On Hometown Homicide: Local Mysteries, the team investigate two tragic murders at opposite ends of the country. Jessica Chambers from Mississippi was cruelly covered in gasoline and then set alight and left to die.
In rural Wisconsin, Theresa Still was beaten to death by her live-in boyfriend, Greg Gubernot, who then dumped her remains in a snowy woodland area.
The murder of Jessica Chambers
On December 6, 2014, Jessica Chambers left her house in Courtland, in northwest Mississippi, to clean her car and was not seen alive by family and friends again.
A short time later, firefighters responded to a call of a burning vehicle on a rural road near Courtland. They discovered Jessica at the scene with 95 percent of her body burned; burns; she had been covered in gasoline and set alight.
Jessica told firefighters and medics that “Eric set me on fire.” She died the next day in a Memphis hospital.
The police and FBI agents spent a month looking for people in the area named Eric; however, they drew a blank. In the end, their suspicions kept pointing towards Quinton Tellis, a local man who had known Jessica.
Tellis had deleted all his cellphone communications with Jessica and had stopped messaging her from around the time of her death. The police also learned that Jessica had refused his sexual advances on the day she was killed.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelHe was eventually arrested in February 2016, and charged with capital murder.
Tellis was put on trial twice for the murder, and both times it ended in a mistrial when the jury failed to reach an agreement. However, Tellis remains in prison in Louisiana, where he is serving time for an unrelated murder.
The murder of Theresa Lynn Still
Theresa Lynn Still disappeared from her home in Altoona, Wisconsin, just after Christmas in 2009. Her friends and family were immediately concerned for her welfare as it was highly unlikely that the single mother would have abandoned her child.
Suspicions instantly fell on Theresa’s live-in boyfriend, Greg Gubernot, who had been the last person to see her alive.
Three days after she disappeared, a hunter reported finding Theresa’s remains 100 miles from Altoona in a very secluded and wooded area in Adams County. An autopsy revealed she had suffered multiple injuries from a severe beating.
An investigation into Theresa’s and Gubernot’s relationship uncovered a long history of physical abuse on the part of Gubernot. He was eventually arrested and charged with murder.
The day before Gubernot was due to be put on trial for the murder, he committed suicide by choking himself in his cell with some cord.
More from Hometown Homicide: Local Mysteries
Follow the links to read about more mysterious murders profiled on Hometown Homicide: Local Mysteries.
Ryan Duke broke into Tara Grinstead’s home and choked her to death. His friend, Bo Dukes, then helped him to dispose of the remains by burning them in a peccan orchard.
In 2013, 17-year-old Alexis Murphy went missing a short distance from her home in Virginia. Despite no remains being recovered, Randy Taylor was sentenced to life imprisonment for her murder.
Hometown Homicide: Local Mysteries airs at 9:30/8:30 on Investigation Discovery.