A Polk County man was arraigned Monday in Circuit Court on four counts of capital murder in the deaths of four members of a family whose bodies were found last week.
A news release from Polk County Sheriff Scott Sawyer said Brian Bliss Travis, 37, has been charged in the deaths of Bethany Jo Wester, 43; her two children, Reilly James Scarbrough, 9, and Acelynn C. Wester, 2; and Bethany Wester's uncle, Steven Payne, 66.
Travis also was arraigned on an unrelated charge of furnishing, possessing or using prohibited articles, the release said.
Polk County Circuit Judge Jerry Ryan ordered Travis held without bail, according to the sheriff's news release.
A probable-cause affidavit by Arkansas State Police Special Agent Jimmie Thomas II said Travis admitted in an interview Saturday that he killed Wester, Reilly, Acelynn and Payne.
The bodies of the four victims were discovered separately, beginning April 25. The last body recovered was Reilly's, which was found about noon Saturday after Travis agreed to show investigators where Reilly's body was, according to Thomas' affidavit.
The affidavit said Sawyer and Arkansas State Police Senior Special Agent Scott Clark drove Travis to an area west of Hatfield where the boy's body was found in the woods off a county road.
Hatfield, a town of about 400 people, is near the Oklahoma border, about 7 miles south of Mena.
"This is not the conclusion of this case we were hoping and praying for," Sawyer said after reading a statement Saturday evening about Reilly's discovery.
"It's been a rough week," he said. "Pray for the family."
Bethany Wester's body was found April 25 in a creek southeast of Cove, about 3 miles south of Hatfield, after the sheriff's office received a report of a suspicious object in the creek.
The woman found face down on the creek bank was unidentified initially, the affidavit said. Counties and agencies in Arkansas and Oklahoma surrounding Polk County were contacted about outstanding missing persons reports. There were none.
The next day, Wednesday, an employer in Mena -- who was not identified in the affidavit -- reported to the sheriff's office that an employee named Bethany Jo Wester had not reported to work for the week, according to the affidavit.
Officers from the Mena Police Department were sent to Wester's home to conduct a welfare check, the affidavit says. Officers made contact with Travis at the home, arrested him on an outstanding warrant and took him to the county jail, according to the affidavit.
Wester's identification at the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock prompted the search for her two children, who were last seen April 23. Representatives of several local, state and federal agencies participated in the search of the hilly, forested county.
On Thursday, two days after the discovery of Wester's body, authorities found Payne's body outside his home in Hatfield.
Friday afternoon, searchers found Acelynn's body in a heavily wooded area southeast of Cove, according to the affidavit.
In all four cases, according to Thomas' affidavit, evidence was found that indicated the deaths were the result of homicide.
Neither the sheriff's office nor the prosecuting attorney's office has released any details about how or why the four people died.
Prosecuting Attorney Andy Riner said in a news release Monday that he was unable to release any other information on the case because of prohibitions in the Arkansas Rules of Professional Conduct.
Ryan issued a protective order Monday prohibiting the release of information about the case, Riner's news release said. The affidavit his office released Monday was in the public record and was not subject to the judge's protective order, Riner said in an email.
State Desk on 05/02/2017
