Brian Bliss Travis, 37, of Polk County has been arraigned on four counts of capital murder in Polk County for the deaths of four members of the same family last week.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office issued a press release around 1:30 p.m. on Monday confirming the charges
Travis, who has a lengthy criminal record and was already in the Polk County Detention center for unrelated charges, was charged in the deaths of Bethany Jo Wester, 43, her 2-year-old daughter Acelynn Wester, her 9-year-old son Reilly Scarbrough and 66-year-old uncle Steven Payne.
Travis, who was the live-in boyfriend of Wester, has a long record of criminal activity as an adult stretching back to 1998.
On Wednesday of last week, one day after the body of Bethany Jo Wester had been found in rural southeast of Polk and authorities started searching for her missing children.
Inside Fort Smith broke the news of Travis’ arrest on the unrelated charges because his address on the booking sheet was the same address listed for Bethany Jo Wester.
On Thursday, the body of Steven Payne was found in his Hatfield residence.
The bodies of Acelyyn Wester and Reilly Scarbrough were discovered last week in the same general vicinity of where their mother’s had been found on Tuesday.
A search warrant last Wednesday was executed on a home in Bethany Jo Wester’s name and Travis was arrested at that time on unrelated charges of furnishing or possessing prohibited articles and booked into the Polk County Detention Center.
Authorities said the body of nine year-old Reilly Scarbrough was recovered due to information furnished to law enforcement by Travis.
Travis is being held and a protective order was issued in the case to prevent any party from making extrajudicial statements about the case.
