From Jail, Razor-Blade Suspect Describes Life as an Outsider

The 21-year-old Mission Viejo woman accused of planting sharp objects at parks described herself Tuesday as an outsider who never fit in with life in suburban south Orange County.

In a jailhouse interview, Lori Elizabeth Fischer declined to say if she was responsible for placing razor blades and nails at 10 parks in April and May. She described herself as an alienated person who often found solace walking alone through parks near her house late at night.

“I relax at night,” she said. “During the day, there’s too many people and their dogs. At night, I think about a lot of things. A lot of things run through my mind.”

Authorities allege that Fischer sprinkled dozens of sharp objects in sandboxes, under slides and in the grass of parks during these outings. No one was injured, but the incidents frightened residents and prompted sheriff’s deputies to sweep hundreds of parks and schools in search of razor blades.

Authorities allege that before many of the incidents, Fischer called police from pay phones--sometimes using the name “Danni”--to warn them of cities about to be targeted. She allegedly kept newspaper clippings of the discoveries and filled a thick journal with musings and poems about the razor-blade incidents.

Sheriff’s detectives arrested Fischer on June 4 after following her for a week. Officials said she was taken into custody after placing nails at a Mission Viejo park.

Fischer, dressed in a blue jail jumpsuit, said Tuesday that she suspected she was being followed when she saw two unmarked police cars circling her car outside a friend’s house.

“I had suspicion they were following me,” she said. “No one would circle my car like that.”

As for the phone calls to police, Fischer said she wanted to help by providing leads on where the alleged culprit would strike next. She would not elaborate.

Fischer said she and her parents moved from Plano, Texas, to Mission Viejo when she was 8. She holds fond memories of Texas: “It was nice growing up there. I had a dog and friends.”

Mission Viejo was another story.

She said she became isolated when attending Carl H. Hankey Elementary School in Mission Viejo--one of the greenbelts where eight nails were discovered. She said other students mistreated her.

“When I moved here, I was the new kid on the block,” Fischer said. “Everyone had friends and cliques, and I didn’t fit into any of them.” She said her isolation continued in high school.

Fischer was living at her parents’ home and working as a temporary clerk at the time of her arrest. She said she looked forward to taking walks in the middle of the night--usually at Florence Joyner Olympiad Park in Mission Viejo.

Fischer said she holds no ill will toward children, noting that she earned extra money as a baby-sitter. Once, she said, she supervised a group of 16 children at a birthday party at a Chuck E. Cheese pizza parlor.

She said she loved writing in her diary, a ritual she completed most nights before bedtime. She said she was chronicling the last four years of her life--about school, her parents, “about everything,” she said.

Fischer is being held at the Orange County Central Women’s Jail in Santa Ana on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and child endangerment. She will be arraigned Friday.