Comments on: Teenager Kills Sister, Attacks Toddler in Spotsylvania County

By: TIPTON

TIPTON — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 21:15:25 +0000

In reply to Dominick Halse. I AGREE DOMINICK HALSE GROSS HORRIFIC MESS.,

By: Timothy Watson

Timothy Watson — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:18:35 +0000

http://civilwar.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2007/122007/12182007/341967 from December 18, 2007:

Walter Smith Jr., 16, was indicted on a murder charge yesterday as well. The grand jury also brought charges of rape and malicious wounding.

He was arrested in September after his 22-year-old sister, Betsy Mary Smith, was beaten with a sledgehammer and stabbed to death, then raped. The malicious wounding charge came after his 2-year-old niece was also found beaten in the head with a sledgehammer, fracturing her skull nine times.

Online court records (accessible at http://courts.state.va.us/) states that his trial will begin on August 5, 2008.

By: californiaflame

californiaflame — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:48:45 +0000

I just found out about this case accidentally via another crime blog, and it’s so strange to me that there is absolutely no other information about this out there on the web that I can find! Does anyone know what has happened or transpired since his arrest? Has anything further come out about the parents?? I agree with Dominick, the treatment of the toddlers after the murder is horrific, and the parents definitely need to be held accountable. I think there must have been more to this story than we heard.

By: Cheryl Neely

Cheryl Neely — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:18:38 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly. There is so much about this case I don’t understand. How the body was left for more than 12 hours before being discovered, how the infants were left alone in the room with a disabled cousin to care for them, and where the heck the parents were when all this was happening???? Did you see the house? It didn’t look fit for dogs!

By: Dominick Halse

Dominick Halse — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:06:05 +0000

The local newspapers are giving more details about this case. The Murder happened at one am, the two year old girl was discovered at 3 pm. The bedroom door that Betsy Smith and the children were in was padlocked from the outside. This means that the door was visibly locked. Betsy Smith was disabled and lived with her mother and father. It was known that she had two children in her care aged one and two. When is it an expectation that infants and toddlers sleep (or are perfectly silent) well into the afternoon? If a person is disabled to the point of being unable to work and being dependant upon her parents why would be alright to leave her locked in her room. The parents of Besty Smith should also face charges because they found the children and relocked the door with their dead daughter inside. The father acknowledges that he knew that Betsy was dead well before the police came. Betsy’s mother said she noticed that the two year old was bloody and accepted an answer about “running into a fuse box”. WHAT TWO YEAR OLD KNOWS ABOUT FUSE BOXES? The parents of the murdered Betsy Smith and her brother who murdered her, most likely could not have prevented the slaying but they allowed the body of their dead daughter to stay locked in a bedroom for twenty hours, fourteen of which were spent with an injured two year old and a helpless one year old. Isn’t this neglect? Neglect of their disabled daughter, neglect of their young grandchildren. It just doesn’t seem right that the Smith parents allowed the two young children to be left with a dead body for fourteen hours, for a toddler hit with a sledgehammer to be injured without care for fourteen hours! Also think of the psychological damage done to this fresh and impressionable young mind, don’t cry out because you will be beaten and have to watch someone you love die. All parties need to be held accountable.