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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 15, 1994                   TAG: 9407150087
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MANASSAS                                 LENGTH: Short

DRUNKEN REVELRY SUSPECTED IN TRAIN DEATHS

Four friends apparently capped a nightlong party by scaling a fence in the predawn fog, stretching out on deserted railroad tracks and awaiting the rush of an approaching locomotive.

Instead the four young men were ripped apart by a 144-car Norfolk Southern freight train. Searchers found beer cans and drug paraphernalia as they toiled for three hours to find the head of one victim, police said.

``No one knows why they were out there, and we may never know,'' Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert said Thursday.

``But it appears they were either playing `chicken' or they may have thought the train was high enough to pass over them,'' Ebert said.

Some who knew the four killed Wednesday also suggested they may have had a suicide pact, the prosecutor said.

Police said there was no evidence of suicide, but suggested the four may have been passed out drunk.

``It was something of a party spot,'' Detective Richard Cantarella said Thursday of the fenced-off section of tracks near a commuter rail station.

Friends of the four told police the group liked the spot to drink and hang out late at night, Cantarella said.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB