The results suggest that Melissa had not been using hydrocodone for an extended length of time; otherwise, the drug would have been in her blood and her liver. 4 0 obj [2] Metz said that prior to her death she "seemed to be irritated and had a bad attitude. Byers was not arrested nor was the case against him revealed. [16], When Waser returned to the Byers' home he was informed that Ryan Clark still had not returned. He went to the bedroom and saw Melissa on the floor, completely naked. Melissa Byers (mother of Chris Byers) died believing they were guilty. Hicks had gotten Hobbs down on the ground, when Hobbs reached into his pocket, pulled out the gun, and shot Hicks in the abdomen. For 48 years, our progressive, alternative newspaper in Little Rock has been on the front lines of the fight for truth, and with your support, we can do even more. He says his dad and Berlinger werent seeking notorietydocumentaries certainly werent a means to get rich or famous in those days. Arkansas Times reports that Byers was in a single-car crash on Chambers John Mark Byers and Melissa Byers. Byers was the stepfather of Christopher. Cruz Captain lucky/v, This website uses cookies for functionality, analytics and advertising purposes as described in our, Ark. [26], On December 17th, 1997, a man identified as "Earls" gave a statement to Investigator Witt. The nonprofits work hasnt always been easyfundraising is hard, and because hes a convicted felon, hes unable to visit clients in prison or discuss pleasbut its been essential for him as he strives to live the words by 14th-century Persian poet Hafez that he keeps as an email signature: The small man builds cages for everyone he knows / While the sage, who has to duck his head when the moon is low / Keeps dropping keys all night long for the beautiful rowdy prisoners. Baldwin says hes learned that justice isnt a computer programthat you can input all the evidence and testimony and still get the wrong results. And no one else should be convicted without evidence, either.. For 48 years, we've been fighting the good fight in Little Rock and beyond with your support, we can do even more. Metz could not remember it but thought it started with the letter D. Metz advised that John Mark Byers also told him he thought her death was a drug overdose and that they were going to accuse him of smothering her. When told about the finding of blood, Byers changed his statement, claiming that he had used the knife to cut deer meat to make jerky. It noted that she had been 68 inches tall and weighed 211 pounds. Varieties for 2021 She alleged that he told her how he had put gasoline all around the trailer and then used a cigarette as a fuse. The victim had a silver-colored necklace with a cross around her neck.. Byers asked Metz to come over to the house. The sheer mountain moving amount of money it cost to prove the obvious innocence of Jessie, Jason, and Damien still staggers me. She assists in the drafting of all estate planning documents and works with clients to ensure we have the proper information to include in their documents. This year, many gardeners are looking for new varieties of tomatoes to try out in their gardens. I thought that was *very* strange, his insistence on re-living the whole thing. By getting to the story quickly, the directors were able to document the post-arrest period and two trials that followed in painstaking detail. Under the circumstances, they were particularly interested in what toxicology tests would reveal. Also, what's this about an older boy? The other drugs found in the blood were at low or therapeutic levels which have not been associated with sudden death."[35]. "[7], At approximately 5:30pm, an ambulance responded to Cherokee Village where Melissa was reported as being unresponsive. At this point, Ryan said he couldn't "take it anymore" and so he and Amanda left, drove around, got gas, and bought a soda. Police admit that the case against the teen-agers was circumstantial, based almost entirely upon a confession from Misskelley, a boy who is borderline mentally retarded. The brother-in-law, Dennis DeFir, brought Ryan back to the home the day after Melissa died. I spoke with one of the jurors, years later after the trials and convictions, and he said he had no doubt that people could throw their lot in with the devil and be commanded to do things that they wouldnt have done otherwisethat they have basically made the deal with the devil, Leveritt says. Now, not quite three years after the murder of 8-year-old Christopher Byersand with some criminal charges against her and her husband still pendingMelissa Byers was dead. Melissa Byers did not have a prescription for Dilaudid. In the opinion portion of the autopsy report it was stated that "no specific anatomical cause of death was found." 6iE8vD2q%Q.B[.e(bJ R)Pku.~5YU>A(ZZqA:t5$y+FGpMv!. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. The bruises on her arms and scalp were noted, but the medical examiners did not opine as to how they occurred. [14] In the statement given by Metz, he said that John Mark told him he thought Melissa had overdosed on a drug. But as they did, Rose said, Byers told them to stand back. She was described as "a friend of the family". She stated that she lived with Byers and "discovered that he was nothing but a pathological liar. The investigator entered several other observations and had the body photographed. Exact sum is $97000000. She died on March 29, 1996 in Arkansas, USA. Moreover, that anomaly in the body was matched by an anomaly in the report. A year later, when the film Paradise Lost was shown on television and then released to theaters, John Mark and Melissa Byers were brought to national attention. Consent thus obtained, the team searched the small, two-bedroom house at 75 Skyline Drive, while Byers waited outside. Byers himself was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a Class A misdemeanor. I went to a Baptist school and I got accused of being a devil worshiper because I was trying to learn how to write hieroglyphics, says Sauls, today a screenwriter and VFX designer. Chris had an older half-brother named Ryan Clark who was 13 years old when the murders occurred. The legal troubles of Terry Hobbs and John Mark Byers. The IMDb credits page for the first Paradise Lost is modest, but impressive. Since moving to Cherokee Village in 1994, the couple had had frequent run-ins with police. Nico has put together an impressive list of tomato varieties for 2021. In general, who is most likelyto commit a crime against a child: A family member or A devil worshipingcult? Memphis' 1993 triple murders had drugs in her system when she died, but not enough to cause her death, a county sheriff says. Byers said he was concerned that "they were going to accuse him of smothering her." It tested positive for marijuana and for hydromorphone, the synthetic narcotic more commonly known as Dilaudid. They werent telling me I was lying, even if they may have been saying that in their minds. He said that he and Melissa spent the afternoon in bed, beginning at 12pm. Byers was convicted of terroristic threatening in the incident. No, he said, according to a transcript of that interview. Mr. By the end of Augustfive months after the deathhe still had received no word from the crime lab concerning the autopsy results. Rose called police at Cherokee Village, read them the description, and, he said, they told me who I was looking for. As a result of the incident, the boy whom Byers had driven to the altercation and who had used Byers knife ended up being charged with second-degree battery, a Class-D felony. Well, perhaps not nobody. He was charged with a felony cocaine count and carrying a weapon. Before she went to the hospital. ~~~~~ kind assistance of FindaGrave volunteer Carolyne Powles Darrell 49377409 ~~~~~Inscription: Melissa Byers 10 Aug 1837-6 Mar 1920; Also buried there: Thomas Byers d. 3 Jun 1887 88y 2m 15d; Mary Byers wf of Thomas d. 16 Nov 1878 75y 8m 24d. [20] Waser asked to take a statement from Ryan, but was told that he was out with friends. Mojo, however, was considerably more fired up, believing the same thing many of Paradise Losts viewers did: that the movie showed an incredible miscarriage of justice, one that would surely be fixed. Creator Payne Lindsey, a filmmaker with no previous experience investigating crimes, had no connection to the victim before he discovered her while Googling cold cases in hopes of finding his own version of runaway successes like Serial and Making a Murderer. Some of the boys in the group said that Byers told them, Youd better not mess with me. Metallica had never licensed a song for a film before, but when they learned about the case, Berlinger says, they made an exception. Melissa Byers was only 40 years old. I agree. All three boys were found guilty. In April of this year, shortly after the trials at which three West Memphis teen-agers were convicted of the killings, the Byerses moved to Cherokee Village, a quiet community of about 4,000, close to the Missouri border. But Berlinger also believes that the sequel is important for documenting the power of citizen activism. West Memphis 3 murders Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. Emest R. Rose, Hardys chief of police, said that, with only a few exceptions, Byers account of that incident agrees with the accounts provided by other witnesses. Melissa Byers was born on January 16, 1956. Its headlined by not only the films directors, but also Sheila Nevins, its executive producer and winner of 32 individual Emmy awards, more than any other person in history. He drove to 75 Skyline to assist. They described Byers, whom no one knew, as dirty, with a blonde beard and sunglasses, 230-250 pounds, wearing like a flag shirt with blue jeans, 35-40 years old, with brownish-black hair. They also gave a description of his vehicle. Jason Baldwin had no idea what was happening when a fellow inmate at the supermax prison in Varner, Arkansas, woke him up early one morning in 1997. She was previously married to John Mark Byers. Mojo jumped up, Baldwin recalls. Much of Cecil Hotel focuses on the amateur investigators who turned coincidences into conspiracy theories, ultimately accusing an innocent person of her death. But its closing moments point to how the filmmakers felt: that a horrific tragedy had just been compounded by a monumental miscarriage of justice. Baldwin remembers the dire circumstances laid out during the call. %PDF-1.5 On March 29, 1996, at approximately 5:40 p.m, Sonny Powell, the sheriff of Sharp County, called Investigator Stan Witt of the Arkansas State Police to report a suspicious death. Mojo had a different idea of what might get the man he affectionately called J.B. out of prison. Attorneys for Darnien Wayne Echols, who was sentenced to death last May for the killings, made several efforts to at least raise the possibility that a family member of one of the victims was involved, especially after a knife belonging to Byers was discovered with human blood on it blood that matched the type of both him and his stepson Christopher. The mother of one of the three boys murdered in West Memphis died, but investigators have yet to figure out how. They formed the organization Proclaim Justice, a nonprofit that reinvestigates crimes with the hopes of freeing innocent people. korbell plus refill apotea; jake hess death; lithonia shop light model 1233 While Byers went into the local gas company to conduct some business, another boy passed by the truck and he and the boy who was riding with Byers exchanged words. 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