Medical examiner conducts special inquiry into baby’s death

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

The strategy for Travis Ray Hester’s prosecution and the penalty to be sought remain undetermined pending the results of an unusually extensive autopsy on the body of his 11-month-old daughter, Belle LeAnn Hester, Smyth County’s chief prosecutor said Friday.
“We’re still waiting for definitive information from the medical examiner,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Roy Evans said. “It is an unusual examination that will take a bit longer.”
Travis Hester confessed under questioning by investigators earlier this month to killing the child, police said. She died Sunday, July 27, at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, the day after she was airlifted from Smyth County Community Hospital’s emergency room.
Evans declined to discuss the specific reason for the unusual examination but said it was a “special inquiry they don’t normally do.”
Marion Police Department Investigator Lt. Darrell Hayden said Hester, 26, changed his story during questioning and admitted his involvement in the killing.
Evans and the police have revealed little of what they’ve learned about the events that led to the child’s death.
The man faces a first-degree murder charge “because of his statements,” Hayden said. “[Prosecutors] don’t really want us to say how he killed the child. He confessed. He was interviewed, confessed, and charged. They didn’t want us to tell what all he did.”
“It was an extremely tragic incident all the way around. I don’t know what to tell you,” Marion Police Sgt. Moss said. “All I can say is that it was an incident in which the father was in care of the child and obviously, um, he made a bad decision.”
Hayden said Hester, his wife, Crystal, and their daughter lived with Travis Hester’s father on Hill Street in Marion. They had lived there three days when the incident happened, Hayden said. Travis Hester was jobless and their income came from his wife’s job as a waitress at Macado’s.
On Saturday, July 26, Crystal Hayden worked from 4 to 9:50 p.m., Hayden said. She and her husband talked by telephone during the evening, but Travis Hester made no mention of the child being hurt, Hayden said.
Larry Hester left for work at 7:30 p.m. Hayden said.
When Crystal Hayden arrived home around 10 p.m., they took their daughter to the emergency room at Smyth County Community Hospital, Hayden said.
The child had head injuries Hayden described only as “pretty extensive.”
“That’s how the investigation began,” Hayden said. “The medical examiner said the injuries didn’t occur as the father said they did,” in a fall by the child from a deck onto the lawn.
“The deck is five feet off the ground,” Hayden said. “That did not match the injuries, five feet onto grass. That’s the story he told police to begin with,” a story he changed under questioning, Hayden said.
For now the main developments disclosed in the case are more routine than the autopsy—the appointment of Abingdon attorney Chip Barker to defend Hester, and Barker’s receiving copies of evidence from the prosecutor.
Hester’s first court appearance on the homicide charge will be at 11 a.m. Sept. 24 in Smyth County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
He remains held without bond in the Abingdon Regional Jail.