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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990                   TAG: 9007200193
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: FLOYD                                LENGTH: Short

FLOYD MAN KILLED; SON IS CHARGED

Harold L. Sowers, 60, was found shortly after 9 p.m. at a house he and his wife owned in Pilot in the northeast section of Floyd County, Sheriff Russell Quesenberry said.

Donald Ray Sowers, 32, was arrested at the house and charged with murder. Quesenberry said Sowers, who has a history of mental problems, was taken to Central State Hospital in Petersburg after appearing before a magistrate, who filled out the detention order.

Quesenberry said Harold Sowers' wife called the Sheriff's Department to say that her son was beating her husband. When deputies arrived, Sowers was lying dead on the floor in the house.

"There doesn't appear to have been any weapon used," Quesenberry said.

Sowers' wife said she witnessed the fight and later told deputies that her son beat her husband with his fists and then choked him, Quesenberry said. He said they did not know how the argument and the fight began.

Sowers' wife was taken Wednesday night to Montgomery Regional Hospital, where she was treated for a minor back injury she suffered while trying to break up the fight, Quesenberry said.

Sowers' body was taken to Roanoke, where an autopsy was to be performed to determine the exact cause of death.

Quesenberry said the family had been living in Montgomery County but moved back a few months ago to the house they owned in Floyd County, which they were repairing.

He said Donald Sowers had been "in and out of jail" on various charges in recent years.