Triple Homicide of Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers: The Offender Profile

Profile prepared for: West Memphis Police Department
Profile prepared by: XXX
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Overview
The following profile is based on the case of triple homicide of the victims identified as Steve Branch, Michael Moore and Christopher Byers. The bodies were discovered less than 24h after their disappearance, in the wooded area of West Memphis, Arkansas, known as the Robin Hood Hills. Steve Branch and Michael Moore were discovered hogtied and drowned with extensive injuries to the body and the head, while Christopher Byers was discovered mutilated with the similar injuries displayed by the other two victims.
Upon the review of the available forensic and investigative evidence, the following offender profile has been compiled, based on the known facts, for the use by the West Memphis police Department in further investigation, and ultimately, the offender apprehension.

The Profile Limitations
The profile, although put together to the best of the profiler’s knowledge and with presented evidence, does have limitations, which are noted below.
The use of this profile should be done with its limitations in mind. The profile should be used as a framework in further investigation and not as means of naming the offender. * The State Crime Scene Laboratory reports did not have any concrete physical evidence that can be indicative of any of the offender’s physical attributes. It is therefore difficult to direct the profile into a more focused direction * The physical evidence presented is very limited and much of it is contaminated which hinders further forensic findings * Much of the timeline of events is based on one witness’s interview, thus the scope and the time leading to the assault remain very limited * Some of the crime scene reports are incomplete. The field notes made by Detective Rige are difficult to read, and since the transcribed version of the events does not exist, pieces of the crime scene reconstruction are missing * The victimology has been pieced together from John Byers’s interview only – it is possible that certain victim characteristics were not provided in the evidence that may be crucial to determining who the offender is likely to be

Criminal profile approach
The report attempts to combine a number of approaches, drawing heavily on the Behavioural Evidence Analysis (BEA) for answers on the offender’s actions and motivations before and during the crime.

Examinations Performed
The criminal profile has been constructed based on, but not limited to, the following available case evidence:
Crittenden County Coroner’s Office Report
Crittenden County Coroner’s Office Supplemental Report
Arkansas State Crime Laboratory
Arkansas State Crime Laboratory Analysis
West Memphis Police Department interview with John Mark Byers
Criminal Investigation Field Report
Report of Laboratory Analysis

Background
According to the case materials collected by the West Memphis Police Department, the three victims, Michael Moore, Steve Branch and Christopher Byers were found in the nearby woods, one day after they were reported missing, on May 6th 1993.
On the day of the victims’ disappearance, Christopher Byers’s stepfather John Byers, telephoned the police to report his son missing.
Around 6pm to 6.30pm, the three boys cycled to the nearby woods, known as the Robin Hood Hills, and were not seen again until their discovery a day later. Between the disappearance of the victims and their discovery, it is noted by John Byers in his interview that a search had commenced by the neighbours and friends, aided by the police. In the afternoon of the May 6th 1993, the bodies were found by Sargent Mike Allen of the West Memphis Police Department.
The three victims were pulled out of a ditch and all three have suffered similar injuries to the head, torso and the extremities. All three victims were hogtied with shoestrings. Michael Moore and Steve Branch died from multiple injuries and drowning, while Christopher Byers died from multiple injuries and was thrown in the ditch post-mortem. All three victims were struck by a blunt object which caused skull fractures. The three victims also displayed lacerations and gouging wounds on the skull. Christopher Byers was found emasculated.
The ditch where the victims were discovered is in a proximity of a small trail in the wooded area, which the victims were likely cycling through.

Victimology
Victimology is essential for understanding the possible motives of the crime (Douglas et al 1992). It also allows the investigation to discern any possible fantasies, MO or specific knowledge the offender might possess, allowing him to carry out the crime.
The following victimology covers the physical characteristics, lifestyle and incident risks, background history and any hobbies or family histories of the three victims.

Personal Characteristics of the Victims | Christopher Byers | Steve Branch | Michael Moore | Date of Birth | June 23rd 1984 | November 26th 1984 | June 27th 1984 | Age | 8 | 8 | 8 | Gender | Male | Male | Male | Race | Caucasian | Caucasian | Caucasian | Eyes | Brown | Blue | Blue | Hair | Brown | Blond | Brown | Occupation | Student | Student | Student | Residence | West Memphis, AR | West Memphis, AR | West Memphis, AR | Country | Crittenden | Crittenden | Crittenden | Cub Scout | Yes | Yes | Yes | Rode a bicycle | No | Yes | Yes |

Family History: Christopher Byers and Steve Branch come from the families where their mothers have divorced their biological fathers and they are being raised by stepfathers (Case Materials, 1993)
Victims’ lifestyle risk: The victims are eight year old children, with no particular high risk lifestyle activities, other than their ages. Because they lack the physical strength and the life experience the lifestyle risk is high. It should be considered that although children are vulnerable, majority are protected and under the watchful eye of their guardians, so their lifestyle risk factor may not be as high as someone who is an adult but engages in high-risk activities such as aberrant sexual behaviours or suffers from low self-esteem (Turvey, 2002). The lifestyle risk for the victims for harm or loss is therefore, medium.
Victims’ incident risk: The three victims were playing together at the time of the incident. As a rule of thumb, there is safety in numbers. Engaging in activities in a group, generally indicates a lower incident risk to those who engage in activities alone. (Turvey, 2008). Due to the ages of the victims, the general rule of ‘safety in numbers’ cannot be applied in this case. The victims were playing in a secluded, dense, wooded area and were thus put at a higher risk due to the location. Since children are more vulnerable as individuals due to their lack of physical strength to either fight or run, the incident risk for the victims in this case is high for harm or loss.

Crime Scene Reconstruction
In order to accurately establish the behavioural patterns of both, the victim and the offender, it is necessary to consider certain aspects just prior to the offence such as the location of the crime scene, point of contact, method of approach, nature of the sexual and precautionary acts, among others (Turvey, 2008). Below are the scene characteristics and the crime reconstruction as per the case materials of the West Memphis Police Department.
Crime scene: The crime scene is located in the West Memphis densely wooded area known as the Robin Hood Hills, near the Blue Beacon Truck wash off the interstate. The attack, together with the murder, were committed in the same area.
Point of Contact: Point of contact is the very first meeting between the victim and the offender, as described by Turvey (Turvey, 2002). According to physical evidence and the blood found on the scene, the initial point of contact and the approach was within the close proximity of the crime scene.
Method of Approach: The offender was able to approach the victims while they were walking/cycling in the woods. The victims likely knew the offender and had not run upon the approach. It is unlikely that there was an elaborate con used.
Nature of the sexual acts: Although the case materials do not show that the victims have been raped, the emasculation of Christopher Byers indicates sexually motivated act. Steve Branch was also found to have sustained injuries to his penis.
Victim Resistance: According to the coroner’s report, Michael Moore displayed the signs of defence wounds, which indicates resistance during the attack. There were numerous abrasions and contusions on the wrists and lower extremities of the victim, suggesting their attempt to free themselves from bondage, also indicating that the victims were tied up ante-mortem.
Staging: There appear to be no evidence of staging. The crime scene appeared disorganised and the two victims, Steve Branch and Michael Moore were thrown in the water to drown, while Christopher Byers was murdered prior to being thrown in the ditch. This may suggest that in the case of Michael Moore and Steve Branch, the offender might have been interrupted, and thus had fled the area, leaving the two victims on the scene.
Verbal behaviour: Unknown
Trust of Victims: The victims appeared to have been confident going into the wooded area according to the witnesses. In John Byers’s statement, however, he twice reiterated that Christopher Byers was wary of strangers within the area and has twice failed to approach individuals he spotted there that he didn’t know. The victims clearly were not afraid of the area and it is possible they weren’t initially afraid of the offender either.

Modus Operandi
Planning: The crime scene appears disorganised and the crime itself appears to be a blitz attack. A Blitz attack is described as an immediate and usually injurious force in order to physically subdue the victim (Safarik et al, 2002). There were no other evidence present that would indicate any planning from the offender.
Crime Scene Selection: The crime scene was selected based on its remote location. The offender likely took the opportunity of the victims going into the area to commit the crime, rather than selecting the location prior to the attack and taking the victims there. All three victims were known to have been in the area where the crime occurred, therefore, it is likely that the offender knew this.
Evidence of Remorse: There are no evidence of remorse present at the crime scene. The offender remorse is understood as an action which seeks to ‘cancel out’ the crime, and may include attempts to position victims in a ways that conceals their injuries, placing a piece of cloth or clothing over their bodies and intense emotions immediately after or during the crime and drug usage, among others (Turvey, 2008). It is not possible to determine the emotional state of the offender immediately after the crime, however, from the crime scene, there appear to have been no evidence of remorse.
Signature: The signature is sometimes understood as a ‘ritualistic’ act (also sometimes considered a subset of a ritual) that is a unique to the offender (Schlesinger et al, 2010). Judging from the crime scene, there appears not to be any signature present. The emasculation of one victim appears to have been done in rage, rather than part of a ritual and/or signature, and such was not present on the other three victims to conclude this act is a signature.
Motive: The offender appears to be motivated by anger. The victims do not appear to have been sexually assaulted to warrant a fantast

Offender Characteristic * The offender is likely between the ages of 27 and 40 and is most likely a male, based on the homicide offender demographics. (Roberts, et al 2007) * The offender likely knew that the Christopher Byers, Steve Branch and Michael Moore will be unsupervised at the time of their disappearance and it is likely that he knew his actions won’t be monitored. The attacks of this nature are also likely to happen when the offender knows children won’t be immediately looked for, such as children going to school, getting on the bus, or going to play, which coincides with the three victims going towards Robin Hood Hills to play. * The offender shows the signs of anger-excitation behaviour, also known as sadistic, due to the type of injuries inflicted on the victims (Turvey, 2008). This is further supported by the mutilation of Christopher Byers. * It might possible that there is more than one offender as all three victims were subdued and tied. However, considering that the victims were eight year old children and not in a physical ability to resist an adult, one perpetrator should not be ruled out. * The offender was not motivated by sexual fantasy, as there is a lack of sexual activity with the victims ante-mortem or post-mortem. * The offender had an intimate knowledge of the area as he was able to enter and exit the crime scene unnoticed. This could also be due to the fact that his presence within the area did not stand out, thus it might be possible that the offender was among those who were searching for the victims or had known the victims to the capacity that being seen with them would not raise any alarms.

Investigative Suggestions: * All of the physical evidence, including the DNA of parents and immediate family, should be processed and compared. This approach will help eliminate suspects and narrow down the pool of suspects who might have been present at the scene * The interviews of the whereabouts of people close to the three victims should be conducted and their whereabouts confirmed * The blood trail noted by Detective B Ridge (Case Materials, 1993) should be re-examined and possible escape route of the offender established

Ethics and profile limitations
The profile, although put together to the best of the profiler’s knowledge and with presented evidence, does have limitations, which are noted below. * The State Crime Scene Laboratory reports did not have any concrete physical evidence that can be indicative of any of the offender’s physical attributes. It is therefore difficult to direct the profile into a more focused direction * The physical evidence presented is very limited and much of it is contaminated which hinders further forensic findings * Much of the timeline of events is based on one witness’s interview, thus the scope and the time leading to the assault remain very limited * Some of the crime scene reports are incomplete. The field notes made by Detective Ridge are difficult to read, and since the transcribed version of the events does not exist, pieces of the crime scene reconstruction are missing * The victimology has been pieced together from John Byers’s interview only – it is possible that certain victim characteristics were not provided in the evidence that may be crucial to determining who the offender is likely to be
The above report has been compiled to the best of the profiler’s ability, taking into consideration all the physical evidence and witness statements, compiled by the West Memphis Police Department.

References:
Douglas, J. E., Burgess, A. W., Burgess, A. G., & Ressler, R. K. (1992). Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Roberts, A. R., Zgoba, K. M., & Shahidullah, S. M. (2007). Recidivism among four types of homicide offenders: An exploratory analysis of 336 homicide offenders in New Jersey. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 12(5), 493-507.
Safarik, M. E., Jarvis, J. P., & Nussbaum, K. E. (2002). Sexual Homicide of Elderly Females: Linking Offender Characteristics to Victim and Crime Scene Attributes. Journal Of Interpersonal Violence, 17(5), 500–525
Schlesinger, L. B., Kassen, M., Mesa, V. B., & Pinizzotto, A. J. (2010). Ritual and signature in serial sexual homicide. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, 38(2), 239-246.
Turvey, B. E. (2008). Criminal profiling: an introduction to behavioral evidence analysis. Amsterdam: Academic Press/Elsevier
Ch. 21. "Psychopathy and Sadism : Interpreting Psychopathic and Sadistic Behavior in the Crime Scene", pp. 569-604.
Turvey, Brent E. (2002). Criminal profiling : an introduction to behavioral evidence analysis. 2nd Ed. San Diego, Calif. : Academic Press. Ch. 8. "Victimology", pp. 137-155.