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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990                   TAG: 9007200618
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: VICTORIA RATCLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COUNTY MAN HELD FOR GRAND JURY IN CHILD-ABUSE CASE

After hearing the testimony, Roanoke County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Philip Trompeter said there was probable cause to believe that Edgar Lee Fisher Jr., 36, of the 4100 block of Bugle Lane, had sexually abused the girl. He certified two felony charges to the grand jury.

Fisher, being held without bond, did not testify. But he did smile and wave back at the child, who waved at him as she approached the witness stand carrying a teddy bear.

The child testified that Fisher had been baby-sitting her while her mother was working. She said Fisher molested her as she lay on his bed and later fondled her on the porch while he was wearing the "Freddy" costume.

Freddy Krueger is a horror-movie character.

Fisher was ordered held without bond last month after another Juvenile Court judge heard evidence that he had been sentenced in 1977 to five years in prison for unlawful wounding in the child-abuse death of his daughter, Melanie Ann.

Judge Joe Clarke said last month he also was concerned that Fisher might be a danger to himself, because he had shot himself in the chest on June 11 after agreeing to surrender to authorities on the sexual-abuse charges.

Roanoke County Detective Chris Nielsen testified at the bond hearing that he had interviewed Fisher on June 11 about allegations that he had sexually abused the 6-year-old girl on June 6.

Fisher admitted using his hand to fondle the child, but denied a charge that he had penetrated her with an inanimate object, Nielsen testified.

Authorities were notified after the child's mother took her to a hospital to be examined.

Also on June 11, one hour after Fisher was notified of warrants issued for his arrest, Roanoke County dispatchers received a 911 rescue call from Fisher, who said he had just shot himself and needed a rescue squad, Nielsen testified.

The detective said he was notified of the call and went to Fisher's home, where he found Fisher lying in the front yard with a gunshot wound in the chest.

Later at the hospital, Fisher told the detective he had shot himself "due to everything coming to a head. . . . The circumstances overtook him," Nielsen testified.

Fisher and his then-wife, Dorothy Annette, 21, were charged in Salem with the 1976 beating death of their daughter, but both were convicted of unlawful wounding. The Fishers later were divorced.

Then-Salem Commonwealth's Attorney Charles Phillips dropped the murder charge because medical evidence could not show how the death blow to the child's head was delivered.

Testimony in that case showed that the Fisher child was the victim of continuous beating, burnings and abuse.

Fisher served about two years of his five-year prison sentence for his daughter's death.

He also had been convicted in 1975 of obtaining money under false pretenses and was declared a habitual offender in 1985.