This article is 1993 THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
TENT PROTECTS W. MEMPHIS CRIME SCENE IN CLUE HUNT
Date: Friday, May 14, 1993
Section: Metro
Page: B1
Source: By Rob Johnson The Commercial Appeal
Edition: Final
Investigators enclosed the site of the murder of three 8-year-old boys in a 15-foot-square canvas tent from a local funeral home Thursday as technicians
from the Arkansas State Crime Lab toted tripods and equipment into the woods.
Police wouldn't say what authorities were doing at the crime scene. But it was clear that a week after West Memphis police found the bodies of the boys near the Ten Mile Bayou, investigators were still trying to unearth clues from the soggy ground behind an Interstate 40 truck wash.
Detectives say they're interviewing "potential suspects" and chasing down leads. But the scene itself still holds promise of revealing who killed the three young friends, Inspector Gary Gitchell said Thursday.
A week ago, Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers were found murdered a day after they were reported missing. They had suffered blows to the head, and their hands and feet were bound.
"I don't know what's going on inside there," said Harrison Robinson, an employee of Roller-Citizens Funeral Home, who was at the site. "I'm just here to put up a tent." But he said he's glad to help out with a case that troubles him deeply, just as it does the rest of West Memphis.
"I'm hurt, and I'm confused," he said. "My son is the same age, and he knew them, too."
Gitchell said detectives interviewed people steadily Thursday. "They're potential suspects, yeah," he said. "But I want to say that they have been very cooperative." He added that police weren't close to an arrest. "As far as having a suspect soon, I don't know."
This week, detectives have marched neighbors, including children, into the woods where the crime scene is. Gitchell won't say what his detectives are showing them - or asking them. He refused to identify those who have been escorted behind the yellow crime-scene tape.
At the Blue Beacon Truck Wash, where police and reporters have been parking on the grass for a week now, manager Scott Kelin says his staff probably would have noticed any suspicious activity on his back lot. The two-bay truck wash is open 24 hours a day.
He said police have talked to him and his employees several times about what they may have witnessed last week.
A few weeks ago, a transient had pitched a tent nearby, Kelin said, but he was told to move on.
While Gitchell says that he won't rule out any possible suspects - including interstate travelers - he has said that the investigation has focused primarily on those in West Memphis.
THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
TENT PROTECTS W. MEMPHIS CRIME SCENE IN CLUE HUNT
Date: Friday, May 14, 1993
Section: Metro
Page: B1
Source: By Rob Johnson The Commercial Appeal
Edition: Final
Investigators enclosed the site of the murder of three 8-year-old boys in a 15-foot-square canvas tent from a local funeral home Thursday as technicians
from the Arkansas State Crime Lab toted tripods and equipment into the woods.
Police wouldn't say what authorities were doing at the crime scene. But it was clear that a week after West Memphis police found the bodies of the boys near the Ten Mile Bayou, investigators were still trying to unearth clues from the soggy ground behind an Interstate 40 truck wash.
Detectives say they're interviewing "potential suspects" and chasing down leads. But the scene itself still holds promise of revealing who killed the three young friends, Inspector Gary Gitchell said Thursday.
A week ago, Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers were found murdered a day after they were reported missing. They had suffered blows to the head, and their hands and feet were bound.
"I don't know what's going on inside there," said Harrison Robinson, an employee of Roller-Citizens Funeral Home, who was at the site. "I'm just here to put up a tent." But he said he's glad to help out with a case that troubles him deeply, just as it does the rest of West Memphis.
"I'm hurt, and I'm confused," he said. "My son is the same age, and he knew them, too."
Gitchell said detectives interviewed people steadily Thursday. "They're potential suspects, yeah," he said. "But I want to say that they have been very cooperative." He added that police weren't close to an arrest. "As far as having a suspect soon, I don't know."
This week, detectives have marched neighbors, including children, into the woods where the crime scene is. Gitchell won't say what his detectives are showing them - or asking them. He refused to identify those who have been escorted behind the yellow crime-scene tape.
At the Blue Beacon Truck Wash, where police and reporters have been parking on the grass for a week now, manager Scott Kelin says his staff probably would have noticed any suspicious activity on his back lot. The two-bay truck wash is open 24 hours a day.
He said police have talked to him and his employees several times about what they may have witnessed last week.
A few weeks ago, a transient had pitched a tent nearby, Kelin said, but he was told to move on.
While Gitchell says that he won't rule out any possible suspects - including interstate travelers - he has said that the investigation has focused primarily on those in West Memphis.
