Los Angeles Times
June 05, 2002 07:30:00
It was usually dark when Lori Elizabeth Fischer ended her shift as a filing
clerk for a temping agency. The 21-year-old cruised the curving greenbelts of
south Orange County, Calif., in her silver sedan, stopping for walks at the
small parks carved out amid the rambling red-tiled subdivisions.
She told friends her walks helped clear her head and relax. But authorities
allege that over the last two months, Fischer meticulously planted razors, nails
and other sharp objects in strategic locations, buried in sandboxes and under
slides and swings.
Before many of the attacks, Fischer called police from pay phones, sometimes
using the name "Danni" and warned them of cities that were about to be targeted,
Orange County Sheriff's officials said Wednesday. She allegedly kept newspaper
clippings of the discoveries and filled a thick journal with musings and poems
about the wave of razor findings that set parents and children in the
surroundings areas on edge. One of her verses read:
"Nature's most precious resource / Frolics in the sand / Not a care in the world
/ Just unending joy / All is shattered / When the authorities come / Beep, Beep,
Beep / Shiny, sharp objects in the sand / Of a child's playground / Who would do
it / Who would hurt an innocent."
A day after Fischer was arrested, her friends and former teachers on Wednesday
were asking that very question. Some described the young woman as a quiet but
intense person. She was a loyal friend, they said, someone incapable of the
crimes she is accused of committing.
But others said she was lonely and depressed. At Capistrano Valley High School,
where she graduated in 1998, Fischer was often seen walking campus corridors
alone with a pet lizard on a leash.
"She was eccentric, and she wasn't the picture postcard California teenager,"
said Lyn Harvey, who taught her academic decathlon for three years. Others
recalled that she regularly sought attention, often staying behind after class
to talk to instructors.
"She was a needy student who would act out in various ways," said Stan Nickel,
her choir teacher in junior year. "I could see where she had the need to be
something or at least be recognized."
"I was shocked to see her face (on television) but not surprised," the teacher
added.
Prosecutors said Wednesday they plan to charge Fischer on Thursday with felony
counts of assault with a deadly weapon and willful intent to injure a child.
Authorities found sharp objects at 11 parks in south Orange County and on
Wednesday laid out for the first time what led them to believe Fischer was
behind the crime spree.
Detectives investigating the razor blade findings zeroed in on Fischer two weeks
ago, just as alarm over the discoveries reached a peak. Investigators had
already talked to Fischer while following vague leads, but the young woman
didn't become a suspect until May 23.
That night, Sheriff's deputies staking out a park in Mission Viejo noticed
Fischer making a late night visit. No sharp objects were found at the park, but
detectives took her in for questioning.
Sheriff's and Laguna Beach police investigators interrogated Fischer three more
times. During one of their interviews, Fischer allegedly failed a voice stress
test - which, like a polygraph, is designed to detect deceit.
Investigators had a list of 20 possible suspects, but Fischer was now at the
top. Detectives attached a secret tracking device to her car to monitor her
movements, hoping to catch her in the act.
On Monday afternoon, Fischer called Sheriff's deputies to say she had heard that
sharp objects were about to be planted at a park in Mission Viejo . Shortly
after midnight, a team of undercover Sheriff's deputies watched the park. The
deputies swept the park for sharp objects and found nothing. About 12:45 a.m.,
the surveillance team said they spotted Fischer.
Authorities said she spent seven minutes at the park, then returned to her car.
Deputies rushed to the park and found nails sprinkled around the playground.
Officers tried to stop Fischer, but she refused to pull over. After a 30 minute
standoff, deputies smashed the back window of her Toyota Corolla and hauled her
out, Sheriff's officials said. In her car, deputies found nails and an
inch-thick hand-written journal. Sheriff's officials said its contents provide
some of the most compelling evidence against Fischer.
Investigators searched Fischer's home just three miles from where they arrested
her. They found another journal and nails, razors and newspaper clippings about
the crime spree.
