Missing Tamika Huston murdered by Christopher Hampton

Tamika lived by her own rules, and she seemed to maintain a fairly private lifestyle. Even her family and close friends were somewhat excluded from her comings and goings. The exact date Tamika Huston went missing is unknown since she'd been on a semester break from nursing school and had recently quit her job as a server. Family members, likely her aunt Rebkah Howard, reported her missing in early June 2004. By that time, it was estimated that Tamika had already been missing for two weeks.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Tamika Huston tried out for American Idol in Atlanta, Georgia – unfortunately, she didn't qualify for the subsequent round. I briefly searched to see if the series televised her audition, and it seems they did not. American Idol isn't the only road to singing stardom, but it seemed Tamika was ready to move to a new phase of her life, and she enrolled into nursing school. Tamika appeared to have a nice home in which she lived alone. As a student who'd recently quit working, one wonders how she afforded home-ownership as a young, single woman.

As I began writing, this episode included several names I immediately misspelled. Having heard "Houston", I initially misspelled Tamika Huston's last name. I'd known a Terrance, so Tamika's ex-boyfriend's name Terence Moss also needed correcting. But Tamika's aunt had the most uncommon name to date. It went unsaid through the episode, but I initially heard "Rebecca Howard" in my head. It was then presented in the super during her interview, and I still misspelled it "Rebekah". But our victim's aunt was "Rebkah Howard". However she spells (and pronounces) her name, Mrs. Howard is a bad ass! Her family's tragedy has inspired her to help many others. Rebkah Howard was the executive director of The Tamika Huston Foundation. She now chairs the board of directors for the Black and Missing Foundation. Bless you Rebkah!

Odd quips and questions

The flyer shown in a few scenes during the episode revealed some additional (and interesting) information about Tamika Huston. For one, Huston was only four feet, eleven inches. She also had a tattoo of a tiger on her thigh. One of the oddest revelations was that her family knew so little about her that they wrote it was "unknown if she suffers from any medical problems." This flyer was drafted before Tamika's Honda CRX was discovered as it mentioned she may be travelling in it. Finally, the software's spell-checker was seemingly thwarted – possibly by the words all being capitalized. Both 'tattoo' and 'travelling' were misspelled.

After Christopher Hampton was evicted from #215 at the Fremont School Apartments, another family had moved in. But the bleach stains from Hampton's cleanup efforts were still clearly visible on the bedroom carpet. Low-income housing or not, the apartment's carpeting should have been replaced. And if this had occurred, police would've likely been brought to the scene when the underlying blood stains were discovered.

In the episode's wrap-up sound bites, reporter Chris Cato shares an odd one that probably should've been reshot or cut. In describing the gratitude the investigators had for the locksmith identifying their mystery key, Cato jokes, "I imagine that the police officer wanted to probably kiss this locksmith, if not do more than that…" Really dude? What's going through his head that's more than kissing the guy? Weird.

Additional information beyond Forensic Files

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Sometimes details beyond those revealed in the episode are sparse. But the recency of this episode (aired in 2011) and the case's notoriety have led to several other sources of information. ABC News shared additional details of what was discovered when authorities first entered Tamika's home after she'd gone missing. Items in Tamika's house included her cell phone, driver's license, and three uncashed checks. And prosecutor Trey Gowdy alluded to the worst of these when he mentioned "pets abused" (above). Huston's pitbull Macy had been pregnant. Not all of the litter survived – tragically, she had eaten most of her puppies.

WIS News of Columbia, South Carolina told a different story about the night Christopher Hampton assaulted and killed Tamika. In Forensic Files, we heard Hampton was ironing a shirt to wear out on a date. Tamika and Chris argued about him dating other women. Then, Hampton "lost his temper" and hit Tamika in the head with the clothes iron. But the August 2005 article from WIS News describes Chris Hampton telling the Spartanburg Herald-Journal a different story. In this version, Hampton was ironing clothes before work. During an argument with Tamika about money, he threw the hot iron and hit Tamika in the head. Which seems more believable?

The same article supplied a variation on how Christopher Hampton disposed of Tamika Huston's body. Hampton borrowed a car and drove around with Huston's body for hours trying to decide what to do. About 13 miles west of Spartanburg, Chris Hampton found a wooded area near the small town of Duncan and buried her there. Later, upon hearing the pleas of Tamika's family trying to locate their missing daughter, Hampton returned to the burial site and dug up her remains. The supposed guilt drove him to consider taking the evidence to the police and turning himself in. But this prospect proved too frightening for Hampton, so he ultimately reinterned Tamika's body.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Finally, the ad-heavy GoUpstate site had a tragic story about Tamika Huston's parents that took place almost a dozen years after they learned of Chris Hampton's role in their daughter's disappearance and murder. A 911 call of gunshots from the Huston residence led authorities to discover Tamika's father Anthony Huston dead and his wife Joanne mortally wounded. There were no perceived issues in the Hustons' marriage, but the initial evidence pointed to a murder-suicide.

Chain of clues that led to Christopher Hampton

The private nature of Tamika Huston didn't provide the police many avenues to pursue when investigating her disappearance. But the tenacious investigators did their jobs well. Canvasing the neighborhood with BOLO (be on the lookout) flyers for Tamika's car led to its discovery. It'd been abandoned in an apartment complex. With no usable evidence recovered from the car, only the strange set of keys found on the passenger's side floorboard had value. When they were determined to not belong to Tamika, the locksmith's records led authorities to the Fremont School Apartments. But there were 46 units in the complex.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Finding the apartment key fit a knob in an unused apartment led the building manager to explain how the maintenance crew simply swapped door knobs when a tenant was evicted. This gave police a list of potential suspects. In the meantime, Tamika's best friend knew that Tamika had begun dating a guy around the time of her disappearance – she'd only heard him referred to as "Chris". Reviewing the list of evicted tenants led police to Christopher Hampton. If only one of the connected clues turned out to be a dead end, Hampton might've gotten away with murder.

In gathering the additional evidence police would use to connect Chris Hampton to Tamika's murder, two women were the case's heroes. First was Hampton's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his two children. Recall Christopher mailed his wallet to her when he was reincarcerated on a parole violation. She noticed a small drop of blood, apparently on a picture in the wallet. She'd also been following Tamika's case and knew that Hampton had been living at the Fremont School Apartments. Calling the police and turning over evidence that would eventually lead to her children's father to be convicted of murder was undoubtedly a brave act.

The other female who helped seal Chris Hampton's conviction was a young woman who also called police. She informed investigators that she'd been inside apartment 215 with Hampton around the time of Tamika's disappearance. She'd seen the brownish-red stain on the bedroom carpet, and she found it odd that the dresser had been pushed in front of the closet. What our episode didn't share (beyond finding a young-looking actress to reenact the role) was this young woman's age. Despite Hampton being in his mid-twenties, online research indicated that this ingénue may have been as young as 15.

Tamika, Terence, and understatements

Between taking two weeks to realize and report Tamika missing, and not knowing if she had any medical conditions, the Huston family didn't have much ongoing contact with the 24-year-old. An individual with these tendencies is often referred to as a "free spirit". They don't like to be held down, monitored, told what to do, etc. I've known a few people like this through my life. It sometimes makes me wonder if they're hiding a part of themselves or their lifestyle that they're not happy to share with others. Or perhaps some have experienced the other extreme where a partner or parent has been overly controlling.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

I had a hard time with Terence Moss as an interviewee in this episode. Blaming "demons" in their relationship does not excuse punching a woman. That just shifts the responsibility, and there are zero justifiable reasons for violence against women. Even if she'd assaulted him first, Terence towered over Tamika. He could've simply removed himself from the situation until tempers cooled. And to "fall to your knees and start praying" does not lead to redemption after such an act.

Finally, one of the last lines from narrator Peter Thomas was, "a set of keys with a locksmith's stamp that led straight to his front door." To this, I chuckled a little. The case's investigators likely wouldn't agree with this statement either. But it made for another good sound bite.

Where is Christopher Hampton now in 2024?

On August 25, 2005, Christopher was indicted for murder by a grand jury. He pled guilty to the murder of Tamika Huston on April 3, 2006 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Christopher Hampton is inmate #00314697 at the Broad River Correctional Institution of the South Carolina Department of Corrections in Columbia, South Carolina.