Mississippi Teenager Burned Alive

Father says Jessica Chambers named killer before death
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 10, 2014 3:17 AM CST
Updated Dec 10, 2014 5:43 AM CST
Mississippi Teenager Burned Alive
This undated family photograph shows Jessica Chambers and her father, Ben Chambers, in Courtland, Miss.   (AP Photo/Chambers-Prince Families)

Seasoned investigators in Mississippi say it's the most brutal crime they have ever seen. Jessica Chambers, 19, was burned alive on Saturday night after she went out to have her car cleaned and get a bite to eat. She was found badly burned near her burning car on a rural road. "They squirted lighter fluid down her throat and in her nose, and apparently they knocked her out," her father told a Fox affiliate. "When the fire department got there, she was walking down the road on fire ... [the] only part of her body that wasn't burned was the bottom of her feet." She had burns on over 98% of her body and died in a hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

When first responders arrived on the scene near the small town of Courtland in the state's northwest, Chambers was able to speak a few words. Her father, an employee of the county sheriff's department, says she identified her killer or killers, but police say no arrests have been made in the case. "It's destroyed our family," her father tells WREG. "She was a loving child, 19 years old. Just finished high school. Had her whole life in front of her." Investigators say several people have been questioned and that they're examining data from her cellphone, which was found at the scene. (More Mississippi stories.)

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