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www.midsouthjustice.com

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“Melissa Byers”

Sketch of Melissa Byers

FACT: On March 29^th, 1996, Melissa Byers died. She was found by a neighbor naked and unconscious after John Mark Byers called him for help. Doctors noticed IV puncture marks on the top of both her feet, on the inside of her wrist, and on her upper right thoracic area.” ^{Source: Atria
Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s Knot, p. 300, 2002.}

FACT: On the day of Melissa’s death, John Mark Byers called a neighbor to come help. When the neighbor arrived, he found Melissa Byers naked on the bed and told John Mark Byers to perform CPR on her. The neighbor called an ambulance and wondered why Byers had not done so yet. The autopsy report stated the cause of death was undetermined since she had so many drugs in her system. Byers’s girlfriend at the time stated that Melissa Byers died the day she had asked him for a divorce. She also stated that John Mark Byers had threatened Mandy with her life if she disclosed the fact that he had hypodermic needles in his drawer. Ryan Clark was reported as having an “eerie look on his face” when he was putting clothes on his mother before the ambulance arrived. He was reported as “mumbling incoherently” and got in his car and almost flipped it as he screeched away from the household before the ambulance arrived. The autopsy reports were inconclusive and could not determine the exact cause of death of Melissa Byers. ^{Source: Atria Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s Knot,
pp 300 & 301, 2002.}

FACT: The neighbor who had been called to John Mark Byers’s household reported that, “John Mark Byers also told him he thought her death was a drug overdose and that they were going to accuse him of smothering her.” ^{Source: Atria Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s
Knot, pp 302, 2002.}

FACT: “A prison inmate serving time for drugs told investigators in a written statement that he had known the Byerses. “I can remember Mark giving her pills and other drugs on more than one occasion,” he wrote. A seventeen-year-old from Cherokee Village told Witt that, on the day Melissa died, he had been “partying” with the Byerses at their residence, “drinking Crown Royal and taking Valium and Xanax, and that he saw Mark Byers with a sandwich baggie of K-4 Dilaudid.” ^{Source: Atria Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s
Knot, p 392, 2002.}

FACT: “Melissa’s parents said that Melissa’s marriage to John Mark Byers was on the verge of collapse. “We knew he was shenaniganin’,” her mother said. “He was foolin’ with a woman up there. Melissa said she was going to divorce him. She told him she was going to leave him. But he said he wasn’t going to divorce another woman.” Melissa’s parents said that shortly before Melissa died, she’d told them she was coming home to stay with them for a couple of days. They expected her on Friday. When she hadn’t arrived by mid afternoon, “We called the house to see if she was coming, and Mark said, ‘No, she’s not feeling good and she’s asleep.’ Later on that night the phone rang. Mark just laid it out: ‘Melissa’s dead.’ That’s all he said.” ^{Source:
Atria Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s Knot, p 313, 2002.}

FACT: After Christopher’s murder, police did not contact Melissa’s parents. After Melissa’s unusual death, the police did not contact them either. ^{Source: Atria Books: Mara Leveritt, Devil’s Knot,
p 313, 2002.}

FACT: In Paradise Lost, Part 2, ~1:10. John Mark Byers is filmed speaking with a polygraph examiner before taking a polygraph test. The polygraph examiner asks, “Have you had any other problems with the police?” Byers answers, “Not major, no sir.” The examiner asks, “You’ve had problems? Is that what you’re saying?” Byers answers, “oh well, speeding tickets, I got a DUI one time after my wife was murdered, uh, nothing really major no.”

(Download this Quicktime Video Clip from Paradise Lost, Part 2) (Right Click and “Save As”)

Image of John Mark Byers kissing and embracing Melissa Byers from Paradise Lost, Part 1

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