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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 26, 1995                   TAG: 9501260136
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

DEATH OF 7TH-GRADER BELIEVED TO BE SUICIDE

Roanoke police are investigating as a suicide the death of a Roanoke middle school student whose body was found Wednesday afternoon.

The body of the 14-year-old boy, whose name was not released, was found in a field in Southwest Roanoke by the resource officer at his school and by a youth bureau officer, police said. He had apparently shot himself once. Police gave no other details.

Paul McKendrick, principal of Addison Aerospace Magnet Middle School, confirmed that the boy was a seventh-grader there.

Police said the boy was in school Tuesday, went home, dropped off his books and left again. His mother reported him missing at 6 p.m. after she came home.

Wednesday morning, the resource officer began asking the boy's friends where he usually spent time, according to police. Friends said he often went to a field in his neighborhood, and that's where the two officers found him.

Superintendent Wayne Harris said he has arranged for grief counseling at the school for both students and the faculty who worked with the boy.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB