William Micah Hester, Pelzer, South Carolina teen accused of suffocating Joanna Lockaby 4 yr old half sister to death. No known motive.
A family plagued with one tragedy after the other …. A 17-year-old South Carolina boy has been accused of suffocating his 4 year old half sister to death, after the girl’s body was found in a plastic bin behind the home where they both lived.
The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office began investigating the disappearance of Joanna Lockaby at about 2:20 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. The child was found about 25 minutes later and pronounced dead on the scene.
William Micah Hester was arrested Tuesday evening and charged with her death; he was charged with kidnapping and murder on Wednesday, WYFF reported.
The kidnapping warrant said Hester ‘did unlawfully seize and confine’ Joanna ‘in a container that she was unable to escape from.’
‘We’re still trying to uncover what led up to her death,’ Lt. Ryan Flood told WYFF. ‘What the motive behind her death was, and a lot of that is going to be pending the autopsy.’
This is Joanna Lockaby as a newborn with her brother, Joe Lockaby. Family shared this photo with us when Joe tragically died in a hot car in 2018. Joanna, 4 years old now, was killed this week and investigators say her half-brother is the suspect.https://t.co/nNPa7eDwI3 pic.twitter.com/ln0XMgRLqu
— FOX Carolina News (@foxcarolinanews) July 21, 2022
A family plagued with one tragedy after the other
Appearing in court on Wednesday, Hester’s father insisted that his son ‘would not do anything like this on purpose.’
‘If he did, he was out of his mind crazy.’
‘He’s a good boy,’ William Hester told a packed court. ‘He’s never been in trouble. He loved his sister.’
Despite his father’s pleas to have mercy on him, a judge ruled to hold Hester without bail.
Joanna Lockaby was the sister of Joe Lockaby, a 18-month-old boy who died after being left in a hot car in 2018, WHNS reported.
Hester is being held at Greenville County Detention Center, approximately 17 miles north of his hometown of Pelzer, South Carolina.
A mugshot released Wednesday showed what appeared to be tears in his eyes as he stared into the camera.
‘We’ve lost little Joanna,’ Hester’s father said. ‘We lost little Joanna, I just don’t want to lose my son. I’m just asking to have mercy on him.’
