TRUE CRIME: The Continuing Mystery Of The West Memphis Three

On May 5, 1993, Steve Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore — all eight years old — were reported missing by Byers’ adoptive father, John, around seven o’clock that evening. Three neighbors said they last saw the boys playing together half an hour earlier and saw Branch’s stepfather, Terry Hobbs, call them to come home.

Police did a preliminary search of the area on the fifth, with the help of friends and neighbors, but a thorough search didn’t take place until the next morning. Searchers looked all over West Memphis, Arkansas, particularly in Robin Hood Hills, where the boys were last seen. Later that day, the bodies of the boys were found in a creek, each naked and hogtied with their own shoelaces. Byers’ body showed abrasions and apparent mutilation to his genitals. An autopsy determined he died due to “multiple injuries,” including fractures at the base of his skull. Moore and Branch were determined to have died due to “multiple injuries with drowning.” The autopsy reports found no sexual assault had occurred.

However, the injuries to Byers’ genitals led investigators and many others to believe the crime was sexual in nature. Additionally, because America was still in the midst of the Satanic Panic, some believed the crime had an element of Satanism to it — thus, the focus of the investigation turned to three outcasts in the community who enjoyed heavy metal music.

The Suspects

Police questioned Damien Echols, who was 17 at the time, between the seventh and the tenth of May. Echols came from a poor family, had dropped out of high school, and had been arrested for vandalism and shoplifting. He also dressed in black, had long hair, and had a history of psychiatric issues, including major depression and a stint in a psychiatric ward with a suicide watch.

Echols told officers he had never heard of the three young victims and said whoever killed them was “sick,” but a polygraph test allegedly showed evidence of deception. At first, Echols was not considered a suspect, but police began to focus on him after a waitress named Vicki Hutcheson conjured up the idea that the murders were cult-related.

Hutcheson had a neighbor, Jessie Misskelley, Jr., who babysat her children on occasion and had a reported IQ of just 72. Hutcheson said Misskelley told her that Echols was a friend of his who drank blood. Hutcheson allegedly arranged to meet Echols, and she later told police that Echols drove her and Misskelley, despite Echols never having a car, to a Satanic ritual involving witches and an orgy. West Memphis police had Hutcheson take a polygraph test, which she allegedly passed. Years later, however, Hutcheson would admit that she implicated Echols and Misskelley to collect a reward for information and to avoid theft charges for stealing money from her employer.

Police also spoke to Misskelley and told him there was a $35,000 reward for information leading to a conviction. Misskelley was given a polygraph and claimed he never participated in any Satanic rituals or the murders, but the polygraph allegedly showed he was lying. Misskelley was 16 at the time he was questioned, but he was interviewed without a parent or an attorney present for about 12 hours. By the end of that interview, Misskelley had confessed to murdering the three boys with Echols and his friend Jason Baldwin.

Baldwin and Echols were close friends but only knew Misskelley from school. While Echols and Misskelley were dropouts, Baldwin excelled at school and was a talented artist. He and Echols bonded over their similar tastes in music and their aversion to mainstream culture trends of the area. Echols and Baldwin were arrested shortly after Misskelley confessed, though he later recanted and said he didn’t understand his Miranda rights.

In 1994, Echols and Baldwin were tried together while Misskelley was tried separately, since his confession couldn’t be used against his co-defendants. At Misskelley’s trial, an expert testified that the defendant had been coerced into confessing, since many of his confessions contradicted each other and didn’t align with the evidence. Still, he was found guilty on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison plus 40 years.

Three weeks after Misskelley was found guilty, Echols and Baldwin’s trial started. Prosecutors relied on painting Echols and Baldwin as Satanists and the killing as having to do with the occult and claimed that Echols knew too much about the murders to have just learned about them on TV. Echols, however, maintained that he had seen the information on TV and that the detective who claimed he knew too much had misrepresented their conversations. Nonetheless, Echols and Baldwin were each found guilty on three counts of murder. Baldwin was sentenced to life in prison, while Echols was sentenced to death.

Almost immediately, police were criticized for how they handled the case, including moving the bodies from the water where they were found and complicating the coroner’s examination. It was also determined that the “mutilation” of the bodies was actually from animals living in the creek where the bodies were found — meaning it wasn’t a Satanic murder.

All three defendants appealed their convictions but lost. For more than a decade, the three men languished in prison, with Echols on death row. Echols was kept in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison, meaning he would only be let out of his cell for one hour a day. Nearly a decade of this arrangement damaged his eyesight, requiring him to now wear special glasses.

In 2007, Echols petitioned the court for a retrial, citing new technology that could be used to test DNA and exonerate him and his co-defendants. The original trial judge denied the petition, claiming the DNA evidence was inconclusive, but the ruling was thrown out by the Arkansas Supreme Court in November 2010.

After the men were convicted, new evidence pointed to their innocence, including DNA testing that was found to not be a match to Echols, Baldwin, or Misskelley. Hutcheson also recanted her statement and claimed police had threatened to take away her children if she didn’t cooperate with them. Investigators also found a hair “not inconsistent” with Terry Hobbs, one of the victim’s stepfather, that was trapped inside one of the knots binding one of the victims.

In addition to all the other missteps, the foreman of the jury was revealed to have discussed the case with an attorney before the Echols-Baldwin jury deliberated. This foreman reportedly shared inadmissible evidence with other jurors and was seen discussing the case with the judge.

Even though prosecutors acknowledged that the DNA found at the crime scene didn’t match the accused, they stood by their convictions of Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley.

In 2010, the defendants were heading to a retrial when they were offered a plea deal negotiated by Echols’ pro bono defense and prosecutors. The three defendants could risk a retrial — during which they could be convicted again — or agree to an Alford plea, wherein they maintain their innocence while acknowledging the state had enough evidence to convict them. Taking the Alford plea meant they couldn’t sue for wrongful conviction or be able to say they were found not guilty, but it would allow them to be sentenced to time served and get released from prison immediately. The men agreed to take Alford pleas, particularly for Echols’ sake, since he was on death row.

In the years since the crime was committed, multiple documentaries and books have been released on the West Memphis Three, focusing on the likelihood that Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley are completely innocent. While that, along with celebrity help from Johnny Depp, Henry Rollins, and others, have gone a long way to restoring their reputations. However, in the eyes of the law, the three are still guilty.

Echols has been trying to change that. Earlier this year, he petitioned the court to test the ligatures that were used to bind the victims, as well as other evidence, using M-Vac technology, a modern process used to extract DNA.

In June, a judge denied Echols’ motion, but Echols and his attorneys plan to appeal.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.