If you would, I want you to just kinda think back umm, May the 5th 1993. On May the 5th 1993, Michael Moore, Stevie Branch and Chris Byers were in school at Weaver Elementary School in the second grade, all of 'em eight years old. After they got out of school, umm, they're all friends, at some point after getting out of school, Stevie Branch goes over to Michael Moore's house, and Michael and Stevie they were both on their bicycles, uhh, one of them has a, uhh, Michael has a green bicycle and Stevie has a red and black bicycle, and they're riding around the neighborhood, uhh, just doing what eight year old kids do, just playing.
Well about, uhh, somewhere around 6:00, Michael's mother is outside and she sees Michael on his bicycle, and Stevie on his bicycle, and they've joined up with Chris Byers, who lived across the street from Michael, and I believe the proof's going to show that Chris is riding on the bicycle with Stevie and they're heading north on Goodwin.
Now, this is an aerial photograph and this shows part of Goodwin, is this street right here, and they were heading north on Goodwin, headed toward this area, which is referred to by the kids as Robin Hood area. And on the photograph, you'll be able to see all the trails and things that the kids ride their bikes on and play. And this area here, this wooded area here, uhh, the proof's going to show is an area that's called Robin Hood Hills and it's a wooded area, and believe it or not, in Crittenden County there's some, some higher elevations and lower elevations, and it's a place, a wooded area, I guess it's the kids' Sherwood Forest, it's where the kids play and uhh, do what kids do.
This is the interstate highway, I-55, this is what's called the Blue Beacon Truck Wash, proof's going to show that this is a Love's Truck Stop right here, this is all residential area in here.
Now, the proof's going to show, as I said that Dana Moore saw these boys heading on these two bicycles headed north on Goodwin Street and she sent her daughter to go get them, it's time for supper, it was about 6:00, and the daughter couldn't catch up to him, and later, I think a neighbor who uhh, somebody that lives on, I believe it's this circle right here, in one of these houses, saw the kids headed toward that area, they had been kinda riding through her yard and she said you know ya'll don't ride in my yard, ya'll are gonna run over my trees and the last they were seen, they were headed toward this area. That was the last time that the kids were seen alive, that we know of.
Now, some time a little bit later, I believe the Byers family, uhh, Chris wasn't supposed to be out there, he was supposed to have been at home, I think maybe cleaning up the garage or something, he wasn't supposed to be out there and uhh, when Mr. Byers gets home, uhh, the wife's there and they see that Chris is not there and after a period of time, they begin to look. Uhh, a little bit later, the Moores begin to look, and can't find the kids, you know they're going around the neighborhood. Now, at this time, uhhm, Stevie Branch's mother was working at Catfish Island which is a restaurant over near the interstate and uhh, her husband was at home and he had begun to look.
Well, the parents begin to get a little frantic and they end up spending a, really a frantic night of searching for these kids. Uhhh, they search and search and search and they don't find their children.
Well, on May the 6th '93, the, there's a full scale search out, uhhh, people searching all over, not only in this area but all over anywhere, you know, that the kids might possibly be.
Sometime around 1:00, in this area, and in this area by the way, the proof's going to show that there's a creek that uhh, I use the term loosely for our area because it's some kind of a drainage ditch but it, it's more like a creek, flows through this wooded area into, this is a major drainage canal right here, and it flows into that, somewhere about right in here. Now, right here, and of course you can't see it from there, but there's a large pipe that the kids use to cross this ditch to get into this wooded area.
Now the proof's going to show that sometime around 1:00 the next day, the uhh, police get a call that, you know, somebody needs to come out here and one of the officers goes out to this area and there floating in the water, in this creek has about 2 and 1/2 feet, maybe 2 and 1/2 feet of water, maybe knee deep water, he sees a tennis shoe and maybe a couple of tennis shoes. And he tries to cross over to the other side where he thinks that he can get to it and falls in the water and uhh, you'll actually even see photographs of before he actually got in the water, and then where he fell in the water and then he gets up and goes around and he gets back into the water to get this tennis shoe and see whether it's something that might mean something and as he's going towards the tennis shoe, his foot hit something. And when he lifts up his foot, Michael Moore's body comes up.
I too think this might be so, but right now it's more belief than firm hypothesis for me.