Editing West Memphis Three (section)

==The crime==
On May 5, 1993, three eight-year-old boys (Steve Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers) were reported missing in West Memphis, Arkansas. The first report to the police was made by Byers's adoptive father, John Mark Byers, around 7:00&nbsp;pm.<ref>{{cite book|title=Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three|last=Leveritt|first=Mara|year=2003|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=0-7434-1760-7|page=5}}</ref> The boys were allegedly last seen together by three neighbors, who in [[affidavit]]s told of seeing them playing together around 6:30&nbsp;pm the evening they disappeared and seeing Terry Hobbs, Steve Branch's stepfather, calling them to come home.<ref>{{cite news|title=Damien Echols asks for new trial in West Memphis 3 murder case|last=Blackstone|first=Ashley|date=September 30, 2010|work=Today's THV&nbsp;– Gannett|publisher=Arkansas Television Company|url=http://www.todaysthv.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=120386|access-date=January 25, 2012}}; [http://www.todaysthv.com/news/PDF/wm3.pdf Affidavits]{{Dead link|date=December 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Initial police searches made that night were limited.<ref name="Leveritt03"/> Friends and neighbors also conducted a search that night, which included a cursory visit to the location where the bodies were later found.<ref name="Leveritt03">{{Cite book|title=Devil's Knot: The True Story of the West Memphis Three|last=Leveritt|first=Mara|year=2003| publisher=[[Atria Books|Atria]]|isbn=0-7434-1760-7}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2009}}

A more thorough police search for the children began around 8:00&nbsp;am on May 6, led by the Crittenden County Search and Rescue personnel. Searchers canvassed all of West Memphis but focused primarily on Robin Hood Hills, where the boys were reported last seen. Despite a shoulder-to-shoulder search of Robin Hood Hills by a human chain, searchers found no sign of the missing boys.{{citation needed|date=October 2015}}

Around 1:45&nbsp;pm, juvenile Parole Officer Steve Jones spotted a boy's black shoe floating in a muddy creek that led to a major drainage canal in Robin Hood Hills. A subsequent search of the ditch revealed the bodies of three boys. They had been stripped naked and were [[hogtie]]d with their own shoelaces, their right ankles tied to their right wrists behind their backs, the same with their left arms and legs. Their clothing was found in the creek, some of it twisted around sticks that had been thrust into the muddy ditch bed.<ref name=Newton1>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gijG7fSwvjAC&pg=PA391|title=The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes|author=Michael Newton|page=391|publisher=Infobase Publishing|year= 2009|access-date=October 13, 2011|isbn=9781438119144}}</ref> The clothing was mostly turned inside-out; two pairs of the boys' underwear were never recovered. Christopher Byers had lacerations to various parts of his body and mutilation of his scrotum and penis.<ref name=ByersAutopsy>{{cite web|url=http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/Other/west%20memphis%20three/byers,%20christopher.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005080142/http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/Other/west%20memphis%20three/byers,%20christopher.pdf |archive-date=October 5, 2011 |url-status=live|title=Christopher Byers Autopsy|author=Frank J. Peretti, William Q. Sturner|work=Arkansas State Crime Laboratory|date=May 1993|access-date=November 14, 2011}}</ref>

The autopsies by forensic pathologist Frank J. Peretti indicated that Byers died of "multiple injuries",<ref name=ByersAutopsy/> while Moore and Branch died of "multiple injuries with drowning".<ref name=BranchAutopsy>{{cite web|url=http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/Other/west%20memphis%20three/branch,%20steve.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005080136/http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/Other/west%20memphis%20three/branch,%20steve.pdf |archive-date=October 5, 2011 |url-status=live|title=Steve Branch Autopsy|author=Frank J. Peretti, William Q. Sturner|work=Arkansas State Crime Laboratory|date=May 1993|access-date=November 14, 2011}}</ref><ref name=MooreAutopsy>{{cite web|url=http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/Other/west%20memphis%20three/moore,%20james%20michael%20.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005080146/http://www.autopsyfiles.org/reports/Other/west%20memphis%20three/moore,%20james%20michael%20.pdf |archive-date=October 5, 2011 |url-status=live|title=Michael Moore Autopsy |author=Frank J. Peretti, William Q. Sturner|work=Arkansas State Crime Laboratory|date=May 1993|access-date=November 14, 2011}}</ref>

Police initially suspected the boys had been raped;<ref name=Newton1/> however, later expert testimony disputed this finding. Trace amounts of sperm DNA were found on a pair of pants recovered from the scene. Prosecution experts claim Byers's wounds were the results of a knife attack and that he had been purposely [[castration|castrated]] by the murderer; defense experts claim the injuries were most likely the result of post-mortem animal predation. Police believed the boys were assaulted and killed at the location where they were found; critics argued that the assault, at least, was unlikely to have occurred at the creek.

Byers was the only victim with drugs in his system; he was prescribed [[Ritalin]] (methylphenidate) in January 1993 as part of treatment of an [[attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder]].<ref name="Leveritt03"/> The initial autopsy report describes the drug as [[Carbamazepine]] and the dosage at a sub-therapeutic level. His father said Byers may not have taken his prescription on May 5, 1993.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GSJ7Ja95oegC|title=Criminal profiling:an introduction to behavioral evidence analysis|first=Brent E.|last=Turvey|page=377|publisher=Academic|year=1999|access-date=October 13, 2011|isbn=9780123852441}}</ref>