Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 31, 1995 TAG: 9510310112
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COLLINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Helms, who lives in the Bassett area, was charged Monday with first-degree murder in the killing of 15-year-old Lavina Scales, a Martinsville High School sophomore.
Also facing a firearms charge, Helms was being held in a detention center pending a hearing, probably today, in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
Scales' body was spotted Wednesday night by a passer-by on Virginia 679 in the Rock Hill community near Bassett. Scales' killer tried to push her body down into a ravine, but one of her feet snagged in a tree high enough above the road for the motorist to see it.
"If it wouldn't have been for that, we might not have found her for several more days," said Lt. Wes Ashley of the Henry County Sheriff's Office.
The Sheriff's Office then launched a turn-over-every-stone probe in which every investigator in the department was involved.
Interviews with Scales' friends and people who saw her the night of the killing quickly focused the investigation on Helms, Ashley said.
Asked if investigators talked with Helms sometime before he was charged, Ashley said, "I don't want to get into that."
Investigators also would not discuss a possible motive.
Scales was shot several times with a handgun. Investigators wouldn't say how or where she was shot.
"I will say that any one of the wounds would have been fatal," Ashley said.
The type of gun also hasn't been disclosed, because it hasn't been recovered, said Ashley, who has worked in law enforcement with Martinsville and Henry County for 26 years.
"I've worked heinous crimes before," he said, "and this definitely fits into that category."
Ashley said an autopsy revealed that no struggle occurred - "This girl never had the chance to defend herself," he said - and that there was no indication of sexual assault.
Ashley called Helms "an acquaintance" of Scales'.
The victim's grandmother, Elizabeth Scales, said she'd heard her granddaughter talk about Helms, but he wasn't "a steady boyfriend or anything."
"Lavina was sweet and innocent," she said. "She was taken advantage of."
Elizabeth Scales said she is upset with media reports that portrayed her granddaughter as a runaway.
The night she was killed, Lavina Scales left her Martinsville home to walk to meet some friends, her grandmother said.
"She told me she was going to get her hair fixed. She said, 'I'm gone Granma.' And I said, 'OK.' And that's the last time I saw my beautiful little grandchild."
Elizabeth Scales moved in to take care of Lavina Scales and her three siblings several months ago when their mother died of heart problems.
Lavina Scales wasn't wild, her grandmother said.
"She didn't even like to go out a whole lot. She liked to sit in the house and listen to her music. She was mourning her mother's death."
Elizabeth Scales said she wants her granddaughter's killer brought to justice.
"And I mean justice," she said.
Keywords:
FATALITY
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.