ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 9, 1995 TAG: 9512110080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WINCHESTER
A Frederick County grand jury has added two more charges against Wanda Smelser in the death of her 12-year-old daughter.
The indictments handed up Thursday charge Smelser with the abduction of her daughter and lying on applications for welfare. Smelser already is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Valerie Smelser.
The child was beaten to death by Wanda Smelser's boyfriend, Norman Hoverter, who has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder and abduction.
The abduction charge stems from the imprisonment of the child in the basement of the house the couple shared with several of Smelser's other children. Prosecutors say Valerie often was without food and was forced to use a tin can as a toilet.
The indictment charging Smelser says Valerie was abducted from Nov. 1 to Jan. 22. The child's naked, emaciated body was found Jan. 22 along a road in a neighboring county.
The new indictments also charge that Smelser failed to say that Hoverter was living with her when she filled out a Department of Social Services application for assistance.
Smelser faces a preliminary hearing Monday on the murder charge. She is being held in a psychiatric hospital in Petersburg because she has refused to eat and had been severely depressed.
- Associated Press
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