Tamika Huston
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Tamika Antonette Huston (December 11, 1979 - May 2004) was a 24-year-old American woman who disappeared from Spartanburg, South Carolina.
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[edit] The Disappearance and Investigation
Tamika was last seen by family and friends on or around May 27, 2004 in Spartanburg. Subsequently, police began an intensive investigation into her disappearance. She was first reported to authorities as missing on June 14. On June 20, her 1991 black Honda CRX was found abandoned at the Barksdale Apartments located at 350 Pierpont Avenue in Spartanburg. It had apparently been abandoned in that location for approximately the same amount of time Tamika had last been seen.
The investigation’s biggest break came on February 1, 2005, when the Spartanburg Public Safety Department announced that blood evidence found in an apartment unit located at the Fremont School Apartment complex in Spartanburg matched Tamika Huston’s DNA.
[edit] Media Attention
Local media attention, word of mouth and emails circulating around the Internet helped to spread the word regarding Tamika’s disappearance – particularly in light of the fact that national media for the most part had declined to air the story. Tamika's case received national attention, in part, because of claims that missing minorities don't get as much media attention as missing, young white women. To date, BET Nightly News, the Internet site for the television program America's Most Wanted, and the syndicated radio program The Russ Parr Morning Show, all profiled the case.
[edit] Discovery of Remains, and a Suspect
In August 2005, a positive identification was made on human remains found off Highway 290 in Duncan, South Carolina. The Spartanburg coroner announced that the remains were in fact those of Tamika Huston. The remains were found in a wooded area along Tyger River Road in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. The coroner analyzed those remains and with DNA tests and dental records, confirmed that they were Tamika's.
On August 12, Spartanburg Public Safety Officers arrested Huston’s ex-boyfriend, Christopher Hampton, for her murder. Police say Hampton then took them to the spot where he admitted he buried Tamika, after he killed her. Huston and Hampton had dated for two or three months, he said, while another woman was bearing his child. Huston, he said, asked him for money but he refused, saying he was saving money so he could take care of his baby. He told a reporter during an interview at the Spartanburg County Jail that he was ironing clothes before work and threw the hot iron at Tamika and hit her in the head as they argued about money. Hampton said that he panicked after killing Tamika, and drove around with her body in a borrowed car for hours.
[edit] Conviction
Christopher Hampton received a life sentence, eight months after he confessed to Tamika Huston's murder, from a South Carolina judge on April 4, 2006.
[edit] Missing pretty girl syndrome
The disappearance of Tamika Huston has spawned controversy about the media coverage of missing people and how cases get national attention. What was considered a common phenomenon in news media has become clear. The "Missing pretty girl syndrome", as coined by conservative pundit Michelle Malkin, has drawn attention to the neglect of missing non-white people. Journalist Gwen Ifill also describes this phenomenon as "Missing White Women Syndrome". The situation is forcing a vast majority of news purveyors to address the situation.
