MURDERED: Jessica Chambers
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High crime jankez on your host ashly flowers and i'm brit, and the story I have for you today is of a Young woman whose life was not only taken too soon, but in a way that can only be described as cruel and truly down right evil. In a small town in mississippi where everyone knows each other, IT is a mystery how no one knows a thing about this girl's murder. Or maybe the real mastery is why no one is coming forward with what they know. This is the story of Jessica chAmbers.

At A P. M. In december, heron road in courtland, mississippi is dark and deceit. There aren't any other cars coming or going.

So in two guys in the loan car on that stretch of road drive up to the scene of a fire on the side of the road, they know it's up to them to tell someone. And this isn't just like a little thing. They could see flames from far off.

And when they get closer, they understand why there is an entire car just straight up in gulf, in flames. Now, luckily for them, this story takes place in two thousand and fourteen, so they can just call nine one one on their cell phones, and a few minutes later, if the courtland land volunteer fire department arrives on the scene. Now they get to work, putting out the fire, trying to get IT out quickly.

So IT doesn't spread to the nearby woods. The cars kind of up this like small in bank man. And IT is, like I said, blazing. But that is not what the case.

This part is, all of a sudden, a woman comes walking out of the woods on five, or at least that's what some of the reporting claim. I mean, some later suggest that she's just badly burned. And when I say badly burned, I mean, I shared.

But either way, he is in a bad state. SHE looks like she's negative. S, I were a pair of underwear. Her hair is singing, and SHE is like walking towards first responders with her arms stretched out front. But they can tell every move as a struggle for her, as he calls out what sounds like, help me, me. I mean, IT is an awful site.

and forever, i'm sure, one hundred percent.

But what's even more shocking is that some of these first responders know who this girl is. I mean, they don't recognize her, obviously. I mean, he is so bad that they wouldn't have known if they were related to this victim. But once they get to her and they ask her her name, he says, what sounds like Jessica chAmbers? And immediately, first responders know that they're talking to twenty year old .

Jessica chAmbers.

Although corlis b is like when I say small, five hundred people, small plus. She's recently graduated from high school, and he was known as a former popular cheer leader. So reporting by S. L, who extensively cover case, says that they are like, there know who he is now they're trying to keep her a way.

They're like rubin, her turn, trying to keep her talking even though it's hard to hear what she's saying not only from her extensive burns, I mean like literally flesh is has been burnt away, but also because of the noises that are being made trying to put out the car fire around them and there's equipment, there's houses, right? But the one thing they ask her is probably the most important question, like who did this to you? And she's to give a single first name, erik, or maybe IT was dark c but many of the first responders who were around her are so convinced that what they heard her say was the name erick.

Again, it's hard to hear. So they go get her a panic paper. They like, kay, can you write this down so we can be sure only SHE can't write.

Her skin is so badly burned SHE can't even move IT. I mean, forget holding a pencil, and SHE can't move her hands or arms at all. At this point, Jessica is losing consciousness, and they can only press so much. Their main focus has to be like keeping her alive until this helicopter gets there to air lift her to a hospital that has a burn unit. And IT is that in the middle of this chaotic c scene, that a man and walks .

up AI like the middle of nowhere? Yeah.

this is a very rule route. So I can't imagine first responders are like expecting foot traffic. Now, apparently, this guy that walks up doesn't say a word. He's just like staring in the direction of Jessica's car and the woods and first responders ask this guide to leave because they're obviously this is an active crime scene like ah he's get the added here and he can even see just gan nearby c on the ground and so then then we are just kind of like walks off.

Did they bothered ask him if his named rimed with eric before they sent him off?

no. And this is just like a blip in the reporting. But people bring IT up.

And I thought that crunchers would wanted know about IT because to me, it's just so weird that he walked up on this road. Yes, but you know, the fire, the scene around is causing a scene. Maybe that's why. But they send him off. Things are moving so fast that first responders don't really have the time to worry about guy, much less his night. They're probably just thinking like you some noisy passed or trying to get a Better look at the scene and to your point about asking him his name, I don't know like who heard her say the name verses who sent this guy packing?

There's a bunch people.

right? I mean, fact source material doesn't even say if he walks down the dark road. I don't know he gets in a car that they don't make mention of a car words.

So I am saying he walked up, but IT does not matter. Everyone's preoccupied. I think the only thing for responders can focus on is just a herself in that moment. Now, SHE holds on long enough to be flown to the hospital and for her family to come see her. But early the next day, which would have been sunday, december seven, twenty fourteen, Jessica passes away.

Now in the fresh throws of grif jaska mom, lisa still has to go talk to police as a witness to help them try and peace together, just as wear about the day before. And what he ends up telling detectives is that yesterday, this would have been saturday, just got a, got a call or attacks, sometimes between like five or five thirty. SHE got up and told her mom that he was gonna grab some food, clean out her car, and SHE left.

And when SHE wasn't back after a little while, lisa texted her asking her, where did you go? Where you go wash a car? Because like I was taking longer than he expected.

But SHE doesn't get a response so is a closer and then just IT doesn't pick up but a little before seven, lisa finally does get a call back from Jessica and it's kind of strong leduc a says sh'll be home soon and she's I got a promise and when to clean my room, which is something SHE said SHE was going to do for a while. But lisa couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. Like off about the call.

IT had been super, almost erly quiet when he was on the phone, like there's no road noise, there's no one in the background, no music, nothing which was very out of the ordinary for jica joy had something going on in the background. But this call, he has IT last a little over a minute. And by eight o seven, that's when detectives, no nine one one got the call about the car fire.

Could you tell when the car had been set on fire like was IT right before the I want call?

Or I mean, not sure it's looking like IT was pretty close to when the call was made. So obviously, there is this gap. There's more to filling.

What first of who texted? Like who did you encounter? Where did he go? And because evidence was probably contaminated or even fully destroyed in the fire, local police know that they're going to need all the help they can get.

So while they start pulling records, they're sending off what little evidence they can pull from her car. They decide to also call in the big guns. By monday, a full task force is set up to investigate jasa z murder.

B FBI. Is there A, T, F, the mississippi bureau investigation, along with the U. S. Attorneys office? They're all helping the county shaves office. And on the same day, there is a new discovery in the case, Jessica's car keys have been found on the side of the road.

Now they are found in a yard, a little wage down the road from Jessica s car, which is great news because IT means that they aren't totally burn to a quest. And if someone touched those keys, they might be able get DNA off of them. So they send those off to be analyzed with .

the rest of the stuff. What is the rest of the stuff?

What are they? They find off much. So they just phone in my pieces near her car. They are hoping to get like some data, maybe a Better read on her exact movements from nearby cell towers.

I think they had some charred clothing that they on offer analysis, maybe like a piece of a bab. But they can even say for certain like again, they're just like collecting maybe things and sending them on anyways as DNA f is gna take a minute. So in the meantime, detectives go look through surveilLance footage from the gas station the justice s.

Mom said he went to after leaving her house, and SHE did go there just like he said he was going to. I have seen the footage online, and this seems like a small little set up. We're talking like just a couple of little pumps. I'm actually going to send you the video so you can see what i'm talking about as I you throw IT I got mine too so so if you see SHE like polls up and SHE starts walking towards the door to go inside of the store but then before he even gets to the door, all the SHE turns to the side like something someone caught her attention like. I don't know if you can see it's a little fussy but IT looks like maybe SHE like waves SHE puts her ARM I don't she's waving yeah I don't know.

I'm like actually seeing this or my mind just kind of like putting IT there, but IT almost looks like he smiles too.

I know it's hard to tell there's no sound on these, so we're missing that peace, but right after SHE, you know, put her hand up, waves, maybe smiles, whatever, SHE walks out a frame in the direction of the person or whatever caught her attention. She's off camera for a few minutes before he comes back in from the same way and then he goes inside to the store to pay for gas. And luckily, there's a camera in there too.

And there are a couple of guys that we see inside, but they don't really even in react with her like much. I even like talk to her. They don't seem to be to be looking in her direction. SHE pays no, and SHE goes back to her car all alone and then drives off.

And I assume we have no other cameras that pick up that area that had the person he was waving course.

I mean, there are actually other cameras. There's another one outside and another one inside from what I gather, but we don't have the actual area that he walked to.

So lucky or intentional.

that's the right question. And they won't know until they find the person that he d talk to that night, which should be easy, right? In a town of five hundred people, IT wouldn't be hard to get word out like, hey, were you the one you had with forward? Help us fill in the gaps.

So what detectives do next is they literally start tracking down every eric and or Derek in panel account, oh yeah. And they, even the surrounding counties, are trying to build a database of people who have those names. And they do find two erick that are directly connected Jessica through her facebook page.

But just as quickly as they find them, they say neither guy is the one that they're looking for, like one they rule out but don't realize how the other they rule out by looking at, I guess, cell phone records. I don't know what exactly they're looking at. I'm hoping its location data stuff like that saying like Alexis is using cell data, they can't connect in to desk a on the night of the murder.

I'm hoping they are not like he just didn't call her, but you what you but either way, ruling these two out doesn't deter detectives because shortly after a direct pops up on my radar and he has an interesting connection to Jessica. Daring homes is a twenty two year old man from courtland who was first brought to their attention by one of the initial people they interviewed. Now this person says that Derek was acting strange with Jessica always trying to contact her, almost like saying they were harassing her and just overall, doesn't seem like a good dude. And when detectives look him up, they see he's been to prison for exportation of a minor and is a registered .

sex offender in courland boxes.

So they bring their again for an and when they asked him where he was and what he was doing saturday night, december six, he tells him he was at home rubbing his mom's feet.

Yeah, like we all do on saturday, yes. And wasn't.

He says his mom has a diabetic condition that requires him to profit every night. He's actually may be being a good son. And when detectives go talk to his family, they vouched for him, of course. And there apparently some other people around the house. I data confirm that he never left the house.

Okay, cool. So show me to sell out.

So they do. They pull his cell phone data from that night, and he might be telling the truth because there is nothing can connect Jessica and direct to the same place and the same time of her murder. So while a promising need to first, for the time being, Derek is off their potential suspects list.

And if the journal is comparison, they have per records back by now, right?

Yeah, it's fuzz. I don't know exactly when the cell phone records come back, but at this point, detectives have interview ton people and gotten reports. And so here's what they're piece together. So IT turns out the jusici spent some of the morning with her friend kisha and a guin quinton. And they just kind of like grow around together doing, I don't know what, until about noon when the two girls drop quinton off at his house.

At some point they put up just that, goes back home where he spends the afternoon napping, hanging out until he gets that call member, her mom said between five and five thirty, yeah, was actually at five twenty from quinton. Now SHE doesn't answer, but he calls him back, which is when he leaves through the gas station. SHE apparently tried calling and texting kish ire, presumably to meet back up. But kesha s phone had run out of minutes, so SHE couldn't get a hold.

The the good old days.

I know. So at five twenty four, investigators say Jessica shows up on the surveilLance footed at the gas station where already kind of walked. SHE walks up screen SHE buys her gas.

And just like a quick aside, I kind of caught this when I was looking at IT. If you actually watch the surveilLance footage, you can see the tip of six twenty four. So like I got like deep in the weeds questioning the entire timely.

But the more actually into IT, the more I think I could have just been a day like savings thing because everyone was supposed to set their clocks back an hour just a month before, and maybe this one just hadn't happened. And everything i've seen in the core, accor, everyone says that happened at by twenty four. So I have to think that's what's up.

And I know that they observe daily savings there. So anyways, we see her pump her gas and by five thousand and nine P. M, she's leaving the gas station and calling clinton again, which I don't think he answers because then he calls her back at five thirty four.

Now her phone pings near a home in courtland right before six pm, whose house is more like an approximate area. I don't know that they can like pinpoint to a specific house there working on nearing IT down. But after that he goes to bazo, which is like five miles north of courtland.

And SHE was only at that place for about ten to fifteen minutes. Now detectives know this is more of a business area that she's add, but they don't go into detail about where he might have gone, nor do they share if he was with anyone during this time. And in an article for the clarion ledger, detectives somehow get access to a, quote.

privately owned video source. So like a ring camera type maybe.

but wherever this is, where whatever this video is in wheat from, IT shows jesica in her car driving back to courtland shortly before six thirty. Now this is when they're getting closer to, like her caller mom. So her phone record show that she's still trying to get a hold of cash during this time.

Obviously, it's not working. Shortly after six thirty, her phone pings back in the area close to the gas station that he was up before. And IT seems to just be like sitting in this spot SHE tries one more time to get a hold of kisha.

And when he couldn't, that's when SHE called her mom lisa. That's exactly at six forty eight P. M. And that is the last call attacks that went through on her phone because a little after seven thirty, her phone pains from the location that he was found out by first responders on her and road. And her phone officially turned off when investigators believe I got too hot from the fire.

And that would have been a ato four. And I, assuming, detect us of art.

talk to and cleared q quinton essentially so according to the episode in ton and reviewed by investigators and even then by the FBI, the FBI least talked to quit in at his house and IT basically seems like they aren't too concerned that they, for some of the last people to hang out with her, I mean, he was interviewed first. SHE pointed to quitting ton being around to, and he was the one who told detectives that they should look at .

that dear home sky and journalists, have they gotten the forest of back or they still waiting on all that?

Her autopsy is complete, which shows her cause of death, was thermal injuries and suit and smoke inhalation is also determined that her burns a splash pattern to them. Oh, which indicates that he was, I guess, the way they like, could see everything. SHE was sitting in her car when someone poured some type of accelerant over her body and then set her on fire. Now they're also able to find out what kind of accelerant was used, thanks to the piece of what actually was raw or clothing that was collected. So that has come back and they determined that IT was gasoline.

And can they tell if he was naked before he was out on fire or did closed her? And they don't explicitly say.

and I don't know that because they don't know or if there certain things they just don't talk about, and I don't know this is related, but they also don't do a sexual assault IT during her autopsy. C, I don't know, physically, like IT was impossible or would have shown anything because of how badly he was burned.

But to me, the way that SHE came walking out of the woods, completely new, except for having underwear, I feel like it's an immediate red flat yeah like, why would everything else burn away except underwear? exactly. So there's this theory that starts to form among law enforcement at this point. They feel very confident that whoever did this work alone, or if they had help, IT was just from one other person.

How do they know that?

I'm not sure. But they believe this person is local. And they don't think IT was someone random or like just some kind of random thing. And considering how small this town is, IT would make sense that IT wasn't some random person just driving through town. Lighting girls on fire like the whole thing feels, super personnel and super thought out. Plus, in another article in nuclear, ian leger, something her family said that they heard around town, was that someone was in the car with Jessica .

and we with her, like the whole time at the gas tion, two or just later.

no, after he left the gas station. So they say that they think whoever this person is was the one that pred gas on her, and they didn't say down her throat and nose and then set her on fire. And they also heard that he may have thought bad before being knocked out because he had this huge cut on her head.

Was that in the autopsy?

Not that I saw, like, take you with a grain of salt because this one i'm saying it's like visit they're hearing is the rumors going around. And I never saw I brought up in any of the other reporting, so I don't know, but it's what they're hearing. So while detectives don't get any reliable forensic evidence from the autopsy, they do get some DNA back from the keys, most of its female belonging, most likely to Jessica, but there was some male DNA, and actually more than one profile. The problem is they just don't know who IT belongs to OK, but the natural .

person to be someone closed Jessica to have a boyfriend that .

depends on who you ask. So her family says no, and they don't know who would be holding her keys. Now is IT possible that someone else would have? Like, sure, but there's no name that they're bringing up to them.

which makes the DNA more promising .

yeah if they can find out who belongs to.

I mean, can they do a drug comparison?

This is the problem. So the simple, so small, we are definitely not talking about codes. I don't even know if it's big enough to do direct compare.

From what I can tell, they can compare in a way that they can rule people out, but they're gna have a harder time proving that someone is a match, if that makes sense of how little that they have got IT, which means that they're going to have to solve this, the old fashioned wit, by hitting the streets, talking to people and keeping an ear to the ground, trying to figure out if of the rumors floating around the small town have any merit to them. And this is when they start hearing some interesting things, because even her family said that he didn't have a boyfriend. Word on the street is that he did.

Supposedly, Jessica was dating a guy name, travis sanford, at the time of her murder. Travis is actually serving time behind bars for burgers charges at the time, but is apparently known around certain circles that travels and jaska did always have the best relationship even though he was incarcerated, he injured. Ka would still talk on the phone, and he was a very jealous guy. And it's never mentioned which game he's connected to the detectives here that he is affiliated ated with one of the games in town.

But be clear, he was in prison when he was killed.

yes, which is why they know I can't be him, or at least he could not have done IT himself, which doesn't mean that he didn't have someone else. Do IT and detectives even go talk to him about that? But they say when they get there, he's like visibly upset when they tell him not only that just got had been murdered, but like how she's been murdered and based on his reaction and their conversation with him, he gets ruled out as a potential suspect but even when confronted with this, Jessica family is still denies that he had a boyfriend or was ever in a relationship with this travel guy they say that even though he makes bad decisions like he doesn't mean is involved with any game, which seems to be people are implying.

what kind of bad decisions are they aware of?

What I mean, it's no secret, I guess, within the community that just a struggle. The substance news, like she's actually just gone out of a recovery and her design to help her get her life back on track, her family didn't know. Was that at least according to her friends, Jessica was selling drugs in reporting by sara far and ron maxi.

It's jusici fronk sha actually, who claims that Jessica regularly sold marijuana like almost every day for the last six months leading up to her death. I don't know that's real. I don't know whole, I don't know what's real, I don't know what's rumor, like her family feels like the is about her kind spiral out of control after he died.

And maybe they did, because icy places where kisha alleges that SHE and Jessica often drove around and smoke marijuana. That is a far cry from being a dealer, right? And apparently like when they tried to push her, SHE wouldn't name names. SHE wouldn't say we're jesica got her supply.

So is he not wanting to like stitch on people think like of the chain? Or is there nothing to back at that? You know, I mean, but clearly, the rumor mill is spinning, especially since Jessica's murder took place during peak facebook.

I think there's a large number of people online commenting, speculating, basically like virtual detectives trying to solve this crime. Reporting by tress abl says that activist group anonymous actually takes note of dusk y's death and starts digg up information on people they think are related to her murder. And the consensus kind of becomes that Jessica could have been a victim of domestic violence, or maybe even something, again related.

And anonymous claims to learn this from hacking into different people. Social media accounts won being a former boyfriend of Jessica and some of his associates. But detectives do their due diligence and check into these theories and basically say that there's nothing to prove any of these rumors to be true.

What's interesting about these rumors s is that for courtland being such a small town, there is actually a lot of game activity. One game that the internet loose believe is connected to discuss murder at the time is the black squad game. After surveilLance footage was released from the convenience ore, people online started targeting the store owner sun.

They were saying that he was the leader of the black squads and that he used his dad store to sell drugs. And they say that since he knows Jessica and he was one of the last people to speak to her, like he's got to be connected. All kinds of ridiculous claims that aren't back by factual evidence, all he says in a documentary for investigation discovery about this case.

That is just what? Because he willingly gave police the surveilLance footage from his door and hoes that I would help them track Jessica killer down. But IT almost just like backfired on him because he's trying to be helpful in the, obviously, he starts receiving death threats online.

People are avoiding coming to his store. And this prompts detectives to speak out again and let the public know that, by the way, guys, ali is clear. He's not even like a at all in this case. Now, other rumors are floating around that jesica could have been an informant, mostly because he hung out with people affiliated to certain gangs. But her father was a mechanic for the piano iconic share of department, which I think made some people uneasy, especially those who were Larry around police officers.

So they worried that somehow Jessica's dad maybe got her involved with the share of department, which is why people around town started saying that Jessica was on the verge of outing some like big time game members. And to back that up, what i'll say is more reporting by trust. L says that jesica even told her mom, this is just a few weeks before her death, that here have a quote, hang on just a second.

He says, quote, these bis think i'm snitching and i'm not and I guess when lisa asked her, like, you know, what are you talking about? Who are you talking about? He just said, quote, nobody, mom, you don't need to know so I don't know what he was talking about.

But the important thing to note is even that statement does not prove he was involved in anything or had anything to snitch about. So with no solid leads to follow, detectives watch as days past. And no, no information comes to light.

The next big hit that they get doesn't come until the four twenty fifteen. When detectives get more cell phone data, they start to analyzed and I really start digging in. They are hoping to pin down if Jessica was alone or with someone in those few hours that she's really unaccounted for on december six.

And what they get bag doesn't give them any new names, but IT does point them back to someone they have already talk to. So in the records that detectives get back, they're able to show that her friend quinton, remember the guy that he had hung out with. They are called each other on the day the fire.

So he was actually with Jessica at the exact same time he was murdered, which is why yet not the story he told before when they wrote him off before he says he was just with her in the morning. Now this took so thinking long to get. I assume maybe what they did was like a cell phone dump, or they were like tracking location data.

Not obviously not back for text like that was simple, small potato stuff that they did early days a year out now. But they have something that they basically approved. He lied to them.

So in november twenty fifteen, detectives go and they question twenty seven year old quinton, tell us to see what his story is. Now problem is not in town anymore. He's actually in jail now in monroe, lousianner for debit card theft.

So they have to go there. And when they meet with him, they are really upfront with him. They know while they know his original story was that he saw Jessica the morning of the day he was murdered.

They now have cellphone data putting him and just got together on december six later than what he initially told them. And this time he was like, how, you know, yeah, I was with my buddy mike. We wrote up to bates, fell together to meet Jessica. We had to give some marijuana. But like, that's really, I really didn't .

see her after that.

no. And in the moment, I guess that explanations good enough for detectives because the cell phone pains, they're not exact, right? So IT is kind of flaught ble.

IT is a small area. Maybe he's like meeting up with her, but not in her car. Maybe they be in the same area, whatever. So detective, decide what they have to do. They're gonna check this out with big mike.

And when they bring him in for questioning, he says that he in quinton weren't together on december six, and they never drove to bates bill together. Yeah, he's actually got his own solid alibi to prove that there are cell one putting him in nash fill at the time and a friend of his claims to have been with big mike in nashville. I guess they are watching like the tides play the giants or .

something which to be fair, is a Better being .

home in. So after checking out the alibis at the end of january twenty sixteen, detectives had back to alesia to question quite again. And what do you know? His story changes again.

Of course, that does.

This time he tells detectives like, okay, O, I must have mr. remembred. I actually did ride with Jessica two bates will, sometime after five thirty P. M. I was with her afterwards at my house, just not for a long. And what detectives need to account for is the fact that quinton was actually seen on security footage after discus murder at the dollar store back and bates fill around eight thirty pm. And so they are asked him about this, and he says that he went back to buy a cash card for his girlfriend in lousianner.

He's trying to establish .

by maybe that do, but as they keep talking, I think quinton is getting paranoid because he just like blurts out that he in Jessica had sex just once about a week before her murder but not that night for sure, not that night even though, by the way, like apparently when he bought this out, like no one asked, and then he divos gim unique details about how they did IT in her car, and they had, like leaning the sea .

all the way back to you. What was just a seat in when they found her .

car nail on the head. Her passenger seat in her car was found, laid all the way back, so that in the fact that he was only wearing underwear when first responders found her, they're thinking that maybe they did have sex, something went wrong, and then he was set on fire.

But where did the gases come from?

They actually a theory about this. So at some point, detectives learn that around seven, forty six P. M, like very specific, quinton made to, called his girlfriend and lisia and told her that he was going to walk to his sister's house to borrow her car.

And detectives already know that there's a shortcut from hair and road is where dusk s car was found. There's a shortcut that leads to his sister's neighborhood and wonder, you know, IT, it's along that route that someone had found jack's keys way back in the beginning. So they're thinking he went that way, got his sisters s vehicle and then use that to drive to his own place where he kept a gas can in the shed.

And because this is such a small town, you can't make this up like only in the story that this happen. But apparently the security footage from the gas station from earlier, not only is captain like the stuff with Jessica, whatever bit IT actually points to quinton's house of all places, what I know, and you can pretty much see the like, just the beginning of his driveway, not everything. And what they see is that around seven fifty ish, you can kind of make out a vehicle pulling and the quints driveway up to the storage shed near the front of the driveway.

The cars, therefore, like two minutes before IT drives off. Now you can't make up the driver or the tag from this footage, but they say that it's him and that he's going back to get the gas. Kan, because apparently he told them that he had that gas can way early when they like first talk to him and they were even interested in him. So because they learn about the forever ago and they weren't interested in then I they didn't collect that gas can or check out this like super well back then when they could have and out a little late. But this is their theory now.

But as the video quality sucks so bad, how do they know it's quitter in his sister's car?

Apparently there's another camera at the gas ation. I told you I had more than the one that we saw. And I guess that one had a Better shot of the model of this car, which they say matches quinton sisters. So at eight P. M, the video captures the car speeding past.

I guess this, like other one, that they say they can see him and speeding past, heading to bates, fill where detectives, no, now that quinton was to buy that cash card for his golf end out of state, right? So what detectives really want to get into next with quinton are the string of text messages between him and jesica. They have gotten access to their entire texting conversation so they can try and figure out why quinton would even want to hurt.

And they see that for four days leading after her death, quittin kept texting Jessica, basically asking her for sex. And every time he would let him down easy with some kind of like throw away comment on the night of the crime at seven forty two P M, which is likely right around or even right after the time, just a set on fire. Quinton s. Phone, they say, like wakes up.

Was that turned off?

That's not super clear. He just says that wakes up s so I don't know IT was like in sleeping de or IT was off but IT wakes up OK he calls in text her and his messages aren't being returned, obviously but then his tech says, let me read two exact lakes. I think it's important for some of us IT says, quote, bay, my friend is coming over tonight.

I'll call you tomorrow. Good night. Sweet dreams. Is this .

phone painting near where Jessica is?

It's not. I'll get to that in just a second. K, but what detectives can get past is quinta lack of tax or calls to check on jesica after word gets out that she's been seriously hurt.

Now I don't know that anyone knew she's been fully set on fire at that point. People had just started to hear that he was severely injured. And what they're saying is that instead of reaching out to her, it's just like radio silence.

And then what really doesn't do him any favors is that once we're got out, the Jessica had died and that happens on sunday morning. You know what he does? He deleted all of the calls, all of the tax, everything between them, and he deletes her entire contact from his phone.

And when police are like, why would you do that if you have nothing to IT? He's like, well, she's not around anymore. Why would I keep a dead row?

呃， OK. I did the police not know all of this when they first talk to him. So he turns out that they .

did know all of this. Early on, according to the limited series unspeakable crime, he had told the FBI about deal everything, but I guess the agent never asked why or or deemed IT suspicion.

Like like little red flag. I know he wasn't .

until detectives were like actually talking him in lousianner, that they wanted to know more about his logic behind and to fear when everything is in a new light now, especially because when they go talk to him in prison, not only is he there or debit card fraud or whatever, the thing I didn't tell you is that the debit card theft is actually connected to a Young woman named meng shaw who went by Mandy. And Mandy had been murdered.

So quinton has become a suspect in her case because of A A weird string of events. So I needed to back up with me a little bit. Mandy was an exchange student at the university of the lizana and row from taiwan.

And on july twenty nine, twenty fifteen, SHE was stabbed thirty four times in her own apartment. According to reporting by Sarah foller, a warrant filed said that he was stabbed by someone trying to get the pen to her debit card, and after her death, her card was used three times. SurveilLance footage from the A, T, M used to take the money out of her account shows quinton using her card, and apparently he used his own phone to call her bank and entered her debut card number and pin in.

And after he was arrested, he admitted to using the debit card. Now, the whole reason the'd got to him was actually not by using the A, T. M.

Footage and working backwards. My friends, no, no, no, no. So there is a guy that had come forward and said that someone he knew confess to me and his murder.

This is like a total different jurisdiction ah he's like this person knows the details about stabbing her and torturing her until SHE gave up her debit card pen. That's how they got to the is everything we have. The f David comes from this guy.

Well, according to long crime, the man who came forward said that this person showed him the idea of the woman and then said, quote, that stupid mother for quinton got caught using her debit card and vote. And the guy, this man is first painting for me and he's murder, is not quen. IT is a different guy.

So detectives went, checked out that lead, found doubt he was a total lie. The guy he's planning to couldn't have done IT. So they go back and confront this original witness about there and he's like, yeah, I actually just want to frame that guy like that day, sorry. Not him. Like.

okay.

but this is the weird part. Guess what this guy's name is? Like this witness. Guess what his name is 啊。

Does IT end with a rock?

Fricking erik? Oh my god. Let me introduce you. Eric hill. And if things can't get more small town, erik is a former boyfriend of brita's sister oh, and he actually still has his name tattooed on her.

by the way, like solid, like within the circle .

yeah and he's apparently key to giving long enforcement in lysia information about because even though eric and quince aren't dating anymore, eric is actually, you know, in the family. And if that line has been, yes, eric, okay. So he is related to quit through marriage now.

So in twenty fifteen, quinton and eric s. Cousin chater Jackson, they married actually, on the same day me and his body was found. So and I know that's a lot of names, and you don't have to keep track of them all. Just know that eric hill has a lot of tie event. That's the moral, the story again.

firmly in the circle.

firmly in the circle. So after eric flip flops his story, detectives tell him they know he's related to quinn's wife spent a lot of time with quinton and weird, you know, a lot of things about her murder that if this guy didn't tell you, question about, how do you know? right? And that's when a story changes.

He then says that he learned all of those details about Mandy from quinton when they were trading their like, couldn't put war stories, but here's the thing about all those details to share with detectives, like none of that stuff with public knowledge, and they know what he said about torturing her. And like specifically, he talked about like small cuts that would inflict pain. They're like that, something that only the killer would know.

which my question is, he knows all this because quinton told him, or he knows because he .

knows exactly, except they don't seem to press on that. They are like they based on a silver powders like here's your chance to connect the crime to quinton, would you like to and he totally does even though there is no evidence from me and his case that connects quinton to IT just the calls to her bank and the E. T. M. Footage incriminates quinton, for sure he was using her cards and there's also no forensic help in Mandy's case, but in Jessica, they are able to develop four male profiles from the DNA found on her keys as things are getting Better OK again, IT seems like it's still just exclusive, and quinton DNA cannot be excluded from those.

What about A X?

This is a crazy part. They don't even seem to entertain that idea. Like guy, don't see anything about them looking at this.

So when detectives that they go back to quit there, I like, why would your DNA be on her keys and he's like, i've driven her car before, but I don't know if that helps anyone because like I said, the sample is super small. So it's not like a definitive win for detectives. But with quints changing story, he is actually provided them a more rounded look at the events of that night.

And detectives are confident that they have a motive. Quinton, one in sex, Jessica refused, and things got out of hand. They theorized that he either talked her out or thought he killed her, then left the scene.

Borrow ed, his sister's car, got the gas can from his shed, drove back dance just in her car. Gasoline then set on fire, but he hears the kicker. Detectives believe that quinton didn't know Jessica was still alive when he set her on fire.

He thought he was just onna. Get rid of the evidence. He didn't anticipate her being alive when first responder showed up.

So they're saying he sent her that text about a friend coming over like i'll tell you tomorrow and then goes to establish an alley in baz fill by buying that like cash card for girlfriend. So detectors think they have a home run but quinton denies all of IT. He says he was with her that night.

Yeah, but he wasn't with her around the time he was killed. But if I just don't believe him, and in february twenty sixteen, he is indeed on capital murder charges by a special grand jy in penal account and by july, he pleaded not guilty. But it's not until october twenty seventeen, after some delays, that quinn's trial against.

A lot of the prosecution argument revolves around the cell phone data that's been at the forefront of this investigation and how they say a basically proved quinton was lying about his warehouse ts and all the time that he spent just on her last day. Be honest, I kind of lost the thread at this par. I think the jury did to, which is like an important piece.

If you're going to be a prosecutor defense tourney, the prosecution, they spend so much time getting into details of the cell phone data using language like R, T, S. And neos to describe the system that they use to determine where a cell one is located with them. The network like like what tower you're getting things off of when you use your phone.

Lost in the weeds.

I know here. Here is the big issue that I was able to actually like glean from all this. Jusici had verizon and quinton had a tt. So their phones, we're using two different systems to paint their location. And while Jessica location was pretty well tracked, quintals actually wasn't his was more of a estimate that they used to basically place him with jesica on the sixth.

Wait, that's the smoking gun that quinton is kind of sota in the same area .

as Jessica 呀。 So it's not rock solid. no. And another thing the prosecution has to overcome is Jessica's final statement that eric did this to her.

They bring a burn doctor that treated jusici that night, and he says that her mouth and airways were so charged that there is no way they would have been able to speak like Normal. They highly unlikely that, he said, ordered with much clarity. But the thing i'll say.

but he said her name almost right yeah that was.

yeah I can get .

past that like I can't buy that SHE couldn't said eric there if he said, just got timbers verses chAmber .

I know this all gets like kind of muddy and one of the first responders on the stand says that what they IT was more of like A A way like, so a little motier. Some say they didn't hear her say anything at all, but they, again, others are actually pretty amant.

But after adding doubt to the prosecutions, cell phone data argument and then the fact that quinton name is nowhere close to sounding like erik, the defense goes after the fact that quinton was on camera back and bates fell, buying that cash card when jesica was set on fire, even though the prosecution argues that he went to the store right after to basically set up as well by and meet both using the same evidence to like argue different things when the trial concludes to rest abl reports that the jury deliberates for eight hours over the course of two days and when they reconvene their verdict is not what anyone in the courtroom expects. Now in the state of mississippi, the jury's verdict has to be unanimous. There is no majority rules here.

So what happens next stuns everyone. Apparently, the jury got confused by the instruction, and they thought that if they were going to choose guilty, the vote had to be you in the animals, but if they all couldn't agree that quinton was guilty, you're not guilty than that automatically meant that they had to go with they not guilty verdict. But that's not how that works.

In mississippi, the jury's vote has to be unanimous one way or the other. So oh yeah, it's not it's like like I think I don't know. Like I think that actually would have been a mistier. And in they remind, there is just like not guilty because they .

didn't understand because I get instructions just because you couldn't all agree on guilty, you still have to agree or not guilty essentially yeah which is .

like so wild is actually coming off like the current read stuff with like with the juries and the forms like IT wills me that you could go through a whole trial like that and then say not guilty and if they're like I we didn't understand like fumble the instructions .

and not be like y why arent you just go back into that room and talk IT out again yeah .

but and luckily that's a kind of what they do here like before everyone leaves, like again in current reads, like left the courtroom. And then they found out that there is confusion in this case that seems to happen there in the courtroom. So the judge, like, sends the jury back. You need to come to .

some kind of agreement .

and not long after that there and they're like, okay, alright, we have universe decision this time, all in agreement. And our verdict is not guilty, which is obviously not with the prosecution ones. So they asked for the jury to be pull in case there is still any kind of confusion and IT turns out there are still split.

The jury still can't come to a unanimous ous decision if he's guilty or not guilty. Which again, so freaking concerning that. Like you got to explain you did you not know you just to go home?

How IT like, uh, somebody questions .

so the judge declares a mistier on a tober sixteen, twenty, seventeen.

honestly .

appropriate. And this splay ultimately comes down the split in the jury to a few different things. One of them was her saying, eric, like the jury just could not passed that but also there is a racial component to this entire trial.

Jessica was a Young, blond, White ro. Quinton was in his late twenty and black and courtland. Mississippi has its own racial tensions. Even though the town is pretty slit, population wise, with black and White residents, there is still a racial divide within the community, and many individuals in the black community feel that the prosecution, or like the whole system, really was just trying to pin juice as murder on a black man with a criminal history. Because, like you said earlier, there is no smoking gun in this case.

And just like the racial make up of the town, the selected jury was also pretty split in half, like the five not guilty votes were all from the black jars, and the seven guilty vertical came from every wager, plus two beers. But what I will say is this misread isn't the end for quinton. He still serving that five year sentence for burglary, so he is still kind of put away.

And the prosecution has time to, like, put their case back together again. They gear up right away for a second trial. And the second time around, the prosecution tries to learn from their past areas. They tried to keep the new jury from getting hung up on the arc of IT. All but the defense won't let them want them to not forget that the last thing he said is eric did this.

And they bring in their own experts who say that he could totally have said, eric, basically you don't need your lips for that like if you actually but got erp, her lips burn off but they're like SHE could have done IT. So according to the defense, there is a chance SHE did mean to say exactly what he did. Eric may be Derek.

Now, their most valuable tactic at this trial for the prosecution is a brand new witness, this woman named Sherry flowers, who says that he picked up a guy that was flagged her down on december six along. This area is near where justice s. Keys had been found.

And at first he says he stopped because he thought the guy was like, SHE knew him. He pulls over, realize he didn't actually know him, and this guy parenting to identify himself. But detectives presume that this man is quinton, and the long of the short of IT is like, I don't really understand why they bring her, because they have her basically told the same story.

Like SHE drops off with sisters and their stories of the same sisters, like he gets her car, goes his house. I think they do this because maybe the timeline of having him what to his sister yet was like, too tight. So they fix that, like button bottom.

With this, he hit us a ride. Same old story, gets the gas hand, you know the rest. Now the second trial, the defense, also questions the interview tactics used on quintin in sinuations that he was likely covers into changing history because of the detective lies about cellphone data pinning hindu sics location murder that night.

And what i'll say is I watch some of the interrogation and he ever, I don't know, he sounds so scared, black, an innocent man or this man deserves an Oscar. And I I don't know which IT is, but the last thing that the defense really does is that they go after the fact that Jessica was involved in drugs in some way or another, and they say that, that could have put her in danger with people other than quitting. So I don't think they did that the first time around, and I think they saw that as a mistake.

Like clearly, we need to, if not him, then who you don't have to do that. But like clearly a jury wants that they think according to the clarity an leger to back up the defenses claims. And thanks to justice s phone data, the federal anti gang Operation was able to charge seventeen people with different drug and gain related offences, though none whoever suspected of her murder or so like that was going on, yes, but I was IT connected.

I don't know. right? So now that they've got all the information laid out, they send the jury back to deliberate. And again, IT takes a long time, twelve hours, until they come back claiming that they do have an answer. And their answer is that they're split six guilty and six not guilty.

So the answer is another hung jia.

There are simply, they say enough reasonable doubt that they cannot come to a unanimous conclusion. And so the judge has to declare another mission. Al.

what does this mean for quitting?

I mean, nothing in relation to Jessica's case, but he is still sort of in time for the previous charges, and he still has meant his case kind of looming over him in luz anna. So in twenty nineteen, a gRandy actually indeed him on second degree murder charges in connection with me and his step. And according to reporting by Ashley bot, there is GPS info that they say puts quittance phone within sixty meters of Mandy's apartment on the day that he was murdered because of the calls that he made to her bank.

Do detective's question, eric hill, about either case, I can feel like he's the biggest lose entire. I couldn't .

find anything, and like any of the source material I have that talks about them talking to him, even I personally think he should have been questioned. And like, okay, if you're going to use all this cell phone data to say that quinton was around lives, what's his cell phone data look like? But they don't like, I think they just think of him as a witness, except even that changes in twenty when I kill writes a handwritten of David recanting, his testimony and actually you read this that was published in .

the new star IT says, quote, my name is eric hill junior. I'm writing and filing this affidavit on my own free will to state on about me eleven, twenty sixteen, I arkle jor was pressured by monroe police to take the stand to make a false statement against quinton teus. Quinton tellis never told me anything about a crime, and I don't know anything other than what was put on T, V, I, air. Chilgener was charged with accessory to murder and was forced to falsely testify on stand against quitting teas, bamana police, or be convicted of murder, a crime I had no knowledge of that supposedly happened. If I didn't take the stand against quinton tellis and put.

so mean, this dude fully were cans on some pretty serious details yeah like I said, only the killer would know though, right? Like if were saying quinta saying his confession was coerced we know how things can accidentally intentionally get like fed, I don't know, but he's saying he actually didn't have any knowledge of what happened. He was just forced to take the standing in quinton's debit card death trial. But here's the thing about the affidavit that's really confusing to me. Reporting by Ashley mot claims that the detectives do a handwriting analysis on this letter and allegedly IT was written by both eric and quinton.

I'm so confused.

I was so there's actually pictures of the affidavit, sorry, the letter in the update, but there's pictures of this for the analysis. And so there's apparently like sections written by clinton where IT says, like my name is and then like, I declare under penalty. But then eric wrote out the actual part of him, saying his testimony was false. And I have a picture of IT if you wanted.

See that I can send to you. Yeah, oh yeah. There's like two different kinds of handwriting there, almost like a film in the blank. My name is err, kill before all of this.

yeah. So I don't know this makes IT weirder or not, but apparently clinton and eric are both in custody at the same time and place like, I guess Erica by this point and a ky. Robert convenient store on Christman like twenty twenty, and he'd been in prisons in the february twenty, twenty.

So I don't know what their end game is or if they're finally, just like he's quint able to confront him. And if if he really was lying, quite like, listen, like ye pen this, like you fell IT out and like, you have to tell the truth. I don't know, I don't know.

But over the next few years, quinton remains behind bars, waiting for updates on many's case until november twenty twenty two. That's when all in a judge actually dismisses the indication, claiming that after much delay, quinton's right to a speedy trial for me and his murder was violated and under leasing a law, if that happens, the defendant is to be released without bail. However, when mississippi here about his imminent release, they request a transferred to get him disturbed out some outstanding sentences there.

I don't really know what it's world, but quitting gets transferred. And because he's now in mississippi, his trial is removed where his luiz anatta from in this cases like just removed from the docket, right? And that's where quinton is now according to the mississippi department of corrections website, he is anticipated to be released october sixteen, twenty, twenty seven.

I just can't get past the error of IT all like how are they going to have an eric so closely tied to this person? They're trying to pin this entire thing on not looking to him. And I need to know arx location on december six, twenty fourteen.

I mean, I feel like if this case is done, right, there's a lot more people we need to know about like there are just like these off he and mentions .

of the guy he waved to, the guy who walks up during the scene. I mean.

yeah so like I know that they like the guy who walks up during the scene. They they kind of like just wave him off and rule him out. The guy um that SHE like waved or whoever SHE like saw the gas station. They do identify that person also another like they say not involved, but like, again, show me the self you did all this work on. Quick on, show me the other .

data I need more than they say he's not involved.

right? right? What I really want. So I mean, I think there's plenty of other work that can be done to either proof quinton did IT or prove someone else can prove quinton do what honestly don't know. But the other question I have is like I always want to know that thing I couldn't find is like, what is quinton excuse about having the debt card right?

Yeah if he's not involved with Mandy's murder yeah I mean, I I will get how .

to get the car right that makes him look so .

guilty said all on is using it's. You a lot don't .

give me wrong, but like in my mind, I like like if he were to say, like someone who I might know or who's in my circle gave IT to me that's a whole different thing but but I was far I know he hasn't said that. Like when that i've come up by now, I don't but IT maybe not. I hadn't got a trial.

I don't know. I think they're still so much like I said, that can be done for this case. But the lack of forensic evidence is limiting, to say the least.

Now there's obviously one or more people out there who i'd believe no what happened. And so if that is you or someone you think you know, please come forward for dusk. Y's family, for Mandy's family, they deserve justice. So if you have information regarding this is murder, you can contact the penalty I shares department at six two five six three six two three zero, or if you want to be anonymous, you can call crime stoppers one eight hundred seven two nine two one six nine and if you have any information about Mandy's murder, you can contact the munroe police department at three one eight three two nine two six zero zero and lastly, if you or a loved one wants to explore treatment for substance use, you can seek out by calling two one one, or will link to their website in the shown nuts.

You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crime junky podcast dot com.

and be sure to follow us on instagram at crime drink park .

will be back next week with a brand new episode.

Crime junky is an audio check production. So what do you think, chuck, do you prove?