4-Year-Old Found Suffocated in Box, Half Brother Arrested

Today, 17-year-old South Carolinian William Micah Hester was charged with the kidnapping and murder of his half sister, 4-year-old Joanna Lockaby. Around 2:20PM on Tuesday, the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office had arrived at the family’s home to search for the missing child, reports CBS 17. Search teams found Joanna’s body less than half an hour later. She’d been closed inside a plastic bin “behind the home in a wooded area,” and investigators believe Hester intentionally suffocated her.

Hester was arrested during investigation and taken to the Greenville County Detention Center without bond, states CBS 17. Due to be tried as an adult, he has not yet entered pleas for his charges, and People Magazine reports information on his legal representation is not yet available.

Sheriffs are still actively investigating Joanna’s death and the potential motive behind it. Her autopsy is scheduled for today.

Joanna’s death comes a few years after the death of her 1-year-old brother, Joe Avery James Lockaby, who “died in a hot car in June 2018” while under the care of 68-year-old grandmother Janik Nix. Nix is currently on parole after pleading guilty to homicide by child abuse, according to People Magazine.