Teen charged in sister's rape, slaying

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SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. (AP) — A teenager was charged yesterday with killing and raping his sister and beating his niece with a sledgehammer in a crime the sheriff called one of the most brutal he has seen.

Walter Smith Jr., 16, was charged with the first-degree murder and rape of his sister, Betsy Mary Smith, 22, and aggravated assault against his 2-year-old niece, Andrea Costello.

The teenager was charged after he recounted Monday morning's events to Spotsylvania detectives, said Sheriff Howard Smith. Based on what he told them, police said, Miss Smith was beaten with a sledgehammer and stabbed before being raped. When Andrea began crying, she was struck in the head with a sledgehammer. Miss Smith, the little girl and a 1-year-old boy were then locked inside the room.

"This is probably one of the more brutal cases that I've been involved in here," said Sheriff Smith, who has been with the sheriff's office for 22 years.

The Smith youth likely will be tried as an adult, said Spotsylvania County Commonwealth's Attorney Bill Neely.

Sheriff Smith said a detective went to the house Monday night after a hospital worker called to report a suspected case of child abuse after Andrea was brought in for treatment. The toddler was flown to a hospital in Richmond and listed in serious but stable condition with a fractured skull and nose.

A detective found family members of the child, including Walter Smith, in the house, the sheriff said. The detective found the body of Miss Smith inside the padlocked room.

The sheriff said the children were not found until one of them began crying on Monday afternoon and Betsy and Walter Smith's mother, Mary Smith, told her son to go check on them.

"Her face was messed up," Mary Smith said of her granddaughter, who was the child of another one of her daughters. "I asked Andrea after I cleaned her face up what happened to her. She said she fell and bumped her head against the fuse box."

Mrs. Smith said she does not think her son killed his sister.

"He don't remember nothing he did," she said. "He was out of it or something like that. It was an accident. He don't remember that stuff."

She said that her son had no history of violence but that he was on medication for depression. He is being held in the Rappahannock Juvenile Detention Center.