THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 8, 1994 TAG: 9410080301
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Virginia News
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: HEAD WATERS, VA. LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
A fire heavily damaged the home of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, the Swiss-born psychiatrist and author of the best-seller ``On Death and Dying,'' Highland County Sheriff Herbert Lightner said Friday.
Lightner said arson is suspected. No one was hurt.
Kubler-Ross was out of town when her log home caught fire about noon Thursday, said a woman at her office who would not give her name. Kubler-Ross returned home Thursday night.
She did not return a phone call Friday.
Kubler-Ross gained international fame for her 1969 book, which is still used in classrooms and hospice organizations around the world. She has used her expertise in life-to-death transition in workshops for the terminally ill and their families. In recent years, she has expanded her research to include mysticism and the afterlife.
Lightner said he could not estimate the monetary damage to Kubler-Ross' house, which is part of her 250-acre retreat in the Highland County mountains near the West Virginia line. He said the home and its contents appeared to be almost a total loss.
``It looked like the house had a lot of expensive stuff from all over the world,'' Lightner said.
He said investigators have yet to uncover any physical evidence of arson. However, he said deputies were returning from investigating the fatal shooting of a llama at the Kubler-Ross compound when they got the call about the fire.
``I would speculate that the two incidents are related,'' he said.
KEYWORDS: FIRE ARSON by CNB