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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 20, 1990                   TAG: 9007200658
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: FLOYD                                LENGTH: Short

FLOYD SLAYING SUSPECT SENT TO STATE HOSPITAL

A 32-year-old Floyd County man charged in the beating death of his father was taken to Central State Hospital in Petersburg after appearing before a magistrate Thursday.

Donald Ray Sowers, 32, has a history of mental problems, police said.

Harold L. Sowers, 60, was found shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday at a house he and his wife owned in Pilot. "There doesn't appear to have been any weapon used," Sheriff Russell 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.

- New River Valley bureau

by CNB