Timeline released in case of Miss. teen burned alive
PANOLA COUNTY, Miss. - Investigators still don't know where a northern Mississippi teen was for about one hour on the night she was burned alive, Panola County District Attorney John Champion revealed, reports CBS affiliate WREG.
Investigators are reconstructing the last few hours of 19-year-old Jessica Chambers' life and are asking the public to come forward with information. No arrests have been made, despite months having passed since the Dec. 7 murder and a $54,000 reward being offered in the case.
The district attorney says investigators have determined Chambers was mostly at home up until about 5 p.m. the day of the murder. He said she left home at around 5 p.m. and headed to a gas station in Courtland after she received a phone call from a friend.
The teen was captured on surveillance video at a gas station filling up her car.
Champion says the teen then went to a home in Courtland shortly before 6 p.m. and left around 6 p.m.
Authorities were able to determine Chambers was then in the area of Highway 6's first set of stoplights, coming into Batesville, a town about 5 miles away, and was there 10 to 15 minutes. The D.A. said he cannot elaborate further about where she was specifically.
Chambers was back in Courtland around 6:30 p.m., he said.
What happened during the next hour or so is unclear. A passing motorist found the teen on the side of the road lying near her burning Kia Rio sedan just before 8:15 p.m. that night.
Champion said Tuesday that investigators believe Chambers was at the murder scene as early as 7:31 p.m.
The teen was still alive when rescue workers responded to the scene. Champion has said Chambers spoke to rescue workers, but what she said has not been revealed. She died several hours later at a Memphis hospital.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-729-2169 or the ATF at 1-888-283-3473.
