Hello, and thank you for coming here.You are at the memorial site of Anastasia WitbolsFeugen, murdered on the 22nd of October 1997. Byron Case was convicted of that murder on the 2nd of May 2002, and has had two appeals turned down, the last one unanimously on the 26th of February 2008 by the Missouri Appellate Court.(1)
You have probably come here from Victims of the State, where an overzealous supporter of Byron Case has linked you here to view the trial transcripts. We don't mind; after all, we put up the trial transcripts so that people could read them and make up their own minds. However, since you came here from an article, written by a supporter who still refuses to identify themself, an article which we feel has a tremendous degree of bias, and a not-inconsiderable amount of half-truths and outright untruths, we feel we should be able to give our perspective in return. We'll get you to the transcripts, but first, please read this word from the sponsor of this site.
We would like you to understand that, while there are too many wrongful convictions in this country, the conviction of Byron Case is most certainly not one of them. The story told on the Victims of the State site alleging what happened on the night of the murder is based entirely on Byron Case's alibi, which his just-turned-15-year-old girlfriend supported,(2) and did so for two more years until she was no longer under his control. The time frame is not consistent with either Case's alibi or by our best estimates.(3) Justin Bruton was found dead some 30 miles away, not 70 as stated. While we can excuse both those errors simply as unintentional errors and not a deliberate attempt by its author to over-dramatize, we do have to suspect some very sloppy research on his part, and we also have to wonder about the accuracy and veracity of any of Case's supporters' statements and claims.
The article claims that Kelly Moffett came forward with a different story "shortly after Case permanently broke up with" her, but a quick study of the evidence reveals that it was Kelly Moffett who broke up with Byron Case (not the other way around), and that the breakup occured some eighteen months before she came forward to prosecutors. This fact was corroborated by both Case's testimony(4) as well as Moffett's,(5) and happened about the same time Case was committed to a mental institution on a suicide watch.(6). Moffett's true motivation to come forward at that particular time was Case's absolute refusal to talk to her about the murder, and his decision to move to St. Louis to escape the "bad memories," leaving her alone to deal with having witnessed the crime.(7)
The author harps on Kelly Moffett's drug problems, ignoring that her drug problems began only after the murder; it's convenient to leave the impression with you that she was always a doper, when her drug use prior to the murder was less that of than Byron Case, who was a cocaine user and convicted felon before the murder.(8) And he just cannot let go of the "reward" issue. We answered this long ago,(9) but Case and his supporters still cling to the slanderous claim, calling Moffett's testimony "possibly incentivized" and claiming it is "not clear if Moffett received reward money." To clear that up, Kelly Moffett did not seek or receive any reward money. The entire reward went unclaimed.(10)
The author does not even mention the fact that one of the lynchpins to Case's conviction was the fact that he made a tacit admission(11) in a taped conversation with Kelly Moffett. He ignores the fact that Case, known to be one of the last people to have seen Anastasia alive, was consistently arrogant toward Anastasia's family after the murder,(12) and that he consistently avoided cooperating with the police investigation.(13)
We have been informed by one of Byron Case's supporters that he considered himself an "expert" on this case, when his main knowlege of the law apparently came from some earlier brushes with it, and his knowlege of this case was filtered directly through Byron Case himself. Another has made the claim that he formed his "unbiased" opinion strictly from his reading of "actual court documents and police reports," and his statement of being "an independent third party" who could "put aside [his] subjective interpretations when reading the evidence, something that it always required of a good juror." We do not believe that Case's supporters have been "good jurors"; we feel they have crossed the line into that of True Believers.
If the author of the article were truly trying to be that "good juror," we cannot excuse how he has consistently made many of his claims in his article (and others he has written) are based upon rumor and innuendo and not on any of those aforementioned "actual court documents and police reports." It clear that the limited documents found on Byron Case's website (which do not include the transcripts to which you have been referred), after having picked up the hearsay claims made by Case and other supporters, are all he used to form his opinion. So it goes.
This memorial website has been the target of anonymous vandalism from time to time, and members of Anastasia's family have received similar attacks from Byron Case's family and friends. One would think that it shows the weakness of their cause that they commit such petty acts instead of working on appeals. We feel that the fact that they have to rely on such base inaccuracies, avoiding mention of important facts like Case's tacit admission, and slandering the main eyewitness as a "perjurer" (having no evidence to bolster their claims) only shows the weakness of their arguments.
We have heard so far from at least three former supporters of Byron Case who have changed their minds about him, so we know it is possible for people to change their minds; we would note also that we do not know of a single person who once believed Byron Case guilty but now believes him innocent.
We do not put maintain this information up with any expectation that we will change the opinion of any of Byron Case's true followers; instead, we have this up for those who have honest questions about the murder and the trial. Please read the transcripts of the trial. At this moment, they are complete except for jury selection. Please read the FAQ; we have attempted to address every question arising from Anastasia's murder and Case's trial. Please read the emails that Byron Case wrote to Anastasia's family in the months following the murder, to see the attitude he took toward a murder victim's family while all were aware that he was a suspect in that murder. Read the bizarre set of fictitious "letters" that Case created in 2000 (before his arrest) as an act of fiction, reliving the murder as if in another century, and altering specific provable details to make himself more an observer than participant.
If you have further questions, first see what Byron Case's supporters say, and then check back with us. We will not respond to obvious trolls, (and we have received more than our share of abusive messages from Case supporters), but we will take the time to answer serious, thoughtful queries from those who clearly identify themselves. If a Case partisan (with the exception of those who have already been banned for abusive activities) wants to make a serious and well-reasoned challenge to the facts we have up, we will accept their communication in the spirit it is offered.
From the content of the message that linked you to this page, it seems obvious that its author has either have never actually read the transcripts of the trial that they are pointing you to, that they just do not understand the hows and whys of a criminal trial, or that they simply are telling obvious untruths and hoping you won't notice. They are asking you to donate money to Byron Case based on his statements that can be easily disproven, and we feel you should make such a decision only after forming an informed opinion. If you are seriously considering donating money to Case's defense fund, then the best advice we can offer is this: Caveat Emptor.
Here are our sites of interest, most of which Byron Case does not wish you to see:Trial Transcripts:The Murder Trial of Byron Case
FAQ: The Murder of Anastasia WitbolsFeugen
Correspondence from Byron Case to Anastasia's family
Murder as Revisionist Fiction: Byron Case (virtually) re-creates the crime.
The Case Against Case, our main page about Anastasia's killer
Anastasia's memorial. Just so you can see just what we lost.