After more than 20 years on the run, a fugitive was captured on a sailboat off the Jersey Shore this week—ending one of Rhode Island’s longest-running manhunts.
Ronald L. Fischer, 70, a former anesthesiologist who fled his 2005 sexual assault trial in Rhode Island, was intercepted by the Coast Guard about an hour off the coast of New Jersey aboard his 56-foot sailboat, The Silver Lining, according to the Boston Globe. The boat was registered under an alias, Richard Graydon.
Fischer was taken into custody without incident and transferred to a Coast Guard station on Staten Island, where deputy U.S. Marshals and local law enforcement took over.
Fischer disappeared in April 2005, days before closing arguments in his trial for first-degree sexual assault, after emailing his attorney a goodbye note explaining he’d decided to “leave the U.S. and enjoy life in another country.” He was convicted in absentia and spent the next two decades on Rhode Island’s Most Wanted list, described by authorities as “a master yachtsman, a world traveler, and internationally connected.”
The break in the case came fast. U.S. Marshals said newly developed leads led investigators to New York within 48 hours of the arrest. “This arrest demonstrates that time does not erase accountability,” said Wing Chau, U.S. Marshal for the District of Rhode Island.
Fischer will remain in custody until his transfer to Rhode Island, where prosecutors plan to seek a sentencing hearing on the original conviction along with an arraignment on a bail-jumping charge.
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.