Jessica Chambers Murder - The 19-year-old girl from Panola County was found burning near her car that was also engulfed in flames. Jessica Chambers' murder occurred as she was badly burned Saturday night. Authorities have since labelled the crime authorities a homicide.
In a surveillance video from a gas station on Highway 51 in Courtland, MS shows, Jessica Chambers' murder looks to have happened after she walked toward the gas station before following someone's call who was out of the camera's view.
The Jessica Chambers murder was reportedly thought of by seasoned investigators as "the most brutal crime they've ever seen."
Sheriff Dennis Darby, sheriff of Panola County said Chambers died after she had been doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire on a road in Courtland, Miss., a town with a population of 460 people, according to Fox News.
After the Jessica Chambers murder, the teen was flown to a hospital in Memphis, but despite the effort, she died and didn't make it. Early autopsy results revealed that Jessica passed away from severe burns that covered 98 percent of her body.
In the surveillance footage of the moments before the Jessica Chambers murder, she was seen waving before walking over to talk to the person.
Shortly afterward and from another angle, the surveillance video of the Jessica Chambers murder was able to capture a man in a striped shirt filling up what appears to be a gas can before walking off in the same direction that the teen went. Eventually, she returned to her vehicle where she finished pumping gas, and drove away.
Investigators say they obtained the video of the the Jessica Chambers murder recorded about 90 minutes before she was burned alive, to be used in connection with their investigation. The burning happened less than one mile from the gas station where the video had been recorded.
"They have ripped everything I have," Lisa Chambers, the teen's mother, told Fox affiliate WDBD-TV. "She left to go clean out her car and was going to get [herself] something to eat."
"They squirted lighter fluid down her throat and in her nose, and apparently they knocked her out," Ben Chambers, Jessica's father who is a mechanic for Panola County Sheriff's Department, said while fighting back tears. "She had a big gash on top of her head."
"When the fire department got there, she was walking down the road on fire. Ninety-eight percent of her body was burned. The only thing that wasn't burned was the bottom of her feet. It's just destroyed our family, it's destroyed our family," Ben said of the Jessica Chambers murder.
"She was a loving child, 19 years old. Just finished high school. Had her whole life in front of her," he added. "She told them, she told them, told him who done it."
Detectives are now working to learn who the woman may have been with before the Jessica Chambers murder. They are now examining the teen's cellphone which had been left at the scene.
According to Ben, Jessica's father, he has trust that his coworkers will find the killer behind the Jessica Chambers murder.
"I've seen a lot in different cases that it takes time, you know, everything don't happen overnight," he said. "I've got faith in them, we've got one of the most wonderful sheriffs in the world."
Meanwhile, Alyssa Cotten, Chambers' best friend, told FoxNews.com, "We have no idea who did this."
According to reports, as first responders arrived at the scene of the Jessica Chambers murder, she uttered a few words that could lead detectives to her killer or killers. Police meanwhile have not disclosed what she said, or tried to say for that matter. No motive has been released in connection to the crime.
Authorities said that some sort of flammable liquid had been used to start the fire leading to the Jessica Chambers murder.
Investigators are now browsing through the surveillance footage as well as Chambers' cell phone records to see who she had been with before she died.
As of Tuesday, no arrests have been made in the case of Jessica Chambers murder. People are still being questioned. However, investigators are not calling anyone a person of interest or a suspect in the case, WMCA Action News 5 reports.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is assisting Panola authorities in the investigation of the crime and anyone with information on the murder is urged to contact the Panola County Sheriff's Office at 662-563-6230, reports Fox News.
Jessica Chambers murder is an unspeakable crime and many are hoping that the killer will be caught soon. According to WREG, Jessica's family said her visitation will be at Wells Funeral Home from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday. Her funeral is at the same location at 2 p.m. Saturday. A candlelight service was also scheduled to take place Saturday 6 p.m. in the Batesville, Mississippi, town square.
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