The tragic death of Jessica Chambers December 6 has focused such widespread media interest into Panola County that one might think that it is unprecedented.

That’s partly true — never before has there been such potential to spread so much information as quickly with the internet enhanced by the social media at most fingertips.

An event as macabre and as high profile as the intentional burning of a pretty, young woman attracts attention from all corners. To paraphrase District Attorney John Champion, death by fire is most people’s greatest fear.

Unfortunately, the accuracy of information has fallen far behind the speed with which it is delivered. Something like this attracts wackos from far and wide. Anyone can throw up a web site and construct outlandish conspiracy theories built on the merest threads of truth. They can do that without fear of bearing responsibility if their information is in error.

Then there’s the Hacktivist group Anonymous, which claims to have hacked into Facebook accounts of local gang members whose frequent social media communications about Chambers’ death lead them to curious conclusions. It is as if they are throwing everything against the wall just to see if something sticks.

Television and newspapers have been a little more conservative, bound as we are by liability for damage from erroneous information.

TV and newspapers were also here in 1994 for the selection of the jury for the trial of Byron de la Beckwith. Beckwith had been tried twice in 1964 for the 1963 assassination of civil rights leader Medger Evers in Jackson. Both trials ended in hung juries.

Investigative reporting in the early 1990s by The Clarion-Ledger unearthed enough new information to try Beckwith again. Though he was tried in Hinds County, the jury was selected in Panola County, leading to a selection process at the Batesville courthouse that attracted media representatives from the U.S. and Europe.

Once the jurors were selected, they were transported to Jackson for the trial. They found Beckwith guilty. Beckwith died in prison in 2001.

Going back chronologically, the next crime that attracted widespread media attention occurred in neighboring Quitman County in 1990 when four members of the Carl Parker family were brutally murdered. Firemen responding to a house fire eventually found their bodies in the charred ruins. Robert Simon Jr. and Anthony Carr were convicted for capital murder and await execution on death row at Parchman.

In 1988, Panola Deputy Sheriff Joe Cosby was killed by a prisoner he was transporting to court. Jerry Mettetal is serving a life sentence for his death.

The murder of 14-year-old Paula Houston by her mother in 1985 led to an overhaul of the state’s child welfare system after it was revealed that teachers and administrators at Pope School had repeatedly but to little avail notified the welfare department about their suspicions that she was being abused.

In 1983, Yalobusha County Deputy Sheriff James Williamson’s charred body was found inside the ruins of his Oakland home. An autopsy revealed that he had died from a gunshot.

Investigation led to the indictment of Williamson’s wife Cookie arranging for him to be killed. Larry Hentz is serving a life sentence for murder in Williamson’s death.