Beth Shelburne

There are no clues here about what happened to Yolanda Chambers, why she was killed, or who did it.

After the investigation into Deputy Bill Hardy's murder ended, Yolanda would continue to work with police as an informant, and that ongoing contact with law enforcement may have contributed to her murder.

I'm Beth Shelburne.

This is Ear Witness, Chapter 3, Police Girl.

Okay.

I've talked to Detective Tony Richardson for over seven hours about this case, and he uses a certain adjective to describe Yolanda Chambers over and over again.

The dictionary definition of street smart or street wise is a shrewd awareness of how to survive based on living a difficult life.

But Yolanda was just 15 years old.

Detective Tony Richardson questioned Yolanda at least 25 times when he led the investigation into Deputy Hardy's murder.

Most key witnesses in murder investigations are questioned a few times, but 25?

That many police interviews is almost unheard of.

And throughout these interviews, Yolanda changed her story about the night of the murder hundreds of times.

Research shows that child witnesses are more easily influenced by police intimidation than adults.

And children entangled in criminal cases also face more adverse psychological consequences.

But knowing all this, I still wondered what exactly was going on that made Yolanda change her story so many times.

Do you get nervous, like, knocking on somebody's door unannounced?

I think so, yeah.

Just because I don't want to, like, freak people out.

Mara and I went on a drive, searching for the one person we knew of who could give us a fuller picture of Yolanda Chambers' life.

Someone who has never spoken publicly about this case.