
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 13, 1993                   TAG: 9308130289
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: JOPLIN, MO.                                LENGTH: Short

FATHER OF CHILDREN KILLED BY TRAIN CLEARED

A judge Thursday threw out a child-endangerment charge against the stepfather of three children killed by a train on a railway trestle as he fished nearby.

Jasper County Associate Circuit Judge Richard Copeland ruled there was no probable cause to believe Gregory McPherson had committed a crime.

McPherson, 38, was charged in the death of one of the three children, who had climbed a steep incline, passed a no-trespassing sign and begun walking across the bridge as McPherson fished below.

When a train hauling 112 cars loaded with coal rounded a bend, Melissa Seay, 12, and her brothers, William, 9, and Austin, 5, joined hands and tried unsuccessfully to outrun it.

Witnesses said McPherson called repeatedly for them to hurry and, then, to jump. - Associated Press

by CNB