Ronald L. Fischer was arrested this week aboard The Silver Lining, a 56-foot sailboat found about an hour offshore of New Jersey. The former anesthesiologist from East Greenwich, R.I., had been on the run for more than 20 years after disappearing during his 2005 trial for first-degree sexual assault in Portsmouth, R.I.
Wing Chau, the US marshal for the District of Rhode Island, said, “This arrest demonstrates that time does not erase accountability.” Fischer is now 70, and the arrest ends a search that kept him on Rhode Island’s Most Wanted list for years.
New Jersey Search
A team of federal and Rhode Island investigators located Fischer aboard The Silver Lining and took him into custody this week. His sailboat was registered to Richard Graydon, an alias, a detail that fits the way he moved under different names while staying offshore and out of reach.
Carl Ricci, who had been a prosecutor in the case, said, “I was surprised.” He added, “I just figured, you know, he made it this long, I just thought [he’s] probably going to make it for the rest of his life — if he’s alive.”
Portsmouth Trial
Fischer disappeared in April 2005 while on trial in Portsmouth, R.I., after allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman aboard his boat at a Portsmouth marina. He had been out on bail as the trial proceeded, yet he still vanished and remained at large for more than 20 years.
Cheryl Gingerich testified that she helped Fischer clean the boat before the two had planned to go get lunch. She said Fischer pushed her onto a bed and forced himself upon her.
Fischer’s Earlier Case
The arrest also revives the earlier record that followed Fischer before the 2005 case. In August 1994, he was arrested and charged with rape after an assault aboard The Dreammaker in Marina Bay in Quincy, and the charge was later dropped when he pleaded guilty to assault and battery.
He received a two-year prison sentence that was suspended, and his medical licenses in Massachusetts and Rhode Island were later revoked. Authorities have described him as “a master yachtsman, a world traveler, and internationally connected,” a profile that helps explain how he stayed mobile while investigators searched for him.
What investigators have not said is what specific break led them to The Silver Lining this week. For now, the new fact that matters most is simple: the long fugitive run ended offshore, and Fischer is back in custody after years of being treated as unreachable.
