By Daniel Blackburn/October 2010

     A service station’s surveillance camera captured horrific images of someone -- most likely murdered teenager Dystiny Myers -- being restrained and beaten in the back of a camper-covered pickup truck while two Pismo Beach police officers stood nearby, talking and drinking coffee.

     Pismo Beach Police Chief Jeff Norton declined to identify the officers but confirmed the incident. Norton said he had not yet had a chance to view the camera’s tapes, but said he was told by department personnel that the tapes showed a man in the back of the truck, apparently holding down a struggling woman. He said the two officers said the men “were acting kind of hinkey” but that there appeared to be “nothing that would have alerted” the officers of the struggle in the truck.

     The incident was recorded at approximately 3 a.m. Sept. 26 at Five Cities Chevron, 340 Five Cities Drive, just off Highway 101 in Pismo Beach. Myers’ partially burned body was found two hours later in a remote rural area six miles east of Santa Margarita off Parkhill Road.

     At that site, said sources, one of her alleged killers also was beaten with a garden tool by other suspects in an apparent failed murder try. This fact was initially reported by CalCoastNews’ Karen Velie.

     From the service station surveillance camera perspective, it is uncertain, according to additional sources close to the investigation, if the officers were in position to view the part of truck in which the beating was occurring. The officers, though, could clearly be seen observing at least two of the murder suspects first entering the 24-hour mini-market, and then acting in a suspicious manner, including wearing thick gloves and putting on a variety of sunglasses. Sources said the mini-market clerk told investigators he was unnerved by the two people’s odd behavior, considered calling police, but did not.

     Norton said his officers reported later that they had watched the two men after the suspects entered the mini-market. He said that neither log entries nor incident reports were prepared by his officers.

     San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department officials have confiscated the surveillance tapes, said Norton. “It’s an ongoing sheriff’s investigation,” he said, declining further comment.

     One person who viewed the surveillance tapes was said to have described them as “disgusting.”

     Five suspects are held in county jail with no bail, charged with the 15-year-old Santa Maria girl’s death. The suspects have all pleaded not guilty and include Cody Lane Miller, 22, of Fresno; Ty Michael Hill, 28, of Santa Maria; Jason Adam Greenwell, 20, Frank Jacob York, 19, and Rhonda Maye Wisto, 47, all of Nipomo.

     Reliable sources said the gruesome murder may have been motivated by something as simple as a perceived “disrespect” of suspect Wisto.

     Myers was still alive when the suspects reached their destination, according to sources, but she was then strangled. Her body was placed in a shallow depression allegedly dug by the suspects in which a bag of lye had been poured and then covered with wood and branches. An accelerant was splashed on and ignited.

     One suspect, Miller, who missed arraignment because of an alleged illness, almost became a victim himself when one of the others turned on him and hit him in the face with a shovel. That apparent assault fizzled because the group was too high on meth to complete it, according to sources.

     The group then left the scene. The burning body torched a grass fire, reported at about 5 a.m., and the victim’s body was discovered.

Commentary By DANIEL BLACKBURN
Posted February 8, 2011

     In the wrenching aftermath of the deeply disturbing slaying of teenager Dystiny Myers, local news reporters encountered a virtual blackout of details from investigators. So when this Web site published an account last October relating some of the last terrible moments of the girl's life, some of those law enforcement officials apparently were not pleased.

     The KCCN.tv report centered on the existence of surveillance video recordings showing a pickup truck with a camper shell in which four suspects were holding the Myers girl. She was still alive but could be seen being beaten in the truck’s bed, according to sources who had seen the tapes. The tapes also showed two Pismo Beach police officers, apparently on break and standing near the convenience store, watching two suspects who entered the store.

     But rather than simply remaining quiet and issuing the appropriate “no comment” in response to KCCN.tv’s report, a decision was made somewhere along the chain of command to create a new reality. To fabricate. To equivocate. To prevaricate. To falsify. And consequently to render a version of facts different from those which KCCN.tv had reported, then feeding the resulting palaver to other local media. Which the other local media readily printed and breathlessly reported on-air.

     Testimony now emerging from preliminary hearings for the suspects corroborates KCCN.tv’s report in its entirety.

     In preparing the October report, KCCN.tv contacted numerous sources, each having a particular and professional interest in the case. Each was able to impart different factual elements to the story. One of those contacted who verified much of the key information was Jeff Norton, chief of police in Pismo Beach, who expressed concern about the two officers’ “unfortunate situation” and said they didn’t want to be interviewed. A reporter visited the Chevron station where the incident occurred. A brief interview with the store’s clerk was conducted. The number of surveillance security cameras both inside and outside the convenience store were noted. And the story was fact-checked just prior to going on-line with a source whose knowledge of the case was current and whose record for honesty is impeccable.

     In other words, KCCN.tv’s story -- we were certain -- was entirely accurate.

     So we were startled to read in the Oct. 14, 2010 Tribune a story by reporters AnnMarie Comejo and Cynthia Lambert which attempted to repudiate every salient fact in the KCCN.tv report. Why, at this point, wasn’t someone’s journalistic curiosity piqued upon encountering two starkly conflicting versions? 

     The misinformation fed to The Tribune and KSBY by someone in law enforcement included the assertions that the two Pismo Beach officers didn’t arrive at the Chevron station until 10 minutes after the suspects’ truck departed; that surveillance tapes didn’t show the truck; that only two suspects were in the truck; and that Pismo Beach police had not viewed the tapes. None of this was true.

     The Tribune and KSBY disputed this site’s reporting just as a local judge issued a complete gag order on participants in the Myers case, which effectively silenced the issue... until now.

     The sheriff’s department’s “information office” has been the source of much misinformation on this case, right from the very first day. Someone over there apparently thinks it is okay to lie to the public. Someone over there needs to heed the words of Seventeenth Century writer Samuel Butler: “For truth is precious and divine... too rich a pearl for carnal swine.”