Testimony reveals Lee’s Summit woman was stabbed or cut 49 times

Tanya Chamberlain was stabbed or cut 49 times, with wounds to her right and left jugular veins causing her death.

The information was revealed Friday in a certification hearing for the older of two teens accused of killing the Lee’s Summit woman last year.

The hearing was scheduled to determine if the suspect would stand trial as a juvenile or as an adult. Jackson County Circuit Judge Robert Schieber scheduled another hearing at 9:15 a.m. next Friday to announce his decision.

The second defendant is scheduled to have a certification hearing at 9:30 a.m. the same day.

The boys, ages 13 and 14 at the time, were charged Nov. 4 with first-degree murder, armed criminal action and first-degree tampering in the stabbing death of Chamberlain, who lived in Lee’s Summit.

Chamberlain, 43, was stabbed to death Nov. 1. According to Lee’s Summit police, Chamberlain was at a car wash when she was approached in the early morning. Two people entered the victim’s car with her, police said.

An officer then attempted to stop a driver on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

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 juvenile males who fled from the vehicle, the officer returned and found Chamberlain dead in a passenger seat.

Robert Pietak, a deputy for the Jackson County medical examiner’s office, testified that Chamberlain suffered multiple stabbing or incised wounds to the face, neck, back, forearms and hands.

Pietak said an autopsy also revealed that Chamberlain had a large incision wound to her neck and was stabbed on each side of her body.

Schieber heard nearly five hours of testimony from a deputy juvenile officer, an employee from the Missouri Department of Youth Services, Pietak and a child psychologist who examined the suspect’s mental and emotional state on behalf of defense attorney Jarrett Johnson.

Testimony from Ahmad Belcher, a deputy juvenile officer for the Family Court of Jackson County, revealed that the teen suspects approached Chamberlain three times prior to what authorities called an unprovoked attack.

Belcher also testified that the suspect, now 15, has received nine written referrals since being detained.

The offenses include theft, assault and failure to comply.

This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 5:50 PM with the headline "Testimony reveals Lee’s Summit woman was stabbed or cut 49 times."