police departments in states where Lewis had resided in hopes their identities can be determined. Those states include Virginia, Florida, Alabama, California and Oregon.

by CNB