THERESE APEL
Mississippi investigators are hoping the final words of a teenager who was set on fire after being doused with a flammable liquid will help them find her killer.
Deputies responded to a call on Saturday about a burning car in Courtland, Mississippi, and found Jessica Chambers, 19, on fire outside the vehicle, the Panola County Sheriff's Office said.
She died of her injuries at a hospital, with preliminary autopsy results revealing severe burns over 98 per cent of her body, said Panola County Coroner Gracie Gulledge.
Chambers' sister, Amanda Prince, said Chambers was able to tell investigators the identity of her attacker before she died.
Officials told Chambers' family that the person may have been inside her car and may have poured accelerant down her throat and nose before setting her on fire, Ms Prince said.
Chambers' father, Ben Chambers, told WMC-TV that firefighters found her walking down the road, still on fire.
'They squirted lighter fluid down her throat and in her nose, and apparently they knocked her out,' her father said.
'She had a big gash on top of her head.'
'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,' said Chambers.
'She told them, she told them, told him who done it,' he said.
Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby said witnesses were being interviewed and deputies were zeroing in on a person of interest in the case.
Prince said Chambers called her mother about 6.45pm on Saturday and indicated she was going to pick up some food and clean out her car.
'She never came home,' Prince said.
Prince described her sister as friendly and positive and said she did not know of anyone who might have wanted to harm her.
'She was so much light. She was definitely put here for a reason,' Prince said.
- Reuters
Entities 0 Name: Chambers Count: 4 1 Name: Prince Count: 4 2 Name: Panola County Count: 2 3 Name: Mississippi Count: 2 4 Name: Dennis Darby Count: 1 5 Name: Amanda Prince Count: 1 6 Name: Panola County Sheriff 's Office Count: 1 7 Name: Courtland Count: 1 8 Name: Ben Chambers Count: 1 9 Name: Jessica Chambers Count: 1 10 Name: Gracie Gulledge Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/12JBJU6 Title: Police hunt for killer in burning death of 19-year-old Mississippi woman Description: Investigators are hoping Jessica Chambers' final words will lead them to the killer or killers who burned the 19-year-old teenager alive in a gruesome murder Saturday that has stunned the small Mississippi community of Courtland. Chambers, of Panola County, was found badly burned on a road near her burning car Saturday night in what authorities have labeled a homicide.
