ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 18, 1996 TAG: 9601180079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
Trial shift sought in girl's killing
WINCHESTER - The mother of a 12-year-old girl slain a year ago has asked a judge to move her trial because of heavy publicity and political advertisements surrounding the death.
Wanda A. Smelser, 43, is charged with first-degree murder in the death last January of Valerie Smelser. Smelser's lawyer said in court papers filed Tuesday that she cannot get a fair trial in Winchester.
Valerie's body was found dumped in a ravine. An autopsy showed the child was beaten to death.
Public defender William Crane said extensive news coverage of the case has turned public opinion unalterably against his client. He asked Frederick County Circuit Judge James Berry to move the trial at least 100 miles away.
Crane also cited political advertisements in the recent General Assembly elections that referred to the killing and testimony in the court proceedings against Smelser's boyfriend, Norman Hoverter. Hoverter pleaded guilty in July to killing the child and is serving a life term.
- Associated Press
Prostitutes' slayings might be linked
NORFOLK - Police are investigating the possibility that the deaths of two prostitutes killed last week in different parts of the city might be connected.
``We cannot say they were linked until there's an arrest,'' Norfolk police spokesman Larry Hill said Tuesday. ``Right now they may not be related.''
Hill described Karan D. Miller and Angela D. Hawkins as prostitutes who frequented the same neighborhood. Their bodies were discovered within two hours of each other.
Hill said both women were last seen alive either late Jan. 10 or early the next morning. He would not say how they were killed.
``We are still withholding the cause of death at this time because it is one of our main ... clues that we have in the case,'' Hill said. ``It appears they died in a similar way."
- Associated Press
Rural rescuers lose only ambulance
FRONT ROYAL - A rural volunteer fire department lost its only ambulance in a fire early Tuesday, leaving residents in mountainous portions of Clarke and Warren counties without an emergency vehicle.
Jamie Embrey, president of the Shenandoah Farms Volunteer Fire Department, said he and two other squad members were responding to a tractor-trailer accident in southeastern Clarke County when they heard a loud bang from underneath the ambulance.
``We got out and looked underneath, and there were flames,'' he said. ``It was engulfed in flames in a matter of seconds.''
Though no one was injured in the fire, expensive rescue equipment was lost. Embrey estimated the damage at $75,000 to $100,000.
- Associated Press
Search resumes for missing pilot
MELFA - A helicopter and boats resumed searching Chesapeake Bay on Wednesday for wreckage from a small airplane that disappeared during a snowstorm Jan. 6.
State police spokeswoman Tammy Van Dame said that a state police helicopter, Coast Guard boats and ground searchers again checked the beaches and nearby waters.
In addition, divers were to begin an underwater search for the wreckage.
Parts of the small, private plane turned up on the beach near Cape Charles during the weekend and Monday, but a search Tuesday turned up nothing, Van Dame said. Items found Monday included a wing section bearing the cream, orange and maroon colors of the plane Preston Henry of Winamac, Ind., had been flying.
Henry was flying from Gaithersburg, Md., to Fayetteville, N.C., when air traffic controllers in Norfolk lost radar contact with the plane.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB