The State - News from March 12, 1989

San Bernardino sheriff’s investigators have identified a suspect in a cross-burning in front of the expensive Rialto home of a mixed-race couple, but would not release the suspect’s name. Investigators said the suspect is not connected with an organized hate group. Marlene Pou, who is white, said the cross-burning is the first serious racial harassment in her 27 years of marriage to Fred Pou, 53, who is black. Mrs. Pou saw the cross, surrounded by a circle of scorched grass, when she went out to pick up the newspaper. Her husband, who is retired from the Air Force, is assistant security chief at Pettis Memorial Veterans Administration Medical Center in Loma Linda. Mrs. Pou is a professional painter. The couple have lived in this community 55 miles east of Los Angeles for 10 years.