ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 28, 1996 TAG: 9609300054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PARROTT
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
Authorities found Elmer Eugene Fisher floating in the New River on Friday morning near here and before the day was over, they arrested two men they believe stabbed and drowned the Fairlawn man.
Pulaski County Sheriff Ralph Dobbins said Fisher's family filed a missing person report Sunday evening when the 43-year-old man didn't come home.
It was not until Friday that investigators were led to Fisher's body by a man who said two Eagle View Trailer Park residents bragged about the killing and showed him the body.
Dobbins said the man did not talk to investigators until Friday because the two men threatened to kill him if he told anyone.
A Sheriff's Office investigator met the man at Eagle View Trailer Park on Virginia 600 while investigating break-ins there.
Murder warrants were issued for Darick Dewayne Wetzel, 22, and Joseph Ray Graham, 27, Dobbins said.
Both men have criminal records, Dobbins said.
Graham was arrested without incident about 6:30 p.m. as he and his girlfriend left a relative's house in the Dry Fork section of Tazewell County. Wetzel was arrested when he showed up at his trailer shortly before 11 p.m., also without incident.
Both men are being held in the Pulaski County Jail without bond.
A third man who said he witnessed the fight that led to Fisher's death is being questioned, but has not been charged, Dobbins said. That man is considered a suspect in the killing, the sheriff said.
The witness told investigators Fisher willingly went to the river Sunday night. He said he and the three other men stopped by a grocery store and bought beer before they drove to Parrott to drink and talk on the riverbank.
A discussion about a fight that Fisher, Graham and Wetzel had a week before, however, reignited ill will and led to Fisher's death.
Dobbins said the witness told investigators that Wetzel and Graham held Fisher against a car and threatened him with hunting knives.
Fisher managed to get away from the men and run into the river. Graham and Wetzel followed him into the water and attacked him.
That's when, according to the witness, Wetzel and Graham stabbed Fisher several times in the upper body and held him under water, Dobbins said.
He said an autopsy is needed to tell whether Fisher died from the drowning or the multiple knife wounds in his face, chest and head.
Dobbins said the two attackers turned Fisher's body loose into the river where it remained until Friday.
Staff writer Betty Hayden Snider contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB