Jason Fisher took the stand this morning in the second day of testimony in Kosciusko Circuit Court in the murder trial of Ralph Freddrick "Fred" Fisher, 47, of Goshen, and told jurors that his father was alone in the Milford business on the day Kathy Vroman was killed.

He also told jurors that the murder charge against him is to be dismissed in exchange for his testimony.

Ralph Fisher is accused of killing 48-year-old Kathy Vroman Jan. 15, 2001, inside the Country Car Co., a Milford business owned by his son, Jason Fisher. Originally, Jason Fisher, 24, of Millersburg, was charged with Vroman's murder. However, in December, Jason Fisher turned the focus of the investigation on his father when he implicated Ralph Fisher as the shooter. Jason Fisher spent 10 months in the Kosciusko County Jail before accusing his father of the murder. He has since been released from incarceration, pending trial for which a date has not been set.

The murder investigation resulted in the arrests of the Fishers; Vroman's husband, William Vroman; Lawrence Grant of Shipshewana; and George Aldrich of Etna Green. The latter three were convicted of burglary and theft charges in connection with a December 2000 theft of more than $100,000 worth of vehicles from Rice Ford in Warsaw. Authorities have said Kathy Vroman's death was connected to an auto theft ring. Grant also was convicted of unlawful movement of a body.

Ralph Fisher was originally charged with assisting a criminal and unlawful movement of a body and later with conspiracy to obstruct justice. All of those charges were subsequently dismissed and pretrial motions granted by Judge Rex Reed will exclude any reference to all but the conspiracy charge.

Ralph Fisher closed his eyes today as his son pointed to him and identified him for the court as the man he saw holding the gun after Kathy Vroman was shot.

Prior to seeing Kathy Vroman on the floor, Jason Fisher testified, he had gone outside because Vroman and Ralph Fisher were arguing about money owed to him by William Vroman and "I don't like to be around people when they argue."

When Jason Fisher re-entered the business 20 to 30 minutes later, he said, he saw Kathy Vroman on the floor. "The back of her head was facing me and there was some dark stuff around her head ... it looked like blood." He continued: "I saw my father standing over her with a shiny chrome handgun." Jason Fisher said Ralph Fisher then told him, "Call me in five minutes." Ralph Fisher put the gun on a file cabinet, told Jason Fisher to lock the door and walked out.

Jason Fisher said after his father left, he went to the bathroom and vomited. Then he called Ralph Fisher on his cellular telephone and said, "What's going on?" Jason Fisher testified that his father said, "I need to move the body ... and clean up the mess." The next time he saw his father was in a church parking lot at the intersection of Ind. 15 and Elkhart CR 40.

By then, Grant and Jason Fisher had place Vroman's body on a tarp and into a van. When they got there, "I started crying and he started crying," Jason Fisher said of his father. Then Ralph Fisher "asked what was in the back and I said, 'Kathy.' He said, 'You guys need to go take care of Bill now." ... I think he meant he wanted us to go kill Bill (Vroman)." Jason Fisher said he told his dad he felt sick. "He just hugged me and said, 'Get going,' and shut the door to the van.

Unable to fulfill the alleged order to kill William Vroman, Jason Fisher said he again called his father and was told to meet him at the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Goshen, where the van containing Kathy Vroman's body was parked and left for about a week until the vehicle was driven to Michigan, where the body was left in the snow.

Kathy Vroman's frozen body had to be chipped from the ground and thawed out before an autopsy could be performed to determine her cause of death, according to testimony offered Tuesday afternoon, and a forensic pathologist said only one of the two gunshot wounds Vroman suffered was fatal. The second wound alone could have been survivable, testimony revealed.

The condition of Vroman's body indicated she had been outside for "many hours or, perhaps, days," according to Stephen Cohle, a forensic pathologist in Grand Rapids, Mich., where Vroman's body was taken after it was located in a wooded area near Three Rivers, Mich. "She was frozen solid," he said. "Hard as a rock."

Michigan State Police Trooper Michael Thyng, who was the primary investigator in the Michigan portion of the tri-state investigation, said Vroman "was actually frozen to the ground. We actually had to chip her out of the ground."

Cohle told jurors how the process to thaw Vroman's body, which was found Jan. 26, 2001, took until Jan. 29, 2001, to reach a temperature at which the autopsy could be performed. "We must gradually thaw the person out," Cohle said. "We don't want to thaw too quickly or it will decompose rapidly."

Cohle detailed for jurors that Vroman suffered two gunshot wounds to the head - one to the face and one to the back of the head - and jurors viewed pictures of those wounds. Cohle said the facial wound, which entered the right cheek, caused Vroman's death because it went through the left common carotid artery and she bled to death. The other wound, to the left back of Vroman's head, "might not have caused death," Cohle said. That shot traveled downward and into the chest area, where the bullet was recovered. The other bullet was removed from Vroman's chin. Although it could not be determined which shot occurred first, Cohle said both wounds were suffered while Vroman was alive.

By stipulation, jurors were informed that the blood stains taken from inside Country Car Co. and those samples taken from the van used to transport Vroman's body to Michigan were from Kathy Vroman and that the body found near Three Rivers was that of Kathy Vroman. Reed told jurors to consider these items as fact.

The blood at the car dealership was found after William Vroman and Aldrich contacted Milford Town Marshal Dave Hobbs about finding what they believed to be blood on a doorway there. Subsequent investigation revealed there was blood both on the doorway and on carpeting in an office and the lobby of the business. Both Fishers were present when police gathered evidence and Jason Fisher said his dad told him not to worry. Prior to that time, Ralph Fisher instructed Grant what to pour on the blood stains to clean the floor. The two were supposed to drive Vroman's body to Ohio and pour acid on it, but they altered their course while en route to Ohio and headed north into Michigan.

Later, Grant went to authorities in Florida - where he fled after helping dispose of Vroman's body - with information as to where police could find her body. That information led to the recovery near Three Rivers, according to testimony.

Hobbs admitted during cross-examination Tuesday that he didn't attempt to verify Ralph Fisher's alibi after it was filed March 1 "because I didn't believe the alibi" and he never saw some of the evidence gathered despite being the lead investigator in the murder case.

According to documents filed with the court, Ralph Fisher's time on Jan. 15, 2001, can be accounted for from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m., including time spent plowing snow at home; traveling to work, where he greeted his employees; making and receiving telephone calls at work; traveling to and from returning a rented auger; engaging in the general operation of his business, RAF Enterprises Inc.; and fueling and returning a rented skid loader before returning home. All of these events occurred in Elkhart County, according to Leatherman, who referred to the activities in his opening statement and indicated that telephone records and investigations show William Vroman spoke to his wife at 11:45 a.m. the day of her disappearance and Jason Fisher called Aldrich at 12:11 p.m. that day, 15 to 20 minutes after he first saw Vroman's body on the floor at the used car business. This time frame, according to Leatherman, establishes the time of death.

A picture of a gun box, believed to have contained the gun used in the murder and recovered from a Dumpster on a property of an Elkhart County relative of the Fishers, was a piece of evidence Hobbs said he heard about, but never saw. "You are in charge of this investigation, yet you don't know about the box?" Leatherman asked. Hobbs said he knew about the gun box and attempted to find it, but wasn't able to locate the Dumpster in which the item was believed discarded.

According to the testimony of Indiana State Police technician Dan Vermillion, that item was retrieved by ISP investigators, entered into evidence and stored by his department since Jan. 26, 2001, but no requests for fingerprinting or other testing were made for the box. A serial number in the box confirmed that the weapon was a .25-caliber handgun owned by William Vroman. That gun was given to Jason Fisher by William Vroman in exchange for propane gas for the recreational vehicle William and Kathy Vroman once lived in on the Country Car Co. property, according to Hobbs, who said Jason Fisher told him he gave the gun back to Kathy Vroman prior to her disappearance. The weapon was never recovered, but the box was presented as evidence during the trial and shown to jurors. Vermillion said he didn't pursue the evidence any further after learning that the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department already had information about the gun.

Hobbs also said he never interviewed the employees of Ralph Fisher's business or viewed receipts for the items involved in Ralph Fisher's alibi. A police officer since 1978, Hobbs said he never conducted a homicide investigation prior to this one. Roughly seven days were spent on investigation of this case after the murder charge was filed against Ralph Fisher on Jan. 3.

Search warrants executed at both Ralph and Jason Fisher's homes in January 2001 provided no evidence of the murder. The probable cause affidavit prepared for charging Jason Fisher with murder was based largely upon information garnered from Ralph Fisher, Hobbs said, and the statement later made by Jason Fisher was the basis for filing a murder charge against Ralph Fisher. [[In-content Ad]]