ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, December 30, 1995            TAG: 9601020058
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-5  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS

ARREST MADE IN VA. TOURIST'S SLAYING

With the city's image once again bloodied by the Christmas Eve murder of a tourist, officials fought back Friday with statistics showing murder on the decline - and word of an arrest in the case.

Police chief Richard Pennington announced that police arrested a 15-year-old suspect late Thursday night in the death of Connie Reasor. The 33-year-old Virginia visitor was robbed and killed outside a historic New Orleans cemetery.

But the message city officials here desperately wanted to get out was that 1995 was a ``turnaround year'' for crime on the streets and corruption inside the police department.

Murders in New Orleans are down this year by 15 percent for a three-year low, city statistics show.

New Orleans set a record last year with 421 murders. So far this year, 356 peo1Gple have been killed.

But tourist deaths - Reasor's is believed to be the second this year - draw national attention to a city that thrives on tourism.

- Associated Press

LENGTH: Short :   32 lines
KEYWORDS: FATALITY