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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 25, 1995                   TAG: 9504250105
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-6   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Short

CONCUSSION FROM FALL LIKELY KILLED RADFORD MAN

A Radford man, whose body was found earlier this month below a bridge on the bank of Plum Creek, died of a cerebral concussion "probably due to a fall," Deputy Chief Medical Examiner for Western Virginia Dr. David Oxley confirmed Monday.

Oxley also said toxicology reports indicated 22-year-old Richard J. Strasser had been drinking, and his blood alcohol content was above the legal limit to operate a motor vehicle.

Radford police had theorized that Strasser, a Radford University student, fell to his death on the morning of April 6, after he wrecked his car nearby on U.S. 11 just inside the city limits and left his vehicle on foot.

Police, responding to a report of an accident around 3 a.m., said they found the car on its roof, not far from the bridge, but no sign of its driver.

Deputy Chief Jonny Butler said the officers did not consider it unusual for the driver of a wrecked car to be missing, especially at that hour of the morning.

But, after Strasser's wife, Michele, also a Radford University student, reported him missing, police took a second look around the accident site with the help of daylight and eventually spotted Strasser's body below the bridge on the east bank of Plum Creek. His body was "not readily visible from the top of the bridge," Butler said.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB