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Features of the area of the crime scene.(L) Photo lookingnorthwest. (R) Police drawing.
The photos and text presentedbelow are intended to illustrate the discovery site and the surroundinggeography.
Thewhite x's designate where the victims were found.
Whodunnit, part one. The Discovery Site.Background
The victims were discovered between 1:30 and 3:00 pmon May 6th, 1993 in a parcel of woods about the size of a joggingtrack. The discovery site was isolated but not remote. The woods werebordered on the south by a bayou channel. The only nearby means tocross this barrier was to balance across a thick pipe bracketed on eachside by I-beams. On the north end of the woods was the interstate. Onthe east side was a meadow. On the northwest side was the Blue BeaconTruck Wash, an all night establishment. The southwest border extendedbelow the Blue Beacon lot, past a line of trees to a small pond.Further to the west was the parking lot of a 24 hour trucking stop.Just beyond that was Catfish Island, the workplace of Branch's mother.
Detective Mike Allen first enteringthe creek before the discovery of the victims.
(L)He is leaning over from thewest bank against the crooked tree and then (R) he enters the water.
The victims were found in a small creek that rannorth to south. The water was described as "two to two and a half feetdeep" [Bryn Ridge, Oct. 19, 1993 pre-trial hearing] and the creek wasmeasured as four feet two inches across at both sites where the victimswere found [Lt. Hester, crime scene notes, May 6, 1993].
The creek bisected the length of woods. In order tocross the woods eastwards or westwards, the creek had to be traversed.Crossing could be difficult. Lt. Mike Allen, when trying to initiallycross the creek, fell in. In certain sections, the creek was borderedby steep slopes.
(L) Looking east. The area whereMichael Moore wasplaced. This is the east bank of the creek viewed from a bluff on thewest bank.
Hisbody was recovered in the waterat the bottom center of the photo. The corpse of Moore is blottedout.
(R) Looking northeast. The above photodrawing back with the photographermoving and panning to theright.
Thecrooked tree isat theright edge of the photo. From crime scene video.
Thevictims were found in two groupings. Moore wasalone 27 feet north of Branch who was five feet from Byers. A steepbluff describedas 11 feet tall on the west bank overlooked where Moore was found.Diagrams show two paths from the area where Moore was found heading inthe direction of the meadow. Most of the victims clothes werefound near Moore, although five socks and two pairs of underwear werenot recovered.
(L) Looking southeast. The crookedtreeis now near the left hand margin. The three trees are on the west bank,
justnorth of where Branch and Byerswere found. Arrow indicates the east bank is also steep;
youcan not walk along the riverbank at this section.
(R)Looking south. Lt. Mike Allen. Now thethree trees are in the center of the picture and the bodies of thevictims,
Byers and Branch, areblotted out at the extreme right.From crimescene video.
Branch was found nearby Byers. Three paths convergedon this site from the west. Heading southwest, a path went to the areaof the pipe that crossed the bayou. Heading west, a path went to thesoutheastern corner of a lot of land nearby a retaining pond. The thirdpath headed to southeastern corner of the Blue Beacon lot. A pronouncedslope on the east bankbracketed the portion of the river whereByers and Branch were found.
Looking southeast. In this vantagepoint, the crooked tree is to the extreme left, the three trees
arecenter left (although oneobscures another). This photo emphasizes the hill on the east bank
ofthe creek overlooking where Branchand Byers were found. From crime scene video.
The bicycles were recovered from the bayou diversionchannel by johnboat and grappling hook. They were near the pipe thatcrossed the bayou. To the north of the pipe was a broad flat groundcovered by weeds. These weeds were said to "vary in height fromwaist and chest high to some of it would be over your head." [Ridgetestimony, Echols/Baldwin trial] At thesouthern border of the Blue Beacon lot there is a steep rise of aboutsix feet referred to as Turtle Hill. On top of Turtle Hill was a lineof trees obscuring the view between the Blue Beacon lot and the MayfairApartment complex south of the bayou.
The recovery of thebicycles, the bayou channel, looking south. The bayou channel was about30 feet wide.
Det. Shane Griffinand twomembers of Search and Rescue. From crime scene video.
What the discovery site saysabout the murders.
Simply put, thediscovery site was where the murders took place or else it wasn't. Ineither case,the local geography and placement of the victims address severalquestions.
- If the murders took place in thewoods, in what part?
- If the murders took placeelsewhere, why relocate the bodies of the victims to the woods?
- Why were the bodies in twogroupings?
- Why were the bicycles placed inthe bayou near the pipe?
Schematic of thecrime scene showingneighboring features.
The Woods as the Murder Site
The prosecution presented the east bank of the creekas being themurder site. This is the area that is brought up intheMisskelley confession, when Ridge described Misskelley observing theassault on the "Memphis" side of the creek. "...that's the eastside, Memphisside is the east side and you were standing at the top of the bank onthe west side..." [Ridge, Misskelley confession, June 3, 1993]
Thisportion of the east bankwas described as being uniquely "slicked down,"free of leaves and detritus expected to be found on the floor of thewoods. As Prosecutor Foglemandeclared in his openingstatement:Inthis area, the proof 's going to show that right in the area whereMichael Moore was, there's an area that uh.. it didn't look like any ofthe other surrounding area, uh, there were uh, no leaves on thisparticular part of the bank, uh, there were uh, had a shining qualityto it, it had been, it appeared to have been, the proofs going to showhad been, uh, slicked off, or like scuff marks, unnatural marks to thearea, where as the area right beside it had leaves on it, and didn'thave that appearance.There's no blood.No blood. [JohnFogleman, Echols/Baldwin trial]
Detective Ridge suggested the crime scene wascleaned by hand.
Defenseattorney Robin Wadley: Scuff marks - you mean "slicked off," is thatwhat you're saying?
Ridge: That's a term that could beused, yes sir.
Wadley: Describe the scuff marks.
Ridge: Looks as though somebody mayhave taken their hand and rubbed the bank. [Ridge testimony,Echols/Baldwin trial]
The argumentssupporting the woods as the murdersite:
- Misskelley said so.
- The victims were last seenheaded in this general direction.
- The bicycles were found nearbyin a place consistent with the victims having entered the area from theadjoining neighborhood.
- The woods were not remote enoughto be a safe disposal site.
- Transporting the bodies therewould risk being seen.
- The Blue Beacon was an allnight establishment.
- Transporting the bodies wouldhave required a vehicle which would have left marks near the entrypointsto the woods.
- Although not remote, the woodswere isolated, screening actions from witnesses.
- Sounds of struggle or screamingcould have been muffled by the terrain.
- Or drowned out by theinterstate traffic or by the normal operation of the truck wash forthoseat that establishment.
- Two of the victims weredetermined to have drowned and they were found underwater.
As for the crime, he describes Echols andBaldwin in the water taking turns dipping under. He says they calledthe children over.
Ridge:Okay, so they [Echols and Baldwin] were just messing around in thewater. They called forthese boys to come over there?
Misskelley: Yeah, they, they seen themboys and then they hollered, Damien hollered, said, hey, and the littleboys come up there. [Misskelley, June 3, 1993]
and, earlier, he connects this to where the bicycleswere placed.
Misskelley:They, they laid their bikes down when they come out to the, I mean,when they hollered for them to come... [ibid]
The sectionofthe bayou where the bikes were found was not within in view of the partof the creek wherethe victims were discovered. As for howthe crime played out,Misskelley said,
Misskelley:When I was there, I saw Damien hit this one, hit this one boy real bad,and then uh, and then he started screwing them and stuff and then uh,
[Misskelley identifies whom Damien hitas Moore or else Byers, then...]
Ridge: What did he hit him with?
Misskelley: He hit him with his fistand bruised him all up real bad, and then um Jason turned around andhit Steve Branch
Ridge: Okay
Misskelley: And started doing the samething, then the other one took off, Michael uh Moore took off running,so I chased him and grabbed him and held him, til they got there andthen I left. [ibid]
This could be interpreted as guilty knowledge withMisskelley explaining why Moore was separate from the other two. Inanother iteration Misskelley brought Moore back. Theprosecution specified a single site as the murder scene, thebankabove where Moore was found.
Transporting the bodies/vehicle tracks.In hisclosing argument, the prosecution took pains to eliminate each of thepotential means of the bodies being transported to the crime scene.
Fogleman:Now also, they've tried to suggest that somehow this happened somewhereelse. Well, as the testimony indicated--first you got interstate, thisBlue Beacon Truck Wash, wheat field over here, and then this bayouhere--the only way across the bayou is that pipe. Now, imagine if youwill, this happening somewhere else. And somebody carrying threeeight-year-old boys across this pipe, and then taking them in here andleaving them. Or imagine--even still, this well-lit Blue Beacon TruckWash, them bringing these boys in here--who disappeared, were last seenbetween six and six-thirty--bringing them in here, through here. Or,coming from the wheat field. But officers walked that, remember theywalked that field. They didn't go the whole field, but over on the edgeof the woods, they did their arms length thing, where they walked fromthe ditch to the interstate. No tracks, no vehicle tracks. [Closingarguments, Echols/Baldwin trial]
If the woods werethe murder site, several conclusions can be drawn.
Contrary to whatthe prosecution presented, the murders tookplace at two sites. The victims were placed in two groupings,Michael Moore in the creek alongsidea level area on the east bankand Stevie Branch and Chris Byers in the creek alongside a level areaon the west bank. At each site, the other side of the creek wasbordered by a steep slope. The connection between the two sites waseither by trudging through the water down the creek or else by crossingat the site of the crooked tree. This means that if the victims werekilled on the east bank the murderer would had to have transportedBranch and Byers across the creek to the site where they werediscovered. This would have been difficult and pointless. A similarlyarduous and unnecessary journey in the opposite direction would havebeen required to dispose of Moore's body and the clothes if the flatarea on the west bank was the murder site.A much simplerexplanation would be that Branch and Byers were murdered near wherethey were found and Moore was murdered near where he was found.
A close-up of the discovery area. Thegray dashed lines are trails.
c =Chris Byers. m = Michael Moore. s= Stevie Branch.
ttt= three trees growing together.ct = crooked tree. lt = large tree.
Thedark green semicircles represent flat areas along the river bank.
The hatched lines indicate asteep bluff near where Moore was found
anda steep slope near where Branchand Byers were found.
Thepurple triangle represents thecrossing point between the two banks.
Thebicycles were tossed in the bayou because this is near where they wereleft. They were placed there as being the most convenient placeto hide them.
The bicycles, the victims and their clothes wereplaced underwater to either eliminate trace evidence such asfingerprints or to delay their discovery or for both reasons. Delayingthe discovery can obscure the time of the murders or provide anopportunity for the perpetrator to escape. Such actionsindicateanawareness and understanding of forensic procedures.
Last seen (as presented incourt)compared to discovery site.
The bayou and a quarter mile separates thetwo places.
The Woods as a Relocation Site. Thearguments supporting the woods as a site where the bodies wererelocated:
- There were no visible signs ofstruggle at the discovery scene.
- No blood, even though onevictim was determined to have bled to death.
- A single hair was recoveredfrom a nearby tree trunk but no other trace biological evidence.
- Five socks and two pairs ofunderwear were not recovered.
- This suggests the clothes werehastily gathered to be brought to the disposal scene.
- Although last seen heading inthis general direction this sighting was a quarter mile away and onthe other side of the bayou.
- The victims would have likelyhave had to cross the pipe with their bicycles.
- Chris Byers was described byhisbrother as being afraid to cross the pipe.
- No witnesses from the nearbybusinessesreported seeing the victims or hearing theassault.
- Although mosquitos don't biteafter death, the victims had no bite marks from before death.
- The perpetrator(s) would alsohave to fend off mosquitos.
- Disposing of the victims andclothing after dark would be an easier task than committing the murdersand cleaning the crime scene after dark.
- Trails lead from outside thewoods directly to where the victims were found.
- A vehicle was noted by theBlue Beacon employees in the back of their lot.
- A vehicle can be seen in thecrime scene video even though the police testified there were no tracksin the meadow.
- Although two of the victims haddrowned, lung water samples were not used to determine what type ofwater.
- The clothes were removed whilethe victims were alive but were found near victim Michael Moore.
- Secondary lividity.
Crossing the pipe."Ryan said Chris was affraid to go accross the pipe. Ryan statedthat about a month ago that him & Chris went fishingnear the Pipe & Chris wouldn't Go accross the Pipe at the BayouDitch." [Ryan Clark interview, Mike Allen notes, undated]
Mosquitos.Officer Meek testified, "I stopped looking in the wooded area [thatnight] because the mosquitos were so bad in the wooded area that youwere breathing them." [Meek testimony, Echols/Baldwin trial] Theprimary feeding time for mosquitos is at twilight and night. Thevictims had no signs of mosquito bites even though the victims' clotheswere removed before being assaulted or tied up.
Vehicles near thecrime scene.Only very brief notes of interviews with theBlue Beacon staff are available. "10:00 pm Man two young white malesstated looking for son, small car, Toyota older model." [Scott Kelin,manager, Blue Beacon] This is discussed further below. Bryn Ridgetestified that there were no tire tracks in themeadow during their search of the area the next day.
Fogleman:Alright. And uh - what was the condition of the ground at that timewhen y'all did that grid search?
Ridge: It was smooth, there wasgrass, wheat growing in the area.
Fogleman: And uh - what if anythingdid you find in the part of that field that y'all searched?
Ridge: We didn't find anything, it wasnormal, smooth.
Fogleman: Any automobile tracks, trucktracks, anything like that?
Ridge: No sir. [Ridge testimony,Echols/Baldwin trial]
In contrast to this testimony, a vehicle can be seenparked there in the crime scene video.
Clothes.The victims' clothes had no rips, tears, blood stains or skin scrapingsindicating they had been removed before the attacks. The clothes musthavebeen removed also before the victims were bound. If the clothes wereshed at the site of the killings, and Byers and Branch were killed nearwhere their bodies were found, why were their clothes transported toanother place for dumping? Or conversely, if their clothes were removednear the site they were discovered, why would Byers and Branch be takento the other bank before being placed underwater? The clothes in asingle site is consistent with them being transported in as a bundlefromelsewhere.
Lividity.At death, when the heart stops, gravity causes the blood topool. This effect, called lividity, can be seen as a wide "bruise"across the lower portions of the body. If lividity is presentsomewhere other than the bottommost areas, it can be assumed the bodyhas been repositioned after death.
Michael Moore was found at the bottom of the creekon his left side. Chris Byers and Stevie Branch were found facedown.
Fogleman:Alright now - and you may have testified to this, I may have justmissed it - uh - you indicated that Michael Moore was on his left side.How was uh - Stevie Branch?
Ridge: Facedown, tied in the samemanner.
Fogleman: And Chris Byers?
Ridge: Facedown. [Ridge testimony,Echols/Baldwin trial]
According to the crime scene videos and coroner'snotes, Moore was placed on the bank on his left side, Branch on hisleft side, and Byers on his right side. For Moore the coroner noted,"...lividity in buttocks and back will blanch with pressure;" forBranch, "Lividity in left buttocks and back will blanch with pressure;"and for Byers "Lividity in buttocks and back will blanch withpressure." The mention of "left buttocks" for Branch indicates thatthis specificity was being noted. Since Branch was placed on his leftside, the lividity in his left buttocks is unremarkable. However forByers "lividity on buttocks and back" unambiguously contradicts Byersonly being placed in the water facedown immediately after death andthen placed on his right side on the creek bank. The lividity on hisback points to a previous position. Similarly, the lividity for Moorewas noted as buttocks and back.
If the bodies were brought to thewoods, several conclusions can be drawn.
The bodies and thebicycles could only have been brought by automobile. Foottraffic from the south would have been limited by the bayou and byhavingto cross the pipe. This is the only access point from the nearbyresidentialarea. Any other direction and the bodies would had to have been hauledacross the meadow, the Blue Beacon lot or the interstate. A vehiclewould be necessary for transporting and concealing thevictims.
Trails to thediscovery scene. The creek is highlighted in blue. The dashedlines are trails.
X's representwhere the bodies were found. B's are the bicycles which bracket thepipe.
O's are proposedsites for vehicles to have parked.
The bodies weretransported in two trips. Crossing the creek to dispose of thebodies would be difficult and unnecessary. Without crossing the creek,the area where Moore and the clothes were placed was accessible onlyfrom the meadow and the area where Byers and Branch were placed wasaccessible only from the west. The person transporting the corpses musthave carried Byers and Branch from the west and Moore from the backpart of the meadow. In a similar argument, the bicycles could not havebeen brought from themeadow without pointlessly lugging them across the creek.
Three paths converge from the west side of the woodsto the site where Branch and Byers were found. One comes from near thepipe that crosses the bayou, but this area is not accessible by car.One comes from the Blue Beacon lot. This area is visible from the BlueBeacon truck wash. The third comes from the southeastern corner behindthe Blue Beacon lot. This area is a slant of woods, recessed from viewfrom the Blue Beacon. A line of trees block this location from viewfrom the residential area and three trees divide this area from theBlue Beacon lot. A vehicle pulling up to the woods' edge could unloadthe contents of its trunk unseen. The trip transporting Byers andBranch would also serve for disposing of the bicycles. A secondexcursion onthe meadow side would serve to bring Moore and the clothes.
If the victimswere relocated to this area, the crime scene was staged. Themost powerful argument against the woods being a relocation site isthat the woods were not remote enough to be a safe disposal site. Whyrisk relocating the bodies of the victims to these woods? Why not takethem to the Mississippi? Why place thebicycles in one location and the bodies in another? An explanation forall of these is that the perpetrator was trying to stage a story.
The rationale behind moving the corpses is to removeevidence from the murder scene, a site that would incriminate thekiller. By placing the bodies near the interstate and a large truckstop, the murderer tried to pin the crimes on a passing trucker - anunsolvable crime given the large numbers of truckers passing by due tothe nearby convergence of the interstate highways. The bicycles wereplaced in the bayou as part of that staging, to suggest the victims hadcome here on their own.
The perpetrator had limited options for a site inwhich to dispose of the bodies. It had to be isolated enough to allowfor disposal but stillclose enough for the victims to havearrived there on their own.
The staging of the crime scene has otherimplications. It says that the perpetrator believed if the policeweren't misdirected then he would be suspect. This points back toeither someone close to thefamily or someone along the path thevictims had taken.It also says that the perpetrator knew the victims had been heading inthe general direction of these woods. Finally, it required familiaritywith the woods including foreknowledge of the existence of thecreek and the relative isolation of the area and how to access it.
Vehicles visiting the crime scene.Although they worked in close proximity to thediscovery site, the notes of interviews from the Blue Beacon employeesare meager, totaling several handwritten lines. The manager, ScottKelin, testified at trial, although only briefly and only to describethe operating procedures of his establishment. Until midnight, therewere eight to ten employees. After midnight there would be two. Hetestified he had come by the evening of the fifthfor maintenanceat about seven and left "between nine and ten."
Among the police notes from the employees, the linebelow "Scott Kelin - manager" says, "10:00 pm Man two young white malesstated looking for son, small car, toyota older model."
In some ways this observation corresponds to MarkByers account of driving behind the Blue Beacon lot.
[After11 p.m. call to Denver Reed.] . . .my son, Ryan and I got in the carand we drove around there to Blue Beacon, and went into Blue BeaconTruck Wash, and I said, look, we got 3 boys missing. I didn't wanty'all, you know, I want to go back here behind y'all's property andholler and yell in these woods. But I wanted you to know why my car'sback there. So, we pulled our little silver car back there, and Ryan,my 14-year-old, he's honking the horn and I'm out hollering and yellingaround the edge of the woods. And he kind of drove the car around.[snip] Well, we hollered and yelled there for a while where that littleentrance is from that side where you can walk in that entrance. Youknow, there's that pond, and if you walk on around the edge of thepond, you can kind of see a trail that goes into the bayou, or whereverthat is. I kind of walked into that bayou, well I walked into thatarea, and hollered and yelled down toward the bayou, and I can rememberturning and hollering and yelling towards that hill. [Mark Byers, May19, 1993 statement]
The note from Kelin and Byers account have severaldiscrepancies. Byers had a 1987 Isuzu, not an older model Toyota. Byerssays he was with Ryan, Kelin notes two young white males. Byers accountrefers to sometime after 11 pm. From 9:45 to about 10:15 Byers wassearching the area south of the bayou on foot with Patrolman JohnMoore.
Ryan's account of that evening mentions nothing ofsearching the Blue Beacon area with his father. In both police notesand his testimony Ryan stated he did not go to theother side ofthepipe, instead searching the woods to the south. Sometime after 9 pm,whilesearching the with his friend Brit Smith he heard nearbyloud splashes. These splashes could havecorresponded to the disposal of the bicycles and perhaps Chris Byersand Stevie Branch.
Was Mark Byers the driver of the vehicle in Kelin'snote? The discrepancies of time, vehicle and number of passengers makeit uncertain. If it was another individual claiming to be there"looking for his son," he would be a likely suspect.
The sum of the notes from the Blue Beaconemployees.
AlthoughKelin testified there were eight to ten workers
onthe evening shift, only five names are listed.
ToBe Continued in, ATwilight Kill, Whodunnit, Part Two
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