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slash pod 50 for 50% off. Welcome

1:44

to true crime garage wherever you are

1:46

whatever you are doing thanks for listening

1:48

I'm your host Nick and with me

1:50

as always manning the controls

1:52

my friend and yours the captain thank you

1:55

thank you thank you it's good to be

1:57

seen and it's good to see you Good

2:00

to see you Captain, we got a jam-packed show for

2:02

you this week. So let's get straight to the beer

2:04

and get straight to the case. This

2:12

week we're drinking Reverberation by

2:14

Memphis made brewing company, Memphis,

2:16

Tennessee. Garage grade, 3.5

2:19

out of 5 bottle caps. This

2:23

is a Belgian style coffee stout

2:26

collaboration that they did with Memphis

2:28

based Reverb coffee company. They used

2:30

freshly roasted dark Sumatra coffee which

2:33

perfectly blends the accents to the

2:35

stout's natural coffee flavors. Summery,

2:39

it's a tasty treat. Yes it is Captain and

2:41

this week's beer is brought to us by some

2:43

very good friends of the garage. We have Erica

2:45

in Portland, Oregon, Robert in

2:48

Alberta, Canada and Rachel in

2:50

London Berry, New Hampshire. So

2:52

thank you all for buying the beer this week

2:54

and if you want to pitch in and buy

2:56

us around for next week's show, go to truecrimegarage.com

2:58

and click on the donate button. And

3:01

this is our big season 2 finale so

3:04

we want to thank everybody that has purchased

3:06

t-shirts, signed up on the mailing list, added

3:09

us on social media, if

3:11

it wasn't for you guys we'd just be

3:13

talking to ourselves. Yeah thanks for a great

3:15

season 2, we hope you've enjoyed it and

3:17

we got a great case for you tonight

3:19

that's going to spill over into next week.

3:21

So without further ado, gather around, grab a

3:24

chair and grab a beer or

3:26

two and let's talk some

3:28

true crime. From

3:51

an old rugged

3:53

tree and

3:55

it whispers, draw

3:58

closer. West

4:03

Memphis. West

4:08

Memphis. West

4:11

Memphis. West

4:13

Memphis. West

4:24

Memphis. West

4:28

Memphis. West

4:33

Memphis. West

4:40

Memphis. West

4:44

Memphis. West

4:51

Memphis. Imagine

4:58

all the evils you could think

5:00

of. The how a

5:02

woman could be murdered. And that's

5:05

how women burn children. No

5:08

family should ever go to this. Unfortunately

5:11

it's going to happen again

5:13

somewhere. Another town. It's

5:16

going to happen again or again. There

5:19

are a lot of bad people out there in the world. I

5:24

see no reason. I see no

5:26

motive. One of these brutal boys

5:28

murdered. One

5:33

had to have murdered the three boys.

5:36

Even Brangeman. Mr.

5:39

Reviers. And

5:41

Michael Ford. Hundreds

5:46

of people killed in the name

5:48

of religion. It is

5:50

a motivating force that gives people the hope

5:52

to do even, hope

5:54

to commit murders, a reason to do

5:57

what they do. Real

6:26

quick, Captain, I want to give a little disclaimer

6:28

here, okay? So this is

6:30

a huge case. This is a whale

6:32

of a tail. Now we

6:34

all know that there's plenty of movies, there's

6:36

plenty of books about this case. And

6:39

we wanted to approach this a little bit differently

6:41

because I've always felt that a lot of the

6:44

movies and a lot of the books regarding this

6:46

case, they claim that they're going

6:48

to go into it, you know, no bias.

6:51

Right, exactly. That

6:53

John Mark Byers is not guilty, that Terry Hobbs

6:55

is not guilty, that the West Memphis Three are

6:57

not guilty or they are guilty.

7:01

You know, that they're going to go into it and point

7:03

fingers. And so what

7:05

we're going to try to do here, Captain, is

7:07

what we did was we put the blindfold on

7:11

and we're not seeing this with

7:13

any preconceived notions of guilt by anybody

7:15

involved. We're just going to look

7:17

and examine at how this thing

7:19

went down and the timeline and

7:22

the people involved. We're

7:25

taking a car into the garage, we're going to dismantle it,

7:27

we're going to take it apart, we're going to look at

7:29

it piece by piece, we're going to put it back together

7:31

again and see if it runs. There's

7:33

a lot of hearsay in this case and there's

7:35

a lot of character assassination in this case.

7:38

What we're focusing on is the facts,

7:40

what we know for sure. And

7:43

I'm sure some people are familiar with the

7:45

documentaries and the books that were involved with

7:47

this case. I mean, we have the Paradise

7:49

Lost trilogy, we have the West of Memphis

7:52

documentary, we have books like

7:54

The Devil's Knot, Untying the Knot,

7:56

Abomination. I mean, the list goes on

7:58

and on and on. And every couple years

8:00

we find out there's a new book or

8:03

there's a new movie about this case. And

8:05

if you watch those or you read those, you

8:08

only get a piece. You only get kind

8:11

of a sneak peek into this case. But

8:14

there's so much information out there where

8:16

you can actually dive into the actual

8:18

reports and the actual timelines that were

8:20

taken by law enforcement. We're

8:22

gonna start off by discussing some of the police

8:25

reports that were given. May 5th,

8:27

1993 in West Memphis, Arkansas. This

8:31

was a Wednesday. The full moon

8:33

rise at 741 p.m. There's

8:37

a missing persons report that needs

8:40

to be responded to. Officer

8:42

Meeks arrives at the

8:44

home of John Mark Byers at 8 p.m. And

8:48

now he's complaining that his

8:50

son has gone missing. He

8:53

says that his son

8:55

might be a missing person. The

8:57

last time that he had seen him, he

9:00

was cleaning the yard at 5.30 p.m. His

9:03

son's name is Christopher Byers. Now

9:06

he would go on to explain to the officer

9:09

that Christopher was on Ritalin

9:11

for hyperactivity. And

9:14

at this date, he had not taken his medication

9:16

that day. Mr. Byers said

9:18

that his stepson, Christopher was last seen

9:20

at 6 p.m. by

9:24

Dana Moore, who is the neighbor. And

9:26

Christopher was playing with her son, Michael

9:28

Moore, who is also believed to be

9:30

missing. Christopher Byers was four

9:33

feet, four inches tall, roughly

9:35

50 pounds, light brown

9:37

hair and brown eyes. He was

9:39

last seen wearing blue jeans, dark

9:41

shoes, and a long sleeve white

9:44

T-shirt. And after taking

9:46

the complaint, Officer

9:48

Meeks would go on

9:50

to respond to another call. Now this

9:52

call took place at the Bojangles restaurant.

9:55

This is a chicken restaurant. Now

9:57

she arrives and goes to the window.

10:00

window, and she takes this report

10:02

through the window. And

10:04

the report is the manager stating that about

10:08

30 minutes before the

10:10

officer had arrived that a

10:12

bleeding black man had entered the

10:14

restaurant and went into the women's

10:16

restroom. Now he had

10:18

blood on his face and appeared to

10:21

have been mentally disturbed or mentally disoriented.

10:25

And he had wandered away from the

10:27

restaurant just a few minutes before officer

10:30

meet could arrive. Now

10:32

employees would go on and they would

10:34

find blood smeared on the bathroom walls.

10:37

There has been some speculation about

10:39

this individual having a sling

10:41

on one of his arms. Yeah,

10:43

and that is apparent because of

10:46

a follow-up police report that was

10:48

conducted the second day, this

10:50

would be May

10:52

6th, where Detective

10:54

Sergeant Allen and Detective Ridge

10:57

went to the Bojangles restaurant and

10:59

they talked with a Marty King.

11:01

Now Marty King is the

11:03

manager at the Bojangles restaurant. And the reason

11:05

why they got the call was

11:08

once the boys were found, the

11:11

manager believed that there was some kind of

11:13

connection between the man that he saw in

11:15

the restaurant. Yeah, the Bojangles

11:17

restaurant was not terribly far from the

11:19

Robin Hood Hills Woods. And right, that's

11:21

why he called the cops out to

11:24

collect evidence. And we do,

11:26

before I get into the second police

11:28

report, we do have to mention that

11:30

officer Meek did not enter when she

11:32

arrived on May 5th. She

11:35

did not enter the restaurant at all. She

11:37

took the report through the window. She

11:39

didn't go into the restaurant. She did not go

11:41

into the women's restroom to investigate. They

11:44

had other calls to tend to that evening. And

11:48

she left before she could further investigate. Now

11:50

after, like you said, after the boys had

11:52

been found, now we got to go back

11:54

and revisit this thing, right? So

11:56

now they send a detective, two detectives to

11:59

the Bojangles restaurant. They meet with the manager.

12:01

The manager is going to

12:03

further get further detail on this story now

12:06

what he says is that the black male entered

12:09

the restaurant on the evening of

12:12

May 5th and He was

12:14

found in the ladies room and appeared to

12:16

have been bleeding from the arm The

12:19

manager stated that the man was about 5 11

12:21

thin. He was dirty He

12:24

was in his late 20s and

12:26

they found a pair of sunglasses that

12:28

were left on the toilet Which

12:31

is suspected to have been left by the black

12:33

male Now the subject

12:35

that we're talking about he had a

12:37

blue cast type brace on his arm

12:40

That had white velcro on it the

12:43

black man appeared to be mentally

12:45

disoriented maybe intoxicated

12:47

and And again

12:49

He reminded police that when they

12:51

placed the call the night before

12:53

an officer meek arrived Did

12:56

the the black man in question

12:59

had left on foot and he

13:01

was walking east towards the back

13:03

dumpster? the manager

13:05

also stated that the black man's clothing was

13:07

a Denim sleeveless shirt

13:09

with black shoes that looked like they

13:12

were tennis shoes and black

13:14

thin warm-up pants Now

13:16

the two detectives that arrived the day

13:19

after on the sixth They

13:21

would go and they would took they took

13:23

blood scrapings from the north wall inside the

13:25

women's bathroom above the toilet

13:28

they took blood scrapings from the inside

13:31

of a door of the stall door

13:33

to the bathroom and They

13:36

also took evidence from the

13:38

entrance hall to the bathroom as well in

13:40

the sitting area of the restaurant This

13:43

blood evidence that they collected was never tested

13:45

and the reason why it was never tested

13:48

Was it was lost by the

13:50

detectives? Yeah, and some of the

13:53

blood that would have been there the night

13:55

before was cleaned up by the employees So

13:57

there was there was less and

13:59

also Also the sunglasses that were reported

14:01

to have been left on the toilet

14:03

were never recovered. Possibly thrown

14:05

away. Back to May 5th,

14:08

the evening of May 5th, Officer

14:10

Meek is at the Bojangles Restaurant

14:12

taking her report when

14:14

she receives another call. Now this

14:16

is a disturbance call regarding a

14:19

criminal mischief complaint. She

14:21

leaves the scene. This is probably why she

14:23

never went into the restaurant, never went into

14:25

the restroom and she went to

14:27

take this other call. This

14:29

criminal mischief complaint about somebody

14:32

throwing eggs. After

14:34

taking the report about somebody throwing

14:36

eggs, Officer Meek continues on

14:38

and she's responding to another call. This

14:41

time she arrives at the home of

14:43

Dana Moore at 9.24pm. This

14:47

was called, the complaint was called in by the

14:49

mother Dana and when she

14:51

arrives she talks with the mother and

14:53

she says that she observed

14:55

her son. Her son is missing at

14:57

this point. Now remember earlier Mr.

15:00

Byers had said that he believed that his

15:02

son was with Michael Moore.

15:05

This is the mother of Michael Moore and

15:07

she's saying at 9.24pm that

15:11

her son is missing and he

15:13

was last seen riding bicycles with

15:15

his friends, Stevie Branch and Christopher

15:17

Byers. She had lost sight

15:19

of the boys. They ventured on further out

15:21

of her sight and when she

15:24

lost sight of the boys she sent her daughter,

15:27

Dawn, to find them. The

15:29

boys couldn't be found and

15:31

she described her son Michael as

15:34

approximately 4 foot tall, 60

15:37

pounds with brown hair and blue eyes

15:40

and he was last seen wearing blue pants, a

15:43

blue Boy Scouts of America shirt, orange

15:46

and blue Boy Scout hat and tennis

15:48

shoes. And both of these boys

15:50

that are missing are 8 years old. So

15:53

far yes, all two boys that have

15:55

been reported missing are 8 years old. Now

15:58

the complaint by

16:00

Dana Moore states that

16:03

they were riding bicycles with their other friend

16:06

Stevie Branch who was eight as well. Shortly

16:09

after Officer Meek arrives to

16:11

take the missing persons report

16:13

from the Moore household, a

16:15

second officer is responding to

16:17

again another missing persons call.

16:20

Now this officer arrives at the Catfish

16:22

Island restaurant. We got to discuss this

16:24

a little bit because this is a

16:27

much different call in my opinion than

16:29

the first two calls that we've already

16:31

discussed. Okay so in this

16:34

situation we have Pam

16:36

Hobbs. She's working at the

16:38

Catfish Island restaurant. Okay now

16:41

her husband Terry Hobbs, he's

16:43

the stepfather of Stevie Branch.

16:45

He arrives to pick up

16:47

Pam Hobbs from work. Okay

16:50

so she's getting off work

16:52

and he arrives approximately, it

16:54

must have been about 9.20 to 9.25 because the

16:56

police call comes in and a police

16:58

officer is dispatched

17:02

shortly after that and responds to this call just

17:04

after 9.24 p.m. And

17:06

Terry Hobbs is alone when he goes to pick

17:09

up Pam Hobbs. He is

17:11

with their daughter Amanda. Yeah

17:13

you're exactly right and what happened is, see

17:16

Pam Hobbs she had a

17:18

DWI so she's no longer driving. She

17:20

doesn't have a driver's license at this

17:22

time. So Terry Hobbs would typically

17:24

drive her to work which he did on

17:26

the day of May 5th and

17:28

then he would come back and pick her up. Okay

17:31

so at this point Terry Hobbs arrives

17:33

with older daughter

17:35

Amanda and they

17:37

go to pick up Pam Hobbs. Now

17:40

Pam says that the pickup was a

17:42

little weird because when Terry

17:44

enters the restaurant that he

17:46

came in and without talking to her,

17:48

without telling her what he was doing,

17:50

he goes over to the payphone and

17:53

places a phone call. He doesn't

17:55

explain to her who he is calling. Now

17:58

Pam comes out of the

18:00

restaurant and she specifically says that she expected

18:02

to see her son and her

18:04

daughter in Terry's truck. Yeah. That they were all

18:07

going to ride home together. Because it's like 9.20.

18:09

Yeah, indeed. And we got

18:11

an eight-year-old and we're not going to leave

18:14

children at home alone. Exactly.

18:17

So she comes out of the restaurant and she says

18:19

that, you know, they have those little gumball machines or

18:21

whatever. Yeah. That she purposely, you

18:23

know, bought a couple pieces of candy. She was going

18:26

to give one to Amanda and one to Stevie. Yeah.

18:28

And then, you know, he's going to go into the truck. There's no Stevie. Now,

18:31

Terry gets into the truck with her and

18:33

he says, you know, Stevie's

18:36

still missing. We haven't been able

18:38

to find him. Me and Amanda,

18:40

we've been together the entire time that you've been

18:42

at work and we've been out looking for Stevie.

18:45

Now, his friends are missing as well. I've

18:48

just called the cops from the payphone. So

18:51

the police arrive. Now this

18:53

is Officer Moore. He

18:55

arrives and he's going to take the

18:57

complaint from Pam Hopps. Now

19:00

she would state that her son left

19:02

home after school and she

19:04

hasn't seen him sent. She

19:06

also stated that Dana Moore stated

19:08

that she had saw Steve with

19:10

her son, Michael Moore and Christopher

19:12

Byers around 6 p.m. Now

19:15

it's 1993. It's

19:17

not that abnormal for eight-year-old boys

19:19

to just go off and play.

19:22

Maybe go to one friend's house for a little bit.

19:24

Go to another one's. Maybe

19:26

you tell your parents where you're at. Maybe you don't. You

19:29

just ride around the neighborhood. It's

19:31

not until it's about dinnertime that your parents

19:33

would actually start worrying about you. I

19:36

see what you're saying. I mean, this is a time

19:38

kids go out and play after school. You know, you

19:40

get together with your buddies, you go ride bikes, you're

19:42

on skateboards or whatever. You're gone for

19:44

a while and you're gone maybe longer than you

19:46

anticipated to be gone or longer than your parents

19:49

told you that you could be out and playing

19:51

with your friends. This situation

19:53

might be a little bit different though. You know,

19:55

now we're talking about, like you said, 9.30-ish p.m.

19:59

It's dark. We've already established that

20:01

the moon Came

20:03

up before 8 p.m. That night So

20:06

just because the moon is out before 8

20:08

o'clock doesn't mean it's dark before 8 o'clock

20:10

But we could obviously assume that at 9

20:12

29 25 when this report is taking place

20:17

It is dark now and that's what

20:19

has given her cause for concern definitely

20:21

and before you know as stated she

20:24

didn't know until Terri

20:26

had told her just minutes before that her

20:29

son was still missing when

20:31

the officer is there and she's giving the

20:33

report she would go on to describe her

20:35

son Stevie as 4

20:37

foot 2 inches tall approximately 60 pounds

20:40

He's got blonde hair and blue eyes

20:42

And he was last seen wearing blue

20:44

jeans and a white t-shirt and he

20:46

was riding his 20 inch black renegade

20:48

bicycle Now what's convenient for

20:51

the police department is

20:53

the three reports of the missing children?

20:55

They're all in the same

20:58

neighborhood. They all live around each other.

21:00

Do you want to describe that neighborhood

21:02

for us? Yeah, it's convenient, but troublesome

21:04

and they're all reported to have been

21:06

seen with one another now this neighborhood

21:08

is It's situated between

21:10

a very busy

21:12

freeway the interstate 40 freeway

21:15

Is to the north of the neighborhood and

21:17

to the south of the neighborhood we have

21:19

the 10-mile bayou We

21:22

have the two boys Chris

21:25

Byers and Michael Moore they

21:27

live basically next door to one

21:29

another and Just less

21:31

than about a quarter of a mile south

21:34

of their home is Stevie is

21:36

the home of Stevie Branch Now

21:38

to the north of all

21:41

of their homes about a half

21:43

mile north of the Michael Moore's home

21:45

and Christopher Byers home We

21:47

have what is known as the Robin

21:50

Hood Hills This

21:52

is a woods that that is on

21:54

the outskirt of the neighborhood there and

21:56

this section of woods is roughly four

21:58

acres We have some reports

22:01

where the boys were seen heading towards

22:03

that direction. Now these woods

22:06

were considered an area that parents didn't

22:08

want their kids playing in the

22:10

woods, but we all know, we were all

22:12

kids once, if there was a woods somewhere,

22:14

if there was- I wasn't.

22:16

You've just been- I've been 35

22:18

though. You came out this way. Yep. And

22:21

if there were woods or if there was a creek or if

22:23

there was something that would lead to

22:25

an adventure, especially when you're eight, nine, ten

22:27

years old, you're going into those woods and

22:30

you're going to go play. And

22:32

so it was a little suspected that once

22:34

they were seen going north, that

22:36

maybe the boys had ventured into these

22:38

woods. These woods

22:40

are located right by the Blue

22:43

Beacon truck wash, which,

22:45

so it's not just a car wash, it's

22:47

more of for washing semis and stuff like

22:49

that. Yeah, there's a

22:51

service road that runs right off of

22:54

that Interstate 40, and this

22:56

is where the truck wash is. And

22:58

now, one thing we got to keep

23:00

in mind here with the West Memphis

23:02

town is that a lot

23:04

of their money that they generate comes

23:06

from being located right by this freeway.

23:08

This freeway is one of the most

23:10

traveled freeways in the United States. So

23:13

they get a lot of truckers that are going

23:15

to stop, they're going to wash their car, or

23:17

I'm sorry, wash their truck, but there's also truck

23:19

stops, and there's these restaurants

23:22

where the truckers would go into and spend their

23:24

money to get a meal or to fill up

23:26

their tank, wash their truck. So

23:28

it's a big part of their economy. By

23:30

9 30 pm, it's

23:33

well established that we have three missing

23:35

boys all from the same neighborhood. Multiple

23:39

family members of these missing

23:41

boys are out searching for

23:43

their children, for their stepchildren.

23:46

And they would go, you know, they would drive up

23:48

and down the streets of the neighborhood, ask

23:50

neighbors if they had seen anybody, if they had

23:53

seen the boys. And

23:55

some of them even ventured into the truck

23:58

wash and ventured into the the wooded

24:00

area and by after midnight

24:03

most of them start to give up their search. It's

24:06

getting way into the late of the

24:08

night. They cannot find the boys and

24:11

unfortunately there's not much

24:13

hope but what they do

24:15

is they wake up the next morning. Well also

24:17

it's so dark that you can't see anything. You're

24:20

hoping this is just a misunderstanding that maybe they

24:23

went to somebody's house that they didn't know about

24:25

and we can't do much tonight so we'll deal with

24:28

it in the morning. These

24:30

family members as well as law enforcement

24:32

would continue on the search the following

24:34

morning. Now the police

24:37

department would get help

24:39

from other local law enforcement

24:42

agencies in their searches. So

24:45

we have a smaller police department that

24:47

is going to get a lot of

24:49

help from bigger police departments. We even

24:52

have the Memphis, the city of Memphis

24:54

in Tennessee sends over a helicopter

24:56

to search the following morning. And this is

24:58

west of Memphis. Yeah we

25:00

have the Memphis police department providing

25:02

the helicopter for the search the

25:05

following morning as well as the

25:07

Crittenden County Sheriff's Department assisting

25:09

with officers and boots on the ground.

25:12

Here's one thing that's interesting, Camden. On

25:15

the morning of May 6th, this

25:18

is an appointment that was

25:20

already scheduled. Right. We

25:23

have a woman named Vicki

25:25

Hutchinson. She's approximately early 30s

25:29

and she has an appointment to speak with

25:31

an officer. His name is Don Bray. Now

25:35

this interview would be conducted when

25:37

the kids were still missing. So

25:40

she arrives to this interview and

25:43

the reason for the interview is

25:46

that a local truck stop where Vicki

25:48

Hutchinson works, there was a

25:50

suspected credit card fraud

25:53

situation. After

25:55

being asked by the truck stop owners to

25:58

interview this woman, he has scheduled this

26:00

interview. So she's a suspect in

26:02

this? She's a suspect for this because there

26:04

was a $200 overrun

26:06

on a credit card. Now the

26:08

owners of the truck stop, they suspected

26:11

that their new employee, Vicki,

26:14

she was working at the time. Right. And this

26:16

is something that hadn't happened recently or

26:18

hadn't happened before and they believe

26:20

that she should be suspected of this $200 overrun on

26:23

this credit card. Right.

26:25

This credit card belonged to a customer. So

26:27

we could assume that they may be questioner

26:29

about it but they didn't feel so confident

26:31

in what the answers they got. So they

26:33

turned it over to the police department. So

26:35

the interview starts, right? And Vicki shows

26:37

up and she shows up with her

26:40

eight-year-old son Aaron. Now the

26:42

officer is a little perturbed by this

26:44

because he's thinking couldn't you

26:47

find a better way for this to go

26:49

down that maybe somebody should be watching your

26:51

son, maybe you shouldn't be bringing him to

26:54

a police interview where you're

26:56

a suspect in a potential fraud. Yeah,

26:58

maybe the officer didn't think

27:00

that she's taking it serious enough. Well,

27:03

she explains to the officer after they

27:05

start talking about the credit card incident,

27:08

she explains to the officer that I brought my

27:10

son Aaron with me because he's

27:12

eight years old and he goes to school

27:14

with the boys that are missing. Yeah. I've

27:16

heard these kids are missing and

27:19

that he is very good, he's

27:21

best friends with Michael

27:23

Moore and Christopher Byers. Now

27:26

Vicki would tell the officer that

27:29

on the previous day, the previous

27:31

afternoon, that the Byers

27:34

boy had came over to the

27:36

house with Michael Moore and had

27:39

asked Vicki if her son Aaron could

27:41

go with them to the

27:43

woods. Yeah. And now,

27:45

Robin Hill. Most of the parents-

27:47

Robin Hood Hill. Robin Hood Hills. Okay. Most

27:49

of the parents didn't want their kids playing in

27:52

these woods like we talked about. Right. And

27:54

a big reason for this is

27:56

because it is located so close to

27:58

all those trucking places. Right that

28:00

they were worried about people passing through people

28:02

that they couldn't trust people that they didn't

28:04

know people not from the area Just being

28:06

around their children who might be playing in

28:08

the woods or playing on the outskirts of

28:11

the woods So anybody that they'd run into

28:13

from those truck stops would have an easy

28:15

way in and an easy way out Yeah,

28:17

it's one of the busiest freeways in the

28:19

United States So during

28:22

this interview after officer Bray starts

28:24

discussing the missing boys with Vicki

28:26

and with her son Aaron He

28:29

decides to phone the local police department and

28:31

say hey I might have I

28:34

might have somebody that might have some information in

28:36

this case This boy was asked to go with

28:38

the other boys to the woods and his mom

28:40

said no you can't go Some sounds like a

28:42

great way to deflect. So the

28:44

the officer is then told This

28:47

is in the early afternoon on May

28:49

6th that Thank

28:51

you for the call, but we have

28:54

just found the bodies of the three

28:56

boys He hangs up the

28:58

phone and he decides you know what I'm

29:00

going to continue this interview with the son

29:02

Aaron The

29:16

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next month while your

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subscription is active. Aaron

33:46

would go on to tell Officer Bray that

33:48

in the past he had gone to the

33:50

woods with the boys and

33:52

on one occasion Michael Moore had even

33:54

gone swimming in the ditch. There was

33:56

a ditch, a drainage ditch, that had

33:58

run off of the 10

34:00

mile bayou and it

34:02

was basically like a big creek. And

34:05

in some locations it was quite

34:07

deep, you know, it would get as maybe as

34:09

deep as 4 foot, 5 foot. Yeah,

34:13

definitely enough for an 8 year old to swim in.

34:15

Yeah, and it was at some points,

34:17

you know, it was thin and other points that

34:19

there was more distance between the two shores. But

34:22

he had said that on more than one occasion he

34:24

had gone into the woods with the boys and that

34:26

they had actually had a clubhouse in the woods and

34:29

they would go there often. Aaron

34:31

would go on to tell Officer Bray

34:34

that the day before, just

34:36

after school, he had seen

34:38

Michael Moore talking with a black man.

34:41

This man was described as tall and

34:44

that the man had been sent, he said

34:47

he had been sent by Michael Moore's mom

34:49

to pick him up after school. The

34:52

man was black, he was tall, he had

34:54

yellow teeth and he had

34:56

writing on his t-shirt and

34:58

he was driving a maroon car. Well

35:01

this was very interesting to the

35:04

officer because Aaron Hutchison would have

35:06

known, he knew these boys. He

35:08

went to school with them, he lived in

35:10

the neighborhood with them, he would easily be

35:12

able to identify Michael Moore. His

35:15

description of the man is

35:17

specific, you know, he's giving

35:19

specific details. The

35:21

problem with this report

35:24

is that Michael Moore's

35:26

mom said, no,

35:28

I didn't send anybody to pick up my son.

35:31

And second of all, we live right by the school. He

35:34

just walks home. And

35:36

Michael was reported as having come

35:38

home straight after school. So

35:41

this report's a little weird. We have

35:43

this strange- But it's coming from an

35:45

eight-year-old. We have this strange person that's

35:47

seen by this eight-year-old that knew Michael

35:49

Moore, knew Christopher Byers and

35:52

reports that he saw this strange man. However,

35:55

there's not a lot of weight to it

35:57

because- He's eight years old. He's eight years

35:59

old and Michael- more came straight home after

36:01

school. Not a lot of

36:03

validity to this story. A

36:05

quick friendly garage reminder this show

36:07

is for adults not for children.

36:10

If your kids your kids shouldn't listen

36:12

to the show, if they're in the car

36:14

with you or in the room with you, don't

36:17

do it. This is about to

36:19

get pretty graphic and this

36:21

is the stuff that nightmares are made of. So

36:24

you've been warned all right now we're going

36:26

to venture into the woods. What

36:29

took place in the afternoon of May 6th,

36:32

the officers, all

36:34

the law enforcement agencies that have band

36:36

together and they're looking for these three

36:39

missing boys, they would find

36:41

them in the early afternoon on

36:43

the 6th. Now they had looked for them

36:45

quite a bit that morning and they

36:47

spent a lot of that time combing

36:50

damn near every inch of

36:53

the woods in the wooded area. Like

36:56

I said before the woods was

36:58

about four acres but

37:00

the first part it seemed like the

37:03

most populated part or the most the part that

37:05

people would spend the most time at would be

37:07

the front part of the woods not so much

37:09

the back part. Yeah so what you have here

37:11

is you have basically a tree line that

37:14

I don't know how deep the

37:16

tree line was but then the

37:18

woods itself is divided by the

37:20

10-mile bayou diversion which

37:23

is to make sure that it doesn't

37:25

flood the area. They were

37:27

really a giant pipe. Well

37:29

but the water that runs underneath

37:32

of it they're diverting the water

37:34

elsewhere so that the main water

37:36

source doesn't flood and

37:38

so this divides the woods. Now

37:40

the tree line that we

37:42

just discussed is closest to the

37:44

neighborhood where the boys lived. Now if

37:47

you cross over that pipe and

37:49

cross over the diversion ditch the

37:52

water that runs there you're in the

37:54

part is what the neighborhood people would

37:56

refer to as old Robin Hood. Okay.

37:59

So they are combing both sides

38:01

of this wooded area for most

38:03

of the morning and

38:05

nothing is discovered. Now

38:07

they're just about ready to leave the area.

38:10

Law enforcement is just about ready to leave the woods

38:13

when one officer, Steve

38:16

Jones, he's a Crittenden

38:18

County juvie officer. He

38:21

is basically the last man left in

38:23

the woods and there

38:25

is a creek that runs

38:27

off of that diversion that

38:29

we had discussed and he's

38:31

looking down in the creek just about ready

38:33

to leave the woods when he

38:35

spots a tennis shoe and

38:38

this is a black laceless

38:40

tennis shoe. This is at 1.30 p.m. Now

38:44

the officers, he calls over other officers

38:47

to come over and view this tennis

38:49

shoe. It's clearly a child's shoe and

38:53

they're talking and they wonder how they could

38:55

have missed this because they've combed this area

38:58

all morning long. However,

39:00

it's just now spotted and they've

39:02

decided we have to search this

39:05

creek. Yeah. So

39:07

what happens is... Talk about chilling,

39:10

right? Yeah and... Here's a police

39:12

officer, you're going, we just found this shoe, now

39:14

we got to go into this water.

39:17

Well what's even more chilling, yeah, somebody has

39:19

to volunteer to go into the water because

39:23

now if anybody has seen pictures of

39:25

this water, it's the best I

39:27

can describe it is it's milky. Like

39:29

when they show pictures of it from above, it

39:32

just looks milky. Like you couldn't look deep into

39:34

the water. Yeah,

39:36

I mean it kind of looks like chocolate

39:38

milk. Yeah, because it's so muddy too. It's

39:41

very muddy and it's kind of dirty and

39:43

so a very brave

39:45

man Detective Brian Ridge, he

39:48

decides that he is going to go

39:50

into the water and see if he

39:52

can find any more clothing or

39:54

maybe worse. Now what

39:57

happens is that he gets in the water

39:59

and... What he's got to

40:01

do because you can't see into this water.

40:03

You got to feel around He's got to

40:05

get down on all fours and

40:07

he's got to kind of crawl along The

40:10

bottom and feel out with his hands to see

40:12

if he can feel and some of these spots

40:14

of this water are going to be Four feet

40:16

deep right three to four feet

40:18

deep. So some of it he has to

40:20

submerge his whole body in water Yeah,

40:23

and the area that they are

40:25

in At

40:27

the moment is about two to

40:29

three foot deep Okay So

40:32

it's not as deep as the deepest parts but

40:34

he's going to be able to keep his head

40:36

above water But his most of his body is

40:38

going to be submerged right and

40:41

his arms are out in front of

40:43

him and he's feeling around and Now

40:45

the bottom of we should point out that

40:47

the bottom of this Creek, you

40:49

know Like the captain said the water is very muddy

40:53

is the best way to describe it And so

40:55

the bottom of the the water

40:57

floor there is your your feet

40:59

your knees would kind of stick in it

41:02

You know you you get like a suction

41:04

cup, right? So he's

41:06

feeling around and he's in the

41:09

water for about 10 to 15

41:11

minutes When

41:13

he feels something and he

41:15

pulls this object up. Okay

41:18

He pulls this object up up and it is

41:20

a it's one of the

41:22

bodies. It's it's a body of Michael

41:25

Moore and The

41:27

first thing that he notices is that

41:30

Michael is nude and

41:32

that his he's hogtied Right,

41:35

it's been referred to as hogtied But

41:37

actually he's tied with his right

41:39

hand tied to his right ankle By

41:42

a shoelace and his left hand is tied

41:44

to his left ankle by a

41:47

second shoelace And typically the way you'd

41:49

hogtie somebody is you would tie their

41:51

right arm to their left leg behind

41:53

their back Left arm

41:55

to the right leg behind their

41:57

back. And so Really?

42:00

Really, if you take your right arm and your

42:02

right leg and you tie them behind your back,

42:04

there's not a lot keeping them

42:06

behind your back. If you

42:08

struggled enough, you probably could cut

42:11

loose, right? Yeah, and the

42:13

best way to describe Michael

42:15

Moore and the way that he's found is that

42:18

if you were on your knees and

42:20

your feet were behind you and

42:23

you put your hands down to grab

42:25

your ankles and then

42:27

tie the ankle to the wrist would

42:30

be the best way to describe it. It's

42:32

a very strange way to find a body. It's

42:35

almost a strange way to tie somebody up too. So

42:39

that's the first thing. First thing

42:41

that's noticed is that Michael was nude and

42:43

that he is tied in that manner and

42:46

he seems to have been beaten quite a

42:48

bit about the head and face area. They

42:51

pull the body out of the water and

42:54

now Detective Brian Ridge has

42:56

to get back down on all fours and

42:59

continue searching hoping not

43:01

to find another child. Right, but we

43:03

have two other boys missing. So

43:06

they continue their search because if one boy is

43:08

found in the water, it's

43:10

very likely you might find the other two in

43:12

there as well. Correct.

43:15

So he's crawling along and

43:17

he again finds another

43:19

body. This time

43:21

he pulls up the body and

43:23

this would end up being identified as the

43:26

body of Stevie Blanche. Now

43:28

he again is nude just like

43:31

Michael Moore and he's

43:33

tied in the same manner as Michael Moore

43:35

with his right hand to his right ankle

43:37

and his left hand to his left ankle

43:41

and bound by shoelaces. Now

43:44

with him they notice that there's

43:46

something a little bit different. So

43:48

again there are lacerations to the

43:50

face and neck as with what

43:52

they quickly saw with Michael Moore.

43:54

However with Stevie Blanche, it appears

43:56

that he has either been bit

43:58

or bitten multiple. times in

44:01

his face, which I

44:04

mean this is a terribly disturbing image

44:06

already, but it's getting more disturbing as

44:08

we go. They pull the

44:10

body out and then again

44:13

Detective Brian Ridge continues to search

44:16

the creek. He

44:18

shortly then finds a third

44:21

body and this would

44:23

be identified as the

44:25

body as Christopher Byers. Again

44:28

when he pulls the body up they notice

44:30

that Christopher is nude and

44:32

he... He's bound the same way. Exactly.

44:35

He's bound exactly the same way. Right

44:37

ankle to right wrist, left

44:39

ankle to left wrist and

44:42

when they pull him up he

44:44

comes up face down and

44:46

when they turn him over they're even

44:48

more disturbed at what they see. It

44:50

appears that Christopher Byers has been castrated.

44:55

They put the body on the side of

44:58

the bank and they continue to

45:01

search. Okay so

45:03

what do they find? They found the

45:05

boys, all three of them are tied.

45:08

They're all tied with shoelaces. Right. They're

45:10

all three nude. And what

45:12

else they would find is that they would

45:14

find the clothing for these

45:16

boys. What they

45:18

were able to determine is that

45:20

somebody had taken sticks and

45:23

they had basically anchored

45:25

the boys into the water

45:27

and again this water is

45:29

muddy, it's murky, it's milky. Because

45:32

all the boys were still underwater

45:35

you could search the area and not see

45:37

them. Right they might have

45:39

not found them for days if it wasn't for that

45:41

shoe floating. And the

45:43

reason why is they were all pinned down with

45:45

these sticks. Yeah. That anchored

45:47

them into the water. And there

45:49

was some speculation that maybe the

45:52

sticks were even sharpened. A

45:55

couple of them appeared that they might have been sharpened. Some

45:57

of them looked like they were just broken off and

46:00

And others look like they may have. somebody

46:02

have taken the time to sharpen them a

46:04

bit to take stick them deeper into the

46:06

mud. And. Keep the body then. Now

46:08

not only did they anchor down the

46:10

bodies but they also anchor down the

46:12

clothing that was not on the boys

46:14

are they wrap around the sticks and

46:16

then put it down the mud. Some

46:18

of the clothing was pinned under sticks,

46:20

some of it was wrapped around steaks

46:22

and none of it was visible. but

46:25

they didn't find. All. Three.

46:27

Sets of clothes, Right

46:30

there. Was a complete sets of clothes.

46:32

Well. After they pull the bodies

46:34

out, After they pull out all

46:36

the clothing that they can find. They.

46:39

Are trying to determine what is missing

46:41

from the see. Now

46:43

there are few items that are missing from

46:45

the scene. There for. A

46:48

fine all the other clothing. However,

46:51

they're missing one sock. Two.

46:53

Pairs of underwear, And.

46:56

They're. Also missing the. The.

46:59

The. Penis of Christopher Buyers.

47:02

He's been castrated In the best

47:04

way to describe this castration. Is.

47:07

That the scrotum has been removed.

47:10

The. Penis shaft has been cut.

47:13

And the head of the penis is missing. And

47:16

they do not find these items in the water.

47:18

So. It. Within, I'm fine. All

47:21

this pairs a clothes or the all the

47:23

items of clothes that you'd expect to find.

47:26

But. They're also a year old boys, so

47:28

is very possible that one of them. Wasn't.

47:31

Wearing underwear, Maybe

47:33

they have both sauce on or not

47:35

really for sure. It's

47:37

a possibility, but I think most of the

47:40

parents believe that they would have been fully

47:42

dress. The. The other thing

47:44

that detectives in it the

47:46

police were really kind of

47:48

fascinated by. Was. The state

47:50

of some of the clothing. They found

47:53

two pairs of the pants. Two pairs

47:55

of pants. they were buttoned

47:57

in zipped up but

48:00

they were completely inside out, which

48:03

is kind of a strange way to have found

48:05

these items. Yeah, but if you helped, you know,

48:08

anybody that has, again, dealt with little

48:10

boys and had raised little

48:12

boys, you'd know that if you, if

48:15

they took off their pants, sometimes they'd pull

48:17

them off completely inside

48:19

out. And like the

48:21

button would stay buttoned, the zipper would stay

48:23

zipped. Yeah, it's not apparent

48:26

whether that means that they were pulled off

48:28

of the boys or if the boys had

48:30

removed them themselves. Right. The

48:33

parents of the missing children

48:35

are near, and

48:37

they are waiting behind the,

48:40

you know, the evidence line, the police

48:42

tape. You know, you cannot cross this

48:44

area. And Detective

48:46

Gitchill, now he was in charge

48:48

of the search. So

48:50

he comes out of the woods after they've

48:53

located these bodies, and

48:55

he's going to go up to, he has

48:57

the unfortunate situation where he's

48:59

got to deliver the message to the parents.

49:01

Yeah, and you're not just making a phone

49:03

call here. You're having to tell

49:05

them face to face. And he

49:08

tells Terry Hobbs and

49:10

Pam Hobbs first that yes, we

49:12

found the boys and they're

49:14

dead, and they appear to

49:17

have been murdered. And Terry

49:19

Hobbs collapses. He, you know, he

49:21

falls over and he's crying. And

49:23

Pam Hobbs, she faints at

49:26

hearing this news. Gitchill

49:28

goes over and he also discusses

49:30

the findings with John Mark

49:32

Byers, the father of, the stepfather

49:34

of Christopher Byers. And

49:38

yeah, he had the unfortunate situation of delivering

49:40

this news. The bodies were

49:42

found around approximately 1.45 p.m. They

49:46

were pulled from the water, as we had

49:48

just said. The

49:51

coroner's office was not called

49:53

for approximately two hours. So

49:56

at 3.20 P.m., the Coroner's Office, This

50:00

received the call from the West Memphis

50:02

Police Department. The stated that they had

50:04

found the three boys and that they

50:06

needed the Coroner to come to the

50:09

Blue Beacon trash truck wash. To.

50:12

Pick. Up the bodies Yeah and protocol

50:14

I guess is if you find bodies

50:16

and water that sometimes you want the

50:18

coroner to be the ones that take

50:21

the bodies as of the water. Yeah.

50:24

In in this situation to there something

50:26

else going on here. Okay, so it's

50:28

may. It's in Arkansas. For

50:30

people that aren't familiar with the

50:32

United States, Arkansas can be a

50:34

warmer state. Specially. In the

50:36

month of May. The the

50:39

approximate temperature of the water was

50:41

suspected to be sixty degrees, which

50:43

would be better to. Maintain.

50:46

Whatever evidence or whatever you could with the

50:48

body. And once

50:50

they pulled them out, you know

50:52

their decomposing right away. They started

50:55

decomposing faster. For. And the the

50:57

temperature that day in the woods

50:59

was approximately eighty degrees. so we're

51:01

talking to twenty degree difference, bugs

51:04

and sex and an all time

51:06

the Things and the Corner shows

51:08

up about two hours after the

51:10

first bodies pulled out of the

51:12

water to retrieve the bodies and

51:14

may any evidence that would go

51:16

along with those bodies. Now because

51:19

the what is The Woods is

51:21

so dense. You know you

51:23

couldn't You couldn't drive a vehicle into

51:25

the woods. So what they had to

51:27

do was they they had a hearse

51:29

and the hearse pulled up to that

51:31

blue beacon truck was and they had

51:33

to back in up to the tree

51:36

line. And. Officers. Wrapped.

51:38

The bodies along with the corners approval.

51:40

They wrap the bodies and a seat,

51:43

place them in body bags individual body

51:45

bags and they carry him out. Carried

51:47

him out The words of Time it

51:49

the highest police officer. Yeah

51:52

these these police officers are

51:54

are beaten down. mentally

51:56

physically emotionally it's hot out

51:59

there sweaty and

52:01

some of them, well, all of

52:03

them are seeing some of

52:05

the worst sites that they will ever see in their

52:07

careers or their lifetime. After having

52:09

found the bodies finding the clothing,

52:12

police and law enforcement found the

52:15

two missing bicycles as well. Well

52:17

there should be maybe three. Yeah,

52:19

we should report here and we'll get more.

52:22

What we're going to do is episode two

52:24

we're going to get way into the families

52:26

and way into their movements and what was

52:28

going on in the neighborhood at the time

52:30

of the disappearance, but part

52:32

of that is that Christopher Byers was

52:35

not on a bicycle. The

52:37

other two boys were on bicycles. Christopher

52:39

Byers started off that afternoon that evening

52:41

on a skateboard and at some point

52:43

he ended up doubling up on a

52:45

bicycle with one of the other boys.

52:48

Typically what would happen is you couldn't

52:50

keep up on the skateboard so

52:52

you'd be like I'm going to ride with you

52:54

tandem. The boys bodies are found

52:56

in the water in the woods and

52:59

the bikes are found, the two

53:01

bikes are found in the water in the woods as

53:03

well. How far away from the bodies do you know?

53:06

I believe it was approximately 50

53:08

feet or so. It was a pretty

53:10

good distance. Yeah, well it's hard to

53:12

say I believe because you

53:15

know looking at the map, is that

53:17

50 foot by water? Is that 50

53:19

foot by woods? Is it 50 foot by a

53:22

trail? You know what I mean? I don't know

53:24

exactly. Well 50 feet

53:27

is 50 feet whether you're in water

53:29

or you're on land. Right, 50 foot

53:31

is exactly it is 50

53:33

foot is an exact mark, but

53:35

what I'm getting at is how

53:38

was that determined by law enforcement? Because

53:40

where the bikes were positioned in

53:42

comparison to the bodies, one

53:45

could argue you

53:47

might be able to get to them faster via water

53:49

than you would. Right quicker. That would be

53:51

closer if you're actually in the water. And

53:53

it wouldn't be significant, but I just wonder

53:55

about that. Investigator

53:57

Gitchell, he has to... now

54:00

talk to the media, right? So

54:03

not only do we have the victims

54:05

families and neighborhood people standing around outside

54:07

of the crime scene tape waiting to

54:09

hear if they found the bodies, but

54:12

we also have the news media because

54:14

by this point not only

54:16

was this the biggest case in the city,

54:19

this was the biggest case in the

54:21

state and arguably in the nation. We

54:24

had had three boys that were seen

54:26

together the night before all have gone

54:28

missing. They're reported missing in the state

54:31

of Arkansas the next morning on the

54:33

news as well as other outlets as

54:35

well. So now people are starting

54:37

to flock to the area and try to

54:39

figure out what's going on with this investigation.

54:41

They find the bodies, Gitchell has

54:44

to deliver the disturbing news to the

54:46

parents and now he has to address

54:48

the media. Yeah. So

54:50

he addresses the media and he's pretty vague

54:52

on what they have found. Basically he's saying

54:55

we have found- Well it's an open case

54:57

so why would you just say hey we

54:59

got all this evidence? We found the boys.

55:01

We don't know much at this time. Right.

55:04

We are investigating all leads. What

55:06

was once a missing person's case, this

55:09

is now a homicide case. The only

55:11

thing- Triple homicide. The only thing he

55:13

could say for certain was because how

55:15

the bodies were found it was obvious

55:17

that this was a homicide. Multiple

55:20

homicide. So

55:22

Gitchell rounds up his men and

55:25

there's some talk between him

55:27

and the state police agency.

55:30

The state police agency wants to know

55:33

does Gary Gitchell want to have

55:35

assistance from the state police? He

55:38

says no this is a local matter and we're

55:40

going to handle this here. We thank you for

55:43

your assistance in the search. Which

55:45

I think is just arrogant and

55:47

I think at this moment you humble

55:49

yourself and you take any assistance

55:52

you can get and you use all

55:54

the resources you can. Well arrogant or

55:56

not this would come back to bite

55:59

Gitchell and the investigation. investigation in

56:01

the ass and it's not Gichol's fault.

56:04

This would end up being the fault of

56:06

the state police agency What

56:08

Gichol wanted to do was

56:10

he wanted he wanted to not

56:12

release any information on how the bodies

56:15

were tied Or

56:17

the damage that he visibly saw

56:20

Right away right to the private parts,

56:23

right? So we don't want the media

56:25

We don't want the the the general

56:27

population to know how they were tied

56:30

We don't want them to know about the castration We

56:32

don't want them to know about the potential bite

56:35

marks on Stevie branches face, right? We don't want

56:37

them to know much about this other than this

56:39

is a homicide investigation The

56:41

reason being and and Gichol's absolutely

56:44

right is that when we

56:46

are eventually going to be questioning people Regarding

56:49

the regarding the potential abduction

56:51

and the murders of these

56:53

boys Now we

56:56

need to hold to our best How

56:59

they were killed and what was

57:01

done to the bodies so that when we

57:03

are questioning these suspects We can

57:05

eliminate who knows what's going on and

57:08

what who doesn't know what's going on

57:10

Well, and that's a possible castration and

57:12

it's a possible bites to the face

57:15

Well this this plan of Gichol's which

57:17

I thought was Decent was

57:19

a good good plan was foiled

57:22

from the beginning because what ended up happening

57:25

Was later that night on more on May

57:27

6th the Reporters

57:29

from the Memphis Commercial Appeal. That's

57:32

the local newspaper or the area

57:34

newspaper they were using

57:36

the newsrooms police scanner and By

57:40

using that police scanner They

57:42

overheard they picked up a broadcast from

57:44

the Arkansas State Police Which

57:47

contained details not released to

57:49

the press by Gichol So

57:52

the next day the front day

57:55

the front page of the news the next day contained

57:58

details about the murders And

58:01

it stated things about how the bodies were

58:03

found how the boys were tied

58:05

and That all three

58:07

were sexually Mutilated

58:10

right which was technically

58:13

incorrectly reported right But

58:16

they got these details from that broadcast

58:20

Well that puts a big problem in Gichill's plan Because

58:23

now he cannot use that information

58:25

to to decipher who is Who

58:28

could be involved and who is just somebody

58:31

that that that's being thrown under the bus

58:33

or somebody sometimes we've seen captain that people

58:36

Compassion. Yeah, or they inject themselves into

58:38

an investigation Yeah, so now

58:40

now we got some problems here

58:43

from from the get-go of this

58:45

investigation Gichill would round

58:47

up his men and they

58:49

were going under a strategy It

58:53

was kind of a three-pronged approach to

58:55

the investigation that the

58:58

murders of these three boys were

59:00

either a By

59:03

somebody that knew the boys knew one or

59:05

all of the boys B

59:08

by somebody that didn't know any of the

59:11

boys Someone unknown to the

59:13

families and the boys right or

59:15

see That it was it

59:18

was a murders carried out by a

59:20

gang or maybe a cult by

59:22

a group of people So

59:25

that was their going that was going to be

59:27

their strategy. We are going to investigate the triple

59:29

homicide using these three

59:32

Aspects of the case that it was either somebody they

59:34

knew somebody they didn't know or it was a gang

59:37

of people So that this

59:39

time the evidence isn't giving them any

59:41

leads the only evidence that

59:43

they had at this point was

59:46

that one of the officers had pointed

59:48

out to the Investigators

59:51

that he thought that the way that

59:53

the boys were tied was

59:56

very similar to the way that the

59:59

US soldier that were captured

1:00:01

in the Vietnam War were tied by

1:00:03

the the Viet Cong and They'd

1:00:06

have them bend down and then and they

1:00:09

would tie their one hand to one

1:00:11

one ankle one hand to the other ankle And

1:00:14

it was kind again This is not this

1:00:16

is not a way that you typically find

1:00:18

people when you find these victims of these

1:00:20

crimes And so it

1:00:22

was pointed out that this could have been maybe

1:00:24

the work of a Vietnam vet That

1:00:27

somebody that would have seen this before and

1:00:29

maybe for whatever reason is

1:00:31

using that tactic so their

1:00:34

first lead that they end up using and that

1:00:36

they end up going off of is

1:00:38

that they start searching the Local

1:00:40

and area hospitals now what they

1:00:42

were looking to find is a

1:00:45

former Vietnam vet Who's

1:00:47

been checked into the hospital that

1:00:49

is suffering from injuries to his

1:00:51

penis? Because they believe all

1:00:54

of the boys to have been sexually

1:00:56

molested or sexually assaulted at

1:00:58

the time of their deaths That's

1:01:01

what they believe but they don't have proof

1:01:03

of that Correct. They're just going

1:01:06

off of what they've seen between the time

1:01:08

that the bodies were pulled from the water

1:01:10

and carried away by the corner right in The

1:01:13

weeks that immediately followed the murders

1:01:16

The police department submitted hundreds of

1:01:18

items to the criminal investment to

1:01:21

the evidence lab to

1:01:23

the crime lab for evaluation among

1:01:26

these items were 18 knives three

1:01:29

wooden sticks One

1:01:31

tire Billy. That's the you know with

1:01:34

the Truck drivers come

1:01:36

out with the little the small Billy Club and they

1:01:38

thump the tires Uh-huh So

1:01:41

one tire Billy. Do you how many knives?

1:01:43

Did you say 18 knives? Jesus

1:01:45

three wooden sticks one tire Billy

1:01:48

one ice axe three hammers

1:01:51

One hook a rope hair

1:01:54

samples from 41 people Blood

1:01:57

and urine samples from 11 people. Foot

1:02:00

print impressions, shoes, a box of

1:02:02

clothing, and a mason jar full

1:02:05

of water. Now, these are not

1:02:07

all items that are found at

1:02:09

the crime scene. These are items

1:02:11

that were collected through talking with

1:02:14

people. Some of these items were found

1:02:16

at the crime scene. And. These

1:02:18

were items that were sent with

1:02:20

in the within several weeks. Of.

1:02:22

Their investigation to the crime lab. The

1:02:25

crime lab would come out the

1:02:27

corner in the crime lab would

1:02:30

come out and give did so

1:02:32

in his officers and his investigators

1:02:34

some information outta high pass This

1:02:36

information that is given. To.

1:02:38

The investigation investigators.

1:02:41

After. Examining the shoestring bindings,

1:02:43

they found that the knots

1:02:45

that were used on Christopher

1:02:47

and Michael were all of

1:02:49

the same. Okay, so

1:02:51

let's think about this will quickly. We

1:02:53

have six knots. Each.

1:02:55

Boys tied twice. With

1:02:59

to shoelaces. So of

1:03:01

those, six knots. Four. Of

1:03:03

them are the exact same not. And.

1:03:06

Christopher and Michael are all

1:03:08

tied using the same nuts.

1:03:11

The. Knots on Steam doesn't state

1:03:13

what kind night not that

1:03:15

is no I'll get the

1:03:17

not on Stevie branch where

1:03:19

different from each other. And.

1:03:22

Dissimilar. To. Each other.

1:03:25

Not. That was used in the crime. So

1:03:28

what we're saying here or of the same. And

1:03:31

then to that are different from all those other

1:03:33

two. And different from one another.

1:03:36

So I'm going to break this down.

1:03:38

we're gonna call those not colors. Of

1:03:40

i target for not that are the

1:03:43

color blue. Than we

1:03:45

have one not that's the color red

1:03:47

and we have another not as color

1:03:49

Corinne. Yes, Exact Oh, that's

1:03:51

basically. Some. Started doing

1:03:54

for nonsense a sense of his six year

1:03:56

six not for the same into that are

1:03:58

completely different from which is. We're so

1:04:00

we have two boys that are can tied

1:04:02

up the exact same. With. Four knots

1:04:05

and we have one boy that's tied

1:04:07

completely different. using. Again,

1:04:09

shoelaces, But. For whatever reason,

1:04:11

his two knots don't match any of

1:04:14

the other words. As a detective starts

1:04:16

making you a ton of points into

1:04:18

the direction that there's possibly more than

1:04:20

one attacker, there's one more. More.

1:04:22

Than one murderer. So we got that list of

1:04:24

three people that were. Young things that

1:04:27

were looking at. And possibly

1:04:29

a group of people. Yeah.

1:04:31

That's the first thing you would make your think

1:04:33

that there's a group of people. The other thing

1:04:35

that dick should be pointed out here is. Some.

1:04:38

Times. When. One perpetrator

1:04:41

or if perpetrators are outnumbered, they

1:04:43

may have the victims tie you

1:04:46

each other up. Downfall.

1:04:48

Tactics Yeah, so maybe Stevie Branch

1:04:50

was tied up by one or

1:04:52

more of the other victims. Or.

1:04:55

Maybe he was tied up by

1:04:57

different assailant completely? We'd. We'd all

1:04:59

know. We'll. Get into that. The.

1:05:01

Other thing that they found. Was. That

1:05:03

they said that we found skin. And.

1:05:06

Possibly cuticles and one of

1:05:08

the legates years. And.

1:05:10

That they said there's a strong chance

1:05:12

that this skin is not that have

1:05:14

any of the three boys. They.

1:05:17

Also found a fragment of

1:05:19

negroid hair. There. Was

1:05:21

found in the see that was

1:05:23

wrapped around Christopher Buyers body. That

1:05:25

house report you mean. African

1:05:28

American hair. Yeah. I would say

1:05:30

African American hair but it's A. It's A

1:05:32

of medical examiners that reforms as as the

1:05:35

report they use the word negroid hair. I

1:05:37

also remember we said that the boys after

1:05:39

being pulled out of the water they were

1:05:41

wrapped in seat and then they were placed

1:05:43

in the body bags and transferred to be

1:05:45

examined. By Now what they're saying is we

1:05:47

didn't find we don't We didn't find the

1:05:50

fragment of this hair on the body per

1:05:52

se. We found it in the seat that

1:05:54

the body was wrapped it. I so it's

1:05:56

a is possible that has nothing to do

1:05:58

with the case at. All. But

1:06:00

it's also evidence and it's something

1:06:03

that's there possibly for a good

1:06:05

reason. Mm-hmm. On

1:06:07

May 26th, 1993, this is 20 days after the bodies were found.

1:06:14

The lead investigator, Gitchill, he

1:06:17

has not received the autopsy reports

1:06:19

at this time. Mm-hmm. He's

1:06:21

frustrated. He's trying to carry out

1:06:23

this investigation. They need leads.

1:06:26

This case is starting to go cold.

1:06:28

Oh, I know that. So he sends

1:06:30

a letter to the crime lab. He's

1:06:32

desperate. And in

1:06:34

this letter, he raises several questions.

1:06:37

And he wants to know the crime lab's

1:06:39

findings to the

1:06:41

following questions. First question

1:06:44

is, what were the times of death? Yeah.

1:06:47

What were the causes of death? Could

1:06:51

he get a diagram of the wounds

1:06:53

found on the boys? He

1:06:56

also wanted to know had any

1:06:58

tears, blood, or punctures been found

1:07:00

in the clothing of the boys.

1:07:04

He wanted to know if a sick- So he

1:07:06

wanted to know, he wanted

1:07:08

to know that because he wanted to know if they were

1:07:11

attacked before they were disrobed?

1:07:13

Yeah. And we'll get

1:07:16

to this later in

1:07:18

the next episode. Right. But

1:07:20

there were some- Big freaking case. There

1:07:22

were some stab wounds. There

1:07:24

were some marks on these boys' bodies.

1:07:26

Right. What he's trying to

1:07:29

determine, exactly what you said, were they nude

1:07:31

at the time that these injuries were inflicted,

1:07:33

or were they still clothed? He

1:07:36

also wanted to know if a stick that they

1:07:38

had sent to the crime lab had been used

1:07:40

to beat any of the children. Had

1:07:43

the crime lab found anything that would

1:07:46

indicate the involvement of a black male?

1:07:50

Remember they found that negroid fragment of hair.

1:07:52

Or they also have the guy from Bojangles.

1:07:55

The tall thin black man with the yellow

1:07:57

teeth and the writing on his. Oh,

1:08:00

I'm talking about Aaron Hutchinson's report.

1:08:02

Right, but I think we can kind of dismiss

1:08:05

that report a little bit, but

1:08:07

we got the individual at Mo Jangles.

1:08:10

He also wanted to know if there was any evidence

1:08:12

that the boys had been forced to perform oral sex.

1:08:15

He wanted to know if maybe they had been

1:08:17

sodomized. Now here's the

1:08:19

other thing though. This

1:08:21

was the big question that he left for the

1:08:24

end of his letter. There

1:08:26

was a closely guarded secret that

1:08:28

the department was keeping close to

1:08:30

the vest, alright?

1:08:33

The doctor that had performed

1:08:35

the autopsy, this is Dr.

1:08:37

Frank Peretti, he

1:08:40

performed the autopsy and he mentioned...

1:08:43

Now you see him in Paradise Lost.

1:08:45

Mm-hmm, you do. He took the stand.

1:08:47

It's funny like this. And

1:08:50

he had mentioned kind of

1:08:52

off the record that urine

1:08:55

might have been found in the stomachs of two

1:08:57

of the boys. But he would have said

1:08:59

this, he was in... There was

1:09:02

possible urine found in the stomachs.

1:09:04

Well he had asked the police if

1:09:07

they would gather water

1:09:10

samples and submit them to the crime

1:09:12

lab because he wanted to

1:09:14

determine, you know, we need to make

1:09:17

a determination. This is the doctor. Was

1:09:19

this urine in the stomachs or

1:09:22

was this just the creek water? Right, but

1:09:24

this is the doctor. He said

1:09:26

that to police. Yes, he said please

1:09:28

submit water samples. I find that to

1:09:30

be a very intelligent thought. That's

1:09:32

something I wanted. And the police did

1:09:34

as such. They collected water samples the

1:09:36

next day and they sent them to the crime

1:09:38

lab. But it's a very

1:09:41

intelligent insight I believe. I

1:09:43

agree, but here's the problem. There's

1:09:46

been 20 days since these bodies have been

1:09:48

found and the lead investigator still has a

1:09:50

lot of questions. I mean that's a list.

1:09:53

Because think about this. First of all, we

1:09:55

don't have a time of death. Well,

1:10:00

that's messed up. We need a time

1:10:02

of death so we can figure out where

1:10:04

people were, what they were doing, and if

1:10:07

they were involved. Right. Then timeline becomes important.

1:10:09

How do you know anything? Alibis

1:10:12

don't matter that much. They

1:10:15

don't help you or hurt you if you don't have

1:10:17

a time of death. Or at least

1:10:19

a rough estimate. Second of all,

1:10:21

he wanted to know which kid, if they

1:10:23

could determine so, was killed first. Which

1:10:26

would possibly give you some leads on

1:10:29

on possibly which victim

1:10:33

would know somebody that

1:10:35

would know that victim. Well, here's the thing.

1:10:37

Yeah, there could be a situation where

1:10:40

maybe one of the children was killed

1:10:42

by accident and the other two were

1:10:44

killed to cover that up. And

1:10:47

if so, if you knew who was killed

1:10:49

first, you could explore that idea. But

1:10:53

it's weird that one would

1:10:56

die from accident and then they

1:10:58

decided to tie up all three

1:11:00

victims. Yeah, it is

1:11:02

weird. But it's also weird to then have

1:11:05

an accidental death and then have two

1:11:07

murders after the accidental death. Yeah,

1:11:10

he wanted to know which kid was killed first

1:11:12

and the following, the last question

1:11:14

that he had for the crime lab

1:11:16

was where any of

1:11:18

the kids dragged? Like

1:11:21

their bodies dragged. Yeah, meaning

1:11:23

maybe they weren't killed at the scene. Because

1:11:26

you have three possibilities, right? They're

1:11:29

either killed in the water or

1:11:32

killed in the woods or they're killed somewhere else. And

1:11:36

if they were killed elsewhere and only one person

1:11:38

committed this crime, you would

1:11:41

think that they would have to drag them because

1:11:43

again, the coroner couldn't even get their vehicle into

1:11:45

the woods to retrieve the bodies. You could take

1:11:47

them one at a time. I mean, all

1:11:50

the victims are 50 to 60 pounds. So that's not... No,

1:11:55

it's not impossible to take them one at a time. But if

1:11:57

they could show clear signs that they could... they

1:12:00

were dragged, then maybe

1:12:02

that would point that this definitely

1:12:05

had taken place elsewhere. Because remember- Yeah,

1:12:07

but also I think it puts some

1:12:09

indication on how many people. Because

1:12:13

if there is no drag marks, then

1:12:17

they're either carried one at a time or

1:12:20

they're carried by several people. Well, and

1:12:22

we should point out that the police

1:12:24

believed that there was a lack of

1:12:26

blood found at the crime scene. And

1:12:29

where and near where the boys' bodies

1:12:31

were found. This would indicate

1:12:33

that maybe the crime was carried out elsewhere.

1:12:35

Yeah, and if you look at that, what

1:12:38

do they call that when they take the

1:12:40

pictures with the blood splatter? The

1:12:43

blood splatter? Yeah, but it's- They

1:12:46

use the alumina? Yeah, yeah. When

1:12:48

you look at the alumina pictures, it

1:12:51

doesn't look like a ton to me, but

1:12:53

then the other problem is blood does soak

1:12:56

into the ground. Yeah, and you have a

1:12:58

water source very close by. Right,

1:13:01

which I think would-

1:13:03

then that would be the argument that

1:13:05

maybe there was more blood but it got washed

1:13:07

away. And again, Gitchill

1:13:09

still not received the autopsy report, so

1:13:11

he doesn't clearly know how the boys

1:13:14

had died. But I'm assuming, using

1:13:16

his experience, that it's

1:13:19

probably- and he's a smart

1:13:21

guy, it's probably pretty obvious that

1:13:23

at least Christopher Byers may have

1:13:25

bled to death because of the

1:13:27

castration. Right, which would be roughly about

1:13:29

five pints of blood. And you would expect

1:13:31

to find a lot of that blood at

1:13:34

the actual crime scene. Yeah, but see, that's

1:13:36

where I wonder about the time of death

1:13:39

because if the death happened earlier on

1:13:41

the fifth, then like

1:13:44

I said, if it's soaking into the

1:13:46

ground, how much of that is not

1:13:48

coming up on the alumina pictures?

1:13:52

Yeah, yeah. A lot of questions here. Some

1:13:54

could only wonder and- But I think your-

1:13:56

wait, hold on, but I think your point

1:13:58

is not only are we- Coming

1:14:01

up with questions right now, but this detective

1:14:03

had a ton of questions and he's hoping

1:14:05

to get the answers. Well yeah, not only

1:14:07

that, but here's what's going on at this

1:14:09

point in the case. The

1:14:12

investigators and the officers, they're calming the

1:14:14

area. They're canvassing the scene. They're going

1:14:16

around the neighborhood and they're asking questions

1:14:19

door to door. Well they can't figure

1:14:21

out who to eliminate or to who

1:14:23

to believe because they don't know what

1:14:25

the actual situation is. All they can

1:14:27

go off of it is what they

1:14:30

observed when the bodies were pulled from

1:14:32

the water. We've gone through

1:14:34

the events from Wednesday evening.

1:14:36

We've gone through the search for

1:14:39

the boys Thursday morning and until

1:14:41

the early afternoon of when they

1:14:43

found the bodies and

1:14:45

their immediate observations when

1:14:48

they found the bodies. Well I

1:14:50

mean we're also talking a little bit about what

1:14:52

happened 20 days later looking

1:14:55

for these answers from the crime lab. Yeah

1:14:58

and that's just to point out how

1:15:01

they were kind of dragging their feet when

1:15:04

they're waiting for these answers and hoping

1:15:07

to get leads. Yeah because

1:15:09

I don't got a lot to go off of right

1:15:11

now. Nope, nope, not much at all. Just what they

1:15:13

observed when they pulled the bodies from the water. They

1:15:16

had the fragment of

1:15:18

hair that they've heard about and

1:15:21

how the boys were tied up.

1:15:23

Yeah the suspicious individual and Bojangles

1:15:26

and we got some

1:15:28

family members we need to look into. Yeah

1:15:30

you're exactly right and we got this weird

1:15:32

community. I don't want to say weird but

1:15:35

it's a community that seems like it's down

1:15:37

on their luck a little bit. And

1:15:40

we have Gichill's statement where

1:15:43

he is saying that we are looking for

1:15:45

somebody that either knows one or all of

1:15:47

the boys or two

1:15:49

we're looking for someone that didn't know any

1:15:52

of the boys or possibly a

1:15:54

group or possibly a gang or a

1:15:56

cult. And This is how we're

1:15:59

going to investigate this. Wine and this

1:16:01

this area to is very religious

1:16:03

so I wonder if that's the

1:16:06

bible belt? Yeah. And

1:16:08

when you your hero who hear phrases

1:16:10

like. Us say

1:16:12

panic panic. And.

1:16:14

So next week what we're gonna have to

1:16:16

explore our those three different areas that gets

1:16:19

all was looking and as others was that

1:16:21

the now and well Unfortunately we picked a

1:16:23

case. it's too big for one show so

1:16:25

good for you, Good for us. We'll be

1:16:28

back again next week to discuss the West

1:16:30

Memphis. Three more and more details and what

1:16:32

we're going to look at. Next week's where

1:16:34

to look at the family members were going

1:16:37

to look at their movements, the family members

1:16:39

of the victims, their movements, their time line

1:16:41

on the fifth and on the sixth of

1:16:43

May. We're. In a determine if

1:16:45

any of those. People are potentially

1:16:48

involved in this case. we're going to

1:16:50

look at unknown persons and we're also

1:16:52

going to start to explore that third

1:16:54

element that gang and Colts. Aspect

1:16:58

of the case it gets all was

1:17:00

was pressing are right So I guess

1:17:02

since we're not wrapping up the season

1:17:04

for a least another week. Now.

1:17:06

So thank you for joining us in

1:17:08

the garage the night. We look forward

1:17:11

to seeing you again next week and

1:17:13

until then v Good! Be kind and

1:17:15

don't. You

1:17:52

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