Dale & Crystal Taylor

Before dawn on a February morning in 1998, two young Olympic-hopefuls left their Oxford home with their brother. Shane Taylor, 23, drove his brother, Dale Taylor, 20, and his sister, Crystal Taylor 19, to the Eastgate Shopping Center where the pair were scheduled to catch a shuttle bus to the Memphis airport. The ice-dancing duo was traveling to a training camp in Colorado. But they would never make it on the shuttle to Memphis.

Three days later, Jim and Sandra Taylor, the pair's parents, notified the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department that their children were missing. The Taylors told Detective Terrence Nelson that their children often waited a day or two to call home while traveling, so they did not immediately realize the two were missing. However, the Taylors were vehement in their claim that Dale and Crystal would not voluntarily disappear.

The preliminary investigation focussed on Shane Taylor, the last known person to see his siblings. In his initial interview Shane claimed he returned home immediately after dropping off his brother and sister, but further inquiries proved this wasn't true. In fact, Shane had gone to a gathering of the infamous Oxford cult, Ego Shovel, where he smoked marijuana for a while and then returned home. After additional questioning, Shane confirmed he had been at the Ego Shovel event and did not initially admit it because he was in a sheriff's "diversion" program for first time offenders.

Police spoke to the victims' friends and to witnesses in the area the night the Taylors disappeared. Witnesses mentioned seeing a car idling near the bus stop and a teenage boy running away from the area. Using the witnesses' descriptions, Investigators attempted to determine the identities of the boy and the car's owner.

On February 19, police received an anonymous tip to check the fresh graves at an Oxford cemetery. The call was traced to a local pay phone, but the caller was not identified. Investigation at the cemetery uncovered the bodies of Crystal and Dale Taylor in a single grave, both victims of homicide. Autopsies revealed Crystal Taylor had been stabbed to death and Dale Taylor had been shot to death within 24 hours of the time they left home.

On the morning of March 4, Ole Miss Assistant Professor Tucker Baines notified police that he had found luggage on his morning run, which he believed belonged to the Taylors. Authorities collected the items and verified they belonged to Dale and Crystal Taylor. Crystal's diary was among the items found. Entries in the diary spoke of a turbulent relationship with her brother Dale and implied her father had sexually molested her in the past.

On March 12, police received a call from a passerby who had found a bloody knife and jacket in a vacant lot behind the Eastgate Shopping Center. Forensic tests positively identified blood on both items as that of Crystal Taylor. Fingerprints on the knife belonged to Dale Taylor. In addition, forensic testing of the primary and secondary crime scenes indicated that Dale Taylor had been killed at the cemetery where the bodies were found, but that Crystal Taylor had been murdered behind the Eastgate Shopping Center. Authorities were forced to consider the disturbing possibility that, before his own death, Dale Taylor had been involved in the murder of his sister.

Only a few days after the knife was found, the online girlfriend of Christian Chambers, Dale Taylor's best friend, contacted Yoknapatawpha police. Via email, Tania Hotchkiss told police she had been surprised to see Chambers' name mentioned on the Internet in connection with the Taylor murders. Hotchkiss and Chambers met online six months earlier and had been having regular private chats every Sunday night for most of that time. However, Hotchkiss said, during their session in the early morning hours of February 2, Chambers abruptly abandoned their chat without comment and she had been unable to reach him since. Hotchkiss expressed doubt that Chambers was involved in the murders, but provided information to allow police to check his Internet activities.

The following weekend, Detective Nelson, masquerading as Tania Hotchkiss with her permission, had a brief online chat with Chambers. During the conversation, Chambers implied he had been involved in the murders, but became suspicious when "Tania" asked questions about the Taylors. Chambers terminated the chat session and fled his residence before police could serve arrest and search warrants.

With Chambers on the run, authorities discovered evidence at his home and in his car linking him to the Taylor murders, including the shotgun used in the murder of Dale Taylor, blood and fiber evidence, and property belonging to the victims. Chambers' family made a public appeal for their son to turn himself in, but if Christian Chambers heard the plea, he did not acknowledge it.

Christian Chambers, murderer

While authorities built a case against Chambers in the Taylor murders, they were also investigating allegations that Jim Taylor had sexually abused his daughter. Expert analysis of Crystal Taylor's medical records, coupled with interviews of people who had known Crystal Taylor as a child, substantiated police suspicions.

On March 31, at the urging of his mentor, Christian Chambers voluntarily surrendered to police in Sonoma, California. Chambers was extradited to Mississippi, where he was held at the Yoknapatawpha County Detention Center. During interrogation by Yoknapatawpha Detective Nelson, Chambers gave a detailed account of the murders of Crystal and Dale Taylor.

According to Chambers, Dale Taylor stabbed his sister to death after becoming enraged when she insisted she was quitting ice-skating. Dale Taylor then came to Chambers' home and asked for his help in disposing of Crystal Taylor's body. Stunned and frightened by Taylor's highly agitated state and his horrific story, Chambers agreed to help him.

As they took Crystal's body from behind the Eastgate Shopping Center to the local cemetery and frantically began to bury her, Dale Taylor's peculiar behavior continued. Taylor berated his dead sister, demanding to know why she had forced him to kill her. Unnerved by his friend's bizarre conduct and terrified by the situation he found himself in, Chambers stated he could not bring himself to shovel dirt over Crystal Taylor's lifeless body.

When Dale Taylor began to mock him and threaten to implicate him in Crystal's murder, Chambers became infuriated, picked up the shotgun and shot Dale Taylor to death. Chambers claimed he could not recall anything that happened after that moment, but evidence indicated he buried Dale Taylor in the grave with his sister and fled the scene.

The anguished Chambers was convicted of second degree murder in August 1998, after a lengthy trial. He is currently serving a sentence of 25 years to life at Parchman State Penitentiary. He will be eligible for parole in 2117.

In a final sad chapter of this tragic tale, Jim Taylor charged with sexually abusing his daughter, Crystal. The District Attorney moved to indict Taylor after Sandra Taylor, the defendant's wife, agreed to testify against him in exchange for a grant of immunity from prosecution. Taylor entered a plea of nolo contendere and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. [ Continued --> ]