Wayne Fisher, 57, was born in Damascus, Mississippi, to Jimmie and Esther Fisher. Jimmie worked at a pulpwood factory, while Esther took care of Wayne and his four siblings. Community members recall the Fisher family as balanced on the edge between respectable and "trashy."
Finances often seemed to drive Jimmie Fisher to the wrong side of the law, and criminal records show he was convicted of several minor charges, such as gambling and delivering illegal alcohol. Despite Esther's best efforts to keep the family on the proper path, anytime the family finances got tight, Jimmie would fall back on his old ways and wind up in trouble again.
Few records of Wayne's time in school survive after a fire wiped out most of the files from that era. Teachers remembered Wayne as unremarkable—neither a poor student nor an outstanding one—and like many of his peers, he dropped out as soon as he was old enough and went to work in the pulpwood industry.
At 18, Wayne enlisted in the Army and served for five years. Military personnel would not comment on how Wayne spent his time during his enlistment, citing privacy and confidentiality requirements, but did say he received an honorable discharge.
Wayne next appears in public records a year after he left the Army, when he obtained a marriage license in Jackson, Tennessee, with Christine Schulte. Hospital records show a son named Joel, born six months later, and a second son named Ned, a couple of years later.
Wayne's employment record is spotty during this period, but his criminal record began 29 years ago with an arrest in Quitman, Mississippi, for transporting illegal cigarettes. A common crime was to hijack a truck carrying cigarettes and then sell the stolen tobacco products at a steep discount without paying any state taxes.
Wayne wasn't implicated in the actual hijacking but was convicted of receiving stolen goods. The dollar amounts were small enough that the Mississippi State Tax Commission left him alone, and he served a month in the county jail.
Over the next decade, Wayne had three alcohol-related arrests in small towns in Mississippi. School records from that period show that principals requested counseling for the Fisher children more than once, and Child Protective Services conducted several examinations of the Fisher family and home.
On at least one occasion 20 years ago, Pontotoc police officers were summoned to the Fisher residence to intervene in a domestic dispute. Wayne and Christine's divorce was finalized the next year.
For the next several years, Wayne worked for Charvel Construction, whose owner, Gary Charvel, recalled Wayne as a hard worker and a dedicated employee. Charvel also remembered Wayne's dedication to his sobriety and his desire to repair his relationships with his kids.
About 15 years ago, Wayne went to work for EZ Pest Control in Batesville, Mississippi. His supervisors there described him as an uneven employee, sometimes dedicated and hard-working, and lazy at other times.
After Wayne was arrested for petty theft a few years later, EZ Pest Control allowed him to keep his job. His co-worker Jason Petty said Wayne seemed to straighten up after his arrest because of his kids. Wayne didn't want to jeopardize his recently renewed connection with his younger son, Ned, and hoped to get back into his estranged older son's good graces.
Four years ago, Wayne and Ned launched Fisher Pest Control in Oxford, and Wayne apparently stayed on the straight and narrow since then. His criminal record is clean after that petty theft arrest, and no witnesses said he had any problems with alcohol or other legal issues.
There is no evidence of Wayne maintaining any romantic relationships during this time. "He just seemed to be concentrating on work," said his friend Harry Sorrenstam, who observed that it was a shame that Wayne was killed just as he was getting his life together.
