THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
SLAIN BOY'S DAD FEARS W. MEMPHIS CULTISTS KNEW OF PLAN TO KILL
Date: Thursday, June 10, 1993
Source: By Batholomew Sullivan
Page: B1
WEST MEMPHIS-
The father of one of three 8-year-olds slain last month said Wednesday that members of a Satanic cult with knowledge of the killings may be free in their community.
Mark Byers, 36, based his fears on reports that his friends have been followed since the arrests of three teenage suspects and on his belief that others may have seen the three defendants "all bloody and muddy and wet" after the murders and did not respond to a reward.
"My wife and I are scared," Byers said. "The devil is at work, and recently Satan and his demons have been at work in West Memphis."
Byers recalled a day several weeks before the slayings when his son Christopher told him that someone in dark clothing took the boy's picture in front of his home. The photographer drove off in what his son described as a green car, Byers said.
Byers and his wife, Melissa, originally dismissed the incident, believing that a representative of their mortgage company was checking up on the house. But after reading Monday that a defendant in the case said cult members passed around pictures of the boys in cult meetings, he recalled the incident.
"There was a group of pictures of all three of them," defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 17, told West Memphis police investigators on June 3, according to a transcript of the question-and-answer session. In that session, Misskelley described cult activities, including killing and eating dogs, in graphic detail.
Hours after the session, Misskelley, Michael Wayne Echols, 18, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, were charged with capital murder in the deaths of Christopher Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore.
Lawyers for the three defendants said their clients plan to plead not guilty to the charges.
Misskelley told police he subdued one of the boys who tried to escape and watched as Echols and Baldwin choked their victims into unconsciousness, then sexually mutilated one and sodomized another.
Byers said police have not revealed evidence they've gathered to the Byers family. He said he's concerned that, if there were more than three cult members passing around photographs of the victims, "there's other people who knew that these three little boys were going to be sacrificed."
Byers declined comment on whether he believes there are other suspects in the case. West Memphis police Insp. Gary Gitchell told reporters Friday that he did not expect any more arrests to be made in the case.
Byers said he intends to be careful not to disclose information that "would jeopardize the case and help these animals get less than they deserve."
SLAIN BOY'S DAD FEARS W. MEMPHIS CULTISTS KNEW OF PLAN TO KILL
Date: Thursday, June 10, 1993
Source: By Batholomew Sullivan
Page: B1
WEST MEMPHIS-
The father of one of three 8-year-olds slain last month said Wednesday that members of a Satanic cult with knowledge of the killings may be free in their community.
Mark Byers, 36, based his fears on reports that his friends have been followed since the arrests of three teenage suspects and on his belief that others may have seen the three defendants "all bloody and muddy and wet" after the murders and did not respond to a reward.
"My wife and I are scared," Byers said. "The devil is at work, and recently Satan and his demons have been at work in West Memphis."
Byers recalled a day several weeks before the slayings when his son Christopher told him that someone in dark clothing took the boy's picture in front of his home. The photographer drove off in what his son described as a green car, Byers said.
Byers and his wife, Melissa, originally dismissed the incident, believing that a representative of their mortgage company was checking up on the house. But after reading Monday that a defendant in the case said cult members passed around pictures of the boys in cult meetings, he recalled the incident.
"There was a group of pictures of all three of them," defendant Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 17, told West Memphis police investigators on June 3, according to a transcript of the question-and-answer session. In that session, Misskelley described cult activities, including killing and eating dogs, in graphic detail.
Hours after the session, Misskelley, Michael Wayne Echols, 18, and Charles Jason Baldwin, 16, were charged with capital murder in the deaths of Christopher Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore.
Lawyers for the three defendants said their clients plan to plead not guilty to the charges.
Misskelley told police he subdued one of the boys who tried to escape and watched as Echols and Baldwin choked their victims into unconsciousness, then sexually mutilated one and sodomized another.
Byers said police have not revealed evidence they've gathered to the Byers family. He said he's concerned that, if there were more than three cult members passing around photographs of the victims, "there's other people who knew that these three little boys were going to be sacrificed."
Byers declined comment on whether he believes there are other suspects in the case. West Memphis police Insp. Gary Gitchell told reporters Friday that he did not expect any more arrests to be made in the case.
Byers said he intends to be careful not to disclose information that "would jeopardize the case and help these animals get less than they deserve."
