West Memphis 3 Autopsy: Findings, Criticisms, and Reinterpretation

The autopsies of the West Memphis 3 victims, performed on May 7, 1993, documented that all three eight-year-old boys — Christopher Byers, Michael Moore, and Stevie Branch — died of severe head trauma, with Moore and Branch also drowning, and that Byers had suffered extensive genital injuries and anal dilation. Those findings drove the prosecution’s satanic-ritual theory in 1994, but forensic experts who reviewed the same evidence years later concluded that the most graphic injuries were caused by animals feeding on the bodies after death, not by a knife, and that there was no medical evidence of sexual assault on any of the boys.

What the Original Autopsies Documented

Dr. Frank Peretti, an associate medical examiner for the state of Arkansas, performed all three autopsies the day after the bodies were pulled from a drainage ditch in Robin Hood Hills. Dr. William Q. Sturner, the state’s chief medical examiner, co-signed the reports.¹ Each boy was found hog-tied with his own shoelaces, wrists bound to ankles, naked.

Peretti ruled the cause of death for Michael Moore and Stevie Branch as “multiple injuries with drowning” — the head wounds alone could have killed them, but both were still alive when they entered the water.²¹ Christopher Byers’ cause of death was listed as “multiple injuries,” with no drowning component.³

Christopher Byers

Byers had the most severe injuries. The report described the skin of his penis, scrotal sac, and testes as “missing,” with a gaping defect surrounded by multiple punctate gouging wounds. His anal orifice was “markedly dilated” with diffuse redness of the rectal mucosa. He also had multiple facial injuries, skull fractures, and subarachnoid hemorrhage. Toxicology detected sub-therapeutic levels of carbamazepine in his blood. Oral and rectal swabs were negative for semen.³

Stevie Branch

Branch sustained a 3.5-inch fracture at the base of his skull, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and numerous contusions, abrasions, and lacerations across his face and body. His genital area was intensely red with fine superficial scratches on the penis, but the injuries were far less severe than Byers’. His anus was dilated with mild mucosal redness but no internal injury. Signs of drowning were classic: “washerwoman” wrinkling of the hands and feet, pulmonary edema, and water in the sphenoid sinus.² Marks on his face were later characterized as bite marks.⁴

Michael Moore

Moore’s injuries closely resembled Branch’s: multiple skull fractures at the top and base of the skull, brain hemorrhaging, facial lacerations, and drowning. Peretti identified defense-type wounds on Moore’s hands, small cuts and scratches consistent with an attempt to fend off an attacker. His anal area showed dilation with mud present. Oral and anal smears were negative for spermatozoa.¹ Peretti testified that some of Moore’s scalp lacerations were consistent with a broad-surfaced object roughly three to four inches in diameter, such as a log, while others were consistent with a thinner object.⁵

How Prosecutors Framed the Autopsy Findings at Trial

West Memphis police read the crime scene as satanic ritual from the start. The autopsy findings — especially Byers’ genital wounds and the anal dilation documented in all three reports — became the medical spine of that theory.

Peretti testified that Byers’ genital wounds were antemortem, inflicted while the boy was alive, and were “consistent with the serrated portion” of a knife recovered from a lake behind Damien Echols’ home. On cross-examination he conceded the wounds were equally consistent with other serrated knives, including one belonging to John Mark Byers, Christopher’s stepfather.⁶ A self-described “cult expert,” Dale Griffis, testified that the removal of blood and genital mutilation were “trappings of the occult.”⁷

Prosecutors pointed to the anal dilation as sexual assault. Peretti also testified that certain injuries to the boys’ ears and lips could be consistent with oral sex, then acknowledged under cross that the same marks could result from physical restraint or blunt-force trauma.⁵ No semen was detected on any victim, and Peretti himself testified that he found no physical evidence of sodomy.⁸

Criticisms of the Original Autopsy Work

Peretti’s work drew sustained attacks on procedural and scientific grounds.

He admitted under oath that he deliberately withheld specific findings from police, prosecutors, and the county coroner during the investigation, citing concerns about “intense media coverage.” Detectives said the delays left them “walking blindfolded” through the early phase of the case.⁸ His formal report omitted an earlier finding of urine in the victims’ stomachs, with no explanation.

His time-of-death testimony shifted between the two trials. At the Jessie Misskelley trial he said he could not reliably estimate when the boys died. At the Echols-Baldwin trial he offered an estimate of between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m., a window that directly contradicted the prosecution’s timeline of a killing hours earlier.⁹ A prosecutor told the jury: “If you rely on Dr. Peretti for a time-of-death opinion, it’s a mistake.”⁸

Peretti did not measure the serration patterns on the victims’ wounds during the autopsies because the knife had not yet been recovered. When it surfaced, he testified the wounds were “consistent” with its serrated edge but could not say with medical certainty that this specific knife caused them.⁶ He also acknowledged that he had manually repositioned the bodies to take certain autopsy photographs, and defense counsel challenged the resulting images as potentially misleading.

The Animal Predation Reinterpretation

The most consequential challenge to the autopsy interpretation came years after the convictions. Multiple independent forensic experts concluded that the injuries prosecutors had attributed to a knife-wielding attacker were caused by animals feeding on the bodies after death.

In 2007, forensic pathologist Dr. Werner Spitz and forensic scientist Dr. Jon Norby reported that the genital wounds on Christopher Byers were the result of “postmortem animal predation.”¹⁰ At a 2009 Rule 37 post-conviction hearing, four forensic experts testified in succession.

Spitz testified that all three boys died of drowning, that there was no evidence a knife had been used, and that nearly all external marks were attributable to animal predation from dogs or water animals.¹¹
Dr. Michael Baden, former chief medical examiner for New York City, concluded that injuries previously identified as knife wounds were post-mortem animal predation and that there were no signs of sexual assault on any victim. He said “that quick assumption of a Satanic cult colored the autopsy interpretations and police investigation wrongly.” Baden also noted that animal hair recovered from the victims’ bodies was never listed in the original autopsy report.¹²
Dr. Janice Ophoven, a pediatric forensic pathologist, testified that Byers’ “degloving” genital injury was caused by “animal predation, post-mortem,” that there were “no knife cuts or stab wounds to the victims,” and that there was “no evidence of a sexual assault.”¹³
Dr. Richard Souviron, a forensic odontologist, testified that the children’s injuries were consistent with animal bites and scratches, not knife wounds, and that there was no evidence of sexual assault.¹⁴

Forensic pathologist Dr. Rebecca Hsu separately reviewed the reports and photographs and concluded that while the head injuries were antemortem, the gouging injuries on Branch’s face and Byers’ genital mutilation were consistent with post-mortem feeding by turtles and fish. She noted that a knife would have produced cleaner, more consistent wounds. Herpetologist Dr. Lori Neuman-Lee confirmed through experiment — placing chicken carcasses in the bayou — that turtle beaks and claws produce injuries matching those on the victims.¹⁰

How the Autopsy Evidence Contradicts the Misskelley Confession

The prosecution leaned heavily on a confession from Jessie Misskelley Jr., who was 17 at the time with a reported IQ of 72. The medical findings did not corroborate it. Misskelley said the boys were tied with rope; the autopsies documented shoelaces. He described sexual assault; the autopsies found no semen and no physical evidence of penetration. He described knife use that later defense experts said the wounds do not support.¹⁵

Where the Autopsy Evidence Stands Now

The accumulation of new forensic analysis, along with DNA findings and allegations of jury misconduct, led a judge to vacate all three convictions on August 19, 2011. Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Misskelley entered Alford pleas, maintaining innocence while acknowledging the prosecution had enough to convict, and were released on time served.¹⁵

DNA testing has continued to shift the picture around the autopsy evidence. In 2007, testing on a hair jammed inside a ligature knot binding Michael Moore returned an “almost certain match” for Terry Hobbs, Stevie Branch’s stepfather. A second hair, found on a tree stump near the bodies, matched Hobbs’ friend and alibi witness David Jacoby.¹⁶ None of the DNA tested from the crime scene matched Echols, Baldwin, or Misskelley.¹⁷ Hobbs has denied involvement, saying “all those little boys played at our home” and suggesting the hair could have transferred innocently. Jacoby has said he was not with Hobbs at the time the boys vanished.¹⁸

Echols has pursued full exoneration under Arkansas Act 1780 of 2001, which allows convicted individuals to seek new DNA testing to demonstrate actual innocence. A Crittenden County judge initially denied his 2022 petition on the ground that he was no longer incarcerated. On April 18, 2024, the Arkansas Supreme Court reversed, holding that an Alford plea does not preclude a defendant from challenging a conviction on actual innocence grounds and that the statute does not limit testing to people still in prison.¹⁹

In June 2025, a circuit judge ordered the West Memphis Police Department and Arkansas State Crime Lab to release evidence to Bode Technology in Virginia for advanced testing. The items include the ligatures used to bind the victims, hairs recovered from the crime scene and bodies, and other trace evidence.²⁰ The testing uses M-Vac technology, a microbiological vacuum designed to recover skin cells from porous materials such as fabric, along with touch DNA analysis. Neither existed in 1993. The court order noted that the original trial evidence had been handled in a manner “not acceptable by contemporary forensic science standards.”²¹ As of mid-June 2026, the evidence remains at Bode. A spokesperson for Echols said testing was expected to be completed by the end of July 2026, and that if a DNA match is identified, the legal team will ask authorities to reopen the case.²²

1
Callahan Case Archive. Autopsy Report — James Michael Moore (ME-329-93)
2
Callahan Case Archive. Autopsy Report — Steve Edward Branch (ME-330-93)
3
Callahan Case Archive. Autopsy Report — Christopher Mark Byers (ME-331-93)
4
Memphis Flyer. Life After Death
5
Famous Trials. Dr. Peretti Testimony, Misskelley Trial
6
Famous Trials. Dr. Peretti Testimony, Echols-Baldwin Trial
7
Famous Trials. West Memphis Three Trial Homepage
8
Arkansas Times. Devilish Questions
9
Famous Trials. West Memphis Three Case Chronology
10
Oxygen. Victims’ Injuries and Animal Predation in the West Memphis Three Case
11
KAIT8. West Memphis 3 Rule 37 Hearing Resumes
12
KAIT8. Another Forensic Salvo for the West Memphis Three
13
Talk Business & Politics. Evidence in West Memphis Three Case Sent to Lab
14
WestMemphis3.org. Time to Overturn the Convictions
15
Britannica. West Memphis Three
16
Talk Business & Politics. Evidence Testing in West Memphis Three Case Could Be Completed by End of July
17
Innocence Project. Justice for the West Memphis Three
18
WREG. Terry Hobbs Breaks His Silence
19
Arkansas Advocate. Arkansas Supreme Court Reverses West Memphis Three Ruling, Allows for DNA Testing
20
KAIT8. Judge Orders DNA Testing of WM3 Evidence
21
WREG. Crittenden County Judge Clears Way for DNA Testing in West Memphis Three Case
22
Action News 5. West Memphis 3 DNA Test Results Expected Next Month