This article is 1993 THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
LAWMEN SORT CLUES IN DEATHS OF 3 BOYS
Date: Saturday, May 15, 1993
Section: Metro
Page: B1
Source: By Rob Johnson The Commercial Appeal
Edition: Final
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.
