Jessica Chambers Murder Suspect Quinton Tellis Charged With Murder Of Meing Chin Hsaio

MONROE, LA — Quinton Tellis, who has been unsuccessfully tried twice for the murder of Jessica Chambers in Mississippi, has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of a second woman in Louisiana.

The body of Meing Chen Hsaio, a Taiwanese national, was found inside her apartment near the University of Louisiana–Monroe on August 8, 2015. Investigators say that they believe the alleged homicide took place 10 days earlier, on July 29.

Police say they believe Tellis tortured Hsaio in order to get her debit card PIN number, and stabbed her to death on her bedroom floor. Investigators determined that Hsaio had been stabbed more than 30 times.

“He brutally murdered her by repeatedly stabbing her and letting her body rot and decompose until being discovered,” Monroe Police Department Detective Duane Cookson wrote in a 2016 arrest warrant, according to court documents obtained by Monroe's KNOE-TV.

Hsaio's body was discovered on Tellis' wedding day.

Police reportedly stated they began to focus on Tellis after he and Hsaio were allegedly seen together on a Walmart security video. According to KNOE-TV, Hsiao and Tellis are seen together on the video in a black Impala.

A neighbor reportedly provided police the license plate number of a vehicle allegedly driven by a man whom she said had been to Hsiao's apartment on July 27 and 28 — and later identified him as Tellis, according to the arrest warrant cited by KNOE.

According to the warrant, investigators discovered a receipt for $.07, which had been paid with Hsiao’s card, in Tellis' bedroom. After executing search warrants to access phone and bank records, investigators reportedly also found evidence of calls placed from Tellis' phone to Hsiao's bank on the day that she died.

Tellis pleaded guilty in May 2016 to unauthorized use of Tsaio's debit card. He received a 10-year sentence as a habitual offender, but good behavior credits moved the release date to February 18, 2019.

Police reportedly found other evidence, including phone records and witness statements, that indicated Hsiao and Tellis had visited a Vicksburg ATM together. Police also found a pair of tennis shoes in an outside storage shed that had been spray-painted white, according to the affidavit, and officers found dark stains underneath that they believed to be blood.

Tellis’ wife’s cousin, Eric Hill, allegedly told police that a man named "Curtis Lemons" confessed to him that he had killed Hsiao. According to KNOE, Hill later admitted that he had lied — and that it was actually Tellis who had told him the story. Hill allegedly told police that Tellis said he beat Hsaio and “continued to stab and cut” her because she wouldn’t give him her PIN number.

Tellis was tried in 2017 and 2018 in Mississippi on capital murder charges in connection with the December 2014 burning death of Jessica Chambers, 19.

Chambers, who was in a romantic relationship with Tellis, was found burned alive in her car. Police say they believe her car was doused with gasoline and then set on fire on a rural road. Both of Tellis' trials have ended in mistrials.

According to WTVA, Tellis' Louisiana attorney Randall Donald was not immediately available for comment.

Tellis is reportedly being held at the Ouachita Correctional Center.

For more on the Jessica Chambers case, watch the "Burned Alive" episode of Investigation Discovery's People Magazine Investigates on ID GO now!

Read more: KNOE, WTVA