Hairs, ligatures and possibly other evidence collected after three 8-year-old boys were murdered on May 5, 1993 in West Memphis has been sent to Bode Laboratories for advanced DNA testing. One of the three men prosecuted for the crime, Damien Echols, has petitioned the state for almost six years to do the testing.
Echols defense team member Lonnie Soury confirmed to Talk Business & Politics that the items have been sent to the lab, but no timetable for the testing has been released. Attempts by TB&P to contact 2nd Judicial District Prosecutor Sonia Hagood were unsuccessful.
The evidence is expected to be M-Vac DNA or touch DNA tested. M-Vac is a microbiological "vacuum" that can retrieve DNA more precisely than traditional DNA swabbing. The victims in the case - Michael Moore, Christopher Byers and Stevie Branch were "hogtied" ankle to wrist with their own shoelaces, and the hope is that the boys' killer or killers left skin cells in the ligatures when they were tied.
The testing comes after the state has fought vigorously in court for years to prevent the testing. Echols had stated on social media earlier this year that it would be completed by the end of the year, but that timeline is uncertain.
Earlier this year, Echols said he might seek to test evidence in the case that has already been tested, such as the hairs that were DNA tested in 2007, be retested or re-analyzed using modern methods. An unknown allele that was found on one of the victims may also be a candidate for genetic genealogy testing.
Moore, Byers, and Branch were riding their bikes in their West Memphis neighborhood on May 5, 1993 when they vanished. Their nude, hog-tied bodies were found in a drainage ditch in a wooded area not far from their homes the next day. Police and prosecutors developed an unproven theory that the boys were killed in a Satantic or occult ceremony.
Echols, along with two co-defendants, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley were convicted in 1994 of killing the boys. Misskelley gave several error-riddled confessions that led to the arrests and subsequent incarcerations.
He said the boys were tied with ropes when they were tied with their own shoelaces. He said the attack happened in the morning when the boys were in school. Misskelley, who suffers from a low IQ and learning disabilities, told investigators that two of the boys were sexually assaulted.
State Medical Examiners Dr. Frank Perretti and Dr. William Sturner confirmed during the defendant's post-conviction relief hearings in 2009 that no semen was recovered from the victims or their clothing. Both testified that there was no anal bruising or tearing and it would be a physical impossibility for the boys to be sexually assaulted in that manner without leaving physical evidence.
Famed forensic pathologists Dr. Werner Spitz, Dr. Michael Baden, Dr. Richard Souviron and Dr. Janice Ophoven testified that there was no evidence of a sexual assault, and there would be evidence if it occurred.
Investigators honed in on one particular injury to Byers. His genitals were "degloved" or in layman's terms the skin was removed. Prosecutors argued that a large, Rambo-style knife recovered from a lake behind Baldwin's house was used to inflict this injury Peretti testified it would be nearly impossible for a skilled surgeon with a surgical scalpel to perform that type of procedure on a living person in those conditions. All four defense forensic pathologists testified that the injury was caused by animal predation, post-mortem.
Spitz, Baden, Souviron and Ophoven all testified that there were no knife cuts or stab wounds to the victims - an oddity since prosecutors claimed a knife was involved. Peretti and Sturner also admitted there were no stab wounds to the bodies.
Misskelley recanted those confessions and refused to testify against his cohorts even though he was offered a reduced sentence. They remained incarcerated until 2011 when they agreed to Alford pleas. The three men, known as "The West Memphis Three" have maintained their innocence.
No forensic evidence collected or tested in the case has ever been linked to the convicted. The request for new DNA testing comes after the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled last month that Echols had a right to request the testing after a lower court dismissed his request. Echols first asked for M-Vac touch DNA testing in March 2020.