THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 10, 1996 TAG: 9607100341
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT AND SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 62 lines
A 40-year-old man, described by his family as mentally retarded, was charged with homicide Tuesday after his 81-year-old father was beaten to death with his own walking stick.
Police said Roger Lee Vann apparently snapped during an argument with his parents. He fled to woods behind the family's house off Carolina Road about 11 a.m. and was taken into custody about four hours later.
Vann was charged in the death of Walter Edward Vann Sr., a retired farmer. He was being held without bond Tuesday night at Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Suffolk.
The homicide is Suffolk's first this year.
Police said Roger Vann started arguing with his mother, Grace, Tuesday morning after she asked him to gather firewood. Walter Vann intervened, they said, and his son began arguing with him.
Police spokesman Mike Simpkins said the dispute turned violent when Vann struck his father with the cane, knocked him to the floor and beat him.
After Roger Vann fled, tracking dogs were brought from Southampton County, Portsmouth and the State Police. Suffolk and State Police also searched from a helicopter. The manhunt was scaled back after family members said Vann often went into the woods when he was angry but that he typically returned after calming down.
He came out and headed toward the house about 2:50 p.m. He was taken into custody without incident.
Vann had had problems since birth, said a granddaughter of Walter Vann. ``I don't believe he's ever gotten the help he's needed,'' she said.
Relatives said that Roger Vann suffered from seizures after a high fever as an infant. He completed only a couple of grades in school and could neither read nor write, they said.
He never held a steady job, they said, though he had cut grass for a neighbor. He was on medication to control temper outbursts and seizures, family members said.
``He had the mind of an 8-year-old, but the body and the strength of a man,'' Walter Vann's granddaughter said. ``I honestly don't believe that Roger Lee knew what he had done. Roger Lee isn't a bad person.''
A cousin, W.C. Vann Jr., said that Roger Vann spent time in a mental hospital several years ago after hitting and seriously injuring his brother.
``He may not have known what he did, but . . . I'm sure he knew he'd done something very wrong,'' W.C. Vann said.
Many years ago, Walter Vann had been a tenant farmer, growing peanuts and corn on land owned by the late Willie Knight, said Knight's daughter, Billie McCray.
Several families of Vanns live on the farm, off Virginia Route 32 near the North Carolina line, and usually keep to themselves, said McCray, who lives in Richmond and was visiting her mother this week.
``Things like this happen every day in Richmond, but you don't think of them happening on the North Carolina line,'' she said.
Suffolk's homicide rate typically averages one a month, although there were four last year, Simpkins said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Walter Edward Vann Sr.
KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING DOMESTIC DISPUTE by CNB