ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 11, 1996 TAG: 9606110050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MANASSAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
POLICE ARE TRYING to find out if the "perfect man" fleeced any other women through the personal ad.
A few weeks after she answered a personal ad, Cynthia Young's ``perfect man'' allegedly had racked up $57,000 in credit charges on her accounts. In addition, Young learned that 18 days before she met him, "Mr. Perfect" had married another woman.
Prince William County police Detective Joe Kerns said Gary Ray Fisher Jr., 28, first met the Clinton, Md., woman at a Manassas motel after she answered a personal ad in a newspaper. They were engaged within a month.
Young, 27, said Fisher claimed he was waiting for a big check from America Online, for which he'd done some sort of work, and told her all of his finances were tied up in paying for the house he'd bought for them in Manassas. So he borrowed her charge cards, she said.
At the end of November, she learned that he wasn't living alone in ``their'' house on Cloudberry Court. He lived there with his wife, the woman he married Oct.10.
In early December, Young went to the house to confront him. In a fight, she scratched his arm and bit his thumb, then left, taking an outdoor Christmas decoration.
Police charged her with grand larceny and malicious wounding; Fisher claimed the snowman lawn ornament cost him $258, according to Kerns and Young.
Detectives later learned that the snowman cost about $35, and Fisher had allegedly paid for it with one of Young's credit cards.
Prosecutors dropped all charges against Young. Fisher was charged with embezzlement.
He was indicted and charged with taking money and making false statements to obtain property or credit in a similar incident last week. Police said he told a 32-year-old Manassas woman he would marry her and she gave Fisher $2,000 to set up an apartment for them in upstate New York. They declined to release her identity.
Kerns said police are trying to find out if Fisher contacted any other women through the ad, which appeared in at least two newspapers.
Police say the ad went like this: ``RELATIONSHIP WANTED. Spontaneous, fun-loving, SWM, 27, 6' brown/blue, wants to meet SF who wants monogamous relationship. Must be honest/fun and very spontaneous. Children are cool.''
Fisher, of no fixed address, was arrested and extradited from Auburn, N.Y., under an outstanding Virginia warrant after a routine traffic stop.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB