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Jessica Chambers was set on fire on Herron Road outside Courtland, Miss., on Dec. 6, 2014.(Photo: Courtesy of Chambers family)
JACKSON, Miss. — It has been more than a week since a Mississippi teen was found walking down a road in Panola County, Miss., on fire with burns over 98% of her body.
Jessica Chambers, 19, died a gruesome death at the hands of a still unknown assailant. After she was found Dec. 6, she was able to whisper some last words to firefighters before she was flown to Memphis. She died at the hospital the next day.
On Monday, Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby said the FBI has joined local and state law enforcement agencies as well as the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Marshals Service in the hunt for Chambers' killer.
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In recent days the crime also has sparked the interest of a group claiming to be the hactivist group "Anonymous," and bloggers have been coming forward with theories about Chambers' death.
The Chambers family has taken exception to these posts, imploring these individuals to stop and let authorities do their job. Lisa Daugherty, Chambers' mother, wrote this on the Facebook page, Justice for Jessica:
"Please as Jessica's Mother I am asking you to stop all the foolish talk!! I am SICK OF IT!!! I stand behind the Panola County Sheriffs Department 100%!! Please let them do their Job!! Thank You!!!"Law enforcement officials maintain they won't be swayed from the facts by information coming out on social media.
The group claiming to be Anonymous has dug up information on several people it claims to be related to the case, as well as on people who spoke with the media or are said to be witnesses in the case. They allege the death of the teen is related to gang activity, an angle for which law enforcement officials say there's no proof.
USA TODAY
Teen's fiery death shocks tight-knit small Miss. town
Other posts point to a previous relationship in which Chambers may have been a victim of domestic violence. Social media accounts belonging to a former boyfriend and several of his associates have been hacked and their contents posted to the Internet by Anonymous.
"All the questions they're beating around on, we've got to rule those things in or out, and we can't go public on that stuff," said Darby. "People are curious, we realize that. We're going to answer those questions. And some of them are just ridiculous and trying to make everyone look bad."
The Chambers family has said Jessica didn't have a boyfriend or know of anyone who would want to hurt her.
The Justice for Jessica page is run by Chambers' sister, Amanda Prince, and other family members. On Sunday night, the page administrator posted that they want justice for Chambers, but that people needed to be sure that what they were posting is accurate. The post reads:
"But we also want the truth and when people start putting stuff out there that is not true or is hear say it starts to take away from the truth. And that is something we don't want!!! So please be patient and as we get information we will let you guys know. we stand behind the Panola County sheriffs department so we need to let them do their job!!"USA TODAY
Dad: Teen lit on fire in rural Miss. may have ID'd her killer
Whether such a flow of information is helpful to the investigation is something authorities haven't said a lot about.
Assistant District Attorney Jay Hale said the District Attorney's Office is not going to comment on the allegations made through social media accounts and blogs.
"We have different agencies, the U.S. Marshal Service in particular, along with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Panola County Sheriff's Department monitoring the electronic communications, certainly social media being part of that," he said.
“People are curious, we realize that. We're going to answer those questions. And some of them are just ridiculous and trying to make everyone look bad.”
Panola County (Miss.) Sheriff Dennis Darby
"MBI is going to go about its business and do what they're trained to do regardless of what shows up on social media, whether it's the Chambers death investigation or any other investigation," said Mississippi Bureau of Investigation spokesman Warren Strain. "The investigators are going to base their investigation on what their findings are and not be influenced by outside input, be it social media or anything else."
Darby said the investigation is not at a dead end as suggested by many online posts.
"We have to go with hard evidence. We have to get warrants for certain information, and over the weekend we had to wait on the crime lab, and hopefully we'll have some crime lab results today," he said Monday. "The ATF and the FBI and numerous agencies are assisting, and they have the technology to help us too. We have a lot of assistance, and we have to work it all together.
"We've got to concentrate on the investigation itself. There are so many areas you can check. This investigation can go on a while because something new comes up every day," Darby said.
Chambers' autopsy is expected to be available sometime this week. District Attorney John Champion said he expects those results, as well as some test results, to give investigators more to go on in the case.
Apel also reports for The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger.
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