The Commercial Appeal

[rugs]

'Playground' irrestistible to kids now holds neighborhood's grief

By John Beifuss - Memphis Commercial Appeal

Friday, May 7, 1993

The three 8-year-old boys lived in a quiet neighborhood of ranch houses and twisting streets, dotted with "Slow - Children At Play" signs and Neighborhood Watch warnings.

But the neat green lawns and the fields of Weaver Elementary School weren't the favorite playgrounds of the children. Many of them couldn't resist the lure of swampy Robin Hood Park, where the bodies of slain schoolmates Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore were discovered Thursday afternoon.

"It's a crazy world anymore," said Stella Vaughn, 32, a neighbor whose 6- year-old son, Jeremy, attended Weaver with the boys.

"They were my friends," said Jeremy, shirtless and cheerful and not seeming to understand.

The boys had been missing since early Wednesday evening. Their bound and mutilated bodies were found by police Thursday afternoon, submerged in one of the deep rainwater-filled ditches that scar the Ten-Mile Bayou area.

The area leading to the weed-choked bayou was blocked by police Thursday afternoon. Neighborhood residents gathered to discuss the news and stare at the familiar faces of television reporters.

Vaughn, like most other parents there, said she was shocked to learn the dangers of the bayou go beyond sinkholes and snakes.

"I think they ought to take it all down," Vaughn said. "That's a dangerous place. Those kids can't stop going back there."

"I play back there all the time," said Chris Husband, 14, who said he sometimes played there with Christopher Byers. "There's ramps, bike trails,

hills; it's fun back there. We catch turtles and snakes and stuff."

But he said he and his friends also have found hypodermic needles in the area, as well as a 22 rifle and "a pistol that was all messed up."

Bo Hamrick, 21, said scores of people helped look for the missing children Thursday.

He and his friend Tony Smith, 22, rode all-terrain vehicles throughout the area for about eight hours - even stopping in the early morning near the pool where the boys were found.

"It was kind of a let-down to know we were so close and couldn't see them," Hamrick said. "Maybe we could've done something."

Carolyn Love, 28, said she was "very scared" for her three children. ''I'll tell them, 'Do not go anywhere without telling me unless I'm there with you at all times.' And I'm making a special trip to get them on the school bus and pick them up - at all times."

Clifford Exley, 27, whose son is now in Florida visiting relatives, said he

hasn't decided whether to bring the boy back to West Memphis.

Said Mark Moise, 31, who lives with his three children in the Mayfair Apartments adjacent to Robin Hood Park: "We plan on moving out of here. There's too many things going on."

[rugs]

Autopsies show 3 boys died of multiple blows to the head

West Memphis gets extra help in hunt for a suspect

Rob Johnson and Joan I. Duffy
Saturday, May 8, 1993

Three West Memphis boys found dead Thursday in a slow-moving creek were killed by multiple head blows, the police's lead investigator said Friday.

Weaver Elementary School second-graders Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore disappeared Wednesday evening while riding bikes near the so- called Robin Hood Park, a boggy woods near Ten Mile Bayou.

The boys' hands and feet were bound, said Insp. Gary Gitchell of the West Memphis Police Department.

Officials of the State Crime Lab in Little Rock gave top priority to the case, completing autopsies by early Friday afternoon and bringing in teams of trace-evidence technicians and serologists.

Dr. Frank Peretti, a forensic pathologist with the Crime Lab's medical examiner's office, completed the autopsies about 1 p.m. At 4 p.m., he issued a statement that said "all three children died of multiple injuries."

West Memphis police were still poring over the crime scene Friday and canvassing the boys' nearby neighborhood, looking for anyone who might have seen something suspicious.

The boys' bodies were found submerged in a creek Thursday afternoon, and their bikes were found 50 yards away in the bayou.

Gitchell said the three boys died "from trauma, just trauma" to their heads.

Gitchell would not comment on or deny an Arkansas State Police radio broadcast Thursday night that said West Memphis police were investigating the abduction and sexual mutilation of the three boys.

Gov. Jim Guy Tucker offered Friday to bring the weight of the state's law enforcement power to bear on the case.

"I hope that additional resources will assist local law enforcement to catch the person or persons responsible for this horrible crime," Tucker said in a statement.

West Memphis police say they are being assisted by the Arkansas State Police, the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department, the Memphis Police Department and the FBI.

For now, West Memphis police have declined an offer of more detectives from the state police, Gitchell said. But he said he might accept the offer later.

"We've got 15 people on this now, and if we get too many, we'll be tripping over each other," he said.

Col. Tommy Goodwin, commander of the state police, said he called West Memphis Chief of Police Bobby Sanders shortly after the bodies were discovered.

"I have offered everything - anything that we've got they can have. Bobby said they would call me if they needed anything," Goodwin said. The department has 12 troopers and investigators assigned to the Eastern Arkansas district.

"We're an assisting agency. If they need something, we give it to them," Goodwin said.

The FBI's behavioral sciences experts in Quantico, Va., are also being briefed on the details of the crime, Gitchell said, so that federal psychologists might develop a profile of the killer or killers.

The West Memphis case has attracted the attention of departments through the country, and investigators have been phoning Gitchell's office, eager to see if the West Memphis case might shed light on their own.

The woods where the boys were found stand between the Mayfair Apartments and the Blue Beacon Truck Wash, which faces an access road paralleling Interstate 40.

"We have some of the major trucking in the nation going through here," Gitchell said. He said his detectives have not ruled out the possibility that they're looking for hitchhikers, truckers, neighborhood residents - anybody.

"We are leaving no stone unturned," Gitchell said Friday afternoon. "We have some hopeful leads that we are checking on."

He added, "It's frustrating. We will rely heavily on the Crime Lab to bring forth some information to sort of steer us in one direction or the other."

He said his criminal investigation division has received almost 300 phone tips since Thursday and that a reward fund had swelled to $6,000 by Friday.

Lynette Thomas sat on her back porch at the Mayfair Apartments Friday afternoon, gazing toward the undulating terrain beneath the thick canopy of brush and trees.

The area has attracted young bike riders for years, she said.

"Sometimes you see one of the policemen's heads pop up while they're working over there," she said.

The woods are popular with far more than the neighborhood bike riders, she said.

"It's a pathway for bikes, for kids, for adults, for teenagers, for people cutting through to work at the truck wash," she said. "All kinds of people

cut through there."

Charity Collum, 16, who lives in the W.E. Catt Street house closest to the crime scene, agrees.

"People are going into those woods all the time," she said. "No telling who was back there then. It's really pretty scary.

"I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep last night. It's all so close."

"I'm not going to let them get out of my sight, not until they catch who done it," Donna Johnson said of her 3-year-old son and two other small children she was babysitting Friday at her apartment about 150 feet from where the bodies were found.

"There is fear over here. It happened right in our back doors. That's scary."

Jim Clark, director of the Crime Lab in Little Rock, said as the autopsies were under way, "We at the Crime Lab are going to expedite to the fullest extent as we can. . . . We're probably looking at the trace-evidence section and the serology lab section (to be) heavily involved as well as the medical examiner's office."

The lab's photographers and fingerprint experts duplicated some of the field work done on the evidence, "making sure we have all the right exposures and all," Clark said.

[rugs]

West Memphis deaths pose a challenge

Editorial Board
Saturday, May 8, 1993

The mind wants to shut out the scene of three young boys found in a West Memphis ditch who were victims of some deranged killer. But it can't.

It is difficult to comprehend how a warm spring afternoon of fun on bicycles can come to such a tragic end for a trio of carefree 8-year-old, second-grade buddies. It is absolutely no comfort to know that this sort of thing has happened before, at other times, in other places.

What on Earth can a community of caring people do in such circumstances? Grieve along with the crushed parents and friends of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, certainly. Those families need to know that others care, and that the thoughts and prayers of many strangers are focused on their needs.

Special counselors meanwhile are helping schoolmates at Weaver Elementary School cope with the tragedy.

Immediate neighbors need also to search their minds for any shred of information that might help police solve this puzzling case. Travelers along Interstate 40 in the area of Ten Mile Bayou across from Southland Greyhound Park in the late afternoon or early evening Wednesday, when the boys were last seen, or truckers who were using a nearby wash facility might be able to help.

The bound bodies were found submerged in the ditch Thursday afternoon.

Alertness to unusual activity - the hallmark of neighborhood watch programs - can help solve crimes as well as help prevent them.

As word of a tragedy like this spreads, individuals and communities tend to redouble security efforts. Parents become especially watchful.

It is always sensible to take precautions, but of course there is a limit to what can be done. It should not be necessary to make yourself a prisoner in your own home.

Memphis itself has been deeply concerned about violent crime in recent weeks. Mayor Herenton wants to put additional police officers on the streets. Officials are talking about new security measures at the City Hall building. Courts here and elsewhere have had to tighten security.

Many Memphians have been particularly alarmed by several shootings on school grounds. A broad-based task force has recommended to the Memphis Board of Education a number of steps to deal with school violence of all kinds, and those are under consideration.

As Memphians grapple with these frustrating problems, they share the anguish of those across the river who have suffered such great loss.

Whatever resources might be needed to help law enforcement officers piece together the events that led up to the shocking deaths of those three young pals in West Memphis, to discover who was responsible and to bring about a conviction, must be made available.

Rest assured, thousands will be pulling for a break in this case.

[rugs]

Counselors help school deal with its grief

By John Beifuss - Memphis Commercial Appeal
Saturday, May 8, 1993

The memorials erected for three murdered children at Weaver Elementary School on Friday weren't cold marble or granite.

These tributes were made by classmates with crayon and construction paper, cut-and-paste paper chains and Valentine's hearts and placed on the desks of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, the 8-year-old boys whose bodies were discovered Thursday in a bayou just blocks from their school and homes.

"The children were crying and I was crying, and I just told 'em, 'Y'all go ahead and cry,' " said Lila S. Lovely, one of almost 20 guidance counselors, psychologists and mental health experts on hand Friday for the first day of class after the deaths of the three students.

"I told them when someone dies, they're still our friend, they're just not here with us," she said.

"This is the worst tragedy that probably this community has ever faced," said Gary Adams, 43, assistant superintendent for elementary schools for West Memphis Public Schools. "We're going to make the counseling available for as many days as needed."

Sarah Kirkley, principal at the northeast West Memphis school for 19 years, said she wanted the school day to be "as normal as possible."

Nevertheless, when the bell rang about 8 a.m., each teacher started the day by talking with students about the tragedy. And many students who had been walking to school unescorted for years were now chaperoned by concerned parents.

"I just told my son, you're going to have to quit riding your bike, even around the block, unless someone's with you," said Brenda Haycraft, 31, who cried as she hand-delivered sympathy cards to the boys' families Friday.

She was accompanied by her son Ernie, 4, who added: "You don't know. Kids could die."

The school on Barton, which is adjacent to the Moore home, has about 335 students in kindergarten through sixth grade - including only about 44 in second grade like the three boys.

The students are unusually close because almost all of them live in the neighborhood. They play with each other after school as well as studying side by side.

Ramona Taylor, Crittenden County administrator for the Arkansas Department of Health, said nine West Memphis guidance counselors, about five state mental health experts and Dr. William J. Burke, a West Memphis child psychologist, were on the Weaver campus Friday.

"All have had extensive training in grief counseling," she said.

Ironically, the school district just last week completed an extensive crisis plan for counselors, which included sections on divorce, suicide, and ''The Death of a Classmate or Teacher."

The plan includes such advice as, "The child's or teacher's desk should not be removed. Leaving it as it was for several days will help to acknowledge the death. Some classrooms have voted to keep the desk through the remainder of the year."

Lovely spoke to the class where Steve and Christopher were students.

"We looked at their desks and looked at their pictures, and put some things on there, and wrote some stories to give to the families."

She said each child in the class had planted a tree seedling in a small Styrofoam cup. The children want to plant the boys' trees outside the school, Lovely said.

"We tried to reassure them and give them a hug," said Lynette Moore, the regular guidance counselor at Weaver.

She said she asked the children to reveal what emotions they felt about the tragedy. Many said sadness and fear.

But, "One little girl said, 'Anger. I'm really angry about this.' "

As the children left the school about 3 p.m., many of them passed a sign outside Second Baptist Church, which read: "Good Friends Are Like Toothpaste - They Come Through in a Tight Squeeze."

Said Rev. Stacy Tommy, 48, church pastor: "Every church in town is praying."

[rugs]

Police optimistic on several leads in boys' slayings

James Chisum
Sunday, May 9, 1993

The officer in charge of the investigation into the slayings of three schoolboys said Saturday he was optimistic about several leads in the case but did not indicate when an arrest might be made.

"We think things are going very well," said Insp. Gary Gitchell, the officer in charge of the investigation. "We've got several leads we're working on."

Gitchell revealed his optimism at a 4 p.m. press briefing. Though he gave reporters little new information, he said leads from the public, such as calls to the (901) 732-4444 Crime Stoppers number, have been helpful.

He would not speculate on when an arrest might be made.

Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, all 8-year-old second- graders, disappeared Wednesday while riding bikes. They were found dead Thursday, their bodies submerged in a creek. Police said their hands and feet were bound and that they had been killed by blows to the head.

Volunteers collected donations at several West Memphis intersections Saturday to help the families of the three boys. The "roadblock" fund- raising effort raised $10,853.

Gitchell said police have talked to the families of the three boys, and told them that they couldn't reveal all details of the murders, even to them. He said police also "corrected some false information that is out." He would not describe that information Saturday, however.

Gitchell would not confirm an Arkansas State Police broadcast report that the children had been sexually mutilated.

The boggy woods where the boys were found remained cordoned off by yellow tape Saturday. Gitchell said he didn't know how long the crime scene would remain restricted.

Earlier Saturday, Gitchell said West Memphis investigators are following conventional methods - examining evidence found at the scene of the crime, looking for possible witnesses and checking out tips.

Some tips that would have been dismissed earlier in the investigation are now being taken very seriously, he said.

Gitchell was also enthusiastic about the help of the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in Quantico, Va., where specialists work to develop profiles of suspects in unusual crimes.

"It's an amazing, astounding, wonderful unit," Gitchell said.

He said the West Memphis Police Department has also furnished details of the slayings to the FBI's Violent Crime Apprehension Program, which uses a computer database to search for similar crimes throughout the nation. No information has yet come to the department from the computer search, he said.

Gitchell said investigators don't know at this point whether they're looking for a single killer or for more than one killer.

Police haven't received a complete report on the medical examinations of the boys, he said, saying that pathologists at the State Crime Lab in Little Rock are being "very meticulous." The preliminary examination, completed Friday afternoon, revealed that they died of multiple injuries.

Gitchell said he knows of only $6,000 now on hand for rewards, though he's heard reports that other money will be available.

Two funds have been established for the boys' families.

One is at Holy Cross Episcopal Church, 209 Park Drive, West Memphis, Ark. 72301. The church's fund swelled to $12,853 Saturday with the addition of the intersection fund-raising.

The other is at the First National Bank in West Memphis, 231 E. Broadway, West Memphis, Ark. 72301.

[rugs]

Pain tells how much life 3 slain boys had

By John Beifuss - Memphis Commercial Appeal
Sunday, May 9, 1993

One of the great tragedies in the short lives of Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore is that most people will know them only as victims.

To friends and relatives, the 8-year-old classmates whose murdered bodies were found Thursday in a brush-choked bayou were something far nobler. They were children whose personalities and spirit will never die.

They had funny nicknames like "Wormer" and "Bubba." They swam like fish and kicked like Ninja Turtles. They had smarts and heart and smiles and wiles.

They lived in the same northeastern neighborhood, near the interstate and swampy Robin Hood Park. They were in second grade together at Weaver Elementary School. They were in the same Cub Scout pack at Holy Cross Episcopal Church, where the Moores were members, and all had passed the rank of "Wolf."

And yet, as their loved ones know so well, each boy was unique.

Michael was a leader, respected by the others.

Christopher was always asking "Why?"

Steve already was a heart-breaker, with "snow white hair and blue eyes," according to second cousin Angela Graham, 33. "It was blond, but it turned white in the summertime." She said it had just begun to lighten when the boys disappeared Wednesday.

The boys' paths couldn't help but cross frequently. Michael and Christopher lived across an intersection from each other, at 1398 and 1400 E. Barton, respectively. And Steven Edward Branch - "Stevie," as he was called by family and friends - considered himself the boyfriend of Michael's 9-year-old sister, Dawn. He recently bought her a birthstone ring for $5 at Wal-Mart.

"He liked older women," joked Terry Hobbs, 35, who had been Steve's stepfather since the boy was a year old.

Steve's mother Pam Hobbs, 29, said her son had taught himself to do backflips and forward-flips. He liked to practice Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle- style karate moves, and he liked to sing.

"He was going to be my little Elvis someday," she said. "I told him how Elvis bought his mama a Graceland, so he'd have to buy me a Promised Land." Stevie promised he would.

The family lived in a comfortable ranch house at 1601 S. McAuley, with log reindeer in the front yard and Steve's chow, King, in the back. Another pet - a turtle caught by Steve in one of the watery ditches that vein the neighborhood - has been adopted by a cousin.

"He loved animals. He was all the time keeping something he had caught," Terry Hobbs said. "We had some fish, but his little sister got into the fishbowl, and now we no longer have fish."

Four-year-old Amanda called her big brother "Bubba." "That's all she knows, that he's gone to heaven," Angela Graham said.

Steve's father, Steve Branch, lives in Osceola, Ark.

Andy Taylor, 34, a longtime friend of the Byers family who had been designated "official spokesman" by the distraught parents, said Christopher Byers was nicknamed Wormer, " 'cause he was such a squirmer."

Taylor said he had known Christopher "ever since he was a curtain crawler. He was the kind of little kid who could climb in your lap and make you feel good right off the bat. He not only could do it, he would do it."

"He was every inquisitive, and I think along with that comes creativity."

He said Christopher was interested in motors and moving, mechanical parts.

"He always asked a thousand questions - 'Why do you drive that kind of car?' 'Why are you doing that?' "

And Christopher liked to swim.

"During the summer, we couldn't keep him out of the pool," Taylor said. ''We think he was part fish."

It's hard for the parents, like John Mark Byers and Melissa Byers, to keep

from crying, Taylor said. Everywhere in the house is some toy, some drawing held in place by a refrigerator magnet, or some similar memento of their son.

"She might look and just see a book out of place and remember Christopher touched it," Taylor said.

It's particularly tough for Ryan Byers, 13, who shared a room with Chris.

"Right now, the only thing that's in our mind is Christopher - the Worm," Taylor said. "Please, pray that our children are being taken care of, and that nothing like this could ever possibly happen to anybody again."

A relative who did not identify himself said Todd and Diana Moore, the parents of Michael Moore, and other family members did not want to discuss Michael with a reporter.

Terry Hobbs said Michael was more of a natural leader, while Stevie could sometimes be shy. But the quietness was perhaps a sign of his relative maturity. Stevie was an honor student at Weaver and took the job of big brother seriously.

"He was more grown-up than his age would indicate," said second cousin, Ronnie Graham, 37, of Gosnell, Ark. He said Stevie and his mother were "more like buddies," and Stevie emulated that relationship with his sister.

Mrs. Hobbs said she hoped people would remember her son's life, not his death.

"I just would like everybody to remember him like he was - remember his smile, his karate moves."

[rugs]

Faith helps slain boy's family face abiding grief

Tips promising in 3 deaths, police say

Ron Maxey and Chris Conley
Monday, May 10, 1993

Members of Holy Cross Episcopal Church in West Memphis helped Todd and Diana Moore struggle through a hard Mother's Day Sunday, three days after their son's body and two others were found in a ditch.

Authorities continued to express optimism about the case as they searched for clues in the slayings of Michael Moore and friends Steve Branch and Christopher Byers. The bodies of the three boys, all 8, were found Thursday in a swampy area called Robin Hood Park near their homes.

West Memphis police Insp. Gary Gitchell said police are following some ''rather promising" leads in the case.

He called some of the several hundred calls from citizens and other law enforcement officials "good calls."

"Naturally, some (leads) haven't panned out . . . others are rather promising," he said. "We have ruled out many things, or more appropriately, many different people."

Potential witnesses, some of them children, filed into the West Memphis police station Sunday afternoon. Gitchell said more than 50 people have been questioned. Street officers have received information from friends and other possible informants, he said.

Gitchell said he had slept only a few hours the night before.

"I definitely feel we are closer," he said. He said police want information particularly about vehicles or individuals seen in the area.

"It's like a great puzzle . . . it would take the whole front courtyard to

put all the pieces," he said.

At Holy Cross, where the Moores are members, the congregation was looking for answers as well, answers as to why such a thing would happen.

"While I do believe to the very core of my being in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit," Rector Fred H. Tinsley Jr. said in his homily, "I freely admit to you this morning that my heart is sorely troubled."

Tinsley called the slayings the "incarnation and manifestation of evil."

"We're not dealing with the garden variety of sin here," Tinsley said. ''Anyone who would do something like this is not like you or me. . . . They've reached the point that they refuse to recognize that anything wrong was done."

The Moores and 9-year-old daughter Dawn sat near the back of the filled church, occasionally leaning on one another. Fellow church members, many dabbing their eyes with handkerchiefs, greeted the family after the service, some simply hugging the family without speaking.

"I think our faith pulled us through all of it," said church member Shirl Skobel. "It was a hard day for everyone, though."

The Moores left quickly after the service and did not talk to reporters.

Gitchell said West Memphis has 12 officers working the case, and is getting help from the Memphis police, Arkansas State Police and FBI. Gitchell said he may have a profile of the killer from the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in Quantico, Va., by today or Tuesday. Gitchell said that until police get full autopsies, they will not know if the boys all died at the same time. The deaths were caused by head trauma, he said, but was not more specific.

A Memphis psychologist who has served as an expert witness in criminal cases said Sunday he does not believe the boys were the victim of a drifter or experienced killer, but rather of someone one of them knew.

Dr. L. D. Hutt said the background of the situation "implies a familiarity with the area . . . not just the physical knowledge, but also that this was a popular place for kids to go.

"He knew where he was going, and he knew the purpose," Hutt said.

Hutt said he has no official connection with the case and has not spoken to police about it.

Odds are, he said, the killer was someone who knew at least one of the boys, though was not necessarily a long-term friend.

The killer, if there was one killer, he said, may have been "posing as a police official" or some other authority figure. "That would imply planning," he said.

But, Hutt said, "this does not have the signs of a crime by a mad genius. . . .; he's not a real brilliant individual," he said. The crime showed premeditation, he said, but the crime scene seems to indicate a disorganized person, someone possibly with neurological damage.

There is a good chance that the person has a criminal record, though possibly for minor violations.

If not detected, the person will "almost certainly kill again," Hutt said. However, he said, the killer's efforts to flee will likely "be pretty obvious . . . not highly planned out."

Hutt said the killer probably left a lot of evidence at the scene, but that evidence may have been degraded by the water and by anyone coming upon the scene accidentally.

The killer, he said, would probably not meet the legal definition of insanity, since he showed planning and attempts, however clumsy, to cover up his crime.

Lastly, he said, the killer probably had a low-level job, and likely had some contact with children on his job.

Members of Michael's and Dawn's Sunday school classes plan to plant a fruit tree at Holy Cross in Michael's memory next Sunday, buying the tree with their own money. All three boys also were members of the same Cub Scout troop at the church.

Tinsley said he was heartened by the outpouring of support communitywide. Beverly Higginbotham, who is helping spearhead efforts to raise money for funeral expenses from motorists at intersections, is not a member of Holy Cross but attended Sunday's service.

She said about $15,000 had been raised as of Sunday morning and collection is continuing.

"This has been a very difficult Mother's Day," Higginbotham said, arm around her daughter. "I'm so fortunate I've got her with me. The Moores and the other families don't have theirs."

[rugs]

Interviews aid case in Arkansas boys' deaths

Rob Johnson
Tuesday, May 11, 1993

West Memphis detectives have interviewed six or seven people who are shedding light on the circumstances surrounding the murders of three 8-year- old boys, the lead police investigator said Monday.

None of those people interviewed - four of them on Monday - is a suspect, said Inspector Gary Gitchell.

All of those interviewed are from West Memphis, Gitchell said.

Gitchell continued to sound optimistic about solving a case that began Thursday when police found the bodies of Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers.

Services have been set for each of the children. Services for Michael Moore will be at 3:30 p.m. today at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in West Memphis, where Michael was a member, with burial in Crittenden Memorial Park in Marion.

For Christopher Byers, services will be at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Ingram Boulevard Baptist Church in West Memphis with burial in Forest Hill Cemetery East in Memphis.

Services for Steve Branch will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at Bradshaw's German- Aumon Funeral Home in Steele, Mo., with burial in Mt. Zion Cemetery in Steele.

The boys had suffered blows to the head, and their hands and feet were bound when searchers found them in a ditch.

They were in a wooded, undeveloped area known to neighbors as Robin Hood Park, where local children, including the three victims, long have ridden their bikes.

"The pieces are beginning to fit together a little better," Gitchell said Monday. "I'm confident we will solve this.

"We're talking with some individuals. We don't know what direction it's going to lead us in. We're making steady headway and progress."

Because the boys were found near a truck stop, a truck wash and Interstate 40, police say they have not ruled out the possibility that the boys' killer or killers were passing through town at the time.

In fact, police have interviewed several hitchhikers and transients who were near West Memphis about the time the boys disappeared last Wednesday, Gitchell said.

Police have found no evidence that the boys were killed during a cult-like ritual, as some West Memphians have been speculating, he said.

Gitchell refused, however, to discuss the crime scene, which lies hidden

from public view behind the trees and long strips of yellow police tape. Nor would he discuss any possible scenarios that led to the boys' violent deaths.

Gitchell said he did not expect to receive the medical examiner's final report or an FBI psychological profile until Friday.

[rugs]

Funeral, visitation recall joyful lives tragedy cut short

By John Beifuss - Memphis Commercial Appeal
Wednesday, May 12, 1993

Two Christmas holidays ago, jeweler John Mark Byers made a special ring for his adopted son.

The small, 14K gold circle is adorned with the hand-crafted image of a tiny, smiling worm, in honor of the ever-squirming boy nicknamed 'Wormer.'

"I knew, through the years, I could size the ring, make it larger," Byers said. "I hoped as he got older he could wear it, and maybe he could pass it on to his own son."

Today, 8-year-old Christopher Mark Byers will wear the ring during his funeral, his adoptive father said before attending a visitation Tuesday at Roller-Citizens Funeral Home.

This week, West Memphis officially mourns Christopher, Steve Edward Branch and Michael Moore - the three boys who were bound and killed some time after they last were seen together the evening of May 5.

The boys' submerged bodies were found Thursday in swampy Robin Hood Park near their homes in the northeast part of town.

Funeral services for Michael Moore were held Tuesday at Holy Cross Episcopal Church here. About 200 mourners filled the small church, including teachers, some two dozen children and family members. Michael, the son of Todd and Diana Moore, was buried in Crittenden Memorial Park in Marion, Ark.

West Memphis police detectives videotaped those who entered the church. Police said Tuesday that while they are pleased with the progress of their investigation, they now expect it will be a long haul.

"I think we're looking at a long investigation," Inspector Gary Gitchell said Tuesday. "It's moving along. We're going to solve it."

Mrs. Lou Cook, 35, who attended Michael Moore's funeral with her sons, said the shock of the murders hasn't worn off.

'It's just hard to imagine that something like this has happened in our small commnity, where almost everybody knows each other," she said. "It just doesn't seem real yet."

Cook, a longtime substitute teacher at Weaver Elementary School, said she knew all the boys, and they were good friends with her son, Jonathan Hedrick, 8.

"He said he didn't want to go to school Friday because his best friends had been killed, and he didn't have any friends left."

Aaron Hutcheson, 8, said he also lost his best friend in Michael. "We always played together."

Vicki Hutcheson, 30, Aaron's mother, said the boys had invited Aaron to accompany them the afternoon they disappeared, but she wouldn't let Aaron go out. She cried at the memory.

Rev. Fred H. Tinsley Jr., rector at Holy Cross, told mourners at Michael's funeral to stop blaming themselves for not watching out for the boys. "Such self-deprecation and blame at this particular time only serve to draw our attention away from why we are here . . . celebrating the gifts of Michael's life."

The murders continue to disturb West Memphis residents.

Charles Norris, 23, an ice cream truck driver for Frostee Treats, said even the popsicle business is at a standstill.

"On the east side of West Memphis, kids weren't even coming out, and if they did, parents were watching 'em from the window. I think everyone's suspicious of everyone."

He said his daily cruises of neighborhoods once frequented by children have been like visiting a ghost town. "There's no more pickup games of basketball, no kids tossing the football."

"My two little ones won't hardly leave the house," said Cook, whose father, W. T. Williams, was murdered five years ago in Memphis. "They don't want to be out of my sight at all."

She said on Mother's Day, the family had a fried chicken picnic in the backyard, "But as soon as that was over, they wanted to go back in the house."

Despite the fear, the murders have brought out the best qualities in some citizens.

Some parents volunteered to watch classes at Weaver in the afternoon, so that teachers could attend the funeral. "This is just an example of how our town's pulling together," said Sarah Kirkley, principal of the school where the three 8-year-olds attended second grade.

Services for Christopher Byers are at 1 p.m. today at Ingram Boulevard Baptist Church in West Memphis, with burial in Forest Hill Cemetery East in Memphis. He will be buried at the foot of his grandmother's grave, his father said.

Steve Branch will be mourned during services at 2 p.m. Thursday at Bradshaw's German-Aumon Funeral Home in Steele, Mo., with burial in Mt. Zion Cemetery in Steele.

[rugs]

Arkansas police little progress in solving slayings of three boys

Rob Johnson
Thursday, May 13, 1993

Six days after authorities found the bodies of three 8-year-old boys, West Memphis police reported little progress in the investigation.

Inspector Gary Gitchell said Wednesday, "We've got nothing new to report. We're still just running down leads." The department's twice-a-day news briefings have been scaled back to once a day.

Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers were reported missing last Wednesday, then found the following day by police searchers. They'd been killed by blows to the head. Their hands and feet were bound.

The crime scene, a week old, remains roped off by yellow police tape, and Gitchell said detectives are still studying the site. It lies hidden inside a small, boggy wooded area between the boys' neighborhood and a truck wash near an Interstate 40 access road.

"We're planning on going back out there," Gitchell said.

Christopher Byers was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery East in Memphis Wednesday following afternoon services at Ingram Boulevard Baptist Church in West Memphis. Services for Steve Branch will be at 2 p.m. today at Bradshaw's German-Aumon Funeral Home in Steele, Mo., with burial in Mt. Zion Cemetery in Steele. Michael Moore was buried Tuesday in Crittenden Memorial Park in Marion, Ark.

Contributions to a reward fund in the case may be mailed to Crittenden County Crimestoppers, 100 Court St., West Memphis, Ark. 72301. Crimestoppers may be contacted at (501) 732-4444. Contributions should be clearly marked for the reward fund for the suspect's or suspects' capture and conviction.

According to reports in San Diego, police investigating the slayings of two boys in March have checked with West Memphis police.

"They're just comparing notes at this point," said San Diego police spokesman Dave Cohen.

The San Diego boys, ages 9 and 13, were found dead in a wooded area along the bank of the Otay River in late March, San Diego police said.

[rugs]

Tent protects West Memphis crime scene in clue hunt

Rob Johnson
Friday, May 14, 1993

Investigators enclosed the site of the murder of three 8-year-old boys in a 15-foot-square canvas tent from a local funeral home Thursday as technicians from the Arkansas State Crime Lab toted tripods and equipment into the woods.

Police wouldn't say what authorities were doing at the crime scene. But it was clear that a week after West Memphis police found the bodies of the boys near the Ten Mile Bayou, investigators were still trying to unearth clues from the soggy ground behind an Interstate 40 truck wash.

Detectives say they're interviewing "potential suspects" and chasing down leads. But the scene itself still holds promise of revealing who killed the three young friends, Inspector Gary Gitchell said Thursday.

A week ago, Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers were found murdered a day after they were reported missing. They had suffered blows to the head, and their hands and feet were bound.

"I don't know what's going on inside there," said Harrison Robinson, an employee of Roller-Citizens Funeral Home, who was at the site. "I'm just here to put up a tent." But he said he's glad to help out with a case that troubles him deeply, just as it does the rest of West Memphis.

"I'm hurt, and I'm confused," he said. "My son is the same age, and he knew them, too."

Gitchell said detectives interviewed people steadily Thursday. "They're potential suspects, yeah," he said. "But I want to say that they have been very cooperative." He added that police weren't close to an arrest. "As far as having a suspect soon, I don't know."

This week, detectives have marched neighbors, including children, into the woods where the crime scene is. Gitchell won't say what his detectives are showing them - or asking them. He refused to identify those who have been escorted behind the yellow crime-scene tape.

At the Blue Beacon Truck Wash, where police and reporters have been parking on the grass for a week now, manager Scott Kelin says his staff probably would have noticed any suspicious activity on his back lot. The two-bay truck wash is open 24 hours a day.

He said police have talked to him and his employees several times about what they may have witnessed last week.

A few weeks ago, a transient had pitched a tent nearby, Kelin said, but he was told to move on.

While Gitchell says that he won't rule out any possible suspects - including interstate travelers - he has said that the investigation has focused primarily on those in West Memphis.

[rugs]

Lawmen sort clues in deaths of three boys

Rob Johnson
Saturday, May 15, 1993

Working behind doors now marked "Do Not Enter," West Memphis police detectives said Friday their investigation into the murders of three 8-year- old boys revolves mainly around the questioning of possible witnesses and suspects. But no one, they say, is a solid suspect.

Insp. Gary Gitchell, who heads the investigation into the deaths of Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers, has suspended his daily news briefings, issuing on Friday a press release instead.

Since May 6, he and his detectives have been looking for the killer or killers who left the boys dead in a boggy, undeveloped wooded area known by locals as Robin Hood Park.

The three friends suffered fatal blows to the head, and their hands and feet were bound.

Thursday, a local funeral home erected a large canvas tent over the murder site, deep inside the woods and brush, giving crime-scene technicians an enclosed, darkened place to work.

By Friday afternoon however, the tent appeared to be gone, and no one was working at the frequently busy crime scene, located between the boys' neighborhood and an Interstate 40 truck wash.

Gitchell's press release anticipated most of the reporters' routine questions at past briefings:

- No, there are no suspects.

- The West Memphis police still do not believe their case is related to a similar double homicide of two children in San Diego.

- Police are continuing their silence about the crime scene, any possible murder weapon, the material used to bind the boys or whether any witnesses exist.

Police say they are still collecting and forwarding information to FBI behavioral experts in Quantico, Va., where agents are assembling a profile of the killer or killers.

Such a report could give local police an idea of what kind of person killed the boys - and, in theory, a better idea of where police might look for their

suspect or suspects.

[rugs]

Phone appeals for three families probed

Separate reward fund at $32,000

Rob Johnson and Charles Bernsen
Thursday, May 20, 1993

West Memphis police detectives say that so far, not even a $32,000 reward has led to a suspect in their two-week-old investigation of the murders of three 8-year-old boys.

As the case has spawned various fund-raising efforts, the Arkansas Attorney General's Office is investigating whether someone has mounted an unauthorized effort to raise money for the boys' families.

Police said Wednesday what they've been saying for days: No one has been arrested, and they're busy with routine interviews of potential witnesses and suspects.

Inspector Gary Gitchell, who heads the investigation into the deaths of Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers, has suspended regular contacts with press because of a heavy demand for interviews. He communicates through a daily news release.

Police issued a statement Wednesday explaining a rapid police response to a fleeing person on Tuesday - an action that helped fuel rumors sweeping the community.

When an individual fled from state troopers who attempted to stop him Tuesday, the statement said, West Memphis police were curious. But authorities said the incident turned out to be unrelated to the homicide case.

Since May 6, Gitchell and his detectives have been looking for the killer or killers who left the boys dead in a boggy, undeveloped wooded area known by locals as Robin Hood Park. The three friends had fatal blows to the head, and their hands and feet were bound.

A man purporting to represent a group called Vanishing Children of Arkansas called two Benton, Ark., businesses this week seeking donations for the

families, said Asst. Atty. Gen. Wendy Michaelis of the office's consumer affairs division. A similar call was made to a business in Cave City, Ark., she said.

Michaelis said her office had no record of such a group. Anyone raising money for charity in Arkansas must register with the Attorney General's Office, she said.

Michaelis said two West Memphis churches - Holy Cross Episcopal and Trinity Missionary Baptist - have been authorized to raise money for the families.

Rev. Fred Tinsley, rector at Holy Cross, said the church has collected about $26,000. Kim Spears, a spokesman for Trinity Missionary, which has established an account in the boys' names at First National Bank of West Memphis, said thus far $17,600 has been divided equally among the three

families.

The money raised for the families is separate from a reward fund established by West Memphis Crimestoppers. That fund stood at about $32,000 Wednesday.

[rugs]

Scouts launch 'reading grove' plan to honor 3 slain West Memphis boys

Charles Bernsen
Wednesday, May 26, 1993

Scout groups in Crittenden County are heading an effort to build a living memorial to three 8-year-old West Memphis boys murdered this month.

The "reading grove" commemorating Michael Moore, Chris Byers and Steve Branch would be built near the library of Weaver Elementary where the slain boys were second-grade students, said Diana Hogue. She's a district Cub Scout official and a speech therapist who works at several schools, including Weaver.

The school board has given permission to build the memorial on school property, Hogue said, and letters have been sent to local scouting groups seeking help on the project. So far, several donations of material, labor and money have come in, she said.

Although the details of the project aren't final, Hogue said she envisions a covered pavilion with benches, a small monument with the boys' names and landscaping with flowers and trees. The plan is to build the memorial this summer so it's ready for use when the next school year starts.

"We're thinking of a quiet place that teachers might use for reading aloud," Hogue said. "It would look upon the little boys' lives in a positive manner and reflect their interests - reading and Cub Scouts."

The boys were found bound and beaten to death May 6 in woods near their homes.

No one has been arrested in the case.


Fund for slain boys' families tops $19,000

Saturday, May 29

A church-sponsored bank account to aid the families of three West Memphis youths murdered this month raised $19,770 before it was closed Friday, according to a church secretary.

The Trinity Missionary Baptist Church account was set up to help the families of the three 8-year-olds found murdered May 6 near their homes.

Kim Spears, church secretary, said $5,865 had been disbursed to the families of Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers. The final distribution is scheduled for Tuesday.

Rev. Fred Tinsley, rector of Holy Cross, said Friday that contributions to his church's account for the families contained slightly more than $26,000.

[rugs]

'Watch over your children' slain boy's mom addresses school

By John Beifuss - Memphis Commercial Appeal
Thursday, June 3, 1993

Pam Hobbs is leaving the town where her son Steve Branch spent the last five of his eight years of life.

Wednesday, she had a final message for the parents, teachers and children assembled in the cafeteria of Weaver Elementary School in West Memphis, where Steve was posthumously awarded three certificates for academic achievement.

"Parents please, always, always be a little overprotective of your children," she said, ignoring the exact wording of the handwritten speech she had unfolded from her pocket. "I'm not saying tomorrow, next week, but always, forever, forever - watch over your children."

The beaten and bound bodies of Steve, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers were discovered May 6, submerged in a ditch near their school and homes. The 8-year-old classmates had been missing since the evening before. West Memphis police have reported no breaks in the case.

Hobbs, 29, said thinking about her son's death makes her "fighting mad."

After the murders, she quit her job at Catfish Island, a restaurant not far from where the bodies were discovered. Now, she and her husband, Terry Hobbs, are leaving the house they rent in West Memphis and moving in with her mother, Marie Hicks of Blytheville. The house is not far from Steve's grave in Steele, Mo. The families of the other children plan to remain in West Memphis.

Mrs. Hobbs was a room mother for the second-grade classroom her son shared with Chris Byers. She spoke Wednesday to Steve's classmates as she cleaned out her son's desk.

"We were blessed with a child as great as Steve was," she said.

She told the children that even if they are not honor students as Steve was this year, they can be next year. Afterward, drying her eyes, she said: "I try not to cry, because I don't want the children to think something bad when they see me."

Steve wasn't the only child honored during the awards ceremony in the cafeteria. Others also received certificates of recognition. Mrs. Hobbs gave each one a standing ovation.

[Tags:]

WM3 Blackboard > WM3 > WM3 Media > Topic: The Commercial Appeal