WHO KILLED JESSICA LANE CHAMBERS?

[HairOfTheDog]

Whoever did it is a heartless piece of shit, no doubt about it.



Jessica was 19 years old and worked in a clothing store. Here father says she was planning to attend college and was looking to become an accountant.

Jessica was captured on surveillance video at a gas station in Courtland, Tennessee early in the evening on Saturday, December 6^th.

The video shows Jessica filling up her car and a man in a striped shirt filling up a gas can next to her. That man has reportedly since been identified and cleared.

The video also shows Jessica waving to someone out of camera view and walking towards the person before returning to her car and driving off.

Jessica's father is Ben Chambers, a mechanic with the Panola County Sheriff's Department. Chambers says that some people are saying Jessica went to a party near the gas station. That's not confirmed.

He also says his ex-wife spoke to his daughter at 7:20 p.m. "She told her mother she would be home soon but she first was going to stop and get something to eat and clean her car out. She told her mother, 'I love you, Mama. I will see you in just a little while.' "

90 minutes after leaving the gas station, Jessica was found about a mile away on Hwy 51. Jessica was walking up the highway in flames, her car was burning on the side of the highway. Someone had poured accelerant down her throat and nose, and set her and her car on fire.

Chambers says Jessica's cell phone was found outside her car and the battery was missing. Investigators are going through her phone records and reviewing the gas station surveillance for clues (the video was discovered by a local investigative reporter and given to police).

Jessica was flown by helicopter to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis where she died on Sunday at 2:37 a.m.

Before she died, Chambers says, Jessica told authorities the first name of the person who did it. (HOTD: I don't think that has been confirmed by LE.)

"We had to wait and wait," her father says. "Finally a doctor told us there was nothing they could do. I broke down. She was burnt on 98 percent of her body. The only part that wasn't burnt was the bottom of her feet."

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Panola County Sheriff's Office are investigating the murder.

(Jessica's brother died two years ago in a car accident.)

Refs:
http://www.people.com/article/mississipp...who-did-it
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/10...03576.html
http://www.wistv.com/story/27586665/cell...rests-made

[HairOfTheDog]

Interview with Jessica's father...

[Duchess]

(HOTD: I don't think that has been confirmed by LE.)

You're right, it hasn't been. I saw one of the EMT's interviewed and he would neither confirm nor deny it, he wouldn't discuss it at all. It's a horrible story. I think the mystery of who did this will be solved quickly. This is a very small town, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone. I question whether she was able to tell first responders anything.

[Cutz]

ex-boyfriend would be my bet.

[ramseycat]

What a terrible way to die. I hope the killer is caught soon. And set on fire.

[HairOfTheDog]

ex-boyfriend would be my bet.

Could be. Her family says she didn't currently have a boyfriend. I haven't seen anything about former boyfriends though.



I think Jessica probably did go to a party or to someone's nearby house after filling up. It was 90 minutes after she left the gas station that she and her car were spotted on fire only a mile down the highway.

Also wondering if one or more people assaulted her inside her vehicle and that's why everything was torched -- attempt to destroy evidence (the inside of the car is ash).

Hoping the cell phone records and interviews with locals pay off quickly for investigators. As Duchess said, it's a very small community so the suspect pool should be relatively small and hopefully lips will be loose.


Note: even though Jessica was reportedly found in Tennessee, the investigation is under Mississippi jurisdiction (she lived in Mississippi). Courtland is a small town right on the border of the two states.

[Duchess]

I know this is out there but I think this sounds like something females would do.

[Maggot]

She had to have put up some kind of struggle. Nobody drinks gas without a fight. Unless it was moonshine or something.

[HairOfTheDog]

Hard to tell what's fact vs. rumor vs. speculation in this case. Jessica's father has been the main source of information thus far, rather than LE.

Here's an update published today -- it contains some information directly from LE.

Snip:
Mystery surrounds the fiery weekend death of Jessica Chambers, but the Mississippi teen may have given firefighters a clue in her killing, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

John Champion, district attorney for Mississippi’s 17^th Circuit, said that when firefighters arrived at the scene near Courtland, Mississippi, Chambers approached one of them and spoke. She was not on fire, as has been widely reported, the prosecutor said.

Champion didn’t divulge what she said but told CNN, “It has certainly given us a lead we’re following up on.”

Though authorities are releasing sparse details of the crime and investigation, they have determined an accelerant was used in the blaze, but it’s not clear whether the accelerant was poured on the car or Chambers herself, Champion said.

Jessica's sister, Amanda Prince, said she was told the attacker had gotten into the car and set Chambers on fire inside the vehicle.

Peter Odom, an attorney who prosecuted some arson cases, told HLN’s “Nancy Grace” that investigators are looking for something in particular when they interview people involved in the case. “They’re looking for someone with singed eyebrows and maybe burned hands. Because the burner often gets burned,” he said.

Investigators believe her phone will be “the key to everything,” the prosecutor said. She received a call before she left her house, he said.

Despite reports she was going to a party, her appearance — her hair was in a bun and she was wearing camouflage pajama pants — suggests that wasn’t the case, Champion said. Police have also spoken to partygoers, who don’t recall seeing her there, he said.

Amanda Prince said her sister Jessica called their mother from a gas station and said she would be home right after she cleaned her car.

The prosecutor also said investigators found no evidence in a store surveillance video that appears to show Chambers prepaying for gas.

The business, which Champion characterized as a rural mom-and-pop store, is about 2 miles from Chambers’ home. She purchased something to drink there, the prosecutor said.

The clerk who helped her said nothing seemed out of sorts. “She seemed normal,” Ali Alsanai told CNN affiliate WREG. “She didn’t seem like something was going wrong, you know? She just seemed normal. She just pumped some gas, we had a talk, and she left.”

http://ktla.com/2014/12/11/mississippi-t...illed-her/

[Midwest Spy]

Could this be completely random?

[HairOfTheDog]

Could this be completely random?

It may not have been personal. Jessica was in pajama bottoms -- doesn't appear she was planning to meet up with people.

She told her mom she was going to wash her car after the gas station and then head straight back home to clean her room.

It wouldn't have taken 90 minutes to wash the car and get back to within 1 mile of the gas station/store where the car was spotted on fire.

So, yeah, IMO it's possible that she made it to the car wash and someone followed her and pulled her over to rob or rape her or something like that and then torched the car with Jessica in it to destroy evidence.

I think it was someone she knew or someone with whom she became acquainted that night though. JMO.

Her mother, Lisa Chambers, told reporters that Jessica was able to give LE a "few names" before her death. Her father said she was able to give first responders a name. LE says she tried to tell them something, but won't confirm if she was able to do so. Inconsistent.

Where Jessica went and what she was doing in those 90 minutes is the key. Investigators are saying they've been able to piece some of her movements together and have talked to several witnesses, but still haven't identified a suspect(s). I half wonder if they've already got a suspect and they're trying to make him/her/they nervous and slip up while they gather evidence. I hope so.

This quote is a bit discouraging, if sincere: "I feel like it's something we're going to solve," DA Champion said. "It could be in the next five minutes, five months or five years. You just don't know."

Latest: http://www.khou.com/story/news/nation-no.../20237599/

[HairOfTheDog]

I'm really interested in knowing who she was waving to at the gas station when she walked out of camera view and then went into the store.

New:



Thirty-one-year-old Derrick Turner ^ says he was picked up Monday morning and was taken to the Panola County jail where he was questioned in the death of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers.

"I was just called in for a situation I didn't know nothing about." Turner said he knew Chambers. "But I don't just know her like that because I'm way older than her. So I've seen her around at stores and everything, but I don't just know her like that."

Turner said he was not in Courtland, Mississippi when Chambers was discovered lying next to her car on fire. She died not long after she was found.

"They was just asking me did I know her or was I sleeping with her, you know," said Turner. "Like I said, I didn't know her like that."

Turner did know, "the times I was around her you know, she carried herself she was a good girl. She was a sweet girl so that's why I'm messed up about it, whatever happened to her, I hate it happened you know."

Turner said investigators never told him why he was being questioned in Jessica Chambers death.

Interview of Turner: http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/2760...s-released

[Midwest Spy]

Could this be completely random?

This quote is a bit discouraging, if sincere: "I feel like it's something we're going to solve," DA Champion said. "It could be in the next five minutes, five months or five years. You just don't know."

Yeah, I hope that's meant to make their person of interest feel a little more relaxed.

[Duchess]

Torching someone like this seems kinda personal to me, like there are serious emotions involved.

[Midwest Spy]

Torching someone like this seems kinda personal to me, like there are serious emotions involved.

Or simply meant to destroy evidence.

[HairOfTheDog]

This is a short interview with the Courtland Fire Chief, Cole Haley.

He responded to the call of a car on fire and found Jessica. He says he spoke with her but can't disclose anything more.



I wonder what made investigators haul Derrick Turner into jail on Monday and hold him for 2 days.

Did Jessica give Chief Haley or LE his name?

Turner claims he only knew Jessica in passing and that he wasn't in Courtland on Saturday. In the brief interview posted upthread, he seems credible to me on the surface, but something put him on LE's radar.

[HairOfTheDog]

WHAT WE KNOW NOW

Trying to weed out the verified facts from the speculation and hearsay.

This is a partial time line based on information that's been reported and verified by surveillance video and LE/fire reports.

Sat, Dec. 6^th 2014
Morning to early evening: Jessica sleeps in after working a Friday night shift at Goody's Dept Store in Batesville; she lounges at home all day (lives with mom).

About 6:00 p.m. -- Jessica receives a phone call (caller not yet identified). Then, she leaves the house in pajama bottoms, dark sweatshirt, hair in a bun; tells mom she's going to get something to eat, get gas, and go wash her car in nearby Batesville.


^ About 6:30 p.m. -- Jessica is seen on surveillance video at McCullar's First Stop on Mississippi 51 (pic above). It's a gas station with mini-mart. Jessica prepays $14, gets a phone call (according to the clerk), and gasses up her car. She sees someone outside surveillance camera view, waves, and walks off camera. She pumps gas and then goes back into the mini-mart and buys cigarettes (family says Jessica doesn't smoke).

About 7:00 p.m. -- Jessica talks to her mom on the phone; tells mom she's going to get her car washed in Bastesville and will come home to clean her room.

Between 6:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. (exact time unknown/not released) -- Jessica is seen by witnesses at a party.*


^ About 8:00 p.m. -- a 911 call is placed by someone reporting a car on fire up a small embankment on Highway 51 (pic above), Herron Road, in Courtland, MS. The car is about 1 mile south of McCullar's First Stop.

About 8:05 p.m. -- Courtland Fire Dept personnel arrive at the scene (they'd been at a nearby scene and got there quickly). They expect to put out a car fire but instead find Jessica Chambers near the burning car and render aid. She is severely burned and tells Fire Chief Cole Haley something -- he won't reveal details at this time.

Jessica's cell phone is found near the burn site with its battery removed.

Jessica Chambers is rushed to a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. She is burned over 90% of her body and dies on Sunday morning. Whether she's able to tell LE anything of value is not yet known -- LE says they got a lead from Jessica, but won't reveal details at this time.

Monday, Dec. 8^th
Thirty-one-year-old Derrick Turner says he was picked up Monday morning and was taken to the Panola County jail where he was questioned in the death of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers.

Wednesday, Dec. 10^th
Derrick Turner is released from jail. Turner says he knows Chambers from around, but he wasn't involved with her and wasn't sleeping with her or anything like that. He says she carried herself like a sweet girl and that police didn't tell him why they were questioning him in relation to her death.

Police and family ask the public for help; call in tips.

Thursday, Dec. 11^th
*District Attorney Champion confirms that witnesses saw Jessica at a party on Saturday night ( http://ktla.com/2014/12/11/mississippi-t...illed-her/ ) and that LE has secured warrants for Jessica's cell phone/Google records. He says there are no suspects and investigation could take 5 days, 5 months or 5 years...


Inconsistent accounts abound...
-Jessica's dad says Jessica was walking on fire when found and told first responder the name of her killer who'd poured accelerant down her nose and mouth and set her on fire; first responders say Jessica was not on fire and was severely burned and laying near her car -- fire chief will only say he spoke to Jessica.
-Jessica's mom says she told LE the names of a few people before she died; LE will not confirm.
-District Attorney Champion says it's unclear if Jessica was dosed with accelerant or not -- pending investigation.
-Champion says there is very little talk on the street about the death, but LE reports that there are a lot rumors circulating in the 420-person town of Courtland.
- Jessica's family says she doesn't have a boyfriend and isn't known to be seeing anybody, that she has no known enemies or anyone that doesn't love Jessica; unconfirmed social media reports/rumors indicate she has an abusive, jealous, black ex-boyfriend.

[HairOfTheDog]

REWARD -- $11,000

The U.S. Marshals upped the ante overnight, offering a $10,000 reward in addition to the $1,000 already offered by CrimeStoppers.


^ District Attorney John Champion and Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby

"We certainly hope it gets someone who is on the fence about what to do the incentive to come forward," said District Attorney John Champion. "We feel like there's someone out there that knows something. We're hoping that this will give someone a reason to come forward with what they know."

Champion said in the past, rewards have helped convince people with information to turn it over to authorities.

Chambers' autopsy results are expected to come in from the state crime lab today, Champion said, but at this point officials won't be releasing any information about it.

"Whatever I get today, I certainly think it will give us a clue on some of the things we're looking at," he said. "But no, we won't be able to talk about it."

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/.../20297505/

[Duchess]

I find it curious she would go to a party dressed like that but maybe it's simply because it's not something I would do.

I sure hope these cops know what they are doing. From the sound of it they have never seen a crime of this nature before.

[HairOfTheDog]

Her mother indicates that Jessica wouldn't go to a party wearing pajama bottoms.

I think it's possible that Jessica, for whatever reason, didn't want her mom to suspect that she was going "out" and therefore didn't change clothes before leaving the house.

Or, Jessica really had no intention of going to a party but was enticed by the phone call that she reportedly received at the gas station mini-mart (or enticed by whomever she waved at and spoke with before leaving the gas station).