Tanya Chamberlain

Tanya L. Chamberlain, née Wilson (b. 8 September 1972 in Kansas City, Missouri; d. 1 November 2015 in Lee's Summit, Missouri), was a white American nurse and mother murdered by to young black thugs 13 and 14 years old. The funeral took place on 9 November 2015.

Murder

Two primitive looking thugs staked out the car wash from a nearby fast food place, waiting for a lone female to jump as both of them wanted a car for the day. Trevon Henry and Joshua Trigg were considered "slow-to-learn" eighth-grade classmates. 43-year-old Chamberlain was murdered while vacuuming her Toyota Camry at the car wash in the 900 block of Northeast Langsford Road, it was an unimaginable heinous crime. Tanya was brutally stabbed to death with a Boy Scout pocket knife (49 times in the face, neck, chest, arms, and hands) and her throat was cut. Her body was placed in the front seat of her own car. The young men then went joy riding in her car with her mutilated body posed in the front passenger seat with rags stuffed in her mouth, until stopped by Law Enforcement for suspicion of DUI. They fled the scene and were later captured.

The vehicle went over a curb and into a grassy common area of an apartment complex in the 500 block of Southeast Second Street. After briefly chasing two teens that ran from the vehicle, the officer returned and found Chamberlain dead in a passenger seat. Police also found a knife in the car. Police later identified Henry and another teen, Joshua Trigg, as suspects after looking at surveillance video from the car wash and a nearby business, according to court records. Trigg told investigators at the time that Henry planned to stab Chamberlain to take her car. Trigg also said that he saw Henry cut Chamberlain’s throat and stab her multiple times.

“My daughter was very loving. She would have done anything for those boys. There`s no reason for what happened [...] For them to overkill, 40-something times of stabbing her, and cutting her throat — it was more than I could handle [...] So I`m sure she just couldn’t fight her way off of them. Some of the police officers that were there are still having a very hard time today [...] I couldn’t even go identify her. They wouldn’t let me. I had to have family members go. I couldn’t even have an open casket for my daughter. Everything was a joke. He never showed that he had any feelings as far as what he did. He never said, ‘I’m so sorry that this happened,’ or any kind of remorse as far as what he was getting for jail, and I`m sure that will change after he`s sentenced to an adult prison. [...] I`ll never get over it. I might learn to deal with it, but it was like somebody put a knife right in my heart.” – Tanya's mother Genia, who described the murder as a "massacre", in October 2018

Perpetrators

• Trevon M. Henry (b. 30 November 2000)
  • Henry, who showed no remorse and even laughed in court, waived his right to a trial and pleaded guilty to four charges in total on 16 October 2018 (Murder 1st Degree, Armed Criminal Action, Robbery 1st Degree and Armed Criminal Action). On 4 January 2019, Jackson County Judge Jennifer Phillips sentenced Henry to Life with the possibility of parole on the first count, plus 50 years on the second count. The judge also sentenced Henry to Life with the possibility of parole on the third count (Robbery 1st Degree) plus 50 years on the second Armed Criminal Action charge. The judge set the counts 3 and 4 to run consecutively to counts 1 and 2.
• Joshua R. Trigg (b. 10 January 2002)
  • In 2019, Trigg was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and two counts of armed criminal action. Trigg pleaded guilty to those charges in November 2018.

Obituary

Tanya spent most of her life in the Jackson County area, graduating from Lee’s Summit High School in 1990. She later obtained her associates degree in Nursing. Even though Tanya faced many health adversities in her lifetime, diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in her teen years, she never lost her zeal for life. She was a very loving person with a giving and generous nature. Tanya was a natural caregiver, always putting others wants and needs before her own, and she had a deep and abiding love for her family. Tanya was preceded in death by her father, Darrell W. Wilson, Sr.; her maternal grandparents, Robert Eugene and Mildred Lilly and her paternal grandparents, Orville and Ruth Wilson. She is survived by one son, Tyler Gage Chamberlain of Smithville, Missouri; her mother, Genia (Lilly) Fetters and fiancé Bob Meredith of Lee’s Summit, Missouri; two brothers, Darrel Wayne Wilson, Jr. of Phoenix, Arizona and Teddy Wilson of Lee’s Summit, Missouri; two sisters, Nicole Rushing of North Carolina and Melissa Wilson of Raytown, Missouri; her step-mother, Kay Summers of Greenwood, Missouri; one niece, Brittany Foster of Lee’s Summit, Missouri; many loving Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, other relatives and many, many friends.