Murder in The Bayou

A Note from The Author,

The purpose of this book is not to point fingers at any one particular person as the real killer.

We know that Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley have all been tried and convicted for the murders of Michael Moore, Christopher Byers, and Stevie Branch.

But many questions have arisen over the years about the killer’s true identity.

So, we are going to take a closer look at the evidence and the lack of against the West Memphis Three.

And we will look at a few other people that have been labeled as suspects by the world of social media.

I will add that we are in no way stating that anyone killed these three boys.

Our purpose is to only share the information of the case and weigh it against the statements and alibis of the people that have been mentioned online as alternative suspects.

The information that we are putting out here is from The West Memphis Police reports and notes, the court documents from the trials of Damien, Jason, and Jessie.

And we will also use the trial documents from the 2009 case of Terry Hobbs against Natalie Maines of The Chicks, formerly known as The Dixie Chicks. (we will identify these Declarations as the Natalie Maines Lawsuit whenever possible)

At the time of Terry’s lawsuit, the band was known as The Dixie Chicks. However, On June 25th, 2020, the band changed their name to the Chicks, dropping the word Dixie.

PROLOGUE

The Boys

Stevie Branch, Chris Byers, and Michael Moore

Whenever we hear about the West Memphis Three case, we are told about the three teens that were convicted and sent to prison for killing three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis.

I want to start this story focusing on Stevie Branch, Chris Byers, and Michael Moore, the three innocent victims in the West Memphis Three case.

All three boys attended the second grade at Weaver Elementary School in West Memphis, Arkansas.

Each had achieved the rank of Wolf in the local Cub Scout pack and were best friends.

Steven Edward Branch

Steven, usually referred to as Stevie, was born on November 28, 1984.

Stevie was the son of Steven Branch Sr. and Pamela Hicks Hobbs.

He was easily recognizable because of his striking light blond hair and his friendly demeanor.

Terry Hobbs was Stevie's stepfather and biological father to his younger sister, Amanda.

Stevie's grandfather, Jackie Hicks, Sr., gave him a brand-new bicycle just two weeks earlier and he would ride it around the neighborhood with his best friends, Michael, and Chris.

Christopher Byers

Christopher, known to family and friends as Chris, was born on June 23rd, 1984.

Chris’ Biological father is Ricky Murray.

Chris lived with his mother, Sharon Melissa DeFir Byers, and stepfather, John Mark Byers, who adopted Chris.

Chris also had an older half-brother named Ryan Clark who was thirteen years old.

Chris was friends with Michael and Stevie.

By May of 1993, Chris was experiencing hyperactivity disorder. Though he was on Ritalin, his doctors were unable to determine why his behavior was not improving. On May 5th he had not taken his medication.

Michael Moore

James Michael Moore, known to many as Mike, was born on July 27th, 1984.

Michael was the son of Diane Dana Moore and Roy Todd Moore. He had an older sister named Dawn.

Michael enjoyed participating in Cub Scouts and he enjoyed pretending to be in law enforcement.

Michael lived across the street from Chris Byers.

May 5th, 1993

On May 5th, 1993, all three of the young boys attended school from the morning until around 3:00 p.m.

Stevie was picked up from school at 2:45 by his mother Pam and his younger sister Amanda and went straight home and arrived there about 3:00 p.m. Pam begins making dinner and getting ready for work.

Mark Byers arrives home around 3:10. He had been in the clinic in Memphis from 9 o'clock to about 2:45.

Mark said that Chris’ instructions were that if he was not at home when he got home from school, he had to wait under the carport till his brother Ryan, who was almost fourteen, got home at about 3:20.

Mark said that Chris wasn’t home when he arrived home.

Mark said that he hollered for Chris, but he did not respond.

Ryan walked home from school with his friend Jamie, like he did most days.

Jamie later said that Mark was in his driveway yelling to Ryan to find his brother and to tell him to come home.

Jamie said that she remembers this happening at approximately 3:15 – 3:30 p.m.

After leaving Ryan at his house, she walked home and got home to her house at approximately 3:45 p.m.

Jamie lived just three houses down from Stevie and knew all three of the boys.

Mark said that Ryan had to be at court at 4 o'clock to testify as a witness in a court case.

Mark waited for Chris until ten till four. Mark said that he thought that he left the door unlocked so that Chris could get in when he got home.

At 3:00 p.m. Michael gets out of school and goes home to get his bicycle.

He rides over to Stevie’s house which is only about 3 blocks south of his.

Michael arrives at Stevie’s about ten minutes after three and asks Pam if Stevie can go bike riding.

She agrees; but tells Stevie to be home by 4:30 because Pam worked the evening shift at a local restaurant named Catfish Island and had to leave for work just before 5:00.

The two boys leave Stevie’s home and ride their bikes west on South McAuley, then north on 14th.

About this time, Michael’s mother Dana, sees Stevie and Michael riding down 14th Street heading towards the Robin Hood Hills area. Her statement says that the time was 3:10.

Just after the two boys left the Hobb’s residence, Chris showed up looking for Stevie. Pam stated that Chris came over to her house at approximately 3:30 p.m.

It is unknown if Chris went home on May 5th after school.

Even though the other two boys had already left on their bikes, Chris remained at the Hobbs' residence and watched a Muppet Babies episode with Amanda.

Chris eventually left Stevie’s home at 4:00 p.m. after the Muppet Babies episode ended. Various sightings of Chris throughout the afternoon and early evening of May 5th suggest that he met up with Stevie and Michael soon after leaving Stevie’s house.

Between 4:00 and 4:15 p.m. Gregory Quirt, who is mentally retarded according to the investigators, reported seeing Stevie and Michael with a bunch of other boys.

He says they told him they were going riding.

He described seeing three boys on two bikes. He only positively identified Stevie and Michael.

In July 2009, a friend of Pam and Terry named David Jacoby stated that he saw Stevie and two boys pass by outside of his home around 5:15 p.m.

He said that one of the other boys who went by the front of his house was on a bicycle and the other boy was on a skateboard.

At the time David lived at 517 N 17th St.

David’s declaration in Terry Hobbs’ lawsuit against Natalie Maines

On May 5, 1993, I worked at the Memphis Ice Cream Company. I got home from work at approximately 4:30 p.m. on that day. Sometime between 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. on May 5, 1993 (it could have been as late as 6 p.m., but I believe it was between 5 and 5:30 p.m.), Terry came over to my house.

I believe I saw Stevie riding on his bicycle in the street in front of my house. I also believe I saw two other little boys with Stevie. One of the other boys who went by the front of my house was on a bicycle and the other boy was on a skateboard.

Betty Lou Martins said that she saw 4 boys (3 on two bikes, and 1 walking) about 5:00 - 5:30 p.m. She Identified Chris, Michael, and Stevie.

Jeff Martins told police when they were doing the door-to-door interviews in the neighborhood that he only saw the three boys and they were heading towards the Robin Hood Hills area.

So, it appears that up till around 5:15 p.m. the boys are still in the immediate neighborhood of their homes.

Mark took Ryan to court and left just before 5:00 (Ryan was testifying in a reckless driving case at the county courthouse) Mark had to leave to pick his wife Melissa up from her job as they only had one vehicle at the time.

Mark told Ryan that if gets done with the court before he returns to have his friend Chad Bell, who was also at the courthouse, and his mom give him a ride home.

Mark said that after he arrived back home around 5:20 from picking his wife up at work, they noticed that Chris had been back to the house.

As it turns out, Mark didn’t leave the door unlocked as he thought. Because he believes that Chris had gotten one of the lawn chairs, pushed it over in front of the window under the carport, and tried to push the window in.

However, there is a microwave cart right inside the window, and flowers and stuff are sitting on it. Chris knew he could push the window up, but he couldn't get the window up enough by himself to crawl through the window.

At about 5:30 Ryan is not home from court, so Mark decides to drive over to the courthouse and get Ryan.

Mark backed out of the driveway and headed up 14th towards Broadway and had driven 4 or 5 houses down 14th headed to Broadway. and out in the street, is Chris laying on his stomach on his skateboard heading to Broadway.

Mark pulled up behind Chris in the car and honked the horn.

Mark said that he drove back home and gave him 2 or 3 licks with a belt and told him to clean up the paper under the carport.

Mark then left to go and pick up Ryan from the courthouse.

During this time Stevie and Michael are together riding their bicycles.

Kim Williams stated she saw Stevie and Michael between 5:30 and 6:00 p.m. going into the Robin Hood Hills, area specifically into the ditch that goes to the Devil’s Den area.

She does not see Chris because at this time he is still at home cleaning the carport area.

She said that she saw their bikes parked by the road near Goodwin.

Kim also saw three older boys (1-white male and 2-black males) coming out of Robin Hood Hills near the dead-end road off Goodwin.

She said that she never saw Chris that day.

Melissa said that she looked out the window at 5:45 and saw Chris under the carport. This is the last time she sees him.

When the police went door to door, they spoke to a young boy named Bobby Posey who said that Chris was at his house and said that he was going to run away because his father whipped him.

Michael’s mother, Dana, saw all three of the boys at about 6:00 riding their bikes going north on 14th Street.

She said that she had seen Michael on his bike, and Chris and Stevie were on Stevie’s bike.

It is believed that Chris was cleaning his carport. But when he saw the two boys ride by on their bikes, he joined them.

Another woman by the name of Cindy Rico also spotted the three boys in this area about 6-6:30 p.m. as she drove along the service road past The Blue Beacon Truck Wash.

She said she saw them by the drainage ditch down past Blue Beacon down by the bridge.

She stated that they had two bikes.

Dana told her daughter Dawn to go get him and tell him to come home for supper.

Dawn was out looking for her brother about 5:30-6:00 when she also saw three boys (1-white male and 2-black males) coming out of Robin Hood Hills near the ditch that goes to Devil's Den.

She said that they were near the hydrant across the street and as she passed by one of them asked if she wanted a shot. She believed that they were talking about drugs.

Dawn did not make any comment about seeing the bikes parked by the road near Goodwin.

Around the same time, Kim Williams stated she saw Steve and Michael near her home, and another person who personally knew the two boys had also seen them.

At 5:45 pm Otto Bailey, Jr. told the police that as he and his son Allen were backing out of his driveway at 1202 W Catt St. on their way to ball practice.

He said that he and his son had seen Stevie and Michael riding down the street right in front of his driveway.

His son, who knew the boys from school, hollered out the window at them to say hi.

Otto said that when he got to the end of the driveway, he stopped to see if any cars were coming, and he noticed the boys had backpacks on. This is the only time that anyone stated that the boys had backpacks.

He said that they were riding west heading towards the Mayfair apartments.

He told his son to tell them bye because they were going to be late to practice and had to get going.

Allen told the boys, Bye and Otto drove off to take his son to practice.

Debra O'Tinger says she saw the boys at 5:30 p.m. ride their bikes through her yard and she asked them to ride on the sidewalk as she had some small trees on her property that she had recently planted.

The boys left the area and went back towards Stevie’s house because all three of the boys were seen at 6:00 p.m. by Jamie Clark Ballard who was a neighbor of Stevie at the time and was a friend of Ryan who walked home with him that day.

The statement of Jamie Clark Ballard and her sister Brandy Clark Williams is a very important piece of the puzzle. Because they were both interviewed in September 2009 and their version of events, that afternoon shines a whole new light on the final hours of the lives of the three boys.

Their sightings contradict Terry’s account of that final day. I will put his version of events following Jamie’s Statement.

Not only was she a neighbor of Stevie, but she was also close friends with Chris’ brother Ryan.

At the time of her giving the statement, she was twenty-nine years old.  And she said that she remembered these events very clearly because it was all very upsetting, because it has all stood out in her mind through the years, and because Ryan was such a close friend.

Jamie was only thirteen years old at the time of the murders and she was friends with Chris’ brother Ryan.

She knew Stevie because he was a neighborhood kid who lived three doors down from her and she saw and spoke to him.

At the time of the murders, she lived at 1609 S. McAuley Street and Stevie lived at 1601 S. McAuley Street.

She also knew Michael because he lived across the street from Ryan and Chris, and he was a good friend of Chris.

Between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. on May 5th, she saw Stevie, Michael, and Chris playing in her backyard.

She said that her backyard was very large. And there were no privacy fences behind the two houses between her house and the Hobbs' house, or behind her house.

Stevie, Michael, and Chris had come down and were playing in her backyard.

She said that it was easy to see the boys playing in the backyard because her house had a big picture window that looks out in the backyard.

She said that the boys were just playing and screwing around.

There was a bayou and a ditch in the backyard. And she remembers her mother did not like kids playing in the backyard because she was scared somebody could get hurt in the bayou and the ditch.

Stevie, Michael, and Chris were playing around the ditch.

The following statements were from both Jamie and her sister Brandy about events that happened around 6:30 p.m. that day.

Both Jamie and her sister Brandy, who was eleven years old at the time, were active in their church and attended Wednesday night church youth group meetings together.

Brandy said that they were driven to those meetings by their youth group coordinators, who picked them up at 6:30 p.m. on those nights to go to the church youth group meetings.

At 6:30 p.m. on May 5, 1993, which was a Wednesday, Jamie, and Brandy went out the front door of their house to go out to the car to meet the people who were picking them up to take them to Wednesday night youth group.

Jamie said that as she came out into the front yard, she saw Stevie, Michael, and Chris come racing between her house and the house next door that was in the direction of the Hobbs' house.

Brandy said that as this was happening, her