Where´s Stevie?

By George Jared

JONESBORO — She had two pieces of candy in her hand, one for her son
Stevie, and the other for her daughter Amanda.

Leaving work at a West Memphis restaurant at 9 p.m. May 5, 1993, Pam
Hobbs walked up to her husband’s car. Inside, 4-year-old Amanda
reached for the treat in her mother’s hands. “Where’s Stevie?”
she asked Amanda. “Momma, we can’t find him,” the girl replied.

Pam spent the rest of the moon-lit night searching the neighborhood
and combing the nearby woods, desperately hoping the boy would come
home.

The nude, bound bodies of 8-year-old Stevie Branch and his two
companions, Christopher Byers and Michael Moore, were found in an
irrigation ditch in the Robin Hood Hills area of West Memphis the
next day.

Less than a year later three teen-agers — Damien Echols, Jason
Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley — were convicted of capital murder in
the case. For years Hobbs referred to the so-called “West Memphis
Three” as “punks” and “freaks.”

From the beginning, Hobbs said she suspected that her then-husband,
Terry Hobbs, might be involved. Stevie disappeared around 6 p.m. that
night, but, according to police records, Terry Hobbs didn’t tell his
wife about the disappearance until he picked her up from work more
than three hours later, even after he claimed to authorities he’d
been searching for the boy.

“He didn’t tell me Stevie was missing. He went and used the pay
phone,” Hobbs said. “Amanda’s the one that told me. Don’t you
think it’s a little suspicious that he didn’t tell me my own son
was gone?”

Hairs and other DNA from the crime scene were tested in 2007, and
none of the convicted men were a match. But one hair found inside a
ligature used to bind Michael Moore could have come from Terry Hobbs,
and another hair at the scene might have come from one of the man’s
friends, according to court documents.

The hairs could have also been at the scene because of secondary hair
transfer, police said. Witnesses have come forward in the last week
claiming to have seen the boys in Terry Hobbs’ care near the time
they disappeared, according to documents filed with the Arkansas
Supreme Court.

The new allegations contradict sworn statements Terry Hobbs made to
investigators in which he said he didn’t see any of the boys the day
they disappeared.

This evidence convinced Hobbs that her former husband might be
involved in the brutal slayings.

Terry Hobbs denied the allegations by his former wife. Advised by his
attorneys not to speak with the media, Hobbs said Monday morning he
couldn’t answer questions about the specific accusations. But he did
say defense attorneys for the convicted have leveled vicious attacks
against him.

“If I could, I’d tell them to straighten and do right,” Terry
Hobbs said. “I don’t care what any of them think.”

Terry Hobbs’ attorney, J. Cody Hiland, is out of town this week and
unavailable for comment.

The West Memphis Police Department has repeatedly stated that Terry
Hobbs is not a suspect in the killings, and the case is closed. Terry
Hobbs is suing country singer Natalie Maines for defamation after she
allegedly referenced him as the possible killer in Web site posts and
at a rally in Little Rock in 2007.

Finding a knife that belonged to Stevie years after his death in her
ex-husband’s knife collection also fueled Hobbs’ speculations. The
night Stevie went missing, his stepfather repeatedly washed already
clean clothes and other items around the house, Hobbs’ sister, Jo
Lynn McCaughey, said.

Draped in a Free the West Memphis Three shirt, McCaughey said she
thinks her former brother-in-law was involved. During those hearings
Hobbs spoke to Baldwin for the first time, telling him that she hoped
he got another trial.

“If they’re not guilty, then God let them go,” Pam Hobbs said.
“I wish I could just tell Judge [David] Burnett to look at the new
evidence. They never got a fair trial. They were convicted before the
trials ever started.”

Attention from the case tortures Hobbs, she said. Questions about the
murders and who committed them haunt her. Despite her belief that
Terry Hobbs may have played a role in her sons’ death, the two still
talk. Their daughter Amanda has two children now. And Hobbs said the
children bring her a lot of joy.

Conversations about what happened to Stevie are rarely brought up,
she said. After 17 tumultuous years of marriage, the couple split up
in 2004.

Before Stevie’s funeral, Hobbs spent a quiet moment alone with her
son. Sitting next to his body, she gently slipped his socks on one
last time.

Should Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley ever be exonerated for the
crime, it’s possible that no one will be brought to justice for
Stevie’s murder.

Hobbs said she’s content with that. “God knows who did it, and
he’ll take care of it in good time,” she said.

Hobbs thinks often about her son, who’s been gone now twice as long
as he was alive. He liked to sing and dreamed of someday being a
police officer, his mother said.

A trunk containing Stevie’s last earthly possessions is under lock
and key, Hobbs said. Clothes, toys, school papers and other
knickknacks inhabit the trunk.

In lonely moments she’ll pull out an old school paper or assignment
completed by her son.

“He was so smart, and he made really good grades the three years he
was in school,” she said. “I always like to remember that.”

The mother said she thinks she’ll see her son again.

“I’ve got an angel in Heaven,” she said. “Steve’s in Heaven.
He’s waiting for me.”

Copyright 2009 Jonesboro Sun