Pathologist Found Shot in an Apparent Suicide : Body of Dr. Walter Fischer Found in Car; Victim Described as Under Stress Since Losing Evidence

Dr. Walter R. Fischer, a forensic pathologist who performed autopsies under contract from the county coroner’s office, was found dead in his car Monday in Orange, an apparent suicide, officials said.

Officials said Fischer, 56, apparently had shot himself.

Fischer’s partners in a pathology practice said he had been under tremendous stress since April over publicity following his admission that he had lost important evidence in a murder case.

The county Board of Supervisors two months ago asked for a staff report evaluating the work of Fischer and his two partners, Dr. Robert Richards and Dr. Richard Fukumoto. Although the report was highly favorable, the supervisors are expected to go ahead with plans to open the three pathologists’ county contract to competitive bidding.

Dr. Fukumoto said Monday that recent criticisms of the three pathologists’ work “had a tremendous effect on all of us, but the pressure was three or four times greater on Dr. Fischer because he was the target of so much of it.”

Shock to Friend

Still, Fischer’s death came as a shock to Fukumoto, who was one of his closest friends. The two had worked together for 25 years.

“I saw him at work last Thursday and he was his old joking self,” Fukumoto said. “I really thought he was bouncing back.”

Fischer was hospitalized two months ago for what his partners called a stress-related illness, but he returned to work about three weeks ago. He left his Villa Park home Monday morning, apparently bound for the office, according to family and friends. Fischer was found shot to death in his parked car, officials said.

Orange police and the Sheriff’s Department said an investigation is pending.

Fischer had performed autopsies for the county since 1965. In recent court testimony, he stated that he had performed more than 11,000 autopsies in his career.

Fischer was highly respected by his colleagues in the coroner’s office for his work as an autopsy surgeon. But he had recently agreed to a demotion requested by his partners at Anato-Chem Medical Laboratories in Anaheim, which provided that he handle only non-homicide cases.

Told of Evidence

Fischer’s recent troubles began in April after he revealed to the district attorney’s office that he had found tissue slides that should have been introduced as evidence in a murder case that ended in a mistrial two years ago. A few days later he disclosed that some slides he had introduced as evidence were missing.

Darrell Roberts, 31, of Santa Ana, was tried on murder charges two years ago in the beating death of 2-year-old Julius Caesar Math III. A mistrial was declared after the jury deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of his acquittal.

Fischer was the key witness against Roberts at the trial. Fischer testified that the boy died of injuries suffered between two and eight hours before his death. The boy, who was the son of Roberts’ girlfriend, had been in Roberts’ care some seven hours before his death.

Fischer based his findings on the results of tissue slides. But only 36 slides were introduced at the trial. Fischer said that the other group of 36 tissue slides from that case had been inadvertently hidden away in a shoe box in his office. And at least three slides are now missing altogether.

Attorneys for Roberts have a motion pending in Superior Court to dismiss the case, based primarily on the contention that Fischer’s actions had made a proper defense impossible.

Given High Praise

In hearings on the defense motion before Judge David O. Carter, Fischer testified for six days. In response to adverse publicity about the pathologists following the Roberts case, homicide prosecutors in the district attorney’s office and the Orange County Chiefs of Police and Sheriff’s Assn. sent the county supervisors glowing endorsements of all three pathologists.

“No mistake (by the pathologists) has ever cost a conviction or resulted in an unjustified conviction,” the homicide prosecutors said.

At one point in the Roberts case, after Fischer had testified for six hours, an acquaintance asked him if it had been a long day.

“It’s been a long month,” Fischer answered.

Fischer said in an interview with The Times in late May that he was embarrassed about his handling of the evidence in the Roberts case.

“It was just one of those things,” Fischer said. “I’m sorry about it, but it was an accident.”

Fischer also said at the time that he was depressed over publicity about his work, which was under scrutiny after the Roberts case.

In his interview with The Times, Fischer had said that what upset him most about the criticism of his work was the debilitating effect it had on his family.

“No matter how much you try to pass it off, it hurts your family to see your name connected with incompetence, even if it’s all a lot of bunk,” Fischer had said.

Fischer in recent years had specialized in cases involving battered children. In fact, the last case he had in court, with the exception of the Roberts case still pending, resulted in a first-degree murder conviction and high praise for his work from the prosecutor.

Unable to Testify

Fischer was unable to testify because of his recent hospitalization, but Fukumoto took the stand using Fischer’s records.

“Dr. Fischer’s work was absolutely superb,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard King, who prosecuted the case. So good, in fact, King said, that the defense did not even challenge Fischer’s findings.

Fischer said in The Times interview that one of the most satisfying moments in his career came a few years ago when he performed an autopsy on a young child suspected of being battered by her parents. Fischer said he found that the child died of a serious illness and was not abused.

“It was a great feeling to be able to tell those parents that I could prove they had not harmed their child,” Fischer said.

But Fischer’s study of battered child cases was oddly linked to his problem in the Roberts case. According to court testimony, Fischer had been studying whether CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) could cause the same hemorrhaging that is present in beating deaths. As part of that study, he had a shoe box with tissue slides of drowning victims who had been given CPR. For some unexplained reason, the missing slides in the Roberts case ended up in that box.

“We asked Dr. Fischer to take a break from homicide cases,” said Fukumoto earlier this year, “so he could build up his self-confidence. He is a great doctor. But he has an administrative problem when it comes to preparing to testify in court.”