Courts and Crime

    A registered sex offender pleaded no contest Friday to an aggravated sexual battery charge, stemming from a June 2012 incident.
    As part of a plea agreement, James Naff Gibson Jr., 52 of Roanoke, entered the plea to the charge—amended from a forcible sodomy charge that could have carried a mandatory life sentence—receiving a seven-year active prison sentence. Naff had previously registered as a sex offender because of a 2008 conviction in the city of Roanoke for object sexual penetration.

    According to Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Louis Harrison, CASA is a valuable asset in the cases he hears.

    CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate. These trained volunteers are appointed by the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court to investigate and advocate for children in cases before the court where children are involved. They prepare a report, making a recommendation on what is best for the children, to help the judge make his decision.

    Some cases are just more difficult than others. This one, involving the alleged murder of a 2-year-old child by his mother, is about as difficult as it gets, authorities said Friday.

    Such was the case for one investigator last week, who, after finishing his duties, called his grandson, because it had affected him so deeply.
    Shana Marie Witt, 24 of Bedford, has been charged with strangling her 2-year-old child to death.

Local, state and federal law enforcement are working together today in hopes of finding the bodies of Sheila and Katherine Lyon, abducted four decades ago in Montgomery County, Maryland.

The four-decade long investigation into the missing girls has been focused in the Taylor's Mountain area of Bedford County since early last fall. A search for the bodies of the two girls has been ongoing over the rough terrain of the mountain.