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May 5, 1993 is a day that changed the lives of everyone in the small southern town of West Memphis, Arkansas. This was a normal day, with all the things May twilight would bring. Dreams of summer vacation, hanging out and staying up late watching horror flicks. Kids getting ready for long days and skipping the restrictions of school, people watering their lawns in the flickering light. Three innocent boys from the neighborhood were headed out to play for an hour or so in a patch of woods behind the housing development. The area, with a creek and thick, lush shrubbery was a spot for the local kids to feel far away from home but was, in reality a few minutes from the homes. The boys, Christopher Byers, Stevie Branch and Michael Moore rode their bikes to the area called Robin Hood Hills to fool around for a while before it got dark and they’d be in trouble. The woods were pretty much off limits to most neighborhood kids after dark. One of the boys had already been in trouble for riding his skateboard down the road according to his Step Father, and snuck out while he ran an errand with his other son. It was just too much fun to sneak out without permission, and after all they’d only be gone an hour.

When Chris’s step father got back to find Chris missing, he was upset, Chris breaking the rules not less than an hour after getting swatted with the leather belt over the skateboard incident, to find his half son missing. He went to look for him, with his other son. In the enclave of homes, two other sets of parents were becoming concerned. Pam Hobbs had finished her shift at the restaurant she worked at and was finishing up when her husband showed up at the diner, telling Pam he couldn’t find Stevie. Her daughter Amanda was with him and Pam was irritated. She’d said one hour and she’d meant it. Michael Moore’s parents were becoming quite alarmed and when they heard that there were two other boys missing. They were all friends and when the police were called the boys were named as pals that would be mischief makers having an innocent prank, sneaking around by the creek. The parents weren’t friends at all. In fact, there has been documentation that some of them had called the police during a raucous party where people were parking on the lawn and throwing people in the Byers’ swimming pool. Still, with all three boys missing, they had to cooperate and they grew more and more fearful as the sun dropped in the sky and there was no trace of the boys anywhere.

The police and families looked all night, but nothing. The woods were not lit at all and if the boys had gone there they couldn’t continue the search until morning. All the parents were panicked and petrified. Their boys were missing and each minute that went by, made the situation more and more foreboding. The boys were gone without a trace, no one had seen them.

Around the time that the search was being conducted, a man stumbled into a fast food place, near the woods, filthy, wet and with blood all over him. He used the bathrooms to clean up and the employees were wondering what his problem was. He was muddy and the blood made them nervous. He finally did leave, and hours later, someone called the called the police. A man comes into your place of employment wet, muddy and covered with blood, and not responding? This man, whoever he was, got nothing but stares and later, making a huge mess of the fast food joint. Could he have been the actual murderer? Later on down the line, the fact came out about the bloody man came way too late. Everyone wanted to find the man, but he was gone. Why the employees didn’t call the police the minute they saw him, is beyond me. I have heard that when the crew did call the police, she just drove through the drive through. I have looked long and hard for that police report to say that the officer went in, and taken a complaint. I have never seen documentation of that nature. It was not thought to be of importance. In the early morning light the search began again, the families becoming more and more frantic.

The West Memphis police dragged the creek several passes later; they still had no sign of he boys. Finally one brave detective, Bryn Ridge, went into the thick and muddy creek, on his stomach until he stopped. The water moved and bubbles rose to the surface, as he pulled out a child, naked and bound. It was Micheal Moore, and he had been savagely attacked. There was a moment of silence as he pulled the child out. The search continued the water and mud sucked into rock and water. On a second pass, other things floated by. Sneakers and a hat. Soon there was another boy. It was Stevie Branch. He too was bound but he had been badly beaten to the head. The last boy Christopher Byers was also found and like the others, bent arms back and tied like shoelaces in a hand to foot manner. His murder was the worst, because his small body was mutilated, his tiny genitalia had been removed, leaving a gaping hole where his scrotum and penis should have been. All three boys’ skin had been blanched white from the water in the creek, giving them an even worse, ghostly appearance. West Memphis was in no way prepared to deal with the grotesque murders, and at the scene, Pam Hobbs was screaming hysterically because she could see her ex-husband on the ground, on the other side of the creek, bawling his eyes out. The three boys had been had been found brutally murdered and mutilated. Everyone was shocked and horrified by the grotesque scene, and word was spreading like wildfire. Soon everyone in West Arkansas knew that the three boys were found in Robin Hood Hills and a huge panic wave was started. There was talk that this was some kind of “satanic” ritualistic crime, and information was both wide and far, true, and false. The local media picked up on the more sensational aspects of the case and exploited them with what they could, yellow journalism and jumped on the scandal bandwagon with dollar signs in their eyes.