Mother of murder victim “over-the-moon” that alleged killer is arrested in Pocatello

GRESHAM, Oregon — The mother of a Gresham woman brutally stabbed last year says she is “over-the-moon” with the recent arrest in her daughter’s murder investigation.

Beth McBride told FOX 12 she and her husband immediately traveled to Pocatello where authorities arrested Angela Rose McCraw-Hester Wednesday and charged her with the murder of Annastasia Hester.

McCraw-Hester is the current wife of Hester’s ex-husband Matt Hester.

Annastasia Hester was found suffering from several stab wounds in her Gresham apartment in June 2016. She called 911 for help but died before she could tell police anything about her attacker.

Detectives with the Gresham Police Department told FOX 12 recent lab results from forensic evidence collected at Annastasia Hester’s apartment linked McCraw-Hester to the murder. Investigators declined to say what that evidence was.

“If she is guilty, then I hope we can get a conviction,” McBride said.

Police also arrested Matthew Hester early Thursday morning and charged him with obstruction of justice and resisting arrest. He has not been named a suspect in his ex-wife’s murder.

Annastasia Hester and Matthew Hester have a young daughter together who lived primarily with her mother before she was killed.

Matthew Hester and McCraw-Hester moved their family to Idaho shortly after Annastasia Hester’s death, but police have kept close tabs on McCraw-Hester since Hester’s killing.

McCraw-Hester and Matthew Hester are both in the Bannock County Detention Center, where McCraw-Hester is awaiting extradition to Oregon.

McBride told FOX 12 she is looking forward to being reunited with her young granddaughter.