Morbid - The West Memphis Three Part 1

Episode Date: March 2, 2020

This is going to be a doozy of a series, weirdos. Tonight, we start our deep coverage of the West Memphis Three case. Part 1 will cover the tragic murders of 8 year olds Christopher Byers. Michael Moore and Steve Branch in May 1993, as well as the beginning of the investigation that eventually led to a legendary trial and three convictions. Sources: https://innocenceproject.org/west-memphis-three-go-free/ HBO Paradise Lost 1 The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills HBO Paradise Lost 2 Revelations HBO Paradise Lost 3 Purgatory Devil's Knot by Mara Leveritt Life After Death by Damien Echols Dark Spell: Surviving the Sentence by Mara Leveritt Almost Home by Damien Echols Visit our sponsors! AMC Shudder To try Shudder free for 30 days, go to shudder.com and use promo code morbid. Upstart See why Upstart is top-ranked in their category with over 300 businesses on Trustpilot and hurry to Upstart.com/morbid to find out HOW LOW your Upstart rate is. Daily Harvest Go to Dailyharvest.com and enter promo code MORBID to get twenty-five dollars off your first box! Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash KelleyListener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra LallyListener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey weirdos, I'm Ash and I'm Elena and this is morbid you're here I just I said hey hey weirdos it's Ash and I like moved my head really fast and my neck cracked and it actually really hurt I love it thank it's probably good for you sure it's like a self-chiropractic situation love that love that for you um should we say our shows really quick yeah before we dive into anything we got to tell you about our shows guys Because now there's so many. Because now we've finally been able to, like, tell you about the new ones that we're real excited for. They're on the live tree.

So excited. She calls it a live tree every single time, but it's called a link tree. You know I meant to say it the right way this time, too. And I looked at it. You said it was such, like, gusto. You were like, the live tree. Because you know what it is a live tree? Fuck everybody.

So it's a link tree, but here they are. Okay. So anyway, I'm just kidding. April 14th, we're going to be at the Punchline Comedy Club in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. Be there or be a rhombus. Oh, I like that. Your elbow just cracked. It did. Are we 97? That was my shoulder, actually. It felt really good. Okay. And then April 15th, the very next day, we're going to be at the DC Improv in Washington, Desi. Ooh, monuments. Yes, good. April 23rd at the Gramercy Theater again for the Death Becomes a show. What up, Gramercy Theater. We're coming back at you. I hope Death doesn't actually become us.

Guys, go buy those tickets. Go to bright young things.com and go buy tickets there. Because we're bright young things and you want to see us live. And we've posted the links on tons of our social media for all of these things. And also go to our website, morbidpodcast.com and you'll find all of them too. But keep going. Yeah. May 6th, we will be at Stand Up Live in Huntsville, Alabama.

Alabama. We're coming for you. And we won't do these accents because that's real annoying. Yeah. And probably offensive. I'm sorry. I always do it, though. I apologize.

I bet Nashville people have accents too, though. They do. They have cool ones. Yeah, everybody has a cool accent. Yeah, I don't know if I can do that. We're just not good at doing them. Yeah. May 7th early and May 7th late. So we'll be at Zanis in Nashville.

What up, Nashville. We are coming for you. And I said it once. I'll say it again. Jackie Schimmel had a show at Zini. So like I feel like royalty of that we're going there. Hell yeah. And also someone corrected me.

It wasn't white buffalo sauce that I want to get for John in Nashville. It's white barbecue sauce. Oh, yeah. I love barbecue sauce. But why is it white? It's like fancy. If you're from Africa, why are you white? Mean girls quote.

Yeah, don't ask. That's a mean girls quote. Then June 11th, we're going to be in Chicago because we added another show since so many of you wanted to see us. And are you so excited? Because we were really excited to tell you guys about that one. You kept saying like, oh man, the show is sold out. And I kept feeling bad.

But then I was like, wait a second. I don't have to feel bad. We added a show. Because we got another one. It was so exciting because we had a few people that were just like, oh, I found out too late and I was like oh I feel bad and then we added it and I was like we have to tell people now we told you and then we'll be there for the June 12th show as well both are at Talia Hall who who the creepiest spookiest place ever yes and then the very last show all of them are going to be

great but this one especially because it's in our mother fucking hometown Boston our mother fucking dream venue yeah I wanted you to say the Wilbur in that voice the Wilbur the Wilbur 11th, the Wilbur, Boston. Guys, a lot of you have mentioned that you remember when we, like, put into the universe like a million episodes ago that we would love to do a live show at the Wilbur. Yes. And it's happening. I didn't know what you said.

I was like, ASMR. Oh. You're like, yeah, ASMR. No, I'm really, really, really, really excited for the Wilbur. And you better all be there. Me and Annie went to a show at the Royale, which is like right down the street from the Wilbur the other night. and we're just like walking past rock bottom, which is like one of your favorite places and one of my favorite

place. Love rock bottom. And all of a sudden, Annie grabs my fucking arm, like a crazy person. And she's like, ah, shit. I'm like, what, dude? And she points up at the Wilbur, like, what's that called? Oh, the marquee? Yes.

And she, it was, it said morbid. Oh, on a big video thing. I died. I lost my voice. I'm sorry, yes. That's okay. I died. You sent me the pig, Ash sent me the pictures of this and I am still not fully over it.

No, I'll never be over it. I'm not even under it. I think I'm just like within it. I'm like adjacent to it. I'm within it. I'm fully in it right now. It's enveloped me. I still can't believe.

I can't believe we're playing. Anything? Playing. I say playing. I don't know what it's fucking whatever. Rip out my guitar. I'm still like astounded that we're doing any of these shows and that you guys are coming to them and wanting to see us. So the, in the Wilbur, just my mind can't wrap around that.

Because especially like John and I throughout our entire relationship. relationship from like dating to now have like lived at the Wilbur because we are comedy show gurus like we love comedy shows it's just a huge part of our relationship so we have been to like a zillion shows there and to think that I'm going to be on the stage now I can't even it's insane yeah when we saw Gary Gullman there you and me I we were in the like literally the last row seats because I'm a broke bitch and we were just watching and I was like oh my god I was like Gary Gull is there and like Ashkell and Elena Urk are going to be there. there. What the fuck? It's, it's beyond. It really is. So we just want to thank you guys so much for

buying us to do this because it's so fun. And guys, a lot of, well, not a lot. Most of these shows are sold out. I'm not going to lie to you. A lot of them are sold out, but the Wilbur is not. Boston's not. And I don't think Chicago, the first show is sold out yet. Yeah, the new show is not sold out yet for Chicago and the Wilbur. So, and also the Gramer City Theater, Death Becomes S Festival. So go get your tickets for those. Go to Morbid Podcast. They're all right there. Or you can look in our Instagram bio and the link tree is right there with all the shows. Go do it because we want to keep doing this and it's going to be awesome.

So do you think that we probably talked enough? I think we did. Don't want to get anybody on our case. Yeah. We don't want to get anyone on our case file. Speaking of case. Case file. Love case file.

Love it. Go listen to Case File if you don't like our banter. Because he gets right to it. If you like a serious show, head over there. And if you love a lovely. accent. We loves an accent. Go listen to that show and it's authentic. It's not like my accent. You have many accents though. You're pretty good up. So let's talk about what we are going to cover tonight. Okay. This is going to be part one of definitely a three-parter at the least.

Maybe a four-parter. This is going to be a very large dive into this case. We are going to be covering the West Memphis three. I'm stoked for this because I remember in high school when you were like sit the fuck down. We're watching this documentary. It's going to change your life. And I was like, okay. I was like, let me tell you something. I was like, I'm 16. Calm down. And I was like, you need to watch this. And then the opening scene, I was like, well, I'm hooked. Yeah. The opening scene will ruin your life. But it's, yeah, it's this whole documentary was so, like the documentary. This whole case is mind blowing from start to finish. It's still mind blowing. It's not even over, really so this one I mean this has been covered by a few other podcasts there's been books about it

there's been documentaries about it there's been actual movies about it with like reese witherspoon playing pamela hobbs and so i'm not going to lie to you that movie sucks no it was terrible okay cool glad we're like hashtag sorry but it was not good um but you know we we all we'll we'll try we're just out here trying on this big floating road paradise lost that dot Documentary. Yeah, those documentaries are great. Great. And what was different about this case is it was one of the first ones, especially during the Satanic Panic era that cameras were allowed in the courtroom. So we got to see a lot of that, which changed it. I think that's part of the reason this got so much hype. Because although this is a crazy case when you listen to it, this shit happens all the time. Oh, yeah. People that are lower income, like poor people that are out. casted, cannot, you know, they are the ones who get thrown to the wolves more oftentimes than not and put in the position to be arrested and put on death row like these boys were. It's so fucked up. So it's really sad and it's really fucked up and it exposes a lot of shit about America especially.

And speaking of that, I want to protect ourselves from the vast amount of DMs and messages and emails that will. probably be yelling at me because that happens a lot during these things. Truly. So first of all, most people, when you guys like have something to tell me that I was wrong about or something that you have a differing opinion about, nine times out of ten, I love it. Because usually people are respectful. And it teaches you something. Yeah. And they want to teach me something, which I love. They're like respectful about it. They, they like start a dialogue with me. We can have a good conversation. Or with other listeners. Like, I love seeing that. Yeah. And And I encourage that huge.

A respectful dialogue. Yeah. And especially in this case, because people are going to have totally differing opinions. This is a really, like, it's got both sides and people are really passionate on both sides. Totally respect that. Just be respectful with your opinions. Mm-hmm. So I'm going to start off by saying if political and religious affiliations are brought up in regards to this case,

because it does have a place in this case, it's because it's because it's. pertinent to the narrative and it's factual. It's not me surmising anything based off of, you know, what I think of people or anything like that. I'm only saying these things as facts like that this takes place in the Bible Belt and that this was a very conservative religious community. That is not, again, not me coming up with it. It's just a fact. Yeah. And we're not going to state our opinion either way. No. And just like Ted Bundy was a Republican, John Wayne Gacy was a Democrat. shitty people lie on both sides of the aisle. Exactly.

I'm not making it up. I will only bring it up if it is, again, pertinent to the narrative of what we're talking about. Like Ted Bundy, it was pertinent to the story. When we cover John Wayne Gacy, which we will, it's going to be pertinent to that story to talk about him being a Democrat. So I don't want anybody to be like, ah, you're attacking my religion or my political affiliation. Because we're not. And I just shut up. Like, I'm not.

So, like, if it offends you. I'm like, because we're not. We're like, shut up. Fuck it. Because I'm not. We've gotten to that point where it's, we're over it. It's just facts. If the facts upset you, I don't know what to tell you.

I can't change them to bend to your will. So that's, I just wanted to put that out there so that we could kind of avoid any conflict that may or may not arise because of this. So we're going to jump right in. So this case takes place in. 1993. I wasn't even alive. Wow. Wow.

Everybody drank that in for a second. I mean, three years later. That always stresses me out. It's my favorite thing to say to you. So, so Ash wasn't alive yet. Everybody just deal with that. You're welcome. And so this was in West Memphis, Arkansas, in the United States.

If you were not from the United States, this is, like I said, a very, at least at the time, It was a very conservative, very religious place. It was very small townish. You know what I mean? Like outcasts at that time were not really taken too fondly, as we will see. This was also because this was really due to the satanic panic hysteria that was going on in the United States. This happened between the 1980s and the early 1990s. So this was like prime time.

Right. Now just a little bit of like, just to show you a little bit of how the satanic panic thing was happening. In 1988, Geraldo Rivera, who I fucking hate, just putting it out there, I fucking hate Haraldo Rivera. He made a documentary called Devil Worship, exposing Satan's Underground. Oh, good. Yeah. And it was just him being like, ah, let's get everybody scared. And that's fun.

So he basically, and it also became the highest rated televised documentary to air up until that point. Oh, wow. So that's telling you, like, how big this whole thing was. Right. How scared people were. Yeah. Like in 1991, 2020 did an episode that televised an official Roman Catholic exorcism. Are you serious?

Yep. And that's terrifying to anybody. I mean, I think we can all agree a real exorcism. I don't want to watch an exorcism live. Would be real scared to watch. At 2020, no thanks. So that's really going to aid them in their, you know, satanic panic situation. Because if you're watching real exorcism, you're going to be like, what the fuck is going on here?

What is America? And there were also, like, there was a documentary, It was an evangelical documentary called Hell's Bells, and it kind of tried to connect rock music and metal to the devil. Yeah, that's a far-fetched thing. And that's a huge thread that will run throughout this. We're really going to touch upon that in like part two when we get to the suspects. Got it. Right now in part one, we're really just going to like set the scene.

I'm going to tell you about the crimes because fair warning, they're horrific. I'm going to warn you again when I'm going to talk about the injuries and stuff because it's really terrible. Yeah, they're fucked up. But part two, we're really going to discuss Damian Eccles, Jason Baldwin, and Jesse Miskelly, how they became wrapped up in this and, you know, their backgrounds, all that good stuff. So August, I'm going to bring you forward a little bit first. Okay. August 19th, 2011. Oh, okay.

Forward a lot of it. Forward a lot of it. Damien Eccles, Jason Baldwin, and Jesse Miss Kelly walked out of a courthouse in Jonesboro, Arkansas as free men. Hell yeah. All of them had spent 18 years behind bars after being convicted of the absolutely heinous murders of Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore, who were all eight years old back in May 1993. Now, Damien Eccles was 36 years old when he was released. He was 18 when he was arrested. Oh, my God.

He had spent his time on death row because he was. sentenced to death. Jason Baldwin was 34, my age, when he was released. He was 16 when he was arrested. Jesus. And he had been sentenced to life. Jesse Miskelly was 36 when he was released and he was 17 when he was arrested. Sentenced to life as well. Like I said, we're going to be going much further into all three of these men's lives, the background, connections to the case in part two. So we're going to connect, we're going to start with the crime. Go on way back now. Wednesday, May 5th. 1993, West Memphis, Arkansas. Eight-year-old's Christopher, Stevie and Michael.

They head off on their bikes to play. Michael's mother, Dana, saw them head off around 6 p.m. was the last time she saw them. Yep. Now, they all lived in the same neighborhood. Two of them were next-door neighbors. I think Christopher and Michael were next-door neighbors, and Stevie lived, like, not far away.

It was one of those neighborhoods where you send them off to play. They come back, you know, and it was in 1993. Right, you're not too worried about anything. You send your kid out to play in the neighborhood. They come back by dinner. That's really what it was. Right. So north of their homes was a place called Robin Hood Hills, which was a very, it was kind of

like deceptively thick, wooded area, around three or four acres large. This wasn't a good place to play from a parent's perspective, but a great place from a kid's perspective. Right. Because it was like this creepy forest. It had like ditches and creeks and like wooded areas and forts you could make and stuff. bridge to terribithia it was exactly that yeah um so mainly you know parents didn't love this because it was in very close proximity to a very busy truck stop in one of the busiest freeways in the country

so yeah please don't play their kids it was basically on the other side of the woods was this freeway right so these three had been best friends they were cubs scouts together stop not eagle cubs yet I love that. And this would be the last time that they would be seen alive. Now, John Mark Byers was Christopher Byers' stepfather. Okay. He had called police on this day to report his eight-year-old stepson, Christopher, was missing. Now, Dana Moore, their neighbor, was the last to see the kids at 6 p.m., like I said.

Right. She said Christopher, or John Mark Byers said that Christopher was playing with Dana's son when he last saw him, their son Michael. and now neither of them had been seen since 6 p.m. Now, Officer Meek is the one who responded to the call. She was told that Christopher, Christopher Mark Byers, was born June 23rd, 1984. He was about 4 foot 4, about 50 pounds, dark hair and brown eyes. He was wearing blue jeans and a long-sleeve white shirt when he was last seen. He was also on some medication.

He was on Ritalin for hyperactivity, and he had not been given his medication that day. which John Mark Byers was concerned about, obviously. Right. Officer Meek takes John Mark Byers' statement, and as she does this, she receives a call from a nearby Bojangles restaurant. This is like a chicken fast food place. Love it.

We don't have them around here, so I'm not positive. Anyone from the south, I think, is where they are? Let us know. Is it good? I don't know. We would go. We would go. Chicken, am I right?

So Officer Meek arrives at the Bojangles restaurant, so she leaves John Mark Byer. She's like, all right, we'll get on this. She arrives at the Bojangles Restaurant and she talks to a person who called, basically, it was the manager. His name was Marty King. She talks to him through the takeout window. Weird. She doesn't go into the restaurant.

Is she standing? I guess. So the report that he gave was that shortly before she arrived, he had witnessed a black man into the restaurant. That was not like, you know, that's not weird. but he was covered in blood. That's weird. So that's weird. He was very disoriented, like very like all over the place.

So they immediately were like, what the hell is going on? Right. He went into the ladies room and was again very disoriented, falling into the walls and stuff. They called the police and he had left on foot before they got there. Okay. Now blood was all over the bathroom wall, all over the bathroom stall like smeared. Like he clearly had it.

They were like, I don't know if he was bleeding. per se, but he had blood on him. Yeah, like he was bleeding in some way, but like, I don't know if it was all his. So Officer Meek never went into the restaurant. Okay. She didn't go in. Seems like that would be standard procedure. It's just like, what, what?

I'm not a cop, but. Well, she got another call while she was taking this report, and it was from someone like, some like disorderly conduct call. Like, you know, something silly. And she left to go do that, which is why she didn't go into the restaurant, but it's like, I don't know. That seems, I think I would take priority to this. Well, it's like, why are they throwing all these different things at you?

Like, can you just like finish one thing? Like, yeah, it's like maybe just be like, hey, can someone else take that disorderly conduct because of some weird shit's going on at a bojangles? Right. And I just had a missing kid. I'm currently at a bloody blow jingles. Yeah. Can you wait a minute?

I didn't mean to say that. That bloody blow jangles. So she leaves to go tend to that. Yeah. The disorderly contact. During this, she gets a. Another call. This call is from Dana Moore, Michael Moore's mother.

Okay. It's now 9.24 p.m. Dana says Michael is missing, still missing. And he was riding bikes with Chris Byers, and now she says they were also with Stevie Branch. Right. Michael Moore was born James Michael Moore on July 27, 1984. He was about four feet tall, 60 pounds, brown hair, blue eyes. These kids were so freaking cute.

Yeah, they were fucking adorable. more, I just want to smush him. He was wearing blue jeans, a Boy Scout shirt, and an orange Boy Scouts hat. Oh, like adorable. They were riding around the neighborhood, and she says it had been a while

since she spotted him, like she was trying to keep an eye on them. They kind of went out of her sight for a little while, so she got a little like, okay, I need to know where they are. So she sent her older daughter, Dawn after them to go see where they were going. Right. Don couldn't find them. So she was like, I don't like this. Doesn't sit well. So now,

Another officer is called, and they go respond to another call. Another call that's coming from Catfish Island Restaurant, where Pamela Hobbs is working. Pamela Hobbs is Stevie Branch's mother. Okay. Now, Pam called police because Terry Hobbs, her husband and stepfather to Stevie Branch, came to pick her up from work with their oldest daughter Amanda, and it was about 9.20 p.m. He had showed up. Yeah. He walked into the restaurant.

He like went right by her and went straight to a pay phone and called someone. Which is weird. Never told her, like didn't like immediately tell her who or give her any kind of context. So Pam's like, what the fuck? So she leaves the restaurant and goes to the car because she's like, I don't know what he's doing. He'll tell me. And she notices that only Amanda's in the car and not Stevie. So immediately she's like, where Stevie?

He's eight. Like, yeah, exactly. He can't leave him alone. Terry comes out and is like, I just called the police from. that pay phone because Stevie's missing. And she's like, what? And he's like, me and Amanda have been together this entire time trying to find him. Weird that you're already setting up that you were with someone else.

That never sits well. I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'm just putting it out that is a little strange of anybody to be like, by the way. This whole time. Which ends up being not the case, just putting that out there. Right. So he's like, you know, Stevie hasn't come home. Stevie went out with Chris and Michael.

We can't find any of them. We've been looking. So that's when an officer more arrives, not related. Got it. And talks to Pam. So she says Stevie left to go outside and play after school. She hadn't seen him since because she was at work. Right.

So she mentions that Dana had seen him around 6 p.m. Like that was the story. And that's the last she knew. So Stevie was born Steve Edward Branch on November 26, 1984. She told police he was about 4'2, 60 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He was wearing blue jeans and a white short sleeve shirt. Which sounds like a little like... Like such a cute little.

Like James Dean. Yeah. Like blonde hair, blue eyes with a little... Yeah. Like a little cutie. I just want to like gather them all up and be like, you're okay. Oh, I hate that. So reports were that they were headed in the direction of Robin.

Hood Hills from people who had last seen them on the next. People were like, yeah, I think they were going that way. Now remember, that's not a kid-friendly place from a parents point of view. It had a large drainage ditch that was deep and could be dangerous. Everyone is searching the neighborhoods at this point, like family and friends. They're asking if people saw them, getting witness statements. They start searching the woods,

but it's pitch blackout at this point. Yeah, it's probably like what, 10 or something? Yeah, and after midnight, they still no sign of them. Oh, God. Now, I cannot fathom. No. This. I really can't. I can't fathom this.

Fiehom. I was like, whoa. I cannot fathom it. I can't even say the word fathom, right? So, but yeah, that would be awful. The next morning, they picked the search back up. The family and friends of these boys joined law enforcement on a massive search that involved multiple police departments.

Like, even the state department came out. Like, it was huge. Yeah, I mean, there's three eight-year-old boys missing. This is huge. night. Yeah. And just gone like... And this is like the early 90s. I'm sure this didn't really happen a lot or hadn't happened a lot in that area. It's just like, this is a small air. You know, it's a very... Everybody knows everybody probably. When they had ground crews and helicopters searching for them, Robin Hood Hills was massively searched. Now, May 6th, 1993, so the day after they

went missing. Okay. In the early afternoon, the three boys' bodies were discovered. Oh. Yeah. So the worst case scenario. This gets rough, doesn't it? This gets really rough. I don't recommend... I don't recommend looking up any, like, crime scene photos or anything. Unless, I mean, if you want to, that's... It is.

They are in the documentary. They are in the... The documentary shows very graphic photos of this and video. It's upsetting, but it's also, you know, necessary to tell this story, unfortunately. Right. But it's really upsetting. Some people can handle it. Some people can't.

So there's something called a diversion ditch in the Robin Hood Hills, and it's filled with water. And I think what it basically does is like separates where the part of the woods go to the freeway and where it enters. Right. Now over that water, there's a big pipe that acts like a bridge over it. Okay. And this bridge goes from like the entrance of the woods into the inside of the woods. At 1.30 p.m. as the searchers were leaving that area, officer Steve Jones, a juvenile officer. who comes back into this story later.

He spots a black sneaker, clearly a child sneaker, with no laces in the creek. So they had already searched this area thoroughly. So they're already like, what the fuck is that doing there? Right, because it wasn't there before. So it seemingly floated to the surface. So now they're like, oh no. So there's no dive crew on scene or anything. And they were like, someone has to go in there.

And they have to investigate this. And it was like murky, just muddy water, like really gross. So Detective Brian Ridge, who like high five Brian Ridge, because for him to offer to do this is like some real cop shit here. Like he's a true blue cop here. So he offers to go into the water. Right. He's feeling around on his hands and knees in two to three foot water. Oh, my God.

And it's like mud and just dirty, gross water. literally just crawling on his hands and knees waiting to hit something. Well, that's fucked up. And I hate, I'm not a big water person. Like, I'm not a great swimmer. I don't like water. And things underwater, like, things submerged in water freak me out. I get that.

So, waiting to hit something underwater would, I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. So suddenly, he jumps into, he pumps, wow, he bumps into something. Okay. He pulls this something out of the, water and what he pulls up is the body of Michael Moore. Oh my goodness. So he bumped into the body of Michael Moore. Oh, that's so awful. Which is horrific. Um, this is where it gets really rough. Just warning you. Kids, real rough. Um, Michael Moore is naked completely. His left hand was tied to his left

foot and his right hand was tied to his right foot behind his back. So like hog tied almost. Hogtide. That's what they called it. Um, so basically if you laid on the ground and you, you put both your feet up behind you and then you like put your arms behind you and tied them together. That's how they're. Oh, gosh. A very, very weird way to tie someone. Right.

So they were tied with their own shoelaces out of their own shoes. He had several bruises, welts, lacerations all to his head and his face. Now Brian Ridge is like, oh shit, they put, they put Michael Moore's body on the bank. And that was like, I have two more boys to find. And he's like, we just. found one, I have to keep looking. So he keeps searching. He eventually finds Stevie Branch's body.

He's found naked as well and tied in the same way. It seemed that he had the same kind of beating marks to his head and face and neck, bruising, welts, lacerations. Yeah. The thing that sticks out about this boy's injuries was the possible bite marks on his face. Bite marks on his face? It appeared that he had bite marks around his face. And I looked at the autopsy photo. which are horrific just to warn you if you go looking at them.

That side of his face has been like chewed up. By a person? Well, that's what they think. So it's been really, really demolished. So he looks like someone savagely bit his face. Oh my God. In several times. Brian Ridge is like, now we have to go back in.

So he goes back in and he finds Christopher Byer. body same ligatures naked beaten in the same manner Christopher however and this is really rough yeah this had been castrated awful um so this is going to be graphic just letting you know but it's important to tell you what happened to these poor boys um his scrotum was cut off and the head of the penis was gone and there were also several stab marks all around the area uh as if it had been like carved. These two things were never found. These things that have been cut off of him, they never found them.

Okay. Which is strange. That is. And it's also strange to have one. It's almost like it was like a variation of injuries. It was like Christopher got this horrific genital mutilation. Stevie got this horrific facial mutilation. And then Michael just kind of got, it's almost like a gradient.

It's like an, well, it's almost like an elevation of. rage. Like maybe he was killed first and then he got the whoever murdered him was getting more pissed off and then the end rage or yeah. Or it could have even gone the other way like well that's what it yeah cooling off yeah it's very strange and it's and it makes it these are why this is why like when they came down to trying to understand did they know the person that did this to them? Did they not know it? It's the group of people like and I guess that's if you think about it why it wasn't pinned on just one person. Exactly because there are a lot of things in this case that that point to multiple people. Yeah. But then there's a lot of things in this case that you can also

point to being like, okay, but one person could. One really fucked up person. Yeah. Like you could, because people will be like, how could you control three boys? They're eight and terrified. If you terrify them, you know, it's, it's not easy, I wouldn't think. And I feel like you would almost be, I don't know if this makes sense, but almost be more scared of somebody that you know. Yeah. As opposed to somebody that you don't know. Yeah, like you'd weirdly trust them in a way. And then if that's betrayed right in front of you, it almost paralyzes you. And I think it would be almost scared, like, I think it would be harder to get away from somebody that you do know as opposed to somebody that you don't know. Yeah, I could see that. You know what I mean? Yeah,

I could definitely see that. Um, so they keep searching because now they're like, okay, we have three bodies. They've laid them out on the banks. Um, that's actually an image in the Paradise Lost documentary. And it is jarring. Um, they keep searching because now they're like, we, they don't have their clothing. Where are their clothing and where are their bikes. And they need, I mean, there's so much evidence that could be on that. Now we got to make sure we get everything. So they keep searching and they finally find their clothing. So what had happened was someone took sticks and pinned the clothing to the bottom of the muddy creek.

Okay. And they had pinned the kids as well with their ligatures. So that's why they weren't floating to the surface. They were like pinned down by these big sticks that someone stuck in there. So it was like they stuck it in between where they had been tied. Exactly. And they pinned down the clothing to the bottom. Same thing.

Okay. So they also found two bikes. Now, most people are like, where's the third bike? There's three kids. There were reports that there were either three bikes or that one of them was like riding on the back of the other bike. Right. That kind of thing is like kids do that. Yeah.

I used to do that all the time. Exactly. So now they remove them from the water and place them on the water bank. That's problematic because the corner really should be the one to take them out of the water. Right. And it's, if it's not possible, you should call them. right away because they need to gather evidence around and on the body before you transport them. The coroner was not called for another two hours.

Do you know why that is? No. I know that part of it was they were searching for the clothing. But the problem there is you've now put these bodies that were in water for we don't know how long on the banks in May in Arkansas. Hot sun. And now we're even speeding further up, decomp, which is already speeding up from the water. Right. So it's like now we've further kind of skewed time of death and injuries as well.

Right. So it's like while they were looking for the clothing and the bikes, they're just sitting on the banks waiting for the coroner to call. It's just a long time. And so the coroner was finally called at 3.20 p.m. to come to Blue Beacon truck stop to pick the bodies up because they wouldn't even be able to get the vehicle in the woods. to get them. Oh, so then they moved them from the bank to the... Exactly. So then they wrapped them in sheets, put them in body bags, and carried them

to the vehicle. And wrapping them in sheets is probably not a great thing to do. Kind of necessary. Like, with... You don't want people to... You know what I mean? Like, I don't want to shit too much on this whole thing, because they kind of had their, like, this is a poor choice of words,

their hands tied in this scenario. Right. Because it's like they're in this... That forest is like deceptively thick. And it's just a very weird place to get to and it's like I understand why they were kind of like eh so like they I'm not saying they like botched to this right I go but like protocol wasn't perfect here right everything could have gone a little smoother in this area but it was like they were they were doing their best given the circumstances like normally I'm real quick to be like they fuck this up but like

this is a did they fuck it up a little sure but like did they have too many choices here not right well and this is like a very like niche case it is like it's it's hard to just like shit on it. But, you know, they did what they could. They got them to the coroner vehicle. At this point, people had, like, gathered outside of the woods, like outside of the perimeter. Yeah. Because they had the crime scene tape up and everything like that. They actually have video of Pamela Hobbs. Oh, God. And Terry Hobbs being told. And it is heart wrenching. I was just going to say. Pamela Hobbs has the reaction that you're like, yep. That's That's what I would do. That's exactly what I would do. Like, she literally just falls to the ground and she's just screaming.

Of course she is. And it's like, she's like paralyzed falls to the ground. Oh, that's just like so sad. It really is. It's terrible to watch. So detective, our inspector, Gary Gitchell is put on the case as the lead investigator. Okay. I have feelings about Gary Gitchell, but. Whenever you have feelings. about somebody, they're typically not good ones. I have some feelings. Are we going to get to it later? We are definitely going to dive real deep into them later, probably in part two. I think that he was just very arrogant, very set in his thinking of wanting to close this case

as soon as possible, regardless of facts and evidence. See, that's always an issue. It's like, sure, we want to close this case. the case, like we want to figure out who did this, but we don't want to close it for it to just be closed. Yeah, you don't want to close it with the wrong people behind bars. Like, that's not really closing it. That's just closing it on paper and trying to make people feel better, which I understand

that this case was really like a hot topic because it was like three, eight-year-old boys. Right. There's parents that are sitting there being like, fix this, find who killed my children. And then there's also other parents that are sitting there being like, are our children next? We need to know if this person is caught or not. I get that. But again, you can't just line the evidence to fit your way of thinking. You have to go with the evidence.

And actually do the job that you're supposed to do. Well, and because of the significance of this case, it was pretty much the biggest thing that was hitting the area in a long time. Yeah, of course. I mean, West Memphis did not have these kind of homicides. The Arkansas State Police actually offered to help the West Memphis PD. They were like, can we offer our assistance? Because the West Memphis PD had never, they didn't even have training to handle these kind of homicides. Right.

So they were just flying off the seat of their pants trying to do what they could do. Now, Gary Gitchell declined their help, which is, I'm sorry, that's just stupid. It's just him with like the hero complex of wanting to be. the one to solve the case, which like good for him if he really wants to solve the case. Yeah. But like, solve the fucking case. Exactly. So, you know, this was huge.

One thing that was good was he was doing the thing that a lot of police officers do, departments do in these scenarios, which is try to keep as many details to the chest as they possibly can. Because, again, when you start, you know, trying to find who did this, you don't want someone that's read it and is giving you that detail because they read it in a paper. You want them to slip and say a detail and be like, oh, that's nowhere. I don't know why you would know that, you know. Right. So they wanted to keep it all hidden.

But unfortunately, the same evening that the boys were found, some reporters from the Memphis Commercial Appeal newspaper were sitting around doing what reporters did, especially back then and listening to police scanners. Oh, shit. Because that's how you find your big scoop. Oops. Right. They start listening. They hear this crime scene going on. They hear all the details. Oh, shit. So what did they do? Boom in the paper the next day. So do they typically say like everything via police scanner or has that changed now because of? Well, you can do you can hide channels like in the poly class case. They, they hid some of the, they accidentally hid some of the information, the Bolo from all the area police.

Because you can put it on a certain channel. This just wasn't, you know, the scanner. work the way they work. Right. It's like they're going to hear. And I don't think they were really thinking that far ahead, to be honest. But it was printed front page. Oh, shit, the next day. So now, and also it was printed, like a lot of inaccuracies were put in that one.

Like, they added, they made it that the boys were sexually assaulted. And that was not proven to be true. Right. And that was just them surmising it from what they saw at the scene. That was no medical examiner. saying that or anything. So it was printed as fact when it wasn't. Okay. So now the whole idea of trying to keep it close to the chest is shot is shot. They really don't have anything to work with at this point because the crime scene itself had like very little evidence. Right. There was no

blood visible at the crime scene, which is shocking. When you look at the injuries to the boys, everybody was like, where the hell did that blood go? So now they're thinking where they killed on the bank and put in the water, were they killed in the water or were they killed somewhere else in brought here. Well, and didn't it seem to begin with like they were killed somewhere else and then brought there because they had just searched that whole area and then the shoe came back up? Not necessarily. When they were searching the area, the boys were underwater. Oh, they just didn't see them because the water's very murky and muddy and even though like the shoe. Oh, because the shoe was just floated up. Oh, okay. The shoe just floated up. I see what you're saying. So in the, in the way

the crime scene was, it made it very difficult to gather a lot of evidence. So now their only option is we got to look at the boys, we have to look at the injuries, the ligatures, what can we gather from this? So they do see that this way of hog tying them was weird. Like, as we said, it wasn't like a normal, you don't find people hogtied like that very often. No. Especially they were like, like, this is peculiar. So they started, one of the officers on scene was like, well, in Vietnam in the war, this is how they would do this to prisoners. like prisoners of war.

Like a weird torture thing. And so they were like, maybe this is someone that's been in the Vietnam War and saw this kind of thing. Okay. Because it is again peculiar. Sure. So they started thinking, you know, is this a Vietnam vet? Like what's, should we be looking for a Vietnam vet? Like at this point, they're literally grasping straws.

Yeah. Which is why they come so quickly to the, oh, it must be those got got nothing. Mm-hmm. Scenario. Because they got nothing. They really do. So they started thinking about that and then they see they're looking further into the ligatures now that they've kind of sat there and said, okay, the hog tying is weird, maybe a Vietnam vet, someone who has seen this kind of thing before because you don't just come up with that. Right.

So then they start seeing the kind of knots that were used because it wasn't, it's so funny. Whenever I hear like kinds of knots used, I'm like, I just tie knots. Like my knots would not be anything. It's just a knot. It's so weird to me when people use. use specific knots too because I'm like, why would you use a specific knot? It's a very specific detail that they could tie to you. Right. It's just weird to me. So Michael- Do you think it's like force of habit?

I think it is. Yeah, I think it might just be like, that's how they tie. Right. Because they were taught to tie that knot. Well, Michael and Christopher were tied with the same exact knots. Okay. All of their ligatures were tied with one knot. And do you know what it was?

I don't know what the knot was. Okay. Honestly, even if I knew the knot, like the name of the knot, I wouldn't even know. know what it was. What it looked like, yeah. But I did see a couple of like things where they listed different knots that they, that people said it was, but they weren't reliable and they were different. Yeah. I don't want to report that. Right. So Stevie was tied with two different kinds of knots, and those two knots were different from Christopher and Michael's knots. So we're dealing with three different kinds of knots here. Christopher and Michael have the same ones. Stevie has two different

ones. Okay. That's interesting. Weird. So that to me says that's several people. Yeah. At least two people. Right. It would be very odd for him to, the part, him or her, to suddenly switch up knots with another kid and also put two different knots than the other ones. Like, that would be weird. Unless you're just trying to fucking showcase your talents and knots. Yeah.

And I feel like that's something that maybe wouldn't come to your mind during this. Right. But, so that's weird. They also found DNA in one of the ligatures, and they believed this could have come from the killer. So they found skin, basically. like pieces of, I think, like, cuticle as well. At the time, they couldn't do a whole lot with it.

That's always so frustrating when it's like, and it was the 90s, so you couldn't do anything with it. I'm like, God damn it. What they did have was Luminal. Okay. We know Luminal. I mean, everybody's watched CSI, right? It lights up when it comes in contact with bodily fluids. Or hello, forensic files.

Exactly. I love Luminal. So they use Luminal to basically tell we don't see any blood, but let's see if there's blood around here. So from the report. They said there was a trail along a stream bed with positive reactions to the luminal on either side of a tree. And the tree had more reaction noted to the right side of the tree, which was facing the stream. Okay. There was also an area with used plastic sheeting west of the trail.

There were positive reactions to the luminal there, which I wondered. I was like, could they have used like sheeting or something to catch all the stuff? Like, it's a possibility. I don't know. And then they said to the right of some more trees at the west bank of the stream, there was another positive reaction with the Luminal. But it was explained by the police later that that's where the two victims were placed when they were taken out of the stream bed. So it reacted positively, which it's good that they were able to explain that because it means the Luminal did its job. Right. In the same stream bed, there was a positive reaction indicated where another one of the victims was placed out of the water.

So, again, we're having like a control here that's working for them. On the east side of the east bank of the stream bed, there were a pile of sticks and a depression in the soil where the luminal tested a concentrated area of positive reaction. Okay. So a very concentrated area of like a lot. There had been a lot of blood there at one point. is that and again who's to say this is their blood it is the woods right animals bleed i don't it's like there was also a positive reaction near some tree roots and um in the end they basically said that the traces of presumed blood detected along the trail and at the bluff and on the slope of the bank

were where the rescue and recovery teams took them out of the water okay so that was all explained away. They said that the areas that were really positive with that like pile of sticks, the large concentration, and also the ones near the tree roots, that to them indicated that it happened prior to the recovery of the victims and were perhaps when they were being attacked. Okay. So those they do look at as possibly their blood before they were recovered. But there's no way to be like 100% sure. There's no way. Yeah. So now it does say in the report that this luminal testing was done days after they were recovered and at least one rainfall had happened. Okay.

So that is tough. Yeah. I mean, again, the luminal proved itself to work when, you know, when the control tests were basically done where they had placed the body. Sure. So, I mean, you got to take that with a grain of salt, but at least they did a luminal test. Right. But it also, again, doesn't explain a lot of where the blood went.

Like, where is all that blood? Right. Because most of it was done to their heads and neck. necks and faces. Which bleed a lot. Anything from the neck up is going to bleed a ton. Exactly. And then also the other thing that's going to bleed a ton is your genital area.

Right. And as we know, Christopher Byers was castrated. Right. So that would have been an, and also Stevie Branch's face. I mean, that was a massive wound. Right. All of this would have bled a lot. The only other thing I can think of is if it happened in the water.

That's what I was literally just about to ask you. Yeah. So, I mean, it could have. It could have. be difficult. It would definitely be difficult. I mean, this whole thing would be really difficult. But then maybe they ran into the water. I mean, the thing is, they also, there was nothing that indicated that they were stabbed through their clothing. So it looks to me like they were hog tied or at least stripped and then attacked. Or I should say probably beaten at some point and then

forced to strip or stripped. I know. In part two, we're going to get into like way more of this kind of thing, like the theories and all this. Yeah. But so the autopsy was done May 7th by Dr. Frank Peretti.

What it stated was that Michael Moore received 63 specific injuries. He had 34 injuries on the right side and 19 on his left. Christopher Byers had 62, 16 on his right and 30. on his left.

Steve, Steve Branch had 21. He had seven on his right and 11 on his left. Wow. These are all just like small, like, lacerations and cruising. Michael Moore had a lot of skull fractures.

He had 10. Oh my God. Which indicates a severe beating. Yeah. Almost all of his injuries were in the, on his upper body. He had a ton of defensive wounds, which is really sad.

Christopher Byers had, of course, a lot of injuries to his lower body, altogether 24. Oh, my God. Now, the cause of death for Stevie and Michael was drowning. Oh. And for Christopher, it was blood loss from the stabbing. So that's interesting that Stevie and Michael went into the water still alive. And Christopher didn't. That is weird.

And it makes the time. a little weird because you're like so did so Christopher died essentially from bleeding out which can happen quickly if you hit the right thing I mean I don't I'm not I don't see anything about his femoral artery being severed or anything but that'll happen in like minutes yeah but I mean they were near that right so it could have potentially happened and there are a lot of different things down there I mean I'm no doctor but it seems like it could happen pretty quickly right and then Christopher or Michael and Stevie, it's like, so they got a severe beating, it looks like, were clearly, like, stabbed and lacerated in the face and neck and head. Right. And then just plunged into the water. And it's like,

was Christopher out of the water at that point? Or was he in the water? Right. Because he didn't drown, so he had to be dead when he was placed in the water. Right. It's just, the whole thing is, like, really hard to, like, wrap your brain around. Yeah. It really is. Um, what's odd about this, too, was like the families were like barely interrogated with the exception being John Mark Byers who was definitely interrogated and with good reason Pamela Hobbs and Dana Moore really just

spoke briefly with the police on May 10th and it wasn't until recently that Terry Hobbs was interviewed at length at all Okay Later police did search the homes and they collected clothing samples for fibers and such but Terry and Pam's home was not initially searched specifically for fibers

Okay. Which we'll find out later is a problem. Right. So now to me, when I was listening to this, especially with the knots, when the knots came up, I was like, did anyone look at their Cub Scout leaders? Right. Or anybody to do with the Cub Scouts? Right. They know Knots and shit.

Yeah. And that's a little weird to me that they like, but then I looked and it looks like Michael Moore's father was one of their Cub Scout leaders. And I don't, to me, he doesn't ring us a suspect. But there's got to be other Cub Scout leaders. Right. I don't know. It could be a thing. But I think they did interview a couple of the Cubs scout leaders, but it never... They just weren't a good match. So on May 7th, Steve Jones, he was one of the officers on the scene when they found the boys.

Yeah. He was a juvenile officer. He was the one who saw... I believe he was the one who saw the sneaker first. Right, right, right. So he interviewed Damien M. Now, he did this at the encouragement of another juvenile officer named Jerry Driver. Okay. Jerry Driver was literally obsessed with Damien Eckles. Weird.

Obsessed where he was like, he is the devil. He's a devil worshipper. We need to lock him up. And he was like that from the jump. I mean, and at one point, Jerry Driver, in fact, in part two, I'm going to show you guys a ton more quotes from Cherry Driver because they're bonkers. Yeah. Like, he literally says he read Stephen King and he had black fingernails polish. Right.

He was the guy. Like, he's the killer. He did it because he reads scary books and paints his nails, dark colors. And he just like, and there's, and again, I am going to use Damien Eccles book as well as a couple of other sources for the next part. And we'll get way further into this because it's crazy. Yeah, this is insane. What happened. Yeah.

When you see how Jerry. Driver would not leave Damien Echols alone. Damien Eccles literally at one point moved out of state to Oregon and he still couldn't get away from Jerry Driver. Which is terrifying. Yeah. So this dude was like... And this was all before anything.

It happened to the vice he was obsessed with him. Like this guy was hell bent on getting Damien behind bars and when this happened, he was like, here's my chance. And it was like the perfect. Yeah. It was the perfect one. So on May 7th officer Steve Jones, who was working, a juvenile officer, working with Jerry Driver, interview Damien Eccles.

And I even forgot to mention that Jerry Driver used to drive around West Memphis and he would look for cult meetings taking place. He would drive around on like full moons because he was like, that's when they do it. So homie was a witch hunter. Like he legitimately. Like legitimately a witch hugger. He was, I thought you were to say hugger. He was a witch hugger.

He was just hugging witches. No, a witch hunter. He would also, he had like a list of, like, teenagers around that he thought were involved in satanic activity. And Damien Eccles and Jason Baldwin and Jesse Miss Kelly were all in that list. Why was Jesse Miss Kelly on the list? I have no idea. Yeah, we'll get to it. But, like, it's very, it's been threats that holds him into that list.

What happened to this man? I don't know, man. I feel like he was a former pilot. Okay. Yeah. It just seems like when you're when you pilot planes, shouldn't you be like a little more with it? Yeah. I feel like somebody that he loved, left him and joined the occult.

Yeah. And he was like really pissed off about it. It's something happened because he was really into him. So they questioned Damien Eccles. They questioned him about the murders three separate times between May 7th and May 10th. Okay. They questioned him twice at the mobile home where he lived with his parents and once at the police station. He said, and he never changed.

changed it. He was like, I was at home on May 5th all night. His mom backed him up. He was like, I was not out at Marvin Hood Hills. And he said, I was on, I talked on the phone with two friends in Memphis that night. Okay. Like, who can back at up. Like, look at my fucking phone records. Soon it looked like, so they're still, now Jerry Driver is going to become obsessed with getting him behind bars. And it's so upsetting. It's to the point now where they, you know, days are passing. They're not getting to a month. They don't have any leads. Nothing is panning out.

The Vietnam vet thing is not happening for them. They're not finding anybody like that. Right. And it's starting to become an issue. And the community is starting to be like, what the hell are you doing to get this person or these people who did this to these little boys? Right. So now the police are getting desperate. They're in the hot seat.

Specifically, Gary Gitchell is getting desperate. And remind me who Gary Gitchell is. Gary Gitchell is the lead investigator? Yeah. So this becomes the beginning of the end. end when it comes to Damien, Jason, and Jesse Muskelly. And it's a straight up fucking witch. It's a witch hunt. It's essentially a witch hunt. It really is. I mean, again, we're going to present all the facts. Right. There are certainly things that do not look good for Damien at times. I mean,

you take what you want from that, but I'm going to present all of it. I think you might come up with how I feel, which is that they are innocent, but I just want to make like something clear. In the beginning, I was like, we're not going to state our opinions. I meant on like religion or politics with the case, we're totally going to state our opinions. I just don't want anybody being like, you didn't, you said you weren't going to. And now you will. Yeah, no. We're like, when it comes to religion or politics, we're going to state the facts. We're not going to go further with it. Right. Again, this was a very, which we are, and I think that's going to be more pertinent for part two for us. Yeah. Because we're going to get more into why Damien and Jason and Jesse were picked,

specifically Damien and Jason especially. And, you know, religion plays a big part in that. Damien was a self-admitted Wiccan, which in West Memphis at that time. They were like, you love Satan. You're a witch. You're a Satan worshipper. That's all it was. Like, you couldn't even begin to explain himself. Which sucks. And again, we're going to go all into this in part two, and that's going to be really intense and really awesome and scary and terrifying.

But we're going to stop here. So they have started to interview Damien. they are getting desperate and shit's about to go down. Next week. Next week. So join us for part two of West Memphis 3. And in the meantime, you can hit us up on Instagram at Morbid Podcast. Follow us on Twitter.

A Morbid podcast. Join the Facebook group. Morbid colon. A true crime podcast. Send us a Gmail. Do it. Morbidpodcast. Atgmail.com.

Donate to the Patreon and look out for a bonus episode this week, most likely. That's right. Patreon.com. Morbid Podcast. We hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird. I don't want to do one for this one. Not so weird that you're a gothid who gets arrested for no reason. Yeah, don't keep it that weird. And don't be so fucking weird that you're a witch hunter who goes fucking driving on full moons looking for kids just having fun, most likely. There you go. You had it. Bye. You had it and you all along. I did. Bye.