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Sheriff to re-examine Byers 'cold case'
Sheriff Dale Weaver, of Sharp County, Arkansas, said in an October interview that his office intends to do “some additional work within the next few months” to answer questions that have lingered for more than 10 years over the death of Melissa Byers, (shown in the self-portrait above).
Byers was the mother of Christopher Byers, who was murdered with two other boys in May 1993. She died under mysterious circumstances in a Sharp County hospital on Mar. 29, 1996. Her body was taken immediately to the Arkansas Medical Examiner’s Office in Little Rock. Pathologists there ruled that they could not determine the physical cause of her death. They also ruled that they could not determine whether it was due to natural causes, or murder, suicide or accident. The Arkansas State Police investigated her death as “a possible homicide.”
Investigation ‘still open’
Weaver’s remarks came after a request to him and Henry Boyce, the district’s prosecuting attorney, for release of the police investigative file, since more than 10 years had passed since the time of Byers’ death. Boyce, who was not a prosecutor ten years ago, initially responded, “I would think it would have been made available to you long ago.” He said he would consult with the sheriff. Weaver later announced that the file would not be released because the investigation was “still open.”
Weaver said that the Arkansas State Police, which participated in the initial investigation into Byers’s death, would be asked to help in what has become a cold-case investigation. “In 10 years, a lot of things change,” Weaver said. “And perhaps there would be someone somewhere who can shed new light on whatever happened.”
Seeking new information
The sheriff, who was a deputy at the time, said people who were questioned at the time of Byers’s death would be re-questioned, and that new subjects may be interviewed. He invited anyone who had information relating to the case to call his office at 870-994-7356. Weaver said the ambiguous ruling by the medical examiner’s office meant that the case remained “wide open.” “We’ve had our suspicions,” he said, “but having our suspicions and proving them are two different things.”
Weaver said the inconclusive medical examiner’s report placed the burden of determining the cause and manner of Byers’ death entirely on police. “If they would have definitely said it was an accidental overdose, and ruled it was an accident,” he said, “we could have put it behind us. Or, if they had ruled it was a homicide, we would have had something more to work with.” As it was, he said, “It may be that other findings police come up with, even now, can help the medical examiner make a more exact determination.”
Alive at the hospital
Byers was reportedly unconscious at 5:20 p.m. when an ambulance arrived at her home. She was reportedly alive when she arrived at the hospital, but was pronounced dead at 6:30 p.m. At 8:10 p.m., her body was turned over to the county coroner, to be taken to the medical examiner’s office. The medical examiner reported finding drugs in her system but ruled that their levels were “not enough to be lethal.” A neighbor who drove Byers’s husband, John Mark Byers, to the hospital told police that, “Mark told him he was afraid Melissa had overdosed” on an illegal drug. The neighbor added that John Mark Byers had told him he feared he would be accused of smothering his wife.
On the night of Melissa’s death, police asked John Mark Byers to provide a written outline of his activities that afternoon. Byers wrote that he and his wife had taken a nap, and that when he woke up he could not awaken her.
