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ROTC trainer charged in death

 
Published Nov. 5, 2003|Updated Sept. 2, 2005

A Dunnellon woman who is a high school ROTC instructor in Spring Hill was arrested Tuesday and accused of causing a car crash in May that killed her boyfriend.

Cathy Deloris Nelson Redd, 48, turned herself in at the Hernando County Sheriff's Office. She is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the May 25 crash that killed Otis Fisher, 49, of Crystal River.

According to Florida Highway Patrol reports, Redd was driving a 1993 Nissan and pursued Fisher along County Road 488. Both vehicles were eastbound.

Redd drove into the westbound lane, still heading east, then into the eastbound lane again, hitting the left rear of Fisher's 1997 Ford Explorer, according to an FHP report.

Fisher's vehicle went on the north shoulder, back on the road and then overturned several times, hitting a tree on the south shoulder and stopping, according to Trooper Jamie Mulverhill, who responded to the crash. The crash occurred at CR 488 and Day's End Path.

Fisher was ejected from the car and later airlifted to Tampa General Hospital, where he died on May 26.

FHP Lt. Sterling King said investigators relied on witness' accounts of the crash, as well as statements Redd made during interviews. King said Redd and Fisher were romantically involved and were having some kind of argument.

Redd listed her address as a post office box in Dunnellon and has an address of 20689 McKinney Ave. in Dunnellon.

She is employed as the senior aerospace science instructor at the Junior Air Force ROTC program at Springstead High School in Spring Hill, according to the chapter's Web site. After a 21-year career in the U.S. Air Force, having served in Saudi Arabia and Bosnia, Redd joined the Springstead faculty in 2001. She has a son and a daughter.

Redd remained at the Hernando County jail on Tuesday, where her bail was set at $50,000. _ Times staff writer Duane Bourne contributed to this report. Jorge Sanchez can be reached at (352) 860-7313 Send e-mail to sanchezsptimes.com.