Man leads police to body of missing woman, says he ‘needs to be punished,’ TN cops say

A man who led police to the body of a missing woman in an abandoned building in Memphis is now charged with her murder, according to Tennessee court documents.

Thomas Warren, 61, told his nephew, who is a police officer, on May 12, that he knew where the body of Yolanda Chambers, a 45-year-old missing woman, was located, according to court documents filed in Shelby County Court.

Chambers had been missing since May 6. Warren’s nephew works for the Memphis Police Department, WREG reported.

He led officers to an abandoned building where they found a “body lying face-down” in bodily fluids and covered with cardboard boxes, according to documents.

Warren told police that he had placed her body there and then said that “he had taken a life and that he needed to be punished,” court documents say.

He faces charges of second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse.

After Chambers went missing, family members posted on social media about her disappearance.

“This is why calling and checking in (in person) is so important,” James Pegues, who identified himself as Chambers’ brother-in-law, wrote on Facebook on May 7. “This is why letting family know where you are, who you are with, who you frequent yourself with, and keeping in touch is so very, very important. No one has any idea where she could possibly be.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2022 at 3:05 PM with the headline "Man leads police to body of missing woman, says he ‘needs to be punished,’ TN cops say."