Convicted rapist Larry Fisher hasn’t been rehabilitated and will remain a threat if he is released from prison, members of the Mississippi Parole Board were told Thursday by those who oppose his release.

    Fisher, who will be 63 next Wednesday, was convicted of the 1983 rape, kidnapping and robbery of Pat Rivers of Meridian. He was also suspected of the murders of teenagers Melinda Weathers and Carol Formby.

    Fisher was dubbed “the blue light rapist” for flashing blue lights while driving an unmarked car to stop female drivers.

    On Feb. 11, 1983, Rivers was raped in Lauderdale County.

    In March 1983, Formby disappeared, and in May, Weathers was reported missing. Their bodies were found later within a couple of miles of each other.   

    “When Melinda’s body was found, I grew up,” Billie Weathers Stephenson, who was 12 when her sister Melinda disappeared, told the parole board during a hearing at the Lauderdale County Courthouse Thursday. “I’m still haunted by the specific details of what Larry Fisher did to my sister.”

    “My sister was my hero,” she said, wiping back tears. “And she wasn’t able to be at my high school graduation … she wasn’t there when my children were born.”

    “If he’s paroled, I truly fear that he will seek revenge on those of us who have opposed his parole,” she said. “I also fear for other women in our community. I don’t want another family to go through what we’ve gone through. If he has to be released, how would you feel if he lived next door to you?”

    Fisher had a long criminal history before he moved to Meridian to live with his mother and stepfather in the early 1980s.      In 1977, he was convicted in Georgia for rape, kidnapping and forcible robbery. He moved to Mississippi after serving 5 1/2 years of his sentence.

    In April 1984, Fisher was sentenced to death for the capital murder of Weathers. He appealed, and in Oct. 1985, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the murder conviction and remanded the case for a new trial. On Dec. 13, 1985, a jury acquitted Fisher on the murder charge. He was never tried for the murder of Formby.

    

“He’s a monster”

    Rivers’ daughter, Lisa Frederickson, was a teenager in 1983.  “A 16-year old shouldn’t have to go through this — I was a child, ” she told the parole board.

    “If he had stayed in prison in Georgia, two girls would be alive,” she continued. “When will it stop? He has access to computers and access to every court record just like we do. If he gets out, where do you think he’s going to go?”

    “Please don’t let this man out,” she urged the board. “He’s a monster.”

    Formby’s father told the board, “If he’s not remorseful and hasn’t had a change of heart, then there’s nothing to be gained.”

    Bobby House, the Meridian Police Department detective who arrested Fisher, called him “a sexual predator.”

    “I believe in second chances,” House, who is now retired, said. “I have worked with people who have been convicted and have helped them get a second chance. Larry Fisher was given a second chance in Georgia. What did he do with it? He came to Meridian and killed two girls and raped a woman. That’s what he did with his second chance.”

    Former District Attorney Charles Wright, who prosecuted Fisher, said, “There’s nothing that can rehabilitate a rapist. All the rehabilitation in the world isn’t going to correct him. I would describe him as a psychopath.”

    “The risk is too great. He will do this again,” Wright continued.  “The only protection we have is to deny him parole.”

    Assistant District Attorney Lisa Howell knew Melinda Weathers.

    “Melinda was my friend,” she recalled. “We all lived a horrible few months then. He’s an extremely deranged man. It’s still something that everyone is afraid of.”

    Jo Beth Maranto was one of several members of the public who attended the hearing. “Billie (Stephenson) has struggled with this for many years,” she said. “We just wanted to let her know her friends support her and love her.”

    “We recognize the hurt you have suffered,” parole board member Betty Lou Jones told the families at the end of the hearing. “We wish we could change it. The only thing we can do is give you the chance to feel like you’ve been heard.”

    “We want you to know we take this very seriously; we pay attention to what you tell us,” Jones said. “We don’t make a decision based on crowding in the prisons. We don’t make decisions based on prison reform. We make decisions based on the facts, and what is the best thing to do for you as victims, but more so, for the citizens of the state of Mississippi.”

    Thursday’s hearing was part of a process. Jones said Fisher will be interviewed via camera from the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, where he is incarcerated, sometime later this month.

    The board will also accept input from anyone who wants to speak in favor of Fisher’s parole, she said. No one spoke at Thursday’s hearing to support Fisher.

     Fisher’s parole eligibility date is in January, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.  

    The parole board has five members: Jones, Steven Pickett, Nehemiah Flowers, Jr., William “Butch” Townsend and Kathy Henry.