By MARGIE WUEBKER
mwuebker@dailystandard.com
A Celina couple remains under treatment at Dayton and Lima hospitals,
where they were taken following a Tuesday night domestic dispute
at their residence.
Jo Ann Fraizer, 39, a resident of Westside Mobile Home Community
on Deford Street, was found lying in her front yard shortly
after 7:32 p.m. with stab wounds to the chest.
Celina Police later located her 44-year-old husband inside the
grey mobile home with what appeared to be self-inflicted stab
wounds to the chest. Police declined to release his name pending
the filing of formal charges, but neighbors identified him as
Linzie Keith Fraizer.
The woman was taken by ambulance to Mercer County Community
Hospital in Cold-water and later transported aboard a CareFlight
helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton. Listed in serious
condition, she remains in the intensive care unit awaiting surgery.
Paramedics stabilized her husband at the scene before rushing
him to Joint Township District Memorial Hospital, St. Marys.
He later went by LifeFlight helicopter to St. Rita’s Medical
Center in Lima.
“Keith had emergency surgery last night and is in critical
but stable condition the last we heard,” Larry Braun,
a brother-in-law told The Daily Standard this morning.
Neighbors were unaware of the dispute until they heard the couple’s
youngest son, reportedly a high school freshman, screaming outside.
Police and deputies from the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office
descended on the scene, quickly filling the street. They initially
surrounded the grey mobile home after learning the husband was
still inside.
Police Chief Dave Slusser said officers took appropriate precautions
but there was no standoff and the suspect did not communicate
with authorities. Upon entering the mobile home, they found
him lying on the bathroom floor.
After obtaining a search warrant, officers retrieved evidence,
including a knife, from the trailer. Investigators spent nearly
five hours at the location, which remains ringed with bright
yellow crime scene tape.
Mercer County Prosecutor Andy Hinders is reviewing the case.
Slusser expects formal charges to be filed early this afternoon.
This is not the first time police have been called for domestic
disputes involving the Fraizers. Previous calls took place May
19 of this year and Oct. 20, 2001.
“The two oldest boys were here at my house Tuesday night,”
neighbor Shirley Fontanini said. “The youngest was inside
the Fraizer house when the dispute took place. The boys all
ran out when they heard him.”
Fontanini also went outside and saw the injured woman on the
ground clutching her chest. A cruiser pulled up and someone
asked the officer to summon an ambulance. The wail of a siren
seemed to follow on the heels of the request.
“Jo Ann was lying right there by Keith’s car (a
Pontiac Grand Prix),” the neighbor said. “She seemed
to be hurt pretty bad. It’s a darn shame because she is
an awful nice woman.”
The women have been acquainted for a long time and reportedly
took turns baby-sitting for each other’s children over
the years.
“Jo Ann would do anything for anybody,” Fontanini
said. “She is a hard worker who always held down more
than one job to make ends meet.”
In addition to working third shift at Plastipak in Jackson Center,
she also had a part-time job at East of Chicago Pizza.
Braun said his brother-in-law is unemployed at the present time.
The couple’s sons are staying at his home and trying to
come to grips with what happened.
“They are doing as well as can be expected,” he
added. “None of us got much sleep last night.”
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