Crooked Tree: A West Memphis 3 Podcast

In this episode of "Crooked Tree", Kristin Rich and Paul Day continue their deep dive into the pivotal May 10, 1993 investigation into the murders of Christopher Byers, Stevie Branch, and Michael Moore. While Damien Echols remains isolated inside the West Memphis Police Department—his attorney still waiting downstairs—detectives scramble to interview the young members of the Covenant of the Divine Light, the local circle of white witches tied to Echols.Hosts examine the interrogation of 16-year-old Chris Littrell, Damien’s neighbor and fellow wiccan, whose alibi and polygraph results raise as many questions as they answer. They turn next to Domini Teer, Damien’s pregnant girlfriend, whose account of the evening of May 5 collides head-on with the detailed sighting reported by Narlene Hollingsworth. Finally, they unpack the simultaneous interview of Donald Warwick across county lines and the follow-up polygraph of group leader Murray Farris.Sparse detective notes, shifting timelines, pentagram necklaces, talk of priestesses and rebirth rituals, and a tip about animal killings all collide as police try to separate rumor from evidence. The episode lays bare how the West Memphis PD handled the white-witch angle, which witnesses they chose to believe, and which they quietly cleared—while the larger case continued to leak like a sieve.A tense, document-driven look at one of the most consequential nights of the investigation.

May 10, 1993, was a long, chaotic day in West Memphis. While investigators fanned out across the community—questioning Jason Baldwin’s brand-new girlfriend Heather Cliett (and noting her brother’s ties to the Covenant of the Divine Light), a store clerk with a vague, nearly useless statement, and two young friends of the victims who offered contradictory or impossible stories about a maroon car and a mysterious fourth boy—Damien Echols remained locked inside the police department for roughly eight and a half hours.He underwent intense questioning, a polygraph, and a hospital rape kit. His mother retained attorney (and future state senator) Mike Everett. When Everett arrived and repeatedly demanded access to his client, the building was effectively locked down. Officers denied him entry multiple times even after acknowledging they knew he was there and represented Damien. Damien later testified he had asked for a lawyer several times; the officers denied it. At a subsequent Denno hearing, the court sided with the police.Meanwhile, the official cause-of-death reports finally arrived from the medical examiner: multiple injuries, manner of death homicide for Christopher Byers, Stevie Branch, and Michael Moore.This episode reconstructs the parallel timelines of that pivotal day—the scattered witness interviews that yielded almost nothing useful, the mounting pressure on Damien, and the extraordinary decision to keep his lawyer outside while the interrogation continued. The case against him was already hardening, even as the mystery of what truly happened to the three boys remained unsolved.

In this special bonus episode of Crooked Tree, a voice from the original investigation steps forward after more than three decades.Paul sits down for a long, revealing phone call with Jason White—one of the teenagers named in the West Memphis police reports from the afternoon the three boys disappeared. Jason has listened. He’s read the files. And he wants the record set straight.What really happened near Robin Hood Hills and Devil’s Den that May afternoon? Did a group of teens offer two young girls a “shot”? Were the victims or their bikes seen? How did a simple neighborhood friendship get twisted into a “cousin” note that followed them through the case files? And why did a broken knife left in the woods suddenly put them under the gaze of Detective Sudbury?Jason walks through the timeline, the friendships, the curfew that pulled him home, and the moment Ryan Clark (Chris Byers' brother) asked for help looking for his little brother. His memory is sharp. His account is consistent. And it forces a closer look at the statements of Kim Williams and Dawn Moore—and the conclusions drawn from them.This is not a story of suspects. It’s a story of witnesses who never realized how close the shadow of the case had come to them… until now.A quiet, careful correction of the record—and a rare firsthand look at the neighborhood boys who were there when the clocks were still ticking on May 5, 1993.

Who was LG Hollingsworth, and why did his name become so closely tied to Damien Echols in the early days of the West Memphis Three investigation?In this episode of Crooked Tree: A West Memphis 3 Podcast, Paul Day and Kristin Rich dive deep into one of the most complicated and controversial threads in the case: the Hollingsworth family, a series of conflicting eyewitness accounts, and the infamous “stinky box” allegations that helped fuel suspicion surrounding LG Hollingsworth, Damien Echols, and Domini Teer.Following the investigation day by day, we examine Narlene Hollingsworth’s May 9, 1993, tip to West Memphis police, her claims about seeing the boys near Weaver Elementary and Damien and Domini walking along the service road, and the discrepancies between her account and the timelines provided by other witnesses. We also break down LG’s May 10 interrogation, Detective Bryn Ridge’s handwritten notes, the collection of LG’s shoes and a knife, and the growing web of allegations connecting the young people under investigation.But the deeper we dig, the more questions emerge. Why do the descriptions of the boys Narlene allegedly saw fail to match key details about the victims? What do the conflicting timelines reveal? Why were investigators focused on a possible laundromat connection, and what should we make of the increasingly disturbing reports of a mysterious box, alleged threats, and rumors of missing body parts?We also explore the competing accusations between LG and Damien, the anonymous calls claiming responsibility for the murders, and the storm-soaked recording of Narlene’s police interview that offers a rare glimpse into the investigation as it unfolded. With sparse police notes, contradictory statements, and crucial details that remain open to interpretation, separating documented evidence from speculation becomes essential.Paul and Kristin piece together the evidence, revisit the timeline, and examine the questions that continue to make the Hollingsworth connection one of the most fascinating and debated aspects of the West Memphis Three case.Listen closely, compare the accounts, and decide what the evidence actually tells us. And if you can help decipher the difficult-to-hear audio from Narlene’s interview, we want to hear from you.Join the conversation in our Facebook group and share your thoughts, theories, and findings.Crooked Tree: A West Memphis 3 Podcast — examining the evidence, questioning the narrative, and revisiting one of the most infamous cases in true crime history.

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.They open with thanks to community members who shared insights on Wicca and a call for a polygraph examiner to independently review Damien Echols’ charts.The questions then take center stage: Was Damien still at the West Memphis Police Department during the anonymous 3:36 p.m. May 10 call claiming responsibility for the killings—and could the voice have been his? Did Detective Bryn Ridge routinely ask religious and occult questions of multiple suspects? Why did Damien place himself at the Sanders house from 3–5 p.m., and did he wear a watch? Could an innocent person have inferred “two drowned and one was mutilated”? Did Jason Baldwin ever have “evil” tattooed across his knuckles? What does a fuller timeline from the boys’ last sightings to discovery look like, and is there evidence one person (or more) restrained all three? What about the gunshot heard in the woods during the search, and was Terry Hobbs known to carry? Finally, how much of Damien’s troubled past reached the jury, and did it drive the guilty verdicts?As always, Paul and Kristin stay grounded in the documentation, clarify earlier points, correct misconceptions, and share what the records actually show—while teasing deeper dives still ahead. Join the discussion in the Facebook group and keep the questions coming.