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

DATE: TUESDAY, November 28, 1995                   TAG: 9511280148
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOLLINS STUDENT DIED FROM STAB WOUND

AS POLICE RELEASED DETAILS Monday on the death of Anne Harper, whose body was found after a fire at her home in Fairfax County, the student's college planned ways of remembering her.

\ A Hollins College junior whose body was found after a fire in her Fairfax County home Thanksgiving Day died from a stab wound.

An autopsy revealed that Anne Harper, 20, died from a wound to her upper body, Fairfax County police said Monday. The autopsy also confirmed Harper's identity.

Last week, police declined to identify the badly burned body found at 2:15 a.m. Thursday in a home in the Middleridge subdivision, south of the city of Fairfax.

The fire marshal's office of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department has determined that the fire was set intentionally. The fire marshal's office and police department are pursuing a murder/arson investigation, a police spokeswoman said Monday.

Harper's mother, Elizabeth, told a friend that police suspected her daughter was assaulted and that the house was then set on fire.

Elizabeth Harper, 46, jumped to safety from a second-story window. Anne's grandmother, 85-year-old Delphine Parsons, was helped from her basement apartment by a next-door neighbor.

Anne Harper's body was found inside the house, on the first floor.

Linda Steele, Hollins's director of communications, said that since returning to campus Sunday after the holiday break, students have searched for ways to remember Harper. Some discussed planting a tree to honor her, and a memorial fund has been established in her name. The fund will support the college's Religious Life program and Chapel Choir, of which Harper was a member.

A memorial service for Harper will be held Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. in the duPont Chapel on campus. On Saturday, a service will be held at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Harper's home church in Burke. ``There has been an outpouring of love and support for Anne Harper's family, just a lot of emotion and caring expressed on the part of the Hollins community,'' Steele said.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Anne Harper Memorial Fund.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB