DATE: Tuesday, May 13, 1997                 TAG: 9705130272

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Briefs 

SOURCE: From wire reports 

                                            LENGTH:   74 lines

VIRGINIA DIGEST [BRIEFS]

Leads are piling up

in case of 2 girls

abducted and slain

SPOTSYLVANIA - It could take weeks to check out the 1,600 leads that investigators have received in the slayings of two sisters whose bodies were found five days after they vanished, authorities said.

Spotsylvania County Sheriff Ron Knight has reported no major breaks and no suspects in the killings of Kristin Lisk, 15, and her 12-year-old sister, Kati.

Investigators were methodically following up on the leads, Knight said.

On Saturday night, ``America's Most Wanted'' broadcast a brief report on national television about the case. That report drew about 40 tips, said Major Howard Smith of the sheriff's office.

Smith said investigators were using a computer to help sort out the volume of information.

Two investigators traveled Sunday to Farmville, about 75 miles to the southwest, where the attempted abduction of a Longwood College student was foiled April 15 when the woman ran. A man who held a gun on her ordered her into his pickup truck after stopping to ask for directions.

The truck in the Longwood case was described as a white pickup. Authorities have been searching for the driver of a white Ford pickup with a camper shell that was seen in the area of the Lisk girls' home about the time they disappeared May 1.

The girls' bodies were found last Tuesday about 40 miles south of their home.

Internet users' tips

lead to drug indictments

RICHMOND - A ``Silent Witness'' program that allows Internet users to anonymously submit tips to the University of Richmond's campus police home page has resulted in indictments against three students on drug charges.

``At a place like UR, there's a deterrence value in these types of prosecutions,'' said Robert E. Trono, special counsel to the grand jury that returned the marijuana trafficking indictments last month.

As many as 40 other students could face criminal charges or administrative sanctions by the university in the investigation.

The Internet address - (http://www.richmond.edu/urpolice/) - provides a form. A user can click drug, assault, theft or other type of crime, and click on campus buildings where the crime occurred.

The information is encrypted so the sender is identified as ``Nobody'' when police check their electronic mail.

Environmentalists protest

plan to cut timber

NATURAL BRIDGE - Environmentalists spent the weekend camping on a mountainside where the Forest Service wants to cut timber and then hiked 15 miles to the district ranger's office Monday to protest the logging.

The Forest Service has proposed letting a timber company cut 252 acres of trees on Terrapin Mountain near Natural Bridge.

About half of the existing trees would be removed from the mountainside, which can be seen from the Terrapin Mountain overlook of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The area to be cut is also near a popular native trout stream as well as several campgrounds and hiking trails.

``There are wildflowers everywhere, and huge tulip poplars,'' said Christina Wulf, one of the 15 campers who joined the protest.

Virginia environmentalists have often opposed timber sales in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, but complaints are usually low key - either letters to forest administrators or speeches at public meetings. KEYWORDS: MURDER INTERNET DRUG ARREST

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