Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508210076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Sheila Ann Stafford was buried Wednesday in West Virginia at her family's cemetery.
The funeral for the Salem woman, who was killed Aug. 12, was held with the casket closed.
To Tammy Stafford, that is one of the many infuriating things about her sister's killing.
``We can't open the casket. ... He didn't let her go out with any dignity whatsoever.''
Sheila Stafford is Montgomery County's first homicide victim of 1995. Investigators say hers also was the most brutal killing they can recall.
``I can't think of anything more gruesome since I've been here,'' said Lt. Ron Hamlin, the investigating deputy. His commanding officer, Capt. O.P. Ramsey, who has worked for the Blacksburg Police Department and the county, agrees.
The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office has charged Sheila Stafford's estranged husband, Scotty Wayne Overby, with capital murder, rape, and defiling his wife's body. He is being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail. A Sept. 21 preliminary hearing has been scheduled.
If convicted of capital murder, he could be executed.
Stafford was strangled with an alarm clock cord, a board and two belts. Her nose, neck and breasts had been cut with a knife.
Investigators believe she was raped, killed, then raped again.
``This is probably the nastiest capital murder case that I've ever been involved with ... and the most tragic,'' said Jimmy Turk, who along with Robbie Jenkins has been appointed to represent Overby.
Turk said Overby had no criminal record ``of any significance.'' Montgomery County General District Court records show only citations for traffic violations.
``I've spoken with some of the neighbors ... who have said they are completely shocked. He always appeared to be a person who was fairly in control,'' until the couple's separation, Turk said.
Sheila and Tammy Stafford were living together in Salem. The sisters, only a year apart in age, were close.
``I don't know how long I'm going to go on without her,'' Tammy Stafford said Tuesday.
She fears that publicity will jeopardize the case. She especially doesn't want to see Overby's trial moved out of the New River or Roanoke valleys.
Sheila Stafford, 27, worked as a sewing machine operator at Maid Bess in Salem.
``She loved everybody,'' Tammy Stafford said of her sister. ``Everybody loved her. ... Everybody cared about her,'' including an older man she helped care for.
Sheila Stafford was to go into the hospital for surgery soon. Tammy Stafford said Overby called his estranged wife to wish her well in the surgery, then told her he had been saved, was going to church and had quit drinking.
That's why she agreed to visit him at the Alleghany Trailer Park near Shawsville, where he was staying with a friend after returning from Tennessee, Stafford believes.
Sheila Stafford, 27, had reduced from 300 pounds to 140 pounds. She had a new lease on life, a new car, new clothes.
``She was just moving on, and he was jealous,'' Tammy Stafford said.
Because the casket was closed, family members comforted themselves by displaying her photograph on the casket top, and with a poem found at the funeral home that included a line that God has not promised peace without pain, Tammy Stafford said.
The family knows Sheila suffered, but the poem gives them hope that she's at peace now.
Harry Stafford said Wednesday that his sister Sheila was not involved with another man, as Overby originally told authorities. Harry Stafford said his sister took her marriage vows seriously and had left Overby as a wake-up call to show him how serious she was that he needed to get help for his drinking.
``She was just wanting someone to love her, to protect her and be a husband,'' Harry Stafford said.
``There was no other man involved,'' he said. ``She loved him, and she wanted him to work'' on the marriage.
Turk said there's no evidence Overby ever violated a restraining order Sheila Stafford got against her husband after their separation.
Overby had been seeking help for a drinking problem, Turk said.
``He did drink in excess at times,'' Turk said, but had started attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and had been ``in and out of several hospitals'' for treatment of alcoholism and depression.
Turk, who visited Overby at the Montgomery County Jail three times last week, said he understands his client had twice tried to commit suicide in the last few months - by wrecking his motorcycle and by overdosing on about 60 pills.
Turk said he doesn't know yet whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty, but ``a major focus of the defense would be toward the mitigation phase at the early stages.''
"It's just a very, very tragic set of circumstances for everyone," Turk said. "It just seems so senseless."
Like his sister Tammy, Harry Stafford is struck by the viciousness of Sheila's death.
``It would have been a lot easier'' if she had just been killed, he said. Instead, he believes his sister was tortured.
Sheila Stafford was an organ donor, but she lay dead too long for any organs to be donated, he said.
``He didn't leave her with anything,'' Harry Stafford said.
by CNB