He was sentenced to a year in jail, with nine months suspended, and ordered to pay half of the injured boys medical bills. She was previously married to John Mark Byers. None of the three believed that, but Echolss healthand the possibility that even if he survived, he would still be on death row should the fight for retrials failmade it an imperative. To authorities working in West Memphisa largely Southern Baptist communitysatanic activity seemed to be the most likely cause for the killings, in part because the boys bodies were bound and appeared to have been mutilated. Powell was acquainted with Melissa Byers. Interesting article, although I do wish they had released more info (even though I understand why they didn't). At this point, Ryan said he couldn't "take it anymore" and so he and Amanda left, drove around, got gas, and bought a soda. The sheer mountain moving amount of money it cost to prove the obvious innocence of Jessie, Jason, and Damien still staggers me. In September, Mark and Melissa Byers, who live not far from the house, were charged with the residential burglary and theft. The idea of the average citizen becoming embroiled in a criminal investigation isnt far-fetched in 2021, decades removed from the launch of WM3.org. Melissa Byers body was there, wrapped in carpeting, plastic, sheets and clothing, court records said. They asked, instead, if he had ever used the knife. He advised that Byers did not clarify who they were.. She said that Byers and Mandy had been hiding drugs in the trunk of Byers' car. But that was all, and the amounts of neither of those substances exceeded therapeutic levels. Beyond the black-and-white print of the newspaper, there was a movement brewing. That story line would make up the bulk of 2000s Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, a rare sequel for a documentary, especially before the streaming era proved that true crime series like Making a Murderer and The Staircase could maintain audience interest for years. Theres no smoking gun. It was so emotionally taxing to watch and go through it again, he says. He advised he went immediately to the bedroom and saw that Melissa was totally naked lying on the far side of the bed on her back. She died of undetermined causes on March 29, 1996. Hes since parlayed the popularity of the show into a booming podcast network and documentary deal with Oxygen. Nico has put together an impressive list of tomato varieties for 2021. Websleuths, an online forum for discussions about unsolved homicides and missing-person cases, has more than 100,000 members, and internet vigilantes have used social media and other online breadcrumbs to help track down actual criminals, such as the Canadian murderer and subject of the documentary Dont F*ck With Cats, Luka Magnotta. Berlinger and Sinofsky began to take notice. My first thought is, I hope this dude isnt trying to pull me into some type of escape, Baldwin says nearly a quarter-century later. He told Witt that at a little after 5 p.m. that evening, John Mark Byers had called him on the phone, saying that he could not awaken his wife. [5]Byers said that they heard Ryan knock on the bedroom door around 3:20pm and then they both went back to sleep. She was not injured and taken into custody, police say. Stranger Things: Halloween Sounds From the Upside Down, Stranger Things: Worlds Turned Upside Down, Stranger Things: Darkness on the Edge of Town, Back broken after being telekinetically thrown against a wall, Accidentally killed during experimentation, Injuries sustained after their van was telekinetically flipped. Byers has a teen-aged stepson, but the boy who was with him on this day who will not be identified because of his age was not a relative. Brenner tells Joyce that six people in total have been taken by The . So when I saw this tiny little article in the Times, I wasnt about to free anybody that was guilty. Jackie Hicks, Pamela Hobbs brother, came from the house and confronted Terry Hobbs again. 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. And then there was the public pressure: In August 2010, Vedder and Maines headlined yet another benefit concert, this one in Little Rock. Melissa was worried about an upcoming trial involving a robbery of $20,000 worth of goods and property. 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. They said the boy with him lived at Cherokee Village. The trio assumed that the convictions had already been overturned by the time Bakken received the screenerthis was a modern-day witch hunt, they thought, and surely the state of Arkansas had already corrected the course. Hicks had gotten Hobbs down on the ground, when Hobbs reached into his pocket, pulled out the gun, and shot Hicks in the abdomen. 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. She was described as "a friend of the family". He advised that John Mark advised no and Ryan had a funny eery [sic] look on his face. On August 19, 2011, all three accepted the deal and were immediately released from prison. By going into the courtroom and sticking with the case for its entire duration, Berlinger and Sinofsky were able to capture what may have otherwise been lost to time or left out of transcripts. It had been a long fight to clear their names, and the odds seemed better than ever. The bruises on her arms and scalp were noted, but the medical examiners did not opine as to how they occurred. The 19 Unnamed Hawkins Residents melted by the Mind Flayer stems from the newspaper article about the Starcourt Mall's fire seen in ". The neighbor quoted Melissa Byers as having screamed, You cant watch your family 24 hours, and you are going down.. He was wearing sunglasses and had this weird hair, big cowboy boots. After roughly 18 months of editing, Paradise Lost debuted at Sundance in January 1996 before heading out to other festivals. He advised that when the EMTs got to the residence, Mark kept telling them, Theyve got to bring her back. Metz advised that Ryan kept mumbling something and he did not seem coherent. Melissa DeFir Byers was born on January 15, 1996. 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. It noted that she had been 68 inches tall and weighed 211 pounds. But he wasn't, and they made him take off those sunglasses. He told Waser that the neighbor, Norm Metz, came into the bedroom to help his step-father. The question the police now have to deal with is was it a death caused simply by the heart stopping (which does happen) or was it murder? They found marijuana in a closet of the master bedroom and on a night stand in the other bedroom. Now, he was being asked to consider something that he never dreamed he would: accepting a plea deal that would set the West Memphis Three free, but require them to give up their quest for exoneration. The Alford plea is a seldom-invoked and somewhat confusing legal maneuver, but the basics are fairly straightforward. He could have been me, he told Rolling Stone in 2011. But then the verdicts arrived: Both Baldwin and Echols were found guilty on all counts, just like Misskelley had been six weeks before them. Essentially, it allows the accused to assert their innocence while pleading guilty, conceding that the prosecution has an overwhelming amount of evidence to procure a conviction. He stated he continued CPR until the EMTs arrived and took over. When there wasn't one he started CPR. At the end of September 1996, a month after Byers appearance in court, investigator Witt received the medical examiners report on Melissa. 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. Melissa's return to the home coincided with her son's. The trials were sensational from start to finish, partly for the gruesomeness of the crimes, and partly because the police case was predicated on the belief that the killings had been part of a Satanistic orgy. Yes, the West Memphis Three are out of prison, but as long as they are considered guilty in the eyes of the state, the case is closed, meaning no further investigation can occur. You need corroborating evidence.. [1] Norm Metz, the neighbor living at 73 Skyline, confirmed that Ryan came back to live with his mother and father two weeks before March 29th. Byers asked Metz to come over and see if she had a pulse. Rhiannon Mcfadden wrote in article<538a5o$1a@usenetw1.news.prodigy.com> > jer@ix.netcom.com(Jerry Moak ) wrote:> > >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. Byers and his companion got back in their car and drove alongside the victim of the fight, who was still lying on the ground. We were finally winning, he says. Disintegrated by the Prototype Gate Explosion. He got what he deserved.. He kept asking me, What is your opinion? He said, I think they ought to have fought it out, dont you?, I said, No, I dont. Her body was sent for autopsy to the office of the medical examiner at the Arkansas Crime Laboratory in Little Rock. Deputy Sheriff C.L. The Hobbses are the mother and stepfather of Steve Branch, who was one of three 8-year-old boys found murdered in May last year, in a wooded area near where the family used to live in West Memphis. The problem is we have sent this knife off and had it examined and it has the blood type of Christophers on it., Byers responded, Well, Gary, I dont have any idea how it could be on there.. He got a wet rag and wiped her face before feeling for a pulse. When it didnt, the praise heaped on Paradise Lost felt hollow. One of the boys in the altercation carried a pocket knife belonging to Byers. This is on mara's new website Sheriff to re-examine Byers 'cold case' Posted by Mara on Friday November 10, 2006 Sheriff Dale Weaver, of Sharp County, Arkansas, said in an October interview that his office intends to do some additional work within the next few months to answer questions that have lingered for more than 10 years over the death of Melissa Byers, (shown in the self-portrait above). That person reportedly contacted other relatives in Blytheville, and together they drove to Memphis, where they confronted Terry Hobbs about the assault. He was charged with a felony cocaine count and carrying a weapon. Mojo had a different idea of what might get the man he affectionately called J.B. out of prison. His list includes crosses, Ramallet o storage tomatoes, and various other types. To Powell, her death looked like a possible homicide. As of "The Piggyback", 825+ characters are known to have died throughout the show's run. He claimed that Ryan told him on a number of occasions that his step-father had been in on the murder of the three children in West Memphis, AR, Stevie Branch, Chris Byers, and Michael Moore. I grabbed his arm and shoulder and guided his body to the floor. Bakken immediately showed her friends Burk Sauls and Grove Pashley, who were both equally gripped by what they had just watched. But life was continuing for John Mark Byers. I think I introduced my dad to it because that was not his normal genre., Three Metallica songsOrion, Welcome Home (Sanitarium), and Call of Ktuluwould play throughout the documentary. I thought that was *very* strange, his insistence on re-living the whole thing. Emest R. Rose, Hardys chief of police, said that, with only a few exceptions, Byers account of that incident agrees with the accounts provided by other witnesses. She died on March 11, 2007 at 39 years old. Furthermore, there is evidence that suggests that plants grown in cement blocks do not suffer from BER (blossom-end rot), which c, Growing Tomatoes from Saved Seed: Tips to Achieve Maximum Germination Rate, Seed Saving: Tips for Ensuring Maximum Germination Rate When someone in the group noticed the knife, and hollered out, He has a knife, Byers companion threw the knife an Uncle Henry bone-handled, 5-inch pocket knife aside. 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. We send our thoughts our prayers to her and his family and our team wishes her to be in total health. The murders shocked West Memphis, but weeks passed without an assailant or assailants being found. The hospital staff came to his aid and I excused myself to the visitor's room. Email: melissa.byers@legacylawmissouri.com Phone Number: (636) 486-2669. The story felt personal for all of them, but especially Sauls: He had grown up in Florida and Georgia as an outcast obsessed with art and reading some of the same books Damien Echols had. Melissa Byers was only 40 years old. It was clear that Paradise Lost was resonating. It's enough to provide plenty of tomatoes to keep the whole neighborhood supplied! They saw this movie and they felt like, I have to do something.. When Byers informed him of Melissa's condition, Metz asked why he had not called an ambulance. Rose said, Byers told me he told the juvenile, Don t open the knife. He also told me he has taught the boy how to use the knife.. [26], On December 17th, 1997, a man identified as "Earls" gave a statement to Investigator Witt. Baldwin, the youngest member of the trio that had come to be known as the West Memphis Three, was serving a life sentence after being convicted on charges connected to the 1993 killings of three 8-year-old boys. The presence of this drug in the urine indicates recent use and it cannot be ruled out that this drug did not play a contributory role in death with a delay between a toxic reaction and death allowing clearing of the drug into the urine. Maines won the lawsuit; police have never named Hobbs a suspect or charged him in connection with the killings.). The two met with Byers' neighbor, Metz, who expressed concern over Byers' step-son, Ryan Clark, as he had not returned to the residence after reportedly leaving abruptly while Melissa was being worked on. The brother-in-law, Dennis DeFir, brought Ryan back to the home the day after Melissa died. The two reportedly fell asleep and Byers awoke to find Melissa unresponsive. In April of this year, shortly after the trials at which three West Memphis teen-agers were convicted of the killings, the Byerses moved to Cherokee Village, a quiet community of about 4,000, close to the Missouri border. The assaults are but another twist in a tragic saga. 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. I think we were the first internet sleuths, but we were not internet sleuths.. Here were these guysat best they were neutral. That type of support made observers question the verdicts perhaps more so than any rock star who shouted Echolss name into a mic because of an HBO documentary. According to the negotiated plea, Byers was to pay $20,000 to the woman whose house was burglarized, make restitution to the father of the boy who was injured in the fight, and pay a $250 fine. Melissa's Death Melissa and John Mark Byers were having problems in their . The veteran actress died on November 11, 2014, after a bout with cancer just five days after the sitcom aired her final voice appearance in season 8, episode 8 titled "The Prom Equivalency." He's really no creepier than a lot of guys from that area, but why didn't they spend that extra dollar and do a real DNA test on the (dried blood fround in the mechanism of the serrated) knife? She was pronounced dead after efforts to revive her failed. But from the start, their residence there was marked by turmoil, including several incidents verging on violence: In early 1994, shortly after their arrival, John Mark and Melissa Byers were jailed in Sharp County on charges of residential burglary and theft after more than $20,000 in antiques were taken from a neighbors home. Now, not quite three years after the murder of 8-year-old Christopher Byersand with some criminal charges against her and her husband still pendingMelissa Byers was dead. Much of Cecil Hotel focuses on the amateur investigators who turned coincidences into conspiracy theories, ultimately accusing an innocent person of her death. They continued to drive around until evening when they went to Ryan's grandfather's house.[4]. Melissa Byers did not have a prescription for Dilaudid. No one disputes, however, that the boy with him then reached out the window with a can of Mountain Dew and poured it over the prone boys head, saying, This will wake him up., A highway department employee working nearby heard the altercation and ran over to intervene. The first and likely simplest gauge is continued interest in the case. 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