Free Republic

A Panola County native suspected in another homicide has been indicted in the December 2014 burning death of Courtland teen Jessica Chambers. Quinton Tellis, 27, originally of Courtland, was indicted on capital murder charges by a special grand jury in Panola County as he sat in the Ouachita Parish Jail in Monroe, La., where he is being held in the August death of a University of Louisiana-Monroe exchange student. Tellis is believed to have been the last person with Chambers the night she was killed. The two had a relationship in the weeks leading up to her death, officials said....

It’s been five weeks since 19-year-old blonde former cheerleader Jessica Chambers was horrifyingly burned over 98% of her body in her hometown of rural Courtland, Mississippi, on the side of a country back road on a Saturday night. She died several hours later, at a Memphis hospital, after being flown by medevac helicopter from near the scene of the apparent homicide. Just before her death, Jessica had appeared to be working toward ending abusive relationships and turning her troubled young life around, partly through a 6-8 week stay at an intensive Christian women’s discipleship program at a place called Leah’s...

What kind of homicide investigation is this, anyway? It’s perfectly understandable when public officials closely guard information in a sensitive, ongoing case. However, certain aspects of the Jessica Chambers murder mystery in rural Courtland, Mississippi point to a shocking combination of incompetence, indifference, frustrating evasiveness, and plain old C.Y.A. lying by those in charge. It’s been almost a month since Jessica’s sudden and suspiciously gruesome death, yet despite an array of very shady characters and circumstances, no arrests have been made. District Attorney John Champion says they are expectantly awaiting results of forensic lab tests and subpoenas, while they go...