West of Memphis

REPORTER:
The investigators are now filing

in and the reporters are getting ready

to cover this news conference.

Many parents in the community

will be breathing a sigh of relief

if this indeed is the break

that police have been waiting for.

Chief Inspector Gary Gitchell

is about to begin,

and he's also bringing in

some photographs.

Obviously these will probably be

photographs of the suspects.

Of course, suspects unofficially

at this point, although many believe

in this triple murder

of the three 8-year-old boys.

Arrested at 2:
44 p.m., Thursday,

June the 3rd, 1993.

Jessie Lloyd Misskelley.

Jessie Misskelley is 17 years of age.

Charles Jason Baldwin.

He is 16 years of age.

Michael Wayne Echols.

Mr. Echols is 18 years of age.

He is charged with three counts

of capital murder.

REPORTER:
Were you surprised

when these guys were arrested?

I was surprised about Jason

because he's, like, the quiet one

of them all.

But I wasn't surprised about

Jessie Misskelley and Damien Echols,

because I just expected it out of them

sooner or later.

Killer!

PAM:
When the police

were asking for clothing

so they could give it to the dogs

to pick up scent,

the bandana here was the only thing

that I had in my household

that had Stevie's scent on it.

I've never washed it.

When I get the need to just want

to feel him again, um,

I'll grab it and I'll hug it,

and I'm so thankful

I feel an embrace back.

I was walking the route

to take Stevie to school,

and I checked him out,

I believe, at 2:
30.

Stevie told me a hundred times,

probably a thousand, on the way home:

"I love you, mama." "I love you too, son."

And it was just constant.

We got home, first thing I asked him,

"Do you have any homework?"

He said, "I did, but I did it in school."

And he hung his homework

on the refrigerator.

And Michael Moore came up,

and they started asking,

could Stevie go to Michael's house?

And I said, "No, I'm getting ready

for work, I'm cooking supper."

Both of them,

you know, begging:

"Please, please, please,

we'll be back," and all that.

I gave in and I said, "Okay." I said,

"But, boy, you better be home by 4:30.

If you're not, I'm gonna ground you

for two weeks from that bike."

I'm gonna say Christopher

probably arrived at the house

around 3:
35 maybe,

and he asked me if Stevie was there.

I told him, I said, "I'm surprised you didn't run

into him because him and Michael just left."

He left and he was gonna go

searching for Stevie and Michael.

Uh, well, around 4:45, Stevie had...

Still hadn't arrived.

Terry came in. I told Terry,

"Well, let's go ahead and leave."

We went ahead,

and he took me to work.

My night at work was a normal night.

Terry walked in, to the phone,

didn't say hi, bye, nothing.

He just walked to the phone,

and I took two pieces of candy

to the car and Amanda was there,

and I asked her, "Where's Bubba?"

And she said, "Mama, we can't find him."

And I thought the worst,

that he was dead.

I got out of the car, went through

this door, got out of my uniform,

put sweats on and put a T-shirt on.

Because all I was trying to focus on

is where's Stevie, where's he at,

and I gotta get out there,

and I gotta start searching.

BYERS:
Last time we saw him

was about 6:
30 yesterday evening.

What's...? Give me your name.

My name is Mark Byers.

Okay. Has your son...?

Has this ever happened before?

None of the boys have ever

gone off anywhere.

None of the three have ever been

missing or taken off ever before.

What's going through your mind

as a parent?

I'm scared to death.

That's, you know, plain and simple.

I'm scared for the safety

and welfare of all three boys.

JONES:
That particular day, I'd

called the West Memphis P.D.

The dispatcher Lucy

answered the phone.

She said, "We've had three children

missing since last night."

I said, "Well, you know,

I'm gonna go help too."

I'm not seeing anything.

Not seeing no kids running around

on bicycles or nothing.

And then I thought

about Robin Hood Trails

as I was driving down Goodwyn,

and I said:

"Well I'll... I'm gonna go over there,

just get out and walk around."

I was looking around, you know,

just physically looking out and about.

And then I looked

into the small ditch.

That's where I saw the tennis shoe at.

I called

West Memphis Police Department

to have Mike Allen

meet me out here.

And so I showed him the area

of the tennis shoe.

And Mike had said

he was going to take it out.

Mike fell into the water.

I was looking down on him like this.

He looked up and I said, "What?"

And he said, "it feels like my leg

is caught on something."

Like a log or something."

And Mike fell backwards,

and when he fell backwards,

his leg came up...

and one of the little bodies

was on his leg.

PAM:
From the moment they

told me Stevie was dead,

I really lost it,

lost all touch with reality.

NEWSCASTER:
Pam Hobbs' son,

Steve, and two of his friends

were found murdered

Thursday before last.

FOGLEMAN:
It's more a part of my

life than I would like it to be.

Because frankly I'd like to be able

to not have those three 8-year-old boys'

pictures in my mind.

What you found, you found three boys

that had been hog-tied

and thrown in the water.

It appeared

that they had been sexually mutilated.

That appears to be cult-related.

The West Memphis Police Department

a lot of times would ask me about

occult things as though I were the guru.

I probably was because there wasn't

anybody else that was doing it.

This program is designed to help

law enforcement officers

better understand Satanic cults.

I got some books and I spoke to police

organizations around the country

that had some experience with it.

Okay, we have a rope here.

If you look at it closely...

I don't know

if the camera can pick this up.

But there's blood on this noose.

The police department asked me

to put together a list of people

that we had on probation that might

be involved in that type of activity.

Well, the guy that I knew

that was involved the most in it

was Damien Echols.

The two guys he ran with,

Jessie and Jason...

Jessie would fight.

Jason was not very aggressive,

in that respect,

but I believe he would do anything

that Damien asked him to do.

REPORTER:
Eight months have passed

since the three boys were killed.

Cameras are in place

and miles of cable laid

in preparation for this

highly publicized murder trial.

DRIVER:
I guess they found that those three

were the most likely to have done it.

Move back.

DRIVER:
And then, of course, they

had the confession from Jessie.

REPORTER:
The most compelling evidence

yet was introduced in open court.

Misskelley's taped confession

made to police.

JESSIE:
I saw Damien hit

this one... Hit this one boy real bad.

Then he start screwing him and stuff.

Jason turned around

and hit Steve Branch

and started doing the same thing.

Michael Moore took off running,

so I chased him

and grabbed him and held him

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