Melissa Byers

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LISA

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:39 pm

Melissa Byers

Obscuregawdess wrote:

Posted by Mara on Saturday November 11, 2006

Sheriff Dale Weaver, of Sharp County, Arkansas, said in an October interview that his office intends to do "some additional work within the next few months" to answer questions that have lingered for more than 10 years over the death of Melissa Byers, (shown in the self-portrait above).

Byers was the mother of Christopher Byers, who was murdered with two other boys in May 1993. She died under mysterious circumstances in a Sharp County hospital on Mar. 29, 1996. Her body was taken immediately to the Arkansas Medical Examiner's Office in Little Rock. Pathologists there ruled that they could not determine the physical cause of her death. They also ruled that they could not determine whether it was due to natural causes, or murder, suicide or accident. The Arkansas State Police investigated her death as "a possible homicide."

Investigation 'still open'
Weaver's remarks came after a request to him and Henry Boyce, the district's prosecuting attorney, for release of the police investigative file, since more than 10 years had passed since the time of Byers' death. Boyce, who was not a prosecutor ten years ago, initially responded, "I would think it would have been made available to you long ago." He said he would consult with the sheriff. Weaver later announced that the file would not be released because the investigation was "still open."

Weaver said that the Arkansas State Police, which participated in the initial investigation into Byers's death, would be asked to help in what has become a cold-case investigation. "In 10 years, a lot of things change," Weaver said. "And perhaps there would be someone somewhere who can shed new light on whatever happened."

Seeking new information
The sheriff, who was a deputy at the time, said people who were questioned at the time of Byers's death would be re-questioned, and that new subjects may be interviewed. He invited anyone who had information relating to the case to call his office at 870-994-7356. Weaver said the ambiguous ruling by the medical examiner's office meant that the case remained "wide open." "We've had our suspicions," he said, "but having our suspicions and proving them are two different things."

Weaver said the inconclusive medical examiner's report placed the burden of determining the cause and manner of Byers' death entirely on police. "If they would have definitely said it was an accidental overdose, and ruled it was an accident," he said, "we could have put it behind us. Or, if they had ruled it was a homicide, we would have had something more to work with." As it was, he said, "It may be that other findings police come up with, even now, can help the medical examiner make a more exact determination."

Alive at the hospital
Byers was reportedly unconscious at 5:20 p.m. when an ambulance arrived at her home. She was reportedly alive when she arrived at the hospital, but was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m. At 8:10 p.m., her body was turned over to the county coroner, to be taken to the medical examiner's office. The medical examiner reported finding drugs in her system but ruled that their levels were "not enough to be lethal." A neighbor who drove Byers's husband, John Mark Byers, to the hospital told police that, "Mark told him he was afraid Melissa had overdosed" on an illegal drug. The neighbor added that John Mark Byers had told him he feared he would be accused of smothering his wife.

On the night of Melissa's death, police asked John Mark Byers to provide a written outline of his activities that afternoon. Byers wrote that he and his wife had taken a nap, and that when he woke up he could not awaken her.

http://www.crimeandjustice.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=11184&mode=threaded

Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 1758

LISA

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:41 pm

Re: 'This is a deep story'

Obscuregawdess wrote:

http://www.prisonpotpourri.com/JUVENILES/WESTMEMPHISTHREE.damienechols/The%20strange%20demise%20of%20Melissa%20Byers%20-%20By%20Mara%20Leveritt%20-%20December%2026,%201997.html

John Mark Byers contemplates the deaths of first his son and now his wife.

After her 8-year-old son Christopher was murdered, Melissa Byers became depressed, her widower, John Mark Byers recalled. "She gave up her will to live," he said in a telephone interview. "She didn't want to live without him." Asked if his wife had been using illegal drugs, Byers answered: "To my personal knowledge, no. I did not see her taking illegal drugs. But, if she was or if she wasn't, I'm not going to talk bad about my wife who's passed away. Melissa's death was another tragedy, another heartbreak. I'm the victim here, let's not forget that."

The two had been married for 10 years. After the murders of Christopher and two other boys in 1993, the couple moved to Cherokee Village to get away from what Byers described as persecution in West Memphis. "This is a deep story," he said. "There's a lot of crazy people out there. I mean really crazy people."

After the trials in which three West Memphis teen-agers were convicted of killing the younger children, Byers said residents of the city left dead animals on their car and in their yard, along with notes "saying all types of terrible things." He described the time there as being "pure hell."

But life in Cherokee Village proved no easier. "It was very hard," he said, "because of the backward people that live up there, people that are so narrow-minded. We thought there would be intelligent retired people from up north, but instead there were a lot of inbred, banjo-picking hillbillies living there, people whose family trees run in a straight line."

Asked if they did not perceive him and Melissa as sympathetic figures, being the parents of a murdered child, he said no, that for some reason "they got it confused; they thought I was the father of one of the boys who committed the killings."

Byers now lives "in a modest little apartment" in another city, the name of which he does not want revealed. He subsists on a Social Security disability check which he receives because of a tumor he says is located "in the front right lobe of my brain." Because of the tumor, he said, he cannot work--he used to be a jeweler--and he suffers "terrible migraine headaches."

In the interview, Byers described his life as an unmitigated series of woes, as "pain piled upon pain." Publicity about the West Memphis deaths has kept them "an ongoing thing," he said, prompting people to "want to open the wound and pour salt in it." Asked why, then, he and Melissa had agreed to cooperate with the filming of the documentary "Paradise Lost," he explained, "I just could not stand for my son and his two friends to die for nothing. We didn't want people to forget who he was. We wanted them to know that this witchcraft and black magic and demon worship was real. There's black and there's white, like we said on 'Maury Povitch.'"

One of the most remarkable parts of the film was a segment in which Byers and Todd Moore, the father of one of the other dead boys, blasted pumpkins that they pretended were the heads of the convicted teen-agers. Byers said the producers "asked us what we did with our aggression and our anger. We said we go out and target practice. We said we go out and shoot. We were out there basically just releasing anger, and in our minds, thinking, 'If that was the three of you. ...' We were still very raw with anger. I think anybody would be. But it was not detrimental to anyone. And if we wanted to think that that was them we were shooting, and it made us feel better, what was wrong with that?"

First, he said, he had to suffer being viewed as a suspect in his son's death. "I did not know that when a child is murdered that sometimes they think Š like in the Jon Benet Ramsey case Š that they look at the family members. The police had to explain to me that this is a big puzzle. They said, 'We've got to look at all the pieces and throw away the ones that didn't fit.'"

Byers knows that there are people who still believe that he may have been involved in the three boys' murders. "They just don't have anything better to do with their time," he says of them. "They could just watch the movie "Paradise Lost" and they would know that I'm just a victim. I'm not the villain."

Suspicion of Byers intensified when, toward the end of the filming of that movie, he offered as a gift to the HBO camera crew a knife that, though he said he had never used it, turned out to bear traces of human blood. The blood type matched his own, as well as Christopher's. Critics of the West Memphis Police Department have complained that officers allowed the incident to go uninvestigated.

But Byers has other complaints against the department, chiefly that police did not act quickly enough to find the murdered boys when their families reported them missing. He is also critical of police in Cherokee Village, who he said failed to respond when neighbors threatened him and shot up his house. "I was railroaded up there," he said.

In court, when he was tried on the charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, he recalled, "I told them, 'The boys got in a scuffle. The boy who went down seemed to be all right. It was no big deal. It's not like boys up there or anywhere else don't get in fights when people talk about their mama. ...' "The boy who was knocked down, his daddy just happened to be a freakin' lawyer. He got a judgment against me, but I didn't have to pay a dime. I didn't have anything to give the man. I'm judgment-proof. I'm indigent. That's why they told me up there just to pack up and leave, to get out of Sharp County, and don't come back.

"I went from my big, fine home and being a responsible citizen to feeling like I'm just an outcast and thrown to the bottom of the pit, when I didn't do anything. It feels so unjust and so unfair, but there's nothing I can do about it."

He was also disappointed with the way the ambulance workers treated Melissa, who he said had drunk a little peach schnapps before the two of them had settled down for a nap at 3:30. When he woke up at quarter to five, he tried to awaken her but she didn't respond. "When the paramedics came in, they jerked her off the bed and onto the floor. They didn't shock her with the paddles but one time. That kind of bothered me. They kind of acted like they didn't care, like, 'Well, good. She's dead. Maybe now he'll leave.' I just felt like they didn't care if she died or not."

Byers had not seen the autopsy report on Melissa, which only became public in December, when the State Police closed their investigation. Asked about the reported comment by his neighbor Norm Metz, that when Melissa was brought to the hospital Byers had said, "he was afraid Melissa had overdosed on a drug that is in the streets in Memphis," the name of which he thought "began with the letter 'D,' and that "could be bought for $50 on the street," Byers denied having made such a statement. He also denied telling Metz, as Metz had reported to police, that "he thought her death was a drug overdose and that they were going to accuse him of smothering her."

In the years since Christopher's death, evidence has come to light suggesting that, prior to the murders, John Mark Byers had worked with Memphis narcotics police as a confidential informant. Asked if that were true, he answered, "I'd have to say 'no comment' on that." When he was told that the police and autopsy reports on Melissa mentioned "numerous needle puncture marks" on her arms, feet, and groin, he responded, "That's news to me."

He also expressed surprise that Dilaudid was found in her system. Rather, he spoke of "drugs and all" as evil. "I think there's a lot of evil in the world," he said, "and if you live in today's society, you will experience evil. It's sent from the devil himself to kill the world. The devil has it out for everybody. The Bible says he's like a roaring lion seeking to and fro to whom he may consume."

But he added, "I have to believe that all things work for good for those who love the lord, so maybe he's letting me live to tell people that there is a devil out there, that there is evil and it will consume your life if you let it."

He has said he considers his son's killers as having been sent from hell. "Anyone who takes anyone's life, it's got to be someone that's very depraved and very twisted," he observed. "Not retarded sick, mean sick. They must have some type of problem that's deeper than I can imagine." He added, "I don't know what makes someone like that tick, because I'm not that way, so I can't say. I don't have the mind or the consciousness of a murderer, so how could I say?" The fact that no cause has been found for Melissa's death "hurts even more," Byers said.

And he wondered toward the end of the interview, "Did she have to die? Did she will herself to die? Did she not want to live anymore because of her son's being murdered? Did God just answer her prayer and take her off this earth?"

Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 1758

LISA

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:48 pm

“Melissa Byers”

Obscuregawdess wrote:

http://www.midsouthjustice.com/melissabyers.htm

FACT: On March 29th, 1996, Melissa Byers died. She was found by a neighbor naked and unconscious after John Mark Byers called him for help. Doctors noticed IV puncture marks on the top of both her feet, on the inside of her wrist, and on her upper right thoracic area.” Source: Atria Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s Knot, p. 300, 2002.

FACT: On the day of Melissa’s death, John Mark Byers called a neighbor to come help. When the neighbor arrived, he found Melissa Byers naked on the bed and told John Mark Byers to perform CPR on her. The neighbor called an ambulance and wondered why Byers had not done so yet. The autopsy report stated the cause of death was undetermined since she had so many drugs in her system. Byers’s girlfriend at the time stated that Melissa Byers died the day she had asked him for a divorce. She also stated that John Mark Byers had threatened Mandy with her life if she disclosed the fact that he had hypodermic needles in his drawer. Ryan Clark was reported as having an “eerie look on his face” when he was putting clothes on his mother before the ambulance arrived. He was reported as “mumbling incoherently” and got in his car and almost flipped it as he screeched away from the household before the ambulance arrived. The autopsy reports were inconclusive and could not determine the exact cause of death of Melissa Byers. Source: Atria Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s Knot, pp 300 & 301, 2002.

FACT: The neighbor who had been called to John Mark Byers’s household reported that, “John Mark Byers also told him he thought her death was a drug overdose and that they were going to accuse him of smothering her.” Source: Atria Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s Knot, pp 302, 2002.

FACT: “A prison inmate serving time for drugs told investigators in a written statement that he had known the Byerses. “I can remember Mark giving her pills and other drugs on more than one occasion,” he wrote. A seventeen-year-old from Cherokee Village told Witt that, on the day Melissa died, he had been “partying” with the Byerses at their residence, “drinking Crown Royal and taking Valium and Xanax, and that he saw Mark Byers with a sandwich baggie of K-4 Dilaudid.” Source: Atria Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s Knot, p 392, 2002.

FACT: “Melissa’s parents said that Melissa’s marriage to John Mark Byers was on the verge of collapse. “We knew he was shenaniganin’,” her mother said. “He was foolin’ with a woman up there. Melissa said she was going to divorce him. She told him she was going to leave him. But he said he wasn’t going to divorce another woman.” Melissa’s parents said that shortly before Melissa died, she’d told them she was coming home to stay with them for a couple of days. They expected her on Friday. When she hadn’t arrived by mid afternoon, “We called the house to see if she was coming, and Mark said, ‘No, she’s not feeling good and she’s asleep.’ Later on that night the phone rang. Mark just laid it out: ‘Melissa’s dead.’ That’s all he said.” Source: Atria Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s Knot, p 313, 2002.

FACT: After Christopher’s murder, police did not contact Melissa’s parents. After Melissa’s unusual death, the police did not contact them either. Source: Atria Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s Knot, p 313, 2002.

FACT: In Paradise Lost, Part 2, ~1:10. John Mark Byers is filmed speaking with a polygraph examiner before taking a polygraph test. The polygraph examiner asks, “Have you had any other problems with the police?” Byers answers, “Not major, no sir.” The examiner asks, “You’ve had problems? Is that what you’re saying?” Byers answers, “oh well, speeding tickets, I got a DUI one time after my wife was murdered, uh, nothing really major no.”

Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 1758

Noor

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:06 am

Thanks Lisa!

Marco

Joined: 02 Jun 2006
Posts: 5201
Location: Ohio

pax

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 11:34 am

Thanks for the info Lisa.

Byers' descriptions conflict with the record. He was charged with terroristic threatening toward his first wife. That charge was dropped. Other charges of theft, robbery, larceny, and violent crimes have mysteriously gone away. He was an undercover informant and has evaded consequences for serious crimes. He has dirt on police and prosecutors in West Memphis who don't want any of it exposed, imo.

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Noor

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:04 pm

Also in the documentary one time he claims he knew nothing about drugs his wife used, and an other time he said she used like 6 different drugs.

I don't know about this guy......... Confused

Marco

Joined: 02 Jun 2006
Posts: 5201
Location: Ohio

pax

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:19 pm

All I know about him, Marco, is that he's changed his stories a bunch of times. Melissa was a heroin addict for many years. Byers was a drug informant. Police and prosecutors in West Memphis went way easy on him.

Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 16326
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Fishy

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 2:25 pm

FACT: The neighbor who had been called to John Mark Byers’s household reported that, “John Mark Byers also told him he thought her death was a drug overdose and that they were going to accuse him of smothering her.” Source: Atria Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s Knot, pp 302, 2002.

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I wonder why he thought they were going to accuse him of smothering her? Why would he say that? Confused

I can see him saying that he thought they were going to accuse him of providing her the drugs.....but smothering her? Confused

Where did that come from?

Joined: 13 Nov 2007
Posts: 1695
Location: Texas

pax

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 5:11 pm

Fishy wrote:

I can see him saying that he thought they were going to accuse him of providing her the drugs.....but smothering her? Confused

Where did that come from?

I don't know, Fishy.

Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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Obscuregawdess

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 2:43 pm

Thanks Lisa for starting a new topic on Melissa!

And Fishy, I always thought that was "fishy" myself about Mark's preoccupation with people not only accusing him of her death but "smothering" her. Quite specific!

"Bratty Mama Leci"

Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 12374
Location: Kentucky

LISA

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 7:43 pm

Obscuregawdess wrote:

OG!!!

I'm so glad to see you. I've missed seeing you post here in this section and other places on the board.

Give Flower

Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 1758

Obscuregawdess

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:54 am

LISA wrote:

OG!!!

I'm so glad to see you. I've missed seeing you post here in this section and other places on the board.

Give Flower

Yes, I need to get back to games too! Very Happy

Thanks for the warm welcome Lisa and for starting this thread. *hugs*

"Bratty Mama Leci"

Joined: 02 Aug 2006
Posts: 12374
Location: Kentucky

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