Show Notes
In Episode 9 of Crooked Tree, Paul Day and Kristin Rich dive deep into the raw, unfiltered door-to-door canvassing notes compiled by West Memphis police during the critical first weekend after the discovery of the bodies of Christopher Byers, Stevie Branch, and Michael Moore (May 7–9, 1993).
From over 700 homes visited and more than 50 tips received, the episode explores a flood of neighborhood rumors, suspicious vehicles (brown Chevys, maroon cars, white vans, red trucks), strange individuals on bikes, reports of cults and Satan worshippers in Robin Hood, gunshots ringing out around 10–11 PM, a dog barking near the pipebridge, and eerie encounters that raised red flags for residents and investigators alike. Paul and Kristin analyze the patterns, inconsistencies, and standout leads—including a resident who stood out enough for an officer to document him in detail—while noting what (and who) is conspicuously absent from the early sightings.
Recorded against the emotional backdrop of Mother’s Day weekend, this episode captures the fog of war in the earliest days of the investigation.
More from Crooked Tree: A West Memphis 3 Podcast
In this Q&A episode of Crooked Tree: A West Memphis 3 Podcast, victim advocates and researchers Paul Day and Kristin Rich dig into detailed listener questions drawn from the case files surrounding the May 1993 murders of Christopher Byers, Stevie Branch, and Michael Moore.
On May 10, 1993—the day that never ends—Damien Echols leaves a grueling interrogation with Detectives Ridge and Sudbury and walks straight into a polygraph with Detective Bill Durham. What follows is a tense, unrecorded session of pretest questions, ten carefully crafted polygraph queries, and a high-pressure post-test interview that would haunt the West Memphis Three case for decades.
In this pivotal episode of Crooked Tree, forensic geologist and victim advocate Paul Day and criminologist and victim advocate Kristin Rich take a meticulous, slow-crawl look at one of the most consequential moments in the West Memphis Three investigation: the May 10, 1993, interview of Damien Echols at the West Memphis Police Department.
In this episode of Crooked Tree, hosts Kristin Rich and Paul Day turn their focus to Murray Farris, an 18-year-old West Memphis resident whose name appears on Jerry Driver’s list of possible occult-linked individuals. On the evening of May 9, 1993—hours after Damien Echols and Jason Baldwin were questioned—Farris walks into the West Memphis Police Department.
In the hours and days after the bodies of Stevie Branch, Michael Moore, and Christopher Byers are recovered, West Memphis investigators begin receiving tips steeped in the era’s widespread fears of satanic ritual abuse. A call from a Texas Child Protective Services worker about alleged ritualistic killings in Gilmer, TX sets an early tone. Lieutenant James Sudbury and juvenile officer Steve Jones quickly zero in on Damien Echols, interviewing the teenager at his family’s trailer on May 7 based on their shared belief that the crime shows “overtones of a cult sacrifice."