A dark cloud that had hung over Panola County for 14 months was lifted this week with the announcement of an indictment for the death of Jessica Chambers.
District Attorney John Champion was being realistic Wednesday when he described the indictment as just having jumped the first hurdle. Much work remains for the legal team to secure a conviction.
Champion was probably speaking honestly for himself during the press conference when he told a reporter that the spiteful comments and charges of incompetence aimed at the investigative effort and bandied about on social media did not bother him, but the investigative team collectively must at times have felt the negative pressure when they combed through social media looking for clues.
Yet they persevered. Us lesser folk might have become discouraged and made attempts to lash back at the mindless vitriol from people who use the semi-anonymity of social media to access an audience that once would have ignored them.
If we heard Sheriff Dennis Darby say it once: “We’ve got the best team of investigators … we’re going to find who did this,” we heard it a dozen times.
With Wednesday’s announcement about the suspect’s indictment, they made good on the promise.
In a fascinating juxtaposition of the most advanced phone data analysis technology available and plain, old-fashioned gumshoe detective work investigators were able to compile enough evidence for the District Attorney to convince the grand jury to indict.
That first hurdle cleared, there remains — after all the procedural steps that will allow the suspect to be returned to Panola County — a trial that will again bring Jessica Chambers’ murder into the limelight.
But for now, the dark cloud has been lifted