John Mark Byers is the adoptive father of 8 year old Christopher Byers, who, along with fellow cub scouts Stevie Branch and Michael Moore, was murdered in West Memphis Arkansas on May 5, 1993.Byers was born in the tiny hamlet of Marked Tree, Arkansas, to George Washington Byers, Sr., an agricultural co-op manager, and Auvergne Dyes Byers who managed the town's two school cafeterias.He attended Paris (TX) Junior College, where he studied jewelry design and repair. Byers married Sandra Summerall in Jackson, Mississippi on June 2, 1977. The couple had two children, Andy and Natalie. In February 1987, Byers discovered that Sandra was having an affair with a neighbor; they were divorced shortly afterward.In May of that same year, Mark married Sharon Melissa DeFir, who had two sons - Ryan Clark and Christopher Murray. Byers eventually adopted Christopher (though not Ryan), renaming the boy Christopher Mark Byers. This adoption was the subject of much speculation: Mara Leveritt went so far as to speculate that Christopher was never legally adopted, and thus was buried under a false name, which, she wrote in Devils Knot, was a felony.After Christopher's murder, Mark Byers's life rapidly spiraled downward.Following the trials and convictions of Damien Echols, 18, Jason Baldwin, 16, and Jessie Lloyd Misskelley Jr., 17, the Byers family, left West Memphis for the Ozark hills, settling in the planned community of Cherokee Village. Trouble started almost immediately. Mark and Melissa racked up several felony charges related to the looting of an absentee neighbors house, though Melissa didnt live long enough to stand trial. After a violation of his probation in 1999 - he sold $80 worth of Xanax to an undercover policeman - Mark was imprisoned, first at the Eastern Arkansas Regional Unit near Brickeys, Arkansas, and finishing his 15 month sentence at the Delta Regional unit in Dermott. He was released on parole in August 2000, and finished his parole obligation without incident in 2007. He married for the third time in June of 2003.The HBO film Paradise Lost , and a sequel, Revelations: Paradise Lost 2 - released in 1996 and 2000 respectively - put Byers in the national spotlight. Audiences had an immediate and visceral reaction to Byers's histrionics in the films. Shooting pumpkins with a .45 roundball revolver, naming each one after one of the West Memphis Three, and burning mock graves in effigy, convinced viewers that Byers was one crazy redneck. Mark was easily recognized on the streets around Jonesboro, Arkansas, and became a very large target for supporters. To this day, some still suspect John Mark Byers; how could they not?The Paradise Lost films were not exactly subtle, and the producers claims of cinematic integrity are often suspect. Though they claim objectivity regarding the portrayal of Mark Byers in the films, it is obvious to any viewer that HBO was getting a ratings boost from the antics of Mark Byers. His appearances solidified him as the alternate suspect of choice among audiences for years after the films were aired. Only the revelation of Terry Hobbs as a suspect in 2007 took the focus off Byers. (It is worth noting that police have never considered Hobbs a suspect.)When Melissa Byers died at her husbands side of undetermined causes in March of 1996, West Memphis Three supporters radar really started to hum.Despite his inability to determine what had caused Melissa Byerss death, the medical examiner was at least confident of what was not the cause: she had not been stabbed, shot, strangled, suffocated, beaten, or poisoned.On the other hand, there were many other, non-homicidal possibilities. Her health was poor. She was obese. Her blood sugar, potassium, and triglyceride levels were all very high. Her heart was enlarged, and there was a 50 percent arteriosclerotic narrowing (hardening) in her right coronary artery. She was a long-term narcotics abuser with a litany of drugs present in her system. She smoked, ate poorly, and exercised little. She was severely stressed over her impending criminal trial, stressed over how to pay the bills each month, and in a constant state of agitation toward everyone from linoleum installers to her neighbors. She was still severely depressed over the loss of her son, was being prescribed antidepressants, and had tried to commit suicide. She was, in short, an accident waiting to happen. The medical examiners inability to determine a cause of death simply illustrates his failure to consider the totality of Melissas condition.But supporters, unbothered by evidence to the contrary, pinned Melissas death on Byers anyway. Mara Leveritts 2003 tome dedicated to the cause, Devils Knot, was unrelenting in its pursuit of Byers as an alternate (or perhaps prime) suspect. (USA Cable, who was considering the book for a TV Docudrama, ultimately rejected the book, calling it wholly fictional.) The key to the success of the Free the West Memphis Three movement has always rested with their ability to point the finger to another suspect.Enter Terry Wayne Hobbs.In mid-2007, Mark was approached first by private investigator Ron Lax [played by Colin Firth in the film], and later by former FBI profiler John Douglas. Armed with mitochondrial DNA from the crime scene - which Douglas told Mark belonged to Terry Hobbs and Hobbs's friend David Jacoby - Douglas convinced Byers that Terry Hobbs killed Christopher, Hobbs's stepson Stevie Branch and Michael Moore, in what Douglas said was a case of a punishment (of Stevie) getting out of hand. Indeed. Three crushed skulls, multiple lacerations on each boy, binding of the victims nude bodies, and the removal of Christopher Byers's private parts does sound pretty out of hand. But was Terry Hobbs capable of such rage? Many think so, but the evidence doesn't support it; the evidence against the West Memphis Three still makes the strongest case.Mark now lives outside Memphis Tennessee, and has become one of the more vocal supporters of the innocence of the West Memphis Three.Damien Echols was granted an evidentiary hearing by the Arkansas State Supreme Court in September 2010. Before that hearing was setup, however, a deal was struck to free the three after they pleaded guilty to lesser charges. They left prison in August 2011. They are still guilty under the law, but the same PR machine that won their release is ginning up to have them exonerated of all charges.West of Memphis, the newest documentary on the case, sharpens its arrows anew in preparation for their skewering of Terry Hobbs. Lord of the Rings guru Sir Peter Jackson of New Zealand has been funding an investigation for several years. American filmmaker Amy Berg has teamed up with Damien Echols and wife Lorri Davis to make the ultimate advocacy film. Although it has been heralded as something of a breakthrough, the film merely rearranges the facts (and fictions) to synthesize another angle of the same case. Show less «