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

DATE: THURSDAY, August 5, 1993                   TAG: 9308050269
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

DYNAMITE-ARMED FUGITIVE TO GET MENTAL EVALUATION

A 26-year-old Wytheville man who was armed with explosives when arrested in May in Jefferson National Forest will have a mental examination before being tried in Wythe County for a series of burglaries.

Willie Lon Rice II also faces charges of rape and a federal charge of possession of explosives.

He originally was supposed to have been a witness against several other people charged in county break-ins, but disappeared after apparently trying to fake his own drowning by leaving his clothing on a bank along the New River.

Authorities used night-vision goggles to track him down and arrested him without incident. They recovered loaded firearms and 22 sticks of dynamite. - Southwest bureau

by CNB