Misskelley initially told police that the killings happened during the day; knowing that they actually occurred some time after dusk, the officers corrected him, helping him retrofit his story to the cases few known facts. Police from Cherokee Village, the neighboring town of Hardy and the Sharp County Sheriffs Office all have been called to investigate incidents involving Mark or Melissa Byers, or both. In August 2011, Jason Baldwin was pulled from his prison cell under confusing circumstances once again. 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. Melissa was worried about an upcoming trial involving a robbery of $20,000 worth of goods and property. We were finally winning, he says. Melissa DeFir Byers was born on January 15, 1956. Daniel Stidham of Paragould is the lawyer for Jessie Misskelley, who was accused, along with Echols and Jason Baldwin, of killing the three West Memphis children. Byers and his companion got back in their car and drove alongside the victim of the fight, who was still lying on the ground. Everybody Id come in contact with was hostile to the truth, Baldwin says. >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. 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. They werent connected in any direct way, Bakken says. 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. He just didnt know it would take another 14 years to happen. She died of undetermined causes on March 29, 1996. 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. While a Sharp County deputy took a statement from John Mark Byers and got his permission to search his home, Witt began taking notes about the condition of Melissa Byers body. It noted that she had been 68 inches tall and weighed 211 pounds. Melissa Byers. We made a promise early on that we would never pretend to be law enforcement or detectives, Sauls says. By the end of Paradise Lost, you cant believe they were found guilty, Bakken says. When they searched online, they found little to no information about the case. While he did that, another state police investigator was questioning a woman who had contacted Cherokee Village police upon hearing that Melissa Byers had been taken to the hospital. But he wasn't, and they made him take off those sunglasses. Cruz Captain lucky/v, This website uses cookies for functionality, analytics and advertising purposes as described in our, Ark. WWE legend Melissa Coates has died at the age of 50 after undergoing a leg amputation last year to stop her arteries being blocked by blood clots, leaving her former colleagues from around the wrestling world to voice their shock. [13], Byers asked Waser to accompany him outside so he could have a cigarette. At the time of her youngest son's murder in May of 1993, Melissa was married to John Mark Byers . Chris had an older half-brother named Ryan Clark who was 13 years old when the murders occurred. 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. As the appeals processes stretched across several years and the buzz of the initial film faded, the directors began looking for ways to keep the story alive. 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? 6iE8vD2q%Q.B[.e(bJ R)Pku.~5YU>A(ZZqA:t5$y+FGpMv!. Quickly, however, he realized Berlinger and Sinofsky were taking a different approach. When this was complete, Waser was asked to return to Byers' home because he had "seemed to gain John Mark's trust". Inevitably, the West Memphis Three case always comes up. Additionally, the judge in the original trialswho under Arkansas law presided under the requests for retrials in the years following the convictionshad been elected to the state Senate that December, meaning someone new and possibly more sympathetic would oversee the case. However other needle marks were evident. The second time he requested a towel. If convicted, each could receive a sentence of from three to 10 years and a fine of up to $10,000. "[7], At approximately 5:30pm, an ambulance responded to Cherokee Village where Melissa was reported as being unresponsive. Beyond the black-and-white print of the newspaper, there was a movement brewing. Metz also said that Byers stated "that he did not kill her and that he loved her. 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. [30], Melissa was described as wearing "a pair of blood-tinged panties". She alleged that he told her how he had put gasoline all around the trailer and then used a cigarette as a fuse. 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. They seized the marijuana as evidence, along with a glass on the night stand which contained an alcoholic beverage, believed to be peach schnapps. 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. Melissa Byers was born on January 16, 1956. He advised he went and got a towel and told Mark to keep doing CPR and also told Ryan to take his girlfriend home and get back there. He was handed the phone. "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. Melissa Byers was only 40 years old. 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. I'd be interested in knowing whether or not he also died under suspicious circumstances. Founded 1974, the Arkansas Times is a lively, opinionated source for news, politics & culture in Arkansas. Misskelley, who reportedly had an IQ of 72, changed his story several times, and only a small part of his statements was recorded. I deeply admire that and I thought it was worthy of putting on film.. While police had focused on Echols and Baldwin in the intervening weeks because of their reputation, the arrests came largely because of a confession by Misskelley, which was leaked to the largest newspaper in the area, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and ran under the banner headline Teen describes cult torture of boys. At a press conference shortly after the arrests, the lead investigator was asked how confident he felt about the case on a scale of 1-10. "[15], Metz took Byers back to his home, but the two men were advised that no one was to enter the residence during the search. We were mainly in it for the aesthetics of filmmaking, but the last scene of Paradise Lost, when Damien is chained up and sent away to death row, that was just heartbreaking and devastating for us, Berlinger says. He was wearing sunglasses and had this weird hair, big cowboy boots. "[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. The right thoracic puncture mark and the right wrist puncture mark were both covered by Band-Aids. It can slow breathing, heart rate, and brain activity. He and John Mark Byers were informed that Melissa was deceased at 6:30pm. Metz advised that Byers told him it could be bought for $50 on the street. On Aug. 28, 1995, he entered into a plea agreement negotiated by his attorney and Stewart Lambert, a deputy prosecutor for the Third Judicial District. (Despite Misskelleys statement, the coroners examination found no injuries on the victims consistent with sexual assault.) 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. 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. 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. Byers also said that Ryan had spent the night at John Mark's brother-in-law's house. A quarter-century later, what does the documentary tell us about citizen activism, the criminal justice system, and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 90s? Instead, on the reports final page, the word hydromorphone, or Dilaudid, appeared as hydrocodone, which is another drug entirely. So when I saw this tiny little article in the Times, I wasnt about to free anybody that was guilty. But most of defense lawyers efforts to bring that information before the jury never got out of the judges chambers. Im seeing the things I experienced, but not through my own point of view. By the time he arrived on the scene there were several responders: Officer Slayton, Chief of Police Ernie Rose, and Paul Brinkley (ambulance driver). John Mark Byers, the stepfather of one of the children killed in the West Memphis Three case, has died. 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 Byers was only 40 years old. He advised that when he left, he almost flipped his car over he left so fast, spinning gravel. He lived with his mother, Melissa Byers, and stepfather, John Mark Byers. Nor were any opiates were found in her blood. 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. 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.'. Hopefully Will won't be a casualty in Season 5, but this data has been accurate in the past. 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. She's determined to turn over an old leaf and slide right back into the safety of being a wallflow. Melissa Gilbert recently became the latest celebrity to fall prey to an online death hoax. Their main worry was Damien, who was staring down the threat of lethal injection should the appeals fail. American actress, TV director, producer, politician, and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, Melissa Gilbert's cause of death is spreading as a rumor since reports claimed she passed away on October 27, 2022. Bakken and Sauls say they tried to avoid offering theories about the case publicly, opting instead to try to work through official channels. Waser advised that it was unusual for a 40-year-old woman to pass away and an autopsy would be recommended to determine the cause. At midnight, Witt went to the house next door to interview Norm Metz, a neighbor who had followed John Mark Byers to the hospital. 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