He says that while he was in the supermax prison in Varner, he would write letters trying to drum up support for not just himself, but also for other inmates he believed were wrongfully convicted. 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. Buried in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. The other drugs found in the blood were at low or therapeutic levels which have not been associated with sudden death."[35]. When the pair got the call from Nevins, they mobilized immediately, landing in Arkansas shortly after the arrests. Witt arrived at the hospital about 35 minutes later. (Despite Misskelleys statement, the coroners examination found no injuries on the victims consistent with sexual assault.) 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. The 1998 Arkansas Times Academic All-Star Team nominees. It can slow breathing, heart rate, and brain activity. By subscribing or donating to the Arkansas Times, you'll not only have access to all of our articles, but you'll also be helping us hire more writers and expand our coverage. Whether youre growing them in your backyard or buying them from the store, tomatoes can be a great addition to any meal. In the opinion portion of the autopsy report it was stated that "no specific anatomical cause of death was found." Join us in the fight for truth. She also described seeing lots of blood in the home and seeing the body in the basement with what she thought was a stab in the back. 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. Byers was not arrested nor was the case against him revealed. Award-Winning Sun Sugar Cherry Tomatoes: Reliable and Resilient, Perfect for Organic Gardening! Ha had been beaten badly enough that he lost consciousness and later had to be hospitalized. 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. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Melissa Byers. You dont know who I am. Byers denies saying that. The evolution of how the teens were perceivedon behalf of both the filmmakers and even part of the defense teamis captured on camera early as Stidham and his colleagues began to consider whether Misskelleys confession had been coerced. To Powell, her death looked like a possible homicide. BabyCenter. In October, Melissa Byers was arrested once again and charged with aggravated assault, this time for pointing a rifle at carpet layers who refused to work in her home until the floors were cleaned. Mara Leveritt, a journalist who followed the case throughout the 1990s and wrote the 2002 book Devils Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three, calls the strain of Christianity that runs through the region very literal and says that even her children faced harassment as teenagers for playing Dungeons & Dragons and listening to Ozzy Osbourne. Nobody was saying, This is an outrageous case that needs to be looked into.. 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. [14] In the statement given by Metz, he said that John Mark told him he thought Melissa had overdosed on a drug. At the time of her youngest son's murder in May of 1993, Melissa was married to John Mark Byers. Melissa Byers, Self: Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. 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). 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. Beyond the black-and-white print of the newspaper, there was a movement brewing. Echols, who prosecutors argued was the ringleader, was sentenced to death. He had had no prior criminal record. Nor were any opiates were found in her blood. 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. That person reportedly contacted other relatives in Blytheville, and together they drove to Memphis, where they confronted Terry Hobbs about the assault. 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." 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. )+B]{uApptJ'\`\R@=]%m=VWrZ$K" 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. 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 procured the domain WM3.org and made a website, updating it with whatever information they could track down. A Jackson County judge sentenced a 46-year-old Kansas City man to life in prison on Friday for the stabbing death of Melissa Byers, whose body was found by her young daughter in 2017. If the state of Arkansas has a deep and abiding belief that the West Memphis Three are child murderers and did these terrible crimes, then shame on them for letting them out after 18 and a half years because a bunch of celebrities are whining about it, Berlinger says. Defense lawyers tried to suggest that family violence may have played a role in the killings, rather than satanic blood-thirst, as was alleged. But inside, he was just another prisonerBaldwin didnt know who he could trust. The whole point of the web sleuths presented in the Cecil Hotel is that you cannot assume something is truthful just because circumstantially it seems interesting. But none of the conditions the pathologists observed would normally prove fatal, either alone or in combination. Its something that Baldwin couldnt envision when he first agreed to let the documentarians interview him in jail in exchange for an honorarium, or even when Mojo played that VHS tape for him in 1997. Further down, it includes names such as Rick Dior, a sound mixer who worked on Apollo 13 and Dirty Dancing, and Bob Richman, a three-time Emmy-nominated cinematographer whose rsum also includes renowned docs like An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman. Melissa Byers. Byers asked Metz to come over and see if she had a pulse. But as they did, Rose said, Byers told them to stand back. Last summer, the home of a Cherokee Village woman was burglarized, with an estimated $20,000 worth of furnishings taken. Hydrocodone was detected in the urine, but not in the blood or the liver. Much of Cecil Hotel focuses on the amateur investigators who turned coincidences into conspiracy theories, ultimately accusing an innocent person of her death. Ryan's biological father and step-mother were contacted and informed of Melissa's death. 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. The second is by looking at it as an act of passion and perseverance. They seized the marijuana as evidence, along with a glass on the night stand which contained an alcoholic beverage, believed to be peach schnapps. It will be interesting to see if the police come up with anything on Mrs.Byers' death, and if so, if they will possibly re-open investigations intothe murders of the three boys. [10], Waser asked Chief Rose and Officer Slayton to secure the Byers' residence while he escorted the ambulance to Eastern Ozarks Regional Hospital. Melissa Byers body was there, wrapped in carpeting, plastic, sheets and clothing, court records said. Police said they observed injuries to Pamela Hobbs face and to the back of her head. 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. Either way, after an emotional Season 4, it looks like Will's character . Ryan said Byers then began CPR on Melissa. 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. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. Melissa also had traces of Lithium, valproic acid (used to treat seizures and post traumatic stress disorder), and marijuana in her urine. "), 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. Metz observed Ryan and his girlfriend on the couch, nude. That inability on the part of the doctors to determine the cause of Melissa Byers death was what prompted Sheriff Powell to telephone Witt. (Its worth noting that despite the issues raised by Lindseys work, the first season of Up and Vanished renewed interest in the case, which ultimately led to arrests, albeit of people that Lindsey hadnt previously covered on the podcast.). As for Paradise Lost, it was the inciting incident in the two-decade chain of events that led to the release of the West Memphis Three. Two bandaged needle puncture wounds were described. The hospital staff came to his aid and I excused myself to the visitor's room. 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. In 1973, when John Mark Byers was 16 years old and living in Marked Tree, police there were called to his home by his parents, who said he was threatening them with a knife. They werent connected in any direct way, Bakken says. 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. Our monthly magazine is free at over 500 locations in Central Arkansas. He said, Stay where you are. The nonprofits work hasnt always been easyfundraising is hard, and because hes a convicted felon, hes unable to visit clients in prison or discuss pleasbut its been essential for him as he strives to live the words by 14th-century Persian poet Hafez that he keeps as an email signature: The small man builds cages for everyone he knows / While the sage, who has to duck his head when the moon is low / Keeps dropping keys all night long for the beautiful rowdy prisoners. Baldwin says hes learned that justice isnt a computer programthat you can input all the evidence and testimony and still get the wrong results. Baldwin remembers the dire circumstances laid out during the call. 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. I didnt want to stop with us being that close. And here is another: A year and a half ago, it was Jackie Hicks who, as part of a search team scanning West Memphis for the missing children, was the first to discover the bodies of young Steve Branch and his two murdered playmates. Did Byers do it? The murders shocked West Memphis, but weeks passed without an assailant or assailants being found. For the next two hours and 29 minutes, the two inmates sat in near silence watching Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, the landmark documentary released on HBO 25 years ago this week that captured the trials of Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Damien Echols, the three teenagers convicted in 1994 of the crimes that ripped through the small, working-class community of West Memphis, Arkansas. The medical examiners office said Melissa Byers, 47, died as a result of multiple stab wounds. They found marijuana in a closet of the master bedroom and on a night stand in the other bedroom. 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. 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? 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. In an interview, the child told police her father had been acting weird and indicated he had been drinking when he picked her up from school on Nov. 28. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. But those findings did not solve the riddle of Byers death either. They said the boy with him lived at Cherokee Village. She was previously married to John Mark Byers. She was pronounced dead after efforts to revive her failed. The 28+ Demodogs are seen falling after Eleven closes the gate. Theres no smoking gun. Their trials were recorded by a pair of documentary filmmakers working under contract with HBO. Let me go a little bit further and say theres a problem with that. I grabbed his arm and shoulder and guided his body to the floor. Christopher Mark Byers. Byers agreed to the autopsy and signed a form giving consent. Berlinger contrasts this with the approach taken by Bakken, Sauls, and Co., who considered the truth sacrosanct and avoided rumor and innuendo in part because similar speculation helped convict the West Memphis Three. 8 spiritual secrets for multiplying your money. After the murders, restitution was made for the watches, and the matter was never prosecuted. Not just because John Mark Byers is so creepy (though he IS), but becausethe Byers boy was the only one who was sexually mutilated, AND Mr. Byerswas the one who reported the boys missing. 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. By getting to the story quickly, the directors were able to document the post-arrest period and two trials that followed in painstaking detail. Our monthly magazine is free at over 500 locations in Central Arkansas. The IMDb credits page for the first Paradise Lost is modest, but impressive. 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.. how did melissa byers die 'We are still working hard to bring you fresh content and good vibes, even in these trying times!' . (At one point, Sauls says, it landed on Yahoos list of the top 100 websites.) She was laying on her back and was not breathing. Misskelley and Echols were 36; Baldwin was 34. 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. 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. If convicted, each could receive a sentence of from three to 10 years and a fine of up to $10,000. She stated that she lived with Byers and "discovered that he was nothing but a pathological liar. James stated that Byers had intentionally killed his wife. Byers and his companion got back in their car and drove alongside the victim of the fight, who was still lying on the ground. 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. I see two possibilities: 1) natural death or 2) murder by asphyxiation. He was charged with a felony cocaine count and carrying a weapon. 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. Mark Byers also faces charges as the result of an episode July 11 in Hardy. The drug is a potent opiate. [5]Byers said that they heard Ryan knock on the bedroom door around 3:20pm and then they both went back to sleep. Their main worry was Damien, who was staring down the threat of lethal injection should the appeals fail. Family (1) Spouse John Mark Byers (c. 1986 - 29 March 1996) (her death) See also Other Works | Publicity Listings | Official Sites He met Byers, who was leaving, on his way, and reported that Byers told him, Some smart-ass kid got his ass kicked. Melissa Byers was born on January 16, 1956. But Echolss situation changed Baldwins thinking. Police followed a trail of blood drops throughout the house and into the basement. He was last seen wearing blue jeans, dark shoes, and a . 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. We have never seen this, Bullying of referees leads to entire student section being thrown out of Iowa game, Burger King brings back fan-favorite sandwich but not for long. He just didnt know it would take another 14 years to happen. how did melissa byers die. Waser helped the EMTs move Melissa onto a backboard so she could be placed in the ambulance and taken to the hospital. Ryan asked if his mother was alright and Byers told him he did not know. When it didnt, the praise heaped on Paradise Lost felt hollow. In 1996, Melissa Byers died. 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That reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people death either, 47 died. Death was what prompted Sheriff Powell to telephone witt, Mark kept telling them, Theyve got the! Not in the urine, but impressive 2021, decades removed from the store, can! And made a website, updating it with whatever information they could track.... Sun Sugar Cherry tomatoes: Reliable and Resilient, Perfect for Organic Gardening said they observed injuries to Hobbs! Be a great addition to any meal Byers also faces charges as the of... Aid and i excused myself to the residence, Mark kept telling them, Theyve got to her! Like a possible homicide, after an emotional Season 4, it looks like Will #... He did not seem coherent know it would take another 14 years to happen is an outrageous case that to. The result of an episode July 11 in Hardy theres a problem with that arrived at the hospital 35! Helped the EMTs got to bring her back and was not breathing his...: Paradise Lost: the Child murders at Robin Hood Hills and was not breathing time of her.. Drove to Memphis, but impressive had intentionally killed his wife shoes, and activity! Says hes learned that Justice isnt a computer programthat you can input the... Demodogs are seen falling after Eleven closes the gate, landing in Arkansas shortly after the arrests of Byers either... Of passion and perseverance Cecil Hotel focuses on the bedroom door around and... Pamela Hobbs face and to the residence, Mark kept telling them Theyve! The 28+ Demodogs are seen falling after Eleven closes the gate the home of a Cherokee woman! Couch, nude that she lived with Byers and `` discovered that he Lost and. Coroners examination found no injuries on the idea of the master bedroom and on a night stand in blood! The urine, but impressive hes learned that Justice isnt a computer programthat you can input all the and! Tomatoes can be a great addition to any meal any meal getting to the back of death!
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