Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers

- Jessica Chambers was found walking on the side of the road

near her burning car.

According to investigators,

Chambers may have been doused in gasoline

and then set on fire.

Her hair was fried...

out like she had stuck it in a light socket.

- What could a 19-year-old girl do to somebody

to make you do that?

- The first responders begin asking her,

"Who did this to you?"

- What she said was that, "Eric did this to me."

- I held her hand as she took her last breath.

- Less than 24 hours after Jessica was killed,

this social media firestorm began.

- The white people was sayin' the black people did it,

or black people was sayin' that a white people did it,

and it started bein' a race war.

- She's on the cover of "People" magazine,

and I dang sure don't want it on there as a murder victim.

- After 14 months, investigators in Panola County

have charged 27-year-old Quinton Tellis

with capital murder.

I know my son didn't do this.

They're just lookin' for someone to put this murder on.

- I absolutely believe he did it, 100%.

- We want justice for Jessica but for whoever did it!

- Ladies and gentlemen, this investigation

was flawed from the very beginning.

- You had to be a real dumb black man

to burn up a white girl

in the state of Mississippi.

Courtland, pretty small town,

population of around 500, in Panola County.

The mix would be probably more African American

than Caucasian.

Being in the Mississippi Delta, farming is a huge thing.

We do have lower wage earning,

the blue collar, hardworking people here.

- Most of everybody knows everybody.

Drive down a road, and the stranger on the street

was wavin' at you as he mowed the yard.

- You went to the football games on Saturday,

you had your fun,

and then on Sunday morning, you were in church.

- A frightening mystery in North Mississippi.

- Officials say they got a call last night.

The caller saw a burning vehicle

and a person standing badly burned

on the side of the road.

- The volunteer fire department shows up on the scene.

She staggers towards them, collapses.

- Jessica Chambers is described by friends

as a popular former cheerleader.

She was found barely alive.

The brutality of it,

what I call cold and calculated,

kinda grabbed me on the inside, and said,

okay, this is-- this is way abnormal.

- Her whole life was just taken from her in a blink of an eye.

- The picture of Jessica in my mind is blue eyes,

always smilin', the biggest dimples,

the littlest body,

and probably her little sign thrown up,

which is the "I love you."

I love you.

- Jessica was a blonde-haired, cotton top little girl.

Jessica's smile would just light up a room

when she came in.

- Jessica loved to cheer at the football games.

She was a flier.

They'd throw her up in the air.

God, I was so afraid they was gonna drop her.

Jessica was full of life.

Jessica was stubborn as a mule.

Jessica was just a joy.

At one time, she wanted to be a teacher.

At one time, she wanted to be a book writer.

And the major thing she always said was,

she wanted to be an RN.

- I knew Jessica Chambers from high school.

If you needed a laugh or smile, she was the one to go to.

- She was that type of person where you would love to be around her

because she would do the craziest things.

Jessica and I were neighbors,

and then when I heard about it,

I was just-- I was really shocked.

No one deserves, you know, being burned alive.

She was just such a good person.

Everybody wanted to know, like,

who did this to her and why?

- When that happened, on the 6th,

it did not seem out of the ordinary at all.

Jessica had left home, went to the store,

come back about 12:30-1:00.

She got her pajama pants and piled up in the chair

in the living room and went to sleep.

Sometime between 4:45 and 5:15,

she got a phone call, a text,

whichever one it was. I'm not sure.

And then she went out the door

and said she'd be back to clean up her room.

She was goin' to get her somethin' to eat.

I called her, and she said,

"I'll be home in a little while, mama.

"Bye. I love you."

I told her I loved her, too.

She said, "See ya in a little bit",

and that's the last I heard from her.

- We pulled up, and Jessica was layin' right here,

and I remember the heat comin' off the truck.

We started rendering medical aid for Jessica,

and-and, um,

I remember looking down, and she was laid on her side,

and they had this old Army blanket coverin',

and the only thing she had on was a pair of panties.

Just seeing her layin' on that ground,

that piece of skin,

every time she breathed, go in and out her nose.

Ain't a damn thing you can do about it.

The burn spots were red.

Looked like, in some places,

maybe a little like somebody had smeared charcoal on her.

She wasn't complainin' about pain or nothin'.

You know, she was shakin'.

Somebody asked her was she cold or somethin',

and it-it seemed like she nodded her head.

You know, she wasn't real talkative.

And then a firefighter, Randy Davis,

was kinda back over toward her feet, and, he said,

"Well, hon, who-who done this to you?"

Kinda just looked up,

turned her head just a little bit,

and plain as day, she said, "Eric did this."

She didn't call no last name.

You know, she just-- she said, "Eric did this."

We was all kinda stunned.

I thought whoever did this may still be out there.

Seeing her the way she was and then still alive,

and I don't wish this on my worst enemy.

Here, the ambulance had pulled up over here.

They unloaded a stretcher, and they loaded her up on it,

and that was the last I seen of her.

- The Sheriff's Department, he said,

"There's been an accident.

"Jessica has been burned."

You know, and I couldn't fathom

what he was really talkin' about, you know?

I sent my wife, Debbie, down there to get Lisa right then.

- Debbie, Ben's wife, had come down

and pulled in the driveway,

screaming, "They set her on fire."

And I'm like, "They set who on fire?"

And she said, "They set Jessica on fire."

And I said, "-I just got off the phone with her."

I was panicked, angry, scared.

If there was an emotion, I felt it.

Doctor come out there

and told us there wasn't nothin'

they could do to Jessica,

and it just broke my heart, man.

You know, I begged him, "Please," you know?

- They told us it was 93% of her body.

I just hit my knees.

I wanted to go to her.

I was scared to go back there.

I peeped in the room.

I don't know what they saw, but I saw my child.

Maybe a rosy cheek...

but I saw my baby.

I held her hand as she took her last breath

and told her it was okay.

She could go.

The pain and guilt I feel for telling her she can go,

but I know I couldn't a kept her here.

There was no way.

- Authorities are trying to track down the person

who lit a teenager on fire in Panola County.

Investigators are reviewing cell phone records

and talking to witnesses.

- You had a group of the best investigators in the world

sittin' around this table to help get this case solved.

The FBI, and the DEA, and ATF.

- We probably interviewed 30 or 40 different suspects

that night.

You had several of the firemen initially that said

they heard her say--

- Derrick. - Eric or Derrick.

So, man, we interviewed everybody in the town

of Courtland and the surrounding area

by the name of Eric or Derrick.

We did. We did.

- Everybody, I mean-- - Yeah.

- Every Eric and Derrick in Panola County.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

- One of the people investigators questioned

is Eric Bibbs.

- They came by here about 9:30.

He said, "There was a-a accident, I think,

"down the road, and, your name was mentioned."