Abomination: Devil Worship and Deception in the West Memphis Three Murders (3 page)

Investigator Gitchell decided to videotape the crime scene while the other police officers worked to drain water from the ditch. A group of parents heard that bodies were found and headed toward the crime scene. Gitchell had the painful task of informing the parents that their sons were not coming home.
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In front of the yellow crime tape, Gitchell informed the Moore, the Byers and the Branch families of the terrible findings. The parents of the boys broke down and sobbed, with television camera crews onsite to videotape their grieving. John Mark Byers, in shock, openly said what he hoped for the killer: “God shows a little mercy on his soul, because I sure wouldn’t.”

An astonished crowd gathered near the taped-off crime scene. Police officers near the crowd heard whispers of devil worship in Robin Hood Hills circulate among the gathering residents. Locals spoke of bizarre rituals in the woods, with strange people frequently entering and leaving the undeveloped area.

3. THE INVESTIGATION

The West Memphis police began their search for the killers of the children by first scouring the area for evidence. Many groups of people had been through the area the night before---many tracks had been walked over. The police dropped a boat into the Ten Mile Bayou, the long canal nearby designed to alleviate flooding from the Mississippi River. A grappling hook thrown over the side of the boat caught a metallic object, and police soon pulled up both Michael Moore’s and Steve Byers’ bicycles.

Marty King, the manager of Bojangles restaurant, contacted the police again and retold the story of the man covered in mud and blood who occupied the women’s bathroom for an hour. Detectives Ridge and Allen, who just completed the search in the ditch, cleaned themselves and headed over to the restaurant. Unfortunately, the cleaning crew of Bojangles had done a thorough job the night before and little evidence remained. However, near the toilet was a spot of what looked to be dried blood. Ridge scraped off the blood and put it into an evidence container. Neither Ridge or Allen considered the evidence material to the current case. Upon his return to the police station, Ridge placed the container with the dried blood into his desk and promptly forgot about it.

The next day on May 7th, 1993, the
Commercial Appeal
(Memphis, Tennessee) headlines blared:

MUTILATED BODIES OF THREE BOYS FOUND IN BAYOU:

Hunt for suspects in W. Memphis

Three 8-year-old boys were found slain Thursday, their bodies submerged in a drainage ditch.

West Memphis police would not comment on the cause of death, but an Arkansas State Police broadcast Thursday night said West Memphis police were investigating the abduction and sexual mutilation of three boys.

Neighbors last saw Weaver Elementary School second-graders Steve Branch, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore riding bicycles between 5:15 and 6 p.m. Wednesday. The search by police, parents and neighbors began at 7:30 p.m.

"We do have three homicides," said Insp. Gary Gitchell of the West Memphis Police Department. "I won't comment on the crime scene or what we found."

Mark Byers, father of Christopher, characterized whoever killed his son as an "animal."

"I hope God shows a little mercy on his soul, because I sure wouldn't," he said.

The bodies were to be sent to Little Rock for autopsies by the state medical examiner...

...Authorities said they drained the ditch to search for additional evidence. Police were also searching a culvert where bicycle tracks and small sneaker prints were found.

The culvert, which connects to the drainage ditch, runs under Interstate 40 near a truck wash. The ditch was a few hundred yards north of where the children were last seen, and less than a half-mile from the children's homes...

...About midafternoon, anxious parents were awaiting official word as neighbors massed at the police barricade on McAuley Drive after hearing one body had been found.

Pam Hobbs, mother of Michael Moore, collapsed when authorities told her that her son's body also had been found.

"Oh Lord!" she said, collapsing to the asphalt before being raised into the arms of friends and family.

Neighbor Bo Hamrick said he and friends had helped search the area on three-wheelers since about 7 a.m. Thursday.

"It's nothing but woods, woods and trails - a few trails just wide enough to get a three-wheeler through," he said. "I thought, if we get our three-wheelers out, they'll hear us, if they're back there hiding. They always are."

Gitchell, the lead investigator, said he could not confirm whether a story from a neighbor who reported seeing two men with some children in the area was accurate.

"We've got our work cut out for us," he said, declining to say if authorities had any suspects.
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John Mark Byers voiced concerns that the Crittenden County Sheriff's Department did not join the search until Thursday morning despite his repeated requests. He was dismissed by the Crittenden County dispatcher, who said the location was not in their jurisdiction. "If they had brought them out there last night, we would have had a chance of finding those boys alive," he said before praising the all-night search effort by West Memphis Police Department officers. "They could have used some help; hell, yes, they could have used some help.” said Byers.

Pervasive fear concerning a killer on the loose plagued the West Memphis community. Parents wanted to know the whereabouts of their children down to the minute. The police department call-in line rang continuously, with concerned citizens phoning in tips and information of varying quality. Hundreds and hundreds of tips would pour into the West Memphis Police Department in the week following the murders. Police compiled detailed descriptions of potential suspects of all types: vagrants, mental patients, convicted sex offenders, oddballs, etc.

Law enforcement from all over the United States called to offer assistance. Information about similar cases flooded the West Memphis Police Department from other law enforcement agencies in the country. The murders caught the attention of the national media, and news teams from all the major television stations headed to West Memphis to follow the case.

A reward fund set up to encourage to provision of leads and tips quickly grew to $7,000 dollars. The public knew that the boys had been severely beaten on their faces and heads and that they were bound. However, the specific details of the sexual mutilation were not known to the public; the fact that only one of the boys had been mutilated was kept from the public by the West Memphis police.

Forensic specialists drove to West Memphis from the state capitol of Little Rock to help with the collection of evidence. The FBI assisted by providing a behavioral and psychological study of the killer. West Memphis police resources were reallocated, with members from the Drug Task Force reassigned to help with the investigation. A total of twelve Detectives would work to solve the murders. Gitchell gathered his team of Detectives and instructed them to go house to house in the area and interview families about the crime.

At the Mayfair Apartments, a lower rent complex adjoining Robin Hood Hills, residents repeated claims that Satan worshipping took place in the woods. “Kids with black and red hair hang out there in a cult.” one said. The apartment complex rests about two hundred yards from the murder site and close to one of the pathways leading into the woods. After a day of collecting information from residents, the police heard similar accounts of devil worship by locals. One account talked of a man in his twenties who had reddish hair and wore a pentagram. Another spoke of drug addicts who practiced “voodoo, mutilation, everything evil---don’t get much sun.“
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Another mother recounted her son telling her of “a Star of David [hexagram] crudely made out of the leg of a child’s swing set. A sign read something like “Leave Now or You Won’t Get Out.”
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The mother told of two boys that lived in the Mayfair Apartments who disappeared after the murders happened. An additional tale of satanic worship arose from another resident. She said “her husband found dead sacrificed animals in Robin Hood around this time. She stated that during nights she could smell smoke and hear chanting and strange music.”
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One neighbor frequently saw pentagrams and crosses traced in the dirt pathways in Robin Hood Hills. Another said she once saw a dead baby hanging from a tree.
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In all, the house to house interviews yielded over six independent tales of youths meeting for secret rites in Robin Hood Hills.

Police interviewed as many suspects as possible, working without breaks or much sleep. Tips of all sorts kept them busy following leads: hitchhikers, school teachers, drifters, truck drivers, sex offenders and known occultists were investigated. Many individuals were polygraphed using new equipment acquired by the West Memphis Police Department. Officers queried the National Crime Information Center, (NCIC), but only the record of Mark Byers popped up. He had been arrested the year before on cocaine and weapons charges. A cab driver told of a passenger who paid 390 dollars for the drive from Memphis to Nashville on the night of the killings. The police never found the passenger.

The Sunday following the murders, the local churches addressed the shock to the community. At the Holy Cross Episcopal Church, Rector Fred H. Tinsley, Jr. condemned the acts as “the incarnation and manifestation of evil.” He continued: “While I do believe to the very core of my being in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I freely admit to you this morning that my heart is sorely troubled. We’re not dealing with the garden-variety sin here. Anyone who would do something like this is not like you or me.”
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Listening to the sermon, the inconsolable parents of Michael Moore sat in the audience and wept.

The West Memphis police continued to hear sordid tales of cult activity. Michael Moore’s ten year old sister Dawn reported seeing cult members exiting Robin Hood Hills with blackened faces. Dennis Ingle, a fire and brimstone preacher at Lakeshore Baptist Church, knew of cult activity and forwarded his concerns to the police. On Sunday, May 9th, police met with Ingle. He told of a strange young man, Damien Echols, who frequented Lakeshore Trailer Park. He noticed that Echols had the numbers 666 written on the side of his shoes. His current girlfriend Domini Teer lived in the trailers. The police took note of the information. Remarks about cult activity by locals proliferated, and repeatedly the tales included the name Damien Echols.

On May 9th, Detectives Griffin and Sudbury drove to Lakeshore trailer park and interviewed Echols about the murders. At the time, he was not a suspect. In a one page filed report, Griffin wrote that Echols stated that he had “been in Charter of Little Rock at Maumelle (Mental Hospital) with a diagnosis of manic depression and schizophrenia. Doctors prescribed Imipramine for the condition. Griffin noted that Damien had a pentagram tattooed into his chest. Damien told the Detective that he was involved with Wicca and belonged to the group Covenant of Divine Light. He said the murders might be a “thrill kill.” Griffin took a Polaroid picture of Echols and filed the following Investigative Report.

May 9th answer sheet from interview with Damien Echols

May 9th, 1993

Sheila Stuart

Criminal Investigation Field Report

...She also stated that around Oct. of 1992 that there were several black males that were supposed to be involved in devil worshiping in the Robin Hood area. She stated that her husband found dead “sacrificed” animals in Robin Hood around this time. She stated that during the nights she could smell smoke and hear chanting & strange music coming from the area. She also say two black males come out of the area one night wearing some type of green wrap with a hood.
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The police decided to bring Damien Echols into the police station for questioning. At noon, the interview began. Detective Ridge wrote down general information about Echols: five foot eight, 175 pounds. He had several tattoos. Domini on his right arm, the letters E-V-I-L on the knuckles of his left hand. A large pentagram was tattooed on the center of his chest. All the tattoos were self-administered and the police noted that the pentagram on his chest was particularly faded. Echols wore a necklace with a pentagram pendant.

Damien Echols told the detectives he dropped out of school in the ninth grade, but had passed his General Educational Development (GED) exam. He stated to police that he was at home at the time of the murders. When asked about his cult activities, he confirmed he was part of a group that included local residents Murray Jay Ferris and Bob Loomis. Ridge wrote in his notes: