The heinous murder of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers on Saturday night has shaken the residents of Panola County, Mississippi. Now investigators, family and friends are pleading for anyone with information to come forward.
Chambers was found burning near her car which was also engulfed in flames. She was flown to a hospital in Memphis but later died. An early autopsy indicates that Jessica died from severe burns that covered nearly her entire body.
Jessica’s mom, Lisa Chambers, said that her daughter was running an errand to get her car cleaned out and to grab a bite to eat. Jessica’s dad, Ben Chambers, told WLBT that investigators informed him that Jessica was burned alive.
“When the fire department got there, she was walking down the road on fire. Only part of her body that wasn’t burned was the bottom of her feet. They [Mr. Chambers is referring to her killers] squirted lighter fluid down her throat and in her nose, and apparently they knocked her out. She had a big gash on top of her head,” the distraught father said through tears.
Ben Chambers added that with her final words she may have revealed who her killer is:
“She told them, she told them, told him who done it. I love her you know, I’m so sorry Daddy wasn’t there for her. I’d trade places with her in a minute if I could… The sheriff called me this morning he told me, he said, ‘I’m working hard.’ They took something from me I can’t ever get back. Not ever, you know? It’s a part of me gone forever.”
The charred remains of Jessica Chambers’ car
Here’s what Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale had to say about the investigation:
“We’re trying to go through the information that we have, certainly interviewing all the potential witnesses we can and going through and using the phone records we can. We do have a phone that we believe is hers and that is what we are attempting to gather the information from.”
A Justice For Jessica page has been set up on Facebook and it already has nearly 25,000 likes.
