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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 1, 1994                   TAG: 9403010027
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FUGITIVE TIP LINE BUSY

Tips on the whereabouts of fugitive Billy Joe Hampton are coming in to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office (703-382-2951) at the rate of five or six a day - but the office has had no luck finding the Christiansburg man, said Chief Deputy Dan Haga.

Hampton, a convicted murderer, headed north on Interstate 81 from the Ironto rest stop Thursday after a two-day, two-state crime spree, police say. Hampton is 5 feet 7 and walks with a limp. He was last seen driving a white 1990 Oldsmobile with Maryland handicapped license plates, although Christiansburg police say it is possible he was behind the Sunday night theft of a red 1991 Dodge Dakota pickup truck, four handguns, two rifles and two shotguns from a home on Cumberland Drive.

Law enforcement agents say it is possible that Hampton remains in the Roanoke-New River Valley area.

by CNB