Sheriff Batten speaks with WWAY regarding possible assault in Columbus County

We continue our coverage tonight on the Ida Smith case with an interview with the Columbus County Sheriff. WWAY spoke to Sheriff Chris Batten this afternoon about the 85-year-old Bolton woman whose family thinks she may have been assaulted in her home. Sheriff Batten sat down with us for over an hour to answer questions and help clarify information in the case. The family originally contacted us with concerns that the injuries to their aunt had not been adequately investigated. As a result of our interview this afternoon with the Sheriff, more details on the case and investigation are becoming clearer. Sheriff Batten said he had been in contact with Smith’s family since the case was closed last October and informed them of the status of the investigation, and apologized if the family had not been formally notified the case had been officially closed. He said he wanted to have adequate time to review the case before sitting down with us, and even though the case had been closed, he reopened it after our report to make sure his investigators did not miss anything, and to ensure Smith’s family was satisfied with their findings. "We want to, as a sheriffs office, to make sure the family and the community is relatively comfortable in knowing that we covered everything we could possibly cover to make sure a crime did or didn’t occur," said Batten. Despite the fact that Ms. Smith had been severely injured, including two broken legs, Sheriff Batten said all of the evidence pointed to a serious fall, and not an assault. Ms. Smith suffers from a degenerative bone disease, which likely contributed to the extent of her injuries. There was also no evidence of any forced entry, or any kind of struggle. Another complicating factor is that Ms. Smith suffers from dementia and could not tell investigators exactly what had happened to her.