NBC
December 13, 2014
Authorities in Mississippi questioned and released a man over the killing of a teenager who was set on fire and burned to death over the weekend, according to local media.
Derrick Turner, 31, had been held in the Panola County jail since Monday for questioning in the grisly killing of Jessica Chambers, 19, according to NBC affiliate WMC. He was released on Wednesday afternoon and told WMC that he had not seen Chambers in a few months.
Chambers was last seen at a gas station Saturday night around 6:30 p.m. She was found alive, and on fire, about 90 minutes later near her car on a rural road in Panola County. She died at a hospital in Memphis; no arrests have been made in the case, according to The Clarion-Ledger. Her death was being investigated as a homicide and the initial autopsy shows she died from burns covering 98 percent of her body, the newspaper reported.
Calls placed to the local district attorney and the sheriff’s office seeking an update on the investigation weren’t immediately returned.
Chief Cole Haley of the Courtland Fire Department said emergency responders first came upon the scene of a burning car and thought it was fairly routine.