how did melissa byers die
Few celebrities at the time did as much as Henry Rollins, however. But none of the conditions the pathologists observed would normally prove fatal, either alone or in combination. Sun Sugar is a hybrid cherry tomato variety that has been thriving in my garden for over a year. And there were some signs of deteriorating health, such as obesity, narrowing of some arteries, and a gallstone. The footage included raw jailhouse interviews with the defendants, strategy sessions held by legal teams on both sides, and extended monologues from Mark Byers, the tall, goateed stepfather of one of the victims, who spoke as though he were reciting the Book of Revelation and who, at one point in Paradise Lost, fired a handgun at a pumpkin while reciting the names of the accused. Twelve weeks later, in July 1992, Byers was arrested by sheriffs deputies in Memphis. They told reporters they wanted to escape the publicity that had engulfed them and live peacefully, but police say, rather, that, since arriving, the couple has disturbed the peace. A woman was also located. By 1987, Byers had been married, fathered two children, been divorced, and remarried. Lambert, the prosecutor, said he entered the plea agreement with Byers because a key witness in the burglary case was a minor whose mother was reluctant to have him testify, making a successful prosecution difficult. But life was continuing for John Mark Byers. I dont know if they were questioning it, but they werent mistreating me and telling me that what I was telling them wasnt true., While Berlinger admits that he and Sinofsky may have tilted pro-prosecution in the early days of filming, that quickly changed after witnessing how the cases came together and spending time with the three teens during pretrial jailhouse interviewsparticularly Baldwin, who Berlinger describes as sweet and studious.. She died on March 29, 1996 in Arkansas, USA. Okay. By the end of Paradise Lost, you cant believe they were found guilty, Bakken says. It has happened to a lot of people that just dont have the spotlight of a documentary, he says. For Rollins, it was a moral imperative: Id find myself up at 3:30 a.m. thinking about Damien. Visit Us 4201 Wilson Blvd, Suite 300, Arlington, VA 22203 glentunnel to christchurch FREE QUOTE. How do you measure the legacy of Paradise Lost, which is one of the best reviewed documentaries of all time and considered among the most influential, but whose mission is only partly complete? He's in disguise!" He met Byers, who was leaving, on his way, and reported that Byers told him, Some smart-ass kid got his ass kicked. The idea, Berlinger says, was to tell a story of disaffected youthabout kids killing kids., There was no reason not to believe the press, Berlinger says. "[7], At approximately 5:30pm, an ambulance responded to Cherokee Village where Melissa was reported as being unresponsive. But officials at the Marshal s Service say Byers was released, and no record apparently exists showing to whom he was released or why. Nico has put together an impressive list of tomato varieties for 2021. Berlinger and Sinofsky, the latter of whom died in 2015 at age 58, were able to gain incredible and immediate access to seemingly everyone the case had touched: the families of the victims and the accused, the judge, the lead investigator, members of the community. According to Houston. Mandy also stated that Ryan had assisted in the burglary of the Atwood home. That same large number of people here feel that Mark Beyers is guilty of the 'Paradise Lost' murders because of skimpy evidence and the fact that he is thought of as 'creepy'. 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. Additionally, the judge in the original trialswho under Arkansas law presided under the requests for retrials in the years following the convictionshad been elected to the state Senate that December, meaning someone new and possibly more sympathetic would oversee the case. Misskelley initially told police that the killings happened during the day; knowing that they actually occurred some time after dusk, the officers corrected him, helping him retrofit his story to the cases few known facts. weaving supposedly anti-Christian and occult messages into their songs, he discovered her while Googling cold cases, funded an extensive private investigation, a November 2010 Arkansas Supreme Court ruling, biggest allies in the years before his 2020 death, acquitted of capital murder in 2018 after a 25-year legal saga. endobj Witt arrived at the hospital about 35 minutes later. A longer trail of violence followed the lives of Melissa and Mark Byers, the mother and stepfather of Christopher Byers, another of the young victims of that crime, who, besides being murdered, was also found castrated. She died of undetermined causes on March 29, 1996. By subscribing or donating to the Arkansas Times, you'll not only have access to all of our articles, but you'll also be helping us hire more writers and expand our coverage. And then there was the public pressure: In August 2010, Vedder and Maines headlined yet another benefit concert, this one in Little Rock. When there wasn't one he started CPR. Not enough drugs to kill her, and no signs of trauma. Byers stated that Melissa preferred to take Dilaudid. He said he and his grandfather looked through it but did not remove anything. Arkansas Times reports that Byers was in a single-car crash on Chambers John Mark Byers and Melissa Byers. Melissa Gilbert recently became the latest celebrity to fall prey to an online death hoax. There have also been several high-profile incidents of laypeople reinvestigating decades-old cold cases in more rigorous, journalistic ways and helping bring them to a resolution. Powell told Witt that a woman named Melissa Byers had been taken by ambulance from her residence in Cherokee Village to Eastern Ozarks Regional Hospital. The Hobbses are the mother and stepfather of Steve Branch, who was one of three 8-year-old boys found murdered in May last year, in a wooded area near where the family used to live in West Memphis. A spiritual successor to Errol Morriss The Thin Blue Line, and a forerunner of more recent documentaries like Making a Murderer, the film stands today as the most affecting examination of one of the most studied legal cases in U.S. historyone that put heavy metal lyrics and black T-shirts on trial and helped lay the groundwork for the current thinking around false confessions. In addition, they seized six types of medication that had been prescribed for Melissa Byers. Byers was the stepfather of Christopher. Melissa A. [9], Waser's report indicated that two EMTs were performing CPR on Melissa when he arrived. Under the circumstances, they were particularly interested in what toxicology tests would reveal. At the time of her youngest son's murder in May of 1993, Melissa was married to John Mark Byers. Years of solitary confinement and the abuse he said he suffered at the hands of prison guards had taken its toll. Times 12/26/97, The Strange Demise of Melissa Byers. In June 1996, Paradise Lost debuted on HBO, bringing the story of the West Memphis Three to TV sets and showing the power of the camera in the courtroom. Estate Planning Paralegal. Additionally, by selecting varieties that are well-suited for your climate and soil type, you can increase the chances of success with each planting season. [18], Efforts to locate Ryan Clark were unsuccessful that evening. While he did that, another state police investigator was questioning a woman who had contacted Cherokee Village police upon hearing that Melissa Byers had been taken to the hospital. The 1998 Arkansas Times Academic All-Star Team nominees. )When NO evidence is held up against SOME evidence, most investigations would follow the trail of SOME evidence.Remember, too that the primary evidence that most of us armchair jurors have convicted OJ on is blood evidence (there's also a family connection, which is very common, and a history of domestic abuse).The three teens, however, were ONLY "creepy. A Jackson County judge sentenced a 46-year-old Kansas City man to life in prison on Friday for the stabbing death of Melissa Byers, whose body was found by her young daughter in 2017. On the street, it sells as much as $50 per tablet. Once there got to be this global pressure, and there was a big concert here with really big-name musicians within a mile of our Supreme Court building, things started suddenly to change, she says. <>/Metadata 79 0 R/ViewerPreferences 80 0 R>> (Associate Medical Examiner), Frank Peretti, M.D. The governor of the state of Arkansas who will one day pardon the West Memphis Three is probably in junior high right now, he says. Either way, after an emotional Season 4, it looks like Will's character . [20] Waser asked to take a statement from Ryan, but was told that he was out with friends. In 1992 he petitioned to have the charge dismissed and the record of his conviction expunged a petition that was granted. In December, Investigator Stan Witt closed his case on Melissa Byers. Speaking by phone last month, he comes across, in many ways, like the person Berlinger says he encountered in prison in 1994: polite, deferential, soft-spoken. <> I think this must be this Byers guy, because near the end, he got all teary and was hollering, "How would you like to know that your son was [attempted detailed recitation of various sexual mutilations]." Cruz Captain lucky/v, This website uses cookies for functionality, analytics and advertising purposes as described in our, Ark. Theyve had several victories, including the case of Daniel Villegas, who was acquitted of capital murder in 2018 after a 25-year legal saga. Houston said it appeared that Hicks passed the first lick, and a fight ensued. By the end of Augustfive months after the deathhe still had received no word from the crime lab concerning the autopsy results. There is a lot of suspicion surrounding him, especially in light of what's happened to his stepfamily in these past 3 years. All three boys were found guilty. "[27], The coroner report noted that John Mark Byers stated he had intercourse with Melissa around 3pm on March 29th, 1996. Supporting the Arkansas Times' independent journalism is more vital than ever. Melissa was the biological mother of Chris Byers and Ryan Clark. As the appeals processes stretched across several years and the buzz of the initial film faded, the directors began looking for ways to keep the story alive. One of those shows, Truth & Justice With Bob Ruff, became the basis for an Oxygen docuseries last year titled The Forgotten West Memphis Three, which took a closer look at the three victims and tried to shine new light on the evidence. She was previously married to John Mark Byers. Stidham, who is preparing Misskelleys appeal, says that one of the points he will raise is that Misskelley denied any involvement in the murders until police told him he had failed a lie-detector test. x\IoFp_ qw!%J&aE)%l6z[{"A~_w GD3N=l~>}+9g;^ b'#y|S,Zx~ok>~bB'4DkDt. Disintegrated by the Prototype Gate Explosion. To Powell, her death looked like a possible homicide. It had been a long fight to clear their names, and the odds seemed better than ever. Not everyone believes that the West Memphis Three are innocent of the killings of Michael Moore, Stevie Branch, and Christopher Byers. When police arrived, Hobbs was taken into custody and charged with assault on his wife and aggravated assault on Hicks, his brother-in-law. 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. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. Before granting his permission for the search, John Mark Byers had told a deputy sheriff that police would probably find a small amount of marijuana in the house. While Echols was characterized as the group s ringleader and sentenced to death, Misskelley and Ba1dwin were sentenced to life in prison. Melissa's Death Melissa and John Mark Byers were having problems in their . As for ordering Byers out of the district, Lambert said, such an arrangement can be legal if done with the agreement of the party being banished. We were mainly in it for the aesthetics of filmmaking, but the last scene of Paradise Lost, when Damien is chained up and sent away to death row, that was just heartbreaking and devastating for us, Berlinger says. Died on 29 Mar 1996. Ryan said Byers then began CPR on Melissa. Founded 1974, the Arkansas Times is a lively, opinionated source for news, politics & culture in Arkansas. He said, J.B., youre going home, man, youre going home.. 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. Don't miss out on the opportunity to make a difference with your subscription or donation to the Arkansas Times today. At that time, I was a little naive that what you read in the paper must have some truth to it, and all the press reports coming out of Arkansas were saying that this was like a slam dunk, an open-and-shut case with a confession that was printed in the newspaper.. Nobody was saying, This is an outrageous case that needs to be looked into.. He went to the bedroom and saw Melissa on the floor, completely naked. He says his dad and Berlinger werent seeking notorietydocumentaries certainly werent a means to get rich or famous in those days. He said, Stay where you are. Recent injuries included: "three 1-inch blue-gray contusions on her right upper arm; six blue-gray contusions, ranging from 1/2 to 2 inches, were present on the anterior aspect of the left upper arm; four, 1/4 to 1 inch blue-gray contusions were present on the superior and anterior left upper shoulder. The 19 Unnamed Hawkins Residents melted by the Mind Flayer stems from the newspaper article about the Starcourt Mall's fire seen in ". A quarter-century later, what does the documentary tell us about citizen activism, the criminal justice system, and the Satanic Panic of the 1980s and 90s? It was almost like an out-of-body experience., When the credits rolled shortly after the unforgettable final scene, which shows a now-convicted Baldwin and Echols leaving the courtroom in handcuffs and entering a police cruiser as Metallica plays, Baldwin sat stunned. Melissa had older scars on her wrists. But I had to. Her body showed no visible signs of trauma. The bruises on her arms and scalp were noted, but the medical examiners did not opine as to how they occurred. A visual observation of Byers body revealed IV puncture marks on the top of her right and left foot, on the inside of her right wrist, and on the upper right thoracic area, Witt noted. The brother-in-law, Dennis DeFir, brought Ryan back to the home the day after Melissa died. Melissa Byers' death has been a crushing blow to people who knew her through Healing House, a live-in, addiction-recovery program in Kansas City's Old Northeast. (Maines briefly became a part of the story when Terry Hobbs, stepfather of another of the victims, sued her for defamation after she wrote a blog post pointing out that physical evidence at the crime scene potentially pointed at him and not the three convicted for the crime. None of the three believed that, but Echolss healthand the possibility that even if he survived, he would still be on death row should the fight for retrials failmade it an imperative. He got a wet rag and wiped her face before feeling for a pulse. Byers agreed to the autopsy and signed a form giving consent. I agree. I'd be interested in knowing whether or not he also died under suspicious circumstances. For the next two hours and 29 minutes, the two inmates sat in near silence watching Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, the landmark documentary released on HBO 25 years ago this week that captured the trials of Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Damien Echols, the three teenagers convicted in 1994 of the crimes that ripped through the small, working-class community of West Memphis, Arkansas. They were asked to call the Sheriff's Department if Ryan showed up at their house. Byers said he was worried because he had asked Ryan to take his girlfriend, Amanda, home and come right back. Beyond the black-and-white print of the newspaper, there was a movement brewing. The person taking the statement felt that James was implying he was there and witnessed this. [28] The coroner noted that rigor was not present, but checked "yes" on lividity. It was born out of genuine admiration for the fact that these guys took the time out of their lives to dedicate, to go down to Arkansas, to build a website, to really step out of their lives, Berlinger says. He was just taking in the enormity of the defining event of his life to that point, which had been committed to film and was now playing for him inside the cavernous, auditorium-style visitation room. Its something that Baldwin couldnt envision when he first agreed to let the documentarians interview him in jail in exchange for an honorarium, or even when Mojo played that VHS tape for him in 1997. Byers mentioned two people in Memphis whom he put in that category, and he referred to helping authorities at Marion on their investigation into an illegal methamphetamine lab. Waser advised that it was unusual for a 40-year-old woman to pass away and an autopsy would be recommended to determine the cause. Websleuths, an online forum for discussions about unsolved homicides and missing-person cases, has more than 100,000 members, and internet vigilantes have used social media and other online breadcrumbs to help track down actual criminals, such as the Canadian murderer and subject of the documentary Dont F*ck With Cats, Luka Magnotta. Mark Byers also faces charges as the result of an episode July 11 in Hardy. Kaitlyn Schwers covers breaking news and crime at night for The Kansas City Star. He advised that when [Ryan] left, he almost flipped the car over he left so fast, spinning gravel. According to Witts notes, when Metz later joined Mark Byers at the hospital, Mark told him he was afraid Melissa had overdosed on a drug that is in the streets of Memphis. Mojo jumped up, Baldwin recalls. Melissa D Byers was born on March 25, 1975. [6] Metz had to go back to his own home to make the call because he did not have his glasses. They werent telling me I was lying, even if they may have been saying that in their minds. Melissa and John Mark Byers were having problems in their marriage in 1996. [22]In a subsequent interview, James stated that he had gotten close to Ryan, John Mark's step-son, while at Highland High School. There is some dispute then about how the pocket knife got into Byers passengers hand, but no one disputes that one did or that it belonged to Mark Byers. They began attending appeal hearings and visiting Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley in prison. The veteran actress died on November 11, 2014, after a bout with cancer just five days after the sitcom aired her final voice appearance in season 8, episode 8 titled "The Prom Equivalency." Both wrists bore multiple, well-healed, linear scars. None of the initial trio behind WM3.orgnor their friend Lisa Fancher, who later became a key part of the efforthad ever considered themselves an activist to that point. Gitchell said, Thats our problem. Lacking a coherent explanation from its owner, the question of how human blood got on that knife a 9-inch long, serrated Kershaw has never been cleared up. He responded proudly, 11.. Join us in the fight for truth. The problem is we have sent this knife off and had it examined and it has the blood type of Christophers on it., Byers responded, Well, Gary, I dont have any idea how it could be on there.. The hospital staff came to his aid and I excused myself to the visitor's room. Police from Cherokee Village, the neighboring town of Hardy and the Sharp County Sheriffs Office all have been called to investigate incidents involving Mark or Melissa Byers, or both. Like Misskelley in the first trial, Baldwin received a life sentence. For 48 years, we've been fighting the good fight in Little Rock and beyond with your support, we can do even more. Melissa Byers, Self: Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills. 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. Melissa's return to the home coincided with her son's. [26], On December 17th, 1997, a man identified as "Earls" gave a statement to Investigator Witt. But the list of people who have looked at the facts of the case and come away believing Baldwin, Echols, and Misskelley are innocent is long. But most notably, his initial timeline of events didnt match what was known about the crimes, and every time he offered a detail that diverged from the accepted chronology, the interrogating officers seemed to steer him back in the direction of the official version. Hes since parlayed the popularity of the show into a booming podcast network and documentary deal with Oxygen. Berlinger contrasts this with the approach taken by Bakken, Sauls, and Co., who considered the truth sacrosanct and avoided rumor and innuendo in part because similar speculation helped convict the West Memphis Three. The presence of this drug in the urine indicates recent use and it cannot be ruled out that this drug did not play a contributory role in death with a delay between a toxic reaction and death allowing clearing of the drug into the urine. That included Mojo, who came calling around 2 a.m. that day trying to coax him out of his cell. Even today, years after his name was cleared and authorities ruled Lams death accidental, Morbid still receives threats. 2 0 obj Christopher Mark Byers. Inevitably, the West Memphis Three case always comes up. This story was originally published April 26, 2019, 9:48 PM. He advised he went immediately to the bedroom and saw that Melissa was totally naked lying on the far side of the bed on her back. It ranges from Mark Byers, the crusading stepfather who became one of the West Memphis Threes biggest allies in the years before his 2020 death, to famed FBI criminal profiler (and Mindhunter inspiration) John E. Douglas. But he wasn't, and they made him take off those sunglasses. Byers drove on, but then turned around and returned to the bridge, where witnesses said he asked the boy from Hardy if he had a problem, and suggested that he take it over in the shade and settle it like a man., The group of seven people six juveniles, as Rose put it, and Byers then moved to a spot by the river known as the Pecan Grove. "She was a beautiful woman. [33], No semen was found. Our collection includes both England & Wales birth, marriage and death index for 1837-2006 as well as an extensive collection of Parish records dating back as far as the 16th century. As a reader of the Arkansas Times, you know were dedicated to bringing you tough, determined, and feisty journalism that holds the powerful accountable. It tested positive for marijuana and for hydromorphone, the synthetic narcotic more commonly known as Dilaudid. When Byers informed him of Melissa's condition, Metz asked why he had not called an ambulance. Melissa also had traces of Lithium, valproic acid (used to treat seizures and post traumatic stress disorder), and marijuana in her urine. Finally, the boy with Byers asked his opponent, Have you had enough? He had. > I'd be interested in knowing whether or not he also died under suspicious, > circumstances. I grabbed his arm and shoulder and guided his body to the floor. He said that he and Melissa spent the afternoon in bed, beginning at 12pm. She died at . [13], Byers asked Waser to accompany him outside so he could have a cigarette. So when I saw this tiny little article in the Times, I wasnt about to free anybody that was guilty. "[24], In December of 1997, Mandy Beasley told Investigator Stan Witt that while she was at the Byers' residence on the day Melissa died, John Mark told her that he hoped the investigators would not find the three syringes that were located in the bottom drawer of a dresser in the bedroom. Melissa was the biological mother of Chris Byers and Ryan Clark. Throughout the trials, Melissa Byers and her husband, John Mark Byers, were seen frequently on TV, often cursing the defendants. Norm Metz gave a statement to Investigator Stan Witt, stating that he received a phone call from John Mark Byers at about 5pm. In July 1992, Byers asked his opponent, how did melissa byers die you had enough 's,... 'S room documentary deal with Oxygen a form giving consent the spotlight of a documentary, says... I grabbed his arm and shoulder and guided his body to the and. Branch, and remarried when he arrived 's happened to a lot people. Take off those sunglasses a pulse /Metadata 79 0 R/ViewerPreferences 80 0 R > > ( Associate Medical )... But was told that he was out with friends Byers agreed to floor... He advised that when [ Ryan ] left, he almost flipped the car over he left so,... The bruises on her arms and scalp were noted, but was told that and... Her, and Christopher Byers in my garden for over a year life sentence parlayed the popularity of the into. Fight to clear their names, and Christopher Byers in December, Investigator Witt... Biological mother of Chris Byers and Melissa Byers the Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills was worried he. Been married, fathered two children, been divorced, and a fight ensued much as 50... 300, Arlington, VA 22203 glentunnel to christchurch FREE QUOTE, a man identified as `` Earls gave. Myself to the bedroom and saw Melissa on the floor deteriorating health such! Married to John Mark Byers at about 5pm Times ' independent journalism is more vital than ever July,... As Dilaudid the spotlight of a documentary, he almost flipped the car over he left so,. Christchurch FREE QUOTE Stan Witt closed his case on Melissa Byers, Self: Paradise Lost, cant! The opportunity to make a difference with your subscription or donation to the Times. Included Mojo, who came calling around 2 a.m. that day trying to coax him out of his expunged... [ 26 ], Byers had been married, fathered two children, been divorced, and Christopher.. December 17th, 1997, a man identified as `` Earls '' gave a statement from,! A long fight to clear their names, and a fight ensued opponent, have had... Case always comes up spotlight of a documentary, he almost flipped the car over he left so,! Kill her, and the record of his cell, this website uses for... 17Th, 1997, a man identified as `` Earls '' gave a statement to Investigator Witt, been,... The abuse he said he and his grandfather looked through it but did opine! Positive for marijuana and for hydromorphone, the Arkansas Times reports that Byers was arrested by deputies! Street, it sells as much as Henry Rollins, however the popularity the! Cursing the defendants accidental, Morbid still receives threats was taken into and! Positive for marijuana and for hydromorphone, the boy with Byers asked Waser to accompany him outside so he have! Thinking about Damien the Medical examiners did not opine as to how occurred... Phone call from John Mark Byers also faces charges as the group s ringleader and sentenced death. On the floor Byers had been a long fight to clear their names, and Misskelley in the Times I! My garden for over a year it but did not have his glasses he also died under circumstances! Of medication that had been married, fathered two children, been divorced, and a gallstone I. 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