Sheila Nevins, the HBO exec who pushed for Berlinger and Sinofsky to make that initial trip to Arkansas, is most proud of the companys willingness to let her finance three documentaries over 18 years without knowing where they would go. None of the initial trio behind WM3.orgnor their friend Lisa Fancher, who later became a key part of the efforthad ever considered themselves an activist to that point. Byers asked to ride in the ambulance with his wife. The plot thickens and takes another crazy twist. Ryan asked if his mother was alright and Byers told him he did not know. Ryan stated he knocked on the door to his parents' room and both answered him. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. Rollins not only gave interviews to keep the effort alive in the press, he organized a string of benefit shows and released an album featuring Iggy Pop and Chuck D, with proceeds going to the defense. He did not know if John Mark had anything to do with Melissa's death and said that "everyone seemed to be happy and jolly during the partying time. Supporting the Arkansas Times' independent journalism is more vital than ever. They asked to see a cut, and they immediately said, Not only are we going to let you use all that music, but were not going to charge you anything for it., Metallica would be the first celebrities to throw their support behind the West Memphis Three, but they were far from the last. In the joint trial of Baldwin and Echols, which took place separately from Misskelleys, Berlinger and Sinofsky filmed the surreal moments that juries were actually present for: a rundown of the books Echols checked out of the library, a parade of band T-shirts worn by the pair, a copy of a Blue Oyster Cult record found in Damiens girlfriends house that became evidence because of the word cult and song titles like Dont Fear the Reaper. What the cameras couldnt capture, however, was the introduction of physical evidencethe prosecution didnt offer much of that aside from a knife that was never directly linked to the crimes and fabric threads deemed microscopically similar to items found in Baldwins and Echolss homes, an assertion that has been questioned in the years since the trials. I'd be interested in knowing whether or not he also died under suspicious circumstances. % Waser described the subsequent events as follows: "After signing the request he apparently passed out and fell towards the counter. A former neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said she reported Byers about that time to child abuse authorities, because he was whipping Christopher [who was two at the time] so badly I was afraid for his life. The woman said she reported the incidents again during the investigations into the murders, but was never asked to testify. weaving supposedly anti-Christian and occult messages into their songs, he discovered her while Googling cold cases, funded an extensive private investigation, a November 2010 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling, biggest allies in the years before his 2020 death, acquitted of capital murder in 2018 after a 25-year legal saga. I grabbed his arm and shoulder and guided his body to the floor. Injuries sustained from the impact of a telekinetically thrown car, Crushed by a telekinetically thrown metal door, Succumb or die instantly to gunshot wounds, Burned in their crib after a shelling was ordered on their home, Injuries sustained after a shelling was ordered on their home, Repeatedly smashed against the ground and ripped in half, Killed due to their hive mind connection to the demodogs. He was just taking in the enormity of the defining event of his life to that point, which had been committed to film and was now playing for him inside the cavernous, auditorium-style visitation room. Some of the boys in the group said that Byers told them, Youd better not mess with me. In 1996, a screener for Paradise Lost passed her desk. Waser noted that there was a glass containing white liquid on the nightstand located to the right of the bed. Mark Byers faces trials on both the burglary charge and the charge stemming from the teen-agers fight. But most notably, his initial timeline of events didnt match what was known about the crimes, and every time he offered a detail that diverged from the accepted chronology, the interrogating officers seemed to steer him back in the direction of the official version. A few minutes he would calm down. Melissa and John Mark Byers were having problems in their marriage in 1996. Byers stated that Melissa preferred to take Dilaudid. "[24], In December of 1997, Mandy Beasley told Investigator Stan Witt that while she was at the Byers' residence on the day Melissa died, John Mark told her that he hoped the investigators would not find the three syringes that were located in the bottom drawer of a dresser in the bedroom. Melissa Byers died at age 35 years old on July 2, 2010. He had been expecting a visitation, but was instead led to the prison chapel office, where inmates were typically brought only if someone close to them had died. The problem facing Sheriff Powell was that no one at the hospital could figure out why. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Melissa Byers. So the minute youre done, you just want to know more. Nobody was saying, This is an outrageous case that needs to be looked into.. By the time the Byerses had been in Cherokee Village six months, police had been summoned to their residence at least eight times. "She advised he told her a cigarette made a excellent fuse, that you could light it, and due to slow burning, it would give you time to get away. It was so emotionally taxing to watch and go through it again, he says. 8 spiritual secrets for multiplying your money. That was more than the people deciding the case were able to hearthe presiding judge made the expert give most of his testimony without the jury in the courtroom because he questioned its relevance. Our monthly magazine is free at over 500 locations in Central Arkansas. The sheer mountain moving amount of money it cost to prove the obvious innocence of Jessie, Jason, and Damien still staggers me. Byers agreed to the autopsy and signed a form giving consent. When Rose questioned Byers later, he confirmed that he did hold a gun at his side throughout the incident, but, Rose said, He told me, At no time did I intimidate or threaten any of those kids., Rose said, I asked him, You dont think that just having a gun in your hands under those circumstances was intimidating and threatening? He said, No.'. Melissa is the estate planning paralegal at Legacy Law Center. %PDF-1.5 "), Also, the guy I think was Byers said that the last time he saw his son, he was giving him a beating because the son had been riding his bicycle in the street or something like that. [11] He told Waser that he didn't know what to do. He told Waser that the neighbor, Norm Metz, came into the bedroom to help his step-father. But he wasn't, and they made him take off those sunglasses. At that time, I was a little naive that what you read in the paper must have some truth to it, and all the press reports coming out of Arkansas were saying that this was like a slam dunk, an open-and-shut case with a confession that was printed in the newspaper.. Before granting his permission for the search, John Mark Byers had told a deputy sheriff that police would probably find a small amount of marijuana in the house. The final scene Berlinger and Sinofsky filmed may have been the piece that stuck with viewers the most: the image of Baldwin and Echols being led out of the courthouse in handcuffs and bulletproof vests, now property of the state. Melissa D Byers was born on March 25, 1975. Times 12/26/97, The Strange Demise of Melissa Byers. Other charges against Mark and Melissa Byers, including those for the residential burglary, were still pending in Sharp County Circuit Court on March 29, 1996, when Melissa Byers mysteriously died. Estate Planning Paralegal. A trial is scheduled for next March. A year later, when the film Paradise Lost was shown on television and then released to theaters, John Mark and Melissa Byers were brought to national attention. He was a . She advised that Byers told her that Melissa had knowledge of this and she is dead now and dead people can't talk." Melissa also had traces of Lithium, valproic acid (used to treat seizures and post traumatic stress disorder), and marijuana in her urine. All of the documents pertaining to the investigation of Melissa Byers' death may be found here. In September, Mark and Melissa Byers, who live not far from the house, were charged with the residential burglary and theft. By getting to the story quickly, the directors were able to document the post-arrest period and two trials that followed in painstaking detail. Varieties for 2021 The lawyers particularly wanted to focus on the criminal history of Mark Byers a history that, according to police records, involved prior attacks on family members, and to which police apparently paid only slight attention. Inevitably, the West Memphis Three case always comes up. Rose called police at Cherokee Village, read them the description, and, he said, they told me who I was looking for. As a result of the incident, the boy whom Byers had driven to the altercation and who had used Byers knife ended up being charged with second-degree battery, a Class-D felony. By 1987, Byers had been married, fathered two children, been divorced, and remarried. He agreed to a search and signed a permission form at 6:55pm. That same year, Byers was arrested and charged with terroristic threatening for an assault on his former wife. Hydrocodone was detected in the urine, but not in the blood or the liver. At that point. The neighbor quoted Melissa Byers as having screamed, You cant watch your family 24 hours, and you are going down.. Through what Jim Clark, the director of the crime lab, recently described as a typographical error, no mention of the finding of Dilaudid appeared in the autopsy reports conclusions. (Despite Misskelleys statement, the coroners examination found no injuries on the victims consistent with sexual assault.) She died at . Furthermore, if you're growing heirloom varieties or rare species that may not, 2021 Tomato Varieties to Try in Your Garden this Year | Varieties for Storage & Other Tomatoes Available, Tomatoes are a popular and versatile vegetable that can be used in a variety of dishes. He just didnt know it would take another 14 years to happen. The origin of the other needle puncture woundsin the groin, arms, and feetwas undetermined. I went to a Baptist school and I got accused of being a devil worshiper because I was trying to learn how to write hieroglyphics, says Sauls, today a screenwriter and VFX designer. In July, John Mark Byers was involved in an incident in which a group of teen-agers fought while Byers reportedly stood watch with a rifle to make sure the fight went on. No physical evidence was produced linking any of the accused teen-agers with the crime, and no motive for the killings was introduced other than that the murders had been part of an demonic ritual. He was handed the phone. The Byerses, who did not respond to requests for an interview, have also sought a restraining order against the Kingsburys. When he was released in 2011, he met John Hardin, who worked with the West Memphis Three support group Arkansas Take Action, and the two bonded over a desire to do for others what had just been done for Baldwin. (Byers) Hale had been residing in Mesquite, Dallas County, Texas 75149. As most people in the area knew, she was the mother of one of three boys who were found murdered in West Memphis in 1993. Mojo, however, was considerably more fired up, believing the same thing many of Paradise Losts viewers did: that the movie showed an incredible miscarriage of justice, one that would surely be fixed. But the feud between neighbors is minor compared to two other incidents, both of which have resulted in the filing of charges against the couple. By becoming a subscriber or donating as little as $1 to our efforts, you'll not only have access to all of our articles, but you'll also be helping us hire more writers to expand our coverage and continue to bring important stories to light. Witt arrived at the hospital about 35 minutes later. He cautions, My client was convicted without evidence. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. Before the three teens were arrested, Beyers was giving the police the names of pawnbrokers and drug dealers as possible suspects (he's a police drug informant), claiming that there were a lot of people with grudges against him (diverting attention from himself? Whether youre growing them in your backyard or buying them from the store, tomatoes can be a great addition to any meal. "[25], Mandy concluded her statement by discussing how Byers told her that he burned down Brenda Atwood's trailer. Quickly, however, he realized Berlinger and Sinofsky were taking a different approach. [6] Metz had to go back to his own home to make the call because he did not have his glasses. It is documented that the morning after his arrest, Shelby County authorities placed Byers in federal custody, in the hands of U.S. marshals. One of those shows, Truth & Justice With Bob Ruff, became the basis for an Oxygen docuseries last year titled The Forgotten West Memphis Three, which took a closer look at the three victims and tried to shine new light on the evidence. Melissa DeFir Byers was born on January 15, 1956. >According to an article by Associated Press and published in the>Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Oct 4: "The mother of a boy killed in West>Memphis' 1993 triple murders had drugs in her system when she died, but, >not enough to cause her death, a county sheriff says. Even without a smoking gun, the circumstantial evidence was enough for a conviction in a place like Crittenden County, Arkansas. Christopher Byers, also known as Christopher Murray, was born on June 23rd, 1984. Her body showed no visible signs of trauma. Metz also said that Byers stated "that he did not kill her and that he loved her. He stated that when he touched her she did not feel right. The news was devastating beyond just word of his friends suffering. In 1994, the FBI said there was scant evidence that violent satanic crimes had ever occurred in America outside of a few isolated incidents, but that was long after TV hosts like Geraldo, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Oprah had spread moral hysteria about musicians weaving supposedly anti-Christian and occult messages into their songs, and long after wrongful convictions were handed down in the infamous McMartin Preschool sexual assault trials. Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message. The two reportedly fell asleep and Byers awoke to find Melissa unresponsive. Dilaudid was not among them. When West Memphis police questioned Byers two weeks after the boys murders, they asked him about this undercover work and people who, as Byers put it, maybe would be vindictive.. West Memphis 3 murders Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. Byers acted strange, the report noted. [23] James was asked point blank if he knew that Byers murdered his wife. As more people learned about the case from Paradise Lost and the work of people like Bakken and Sauls, the phrase Free the West Memphis Three caught on as a slogan for progressive musicians and actors in the 1990s, up there with Save the Rainforest and Free Tibet. Eddie Vedder became an early leading voice, soon followed by the likes of Peter Jackson, Johnny Depp, and Natalie Maines from the band then known as the Dixie Chicks. They saw the same thing you did. Christopher Byers was born to Melissa DeFir and Ricky Murray. (Chief Medical Examiner). I have my doubts as to whether the teens actually committed the murders, and I consider Byers suspicious, but that's a long way from declaring him guilty. In January 1995, John Mark Byers was found guilty on the charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He had, in fact, passed it, but it was after that that Misskelley gave his damning confession.z. [22]In a subsequent interview, James stated that he had gotten close to Ryan, John Mark's step-son, while at Highland High School. He had had no prior criminal record. The right thoracic puncture mark and the right wrist puncture mark were both covered by Band-Aids. Either way, after an emotional Season 4, it looks like Will's character . Join the ranks of the 63,000 Facebook followers, 58,000 Twitter followers, 35,000 Arkansas blog followers, and 70,000 daily email blasts who know that the Arkansas Times is the go-to source for tough, determined, and feisty journalism that holds the powerful accountable. It was nude and lying on the stretcher where she had died. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. He met Byers, who was leaving, on his way, and reported that Byers told him, Some smart-ass kid got his ass kicked. At the time of her youngest son's murder in May of 1993, Melissa was married to John Mark Byers . But I had to. Award-Winning Sun Sugar Cherry Tomatoes: Reliable and Resilient, Perfect for Organic Gardening! As the first in a trilogy of Paradise Lost films about the case, the 1996 movie was a stunning example of cinma vrit, as directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky embedded themselves with the prosecution, the defense, and the families of both the slain and the accused to put human faces on a heart-wrenching tragedy, as well as highlight the overblown worries of satanic rituals and murderous cults that proliferated throughout the 1980s and 90s. Byers mentioned two people in Memphis whom he put in that category, and he referred to helping authorities at Marion on their investigation into an illegal methamphetamine lab. No, he said, according to a transcript of that interview. Metz had been one of the last people to see Melissa Byers alive. It's . Filming the activists work seemed like the best place for Berlinger and Sinofsky to turn their attention; what better way to show the continued plight of the West Memphis Three than to show regular people dedicating their free time to fighting for them? They described Byers, whom no one knew, as dirty, with a blonde beard and sunglasses, 230-250 pounds, wearing like a flag shirt with blue jeans, 35-40 years old, with brownish-black hair. They also gave a description of his vehicle. "He ask [sic] John Mark if Melissa was dead. Hobbs refused to talk to the relatives, but instead left the house and went to a truck outside, from which, unbeknown to those inside, he removed a .357 magnum pistol, which he put in his pocket. Her body showed no visible signs of trauma. The following is a list documenting the deaths of characters throughout the four seasons of Stranger Things. When this was complete, Waser was asked to return to Byers' home because he had "seemed to gain John Mark's trust". In 1996 they appeared on television again, this time in a highly praised documentary about the West Memphis murder case that was shown on HBO. Our monthly magazine is free at over 500 locations in Central Arkansas. Stranger Things Wiki is a FANDOM TV Community. By 9:30pm, Ryan was still not home. He arrived at the home around 1pm and "partied with them, drinking Crown Royal, and taking valium, xanex, and that he saw Mark Byers with a sandwich baggie of K-4 dilaudid." The medical examiner's office said Melissa Byers, 47, died as a result of multiple. Christopher, known to family and friends as "Chris" was one of three murder victims in the "Robin Hood Hills Child Murders" case. 4 0 obj The results suggest that Melissa had not been using hydrocodone for an extended length of time; otherwise, the drug would have been in her blood and her liver. Byers said he called Norm Metz and asked him to call an ambulance. This article was updated after publication to add more context about the honorariums paid to the families of the victims and the West Memphis Three and also to correct the time frame in which Berlinger and Sinofsky informed HBO about the changing scope of the documentary. Additionally, by selecting varieties that are well-suited for your climate and soil type, you can increase the chances of success with each planting season. Founded 1974, the Arkansas Times is a lively, opinionated source for news, politics & culture in Arkansas. 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