Potential footprints and tire tracks in the surrounding mud.

In 2012, Pam Hicks, the mother of Stevie Branch, filed a Freedom of Information lawsuit against the West Memphis Police Department. She had been trying for 19 years to view the evidence from her son’s murder: the clothes he was wearing when he died, the last bicycle he rode, and the shoelaces used to bind him. Her most painful complaint, however, was that her son’s autopsy photos had somehow been leaked onto the internet and put up for sale on eBay. Hicks did not ask to take possession of any evidence; she simply wanted to see the items. “To the West Memphis Police Department [they] are old evidence, but to me they’re precious memories,” she said. Police Chief Donald Oakes responded that most of the evidence was sealed, and that any outside access could compromise a future prosecution. Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington eventually agreed to allow the families to the items under controlled conditions, but a state statute required the police to hold the evidence for 99 years, and the law does not permit physical handling of the material.

In 2011, the West Memphis Three were released from prison after entering an Alford plea, a legal maneuver allowing them to maintain their innocence while acknowledging the state had enough evidence to convict them. The case is officially considered resolved by the state of Arkansas, meaning no active investigation is underway.

and injuries that investigators initially struggled to interpret [3, 4]. Interpretation and Bias

The specific patterns of the wounds on the victims, particularly Christopher Byers, closely matched the feeding habits of aquatic scavengers, such as snapping turtles, which were native to the Robin Hood Hills creek.