Coroner asks for grand jury in Poplar Bluff fatal hit-and-run case

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. — The same day Heavenly Hafford was buried at Poplar Bluff City Cemetery, police found the second of two vehicles believed to have been involved in the hit-and-run accident that left the 13-year-old girl’s broken body abandoned along a dark stretch of highway.

The Ford F-150 police had been looking for over the previous six days was owned by Ben Ressel and impounded from the parking lot where he worked.

Many expected Ressel to be charged as quickly as the first driver, Randal Sparks, who was booked the day of the accident on felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident.

Instead, Ressel spent 53 minutes in jail. He was released pending review by prosecutor Kevin Barbour.

Six months later, it was announced Ressel would face no criminal charges. Sparks remained in jail until Dec. 24, when he was bonded out. He since has been ordered to stand trial.

If Hafford was dead when Ressel’s vehicle struck her, no crime was committed, according to Barbour.

A pathologist contacted by civil attorneys may contradict the time of death, saying the impacts of the vehicles were too close together to tell whether the girl’s heart had stopped beating. A wrongful-death suit has been filed against Ressel and Sparks by Hafford’s father, Steven Hafford.

Butler County Coroner Jim Akers believes a grand jury should be called to make a fair and unbiased decision about whether Ressel can be held criminally liable for the actions he is alleged to have committed that night.

Akers called Barbour on Thursday to officially make the request. As of Monday, however, there was no word from Barbour as to whether he will.

“Although I stand by my findings and the method of reaching my conclusion, given the reversal of the pathologist decision, I feel the prosecutor should convene a grand jury to hear the evidence and make a decision on charges against Ben Ressel,” Akers said.

Akers came forward to ask for the grand jury before the pathologist was contacted by The Daily American Republic, but Akers maintains an impartial decision needs to be made for the sake of Hafford and her family.

“I believe Ben Ressel committed a crime. His actions were cowardly and selfish,” Akers said. “To leave a young girl lying in the road and drive off is one of the most thoughtless acts a human being could do.”

Barbour has been accused by residents of playing favorites, allowing his family’s personal friendship with Ressel to cloud his judgment. Photos of Ressel and Barbour’s son can be found on Facebook at social events and gatherings.

Barbour has denied bias, but he would not comment last week on his family’s relationship with Ressel or his decision not to proceed with charges against him.

Barbour was contacted before new concerns were raised about Hafford’s time of death.

A panel of 23 residents comprising a grand jury, selected to review all the evidence and make a recommendation on charges, would dispel concerns over bias, Akers said.

In the eight years he has been coroner, Akers says this is the first time he has been asked by the prosecutor to formally provide forensic details before a suspect is charged.

“You can’t tell me that leaving a young girl you just ran over in the middle of the road is not a crime,” Akers said. “If an impartial grand jury is conducted, I believe that they will find (Ressel) should be charged with felony hit-and-run or felony abandonment of a corpse. These are matters a jury should be allowed to consider, not a prosecutor with close ties to the suspect.

“There should be due process to everyone, no matter their stature in the community.”

Barbour has said if Hafford was dead when Ressel’s vehicle struck her, no crime was committed by leaving the scene of the accident. The law applies only if death, injury or property damage are caused, he has said.

Akers has maintained Hafford was killed by the impact with the Volkswagen Beetle, the first vehicle. The girl’s leg, hip and arm were broken on her right side from the impact before she fell back onto the rear fender and sustained a serious skull fracture. Damage can be tracked from the front of the vehicle to the rear, a path he believes is mirrored in the injuries to Hafford’s body. A final impression on the rear fender was left when the back of Hafford’s head hit the car as she fell to the pavement, Akers said.

Last week, a pathologist consulted by civil attorneys made a different claim.

Dr. Russell Deidiker, who also was consulted by law enforcement immediately after Hafford’s death, contends the seconds between the impact of the two vehicles were not enough time for pre- and postmortem wounds to be determined.

Attorneys have provided photographs and other medical records for review, according to Deidiker, who would be paid to provide an assessment in a civil suit. Deidiker also is the pathologist Akers contacted the night of Hafford’s death as a decision was made to forgo an autopsy.

“If it had been an hour or two between the two impacts, you might be able to tell which injuries were postmortem and which were premortem,” Deidiker said. “But in a very short interval like that, some of the changes we look for at postmortem wouldn’t be visible yet.”

Deidiker has not finished reviewing the files.

“I’ve not been aware of anything that is definitive that indicates she was dead when she was struck the second time,” Deidiker said. “She certainly could have been. Some of the injuries Jim described to me on the X-ray certainly could have been fatal pretty much instantly.”

Still, Deidiker said it would be difficult to tell with certainty.

Hafford sustained blunt-force trauma from the impact with the Volkswagen, Akers said.

The truck caused two large gashes to the girl’s left arm and side where tire tracks were found.

The wounds were significant, but neither left a trace of blood on the body or at the scene, he said. This indicates her heart was not beating at the time, he said.

The damage to the Volkswagen suggests Hafford never was caught under the smaller vehicle, only the truck, Akers said.

Law enforcement has said it was the drivers’ decisions to flee that created a possible crime.

Both drivers immediately requested attorneys and have declined to explain to law enforcement what happened that night.

Police interviewed about a dozen witnesses about Ressel’s movements that day. Those witnesses said Ressel left a Three Rivers College Board of Trustees meeting at 12:40 p.m. and spent the remainder of the day before the accident at two local bars. Some said he did not appear to be intoxicated.

About 7 p.m., Ressel left from the second bar, according to police. He was traveling to a co-ed volleyball game at Poplar Bluff Junior High, the same school where Hafford was a student. He stayed to play six sets, according to police reports.