A former high school football star from Hazleton is now in a prison in South Korea, and his parents say he is serving time for a crime he did not commit.
Andre Fisher's parents said their son was outside a night club just off the American military base near the North Korean border when a cab driver claimed Fisher robbed him of $88.
Fisher's parents said that began a chain of events leading to his arrest, conviction and a two-year prison sentence.
Andre Fisher's friends and family remember the good times with the young man Robert and Sandra Fisher adopted when he was six.
When Fisher joined the Army two years ago and shipped off to South Korea, the Fishers thought the experience would be good for him.
"It's like he's a forgotten person," said dad Robert Fisher.
According to his parents, the younger Fisher was with some friends outside a night club near an Army base in early January.
A South Korean cab driver claimed he was robbed and brought police to Fisher.
"And the cab driver said, 'That's him,' and they beat him on the street," Robert Fisher said. "He never got in the cab."
"He would never take any money that wasn't his or anything, never," said mother Sandra Fisher.
For three months, Andre Fisher told his parents he thought the Korean court would drop the charges.
He claimed the only evidence was grainy surveillance video of a man wearing a hood.
"He really thought it was like we are. That you didn't do it, and how could they prove anything," added Sandra Fisher.
"And they convicted him off that," said Robert Fisher.
A South Korean judge sentenced the soldier to two years in prison.
Hazleton Area High School English teacher Susan Burrows thought Andre was the kind of kid destined for success. "I still think there are still great things ahead for this boy, if we can help him and get him out of his situation," Burrows said.
"Nobody's doing anything, and it's wrong, it's wrong," said friend Brittany Gresh. She kept in touch with him in Korea via Facebook. She believes the Army abandoned him. "The fact that our government is sitting by and not doing anything, they didn't get in touch with his family. Nobody knows about this."
"The Army told us nothing," said Sandra Fisher.
Robert and Sandra Fisher cling to diminishing hope that someone will get to the truth and maybe get their son out of prison.
Sandra Fisher said her biggest fear is, "Him being over there in a Korean jail and what's going to happen to him."
"If I could see my son in a six by ten cell, eating rations, one hour a day he gets out for exercise. Horrible," added Robert Fisher.
Friday afternoon a U.S. Army spokesman said the military does everything it can to protect the interests of soldiers who find themselves in legal trouble in foreign countries, but because he had no information on Andre Fisher's case, he could not comment on it.