>> david: tonight, on all all-new "20/20," a young woman is missing but her family had to fight so hard to get any national attention. >> deborah: why is no one saying tamika huston's name at the same time as ashlee i went to look in on the key guest elevation. a search warrant to test for

possible blood. >> if your heart, you're thinking something's wrong? >> i knew at that point time was of the essence. >> she's gone. like, we have to find her. she has to be in danger. >> it was just like, oh, my god, what's going on? >> you went to spartanburg, you wanted to see the location? >> if you're looking for somebody, you got to go. you got to look for them. >> i remember just sitting inside of her house, in the car, by myself, still not knowing what's going on. >> i want to know, before i leave here, y'all got to tell me something. either she dead, or we're going to find her. >> you're tamika's last known boyfriend. >> yeah. >> you've got to know people are going to look at you. >> i told them, you're wasting time. >> tamika's home is here, then they find the car across town at this apartment complex, which made no sense. >> i saw this vision of someone looking through these woods or these bushes. i knew it was connected to th

tamika. >> was that a real moment for you in this investigation, a key unlocks a door? >> we talked about her not being here at 25. >> you talked about her not being alive? >> yes. >> what do you mean? ♪ when police entered this home on june 16th, 2004, they find a disturbing scene -- a dog, which has apparently given birth to a litter of puppies, with no owner in sight. that discovery would trigger the search for 24-year-old tamika huston. you get a call from tamika's aunt that she's missing.

how frantic was she? >> in missing person cases, you learn from what the family -- how the family reacts. and once i met with rebkah and talked with her, i knew it was serious. my name is steve lamb. i was the lieutenant over the investigation bureau at the time. i did not know tamika, but i felt like that rebkah knew something was not right. >> my sister gabriela called me and she said, "listen." she said, "bek, i called her, and she hasn't called me back yet." i was like, "oh, my gosh. gabby, you know what? she hasn't called me back either." >> and what are you thinking? >> i panicked at that point. because it's one thing for her to ignore a casual message, but not a message like, "tamika, i need you to call me right now." so i picked up the phone and called the spartanburg public safety department to report her missing. >> so you get this call. what's your first effort to check this out? >> so, our patrol division responds first.

they checked the residence. nothing unusual. knock on the door, check the mailbox, check with neighbors. >> i remember being on the phone, and they're telling me there doesn't seem to be signs of a disturbance. the doors are locked. her car wasn't there, which, so, like, "ooh, maybe she did just take a trip." >> to be honest with you, it was typical for her to go through a moment where she was just doing her own thing. so it didn't really raise any red flags. >> tamika's parents were divorced. her dad lived in south carolina, and her mom, gabriela, lived in virginia. >> it wasn't unlike her to get in her car and drive from spartanburg and show up at gabby's doorstep with no notice. she showed up in miami and called me and is like, "hey, i'm going to come down for dinner tonight." we had family all up and down the east coast. just no one had heard from her. >> at what point do you go in? >> one of the investigators felt like there was an odor coming from the residence. >> well, i knew that it was

potentially a crime scene. honestly, i expected to find her in there. but she wasn't. >> they did a wellness check, and they found things in her home that were completely inconsistent with her personality. >> there was a dog inside and a puppy. and i think there were more puppies at one time, but they had died. the dog had drank all the water out of its bowl, eaten all of its food, drank all the water out of the toilet. it was just obvious that she had not been there in quite some time. >> when law no enforcement finally showed up at her house, her pitbull was there on the verge of starvation. there was only one puppy who was still barely alive. >> there's death inside. it's like a crime scene, but the dog is telling us, "she's gone. she's missing. go find her." >> that scared me. that really, really scared me. because i knew macy was like her child. it was just a horrific scene.

>> tamika's aunt rebecca, her mom's younger sister, lived in miami. the two had been close since tamika was a child. >> we're only seven years apart, so honestly, she was really more like a little sister to me. >> that's tamika opening a present from her aunt becky. >> she was full of personality. she was only 4'11", but when she walked into the room, you'd think she's 6 feet tall because she just commanded the attention of the room. >> me and tamika actually met in junior high school. she had just transferred from another district, and i was assigned to her that day, kind of show her around the school. became fast friends. >> what was the bond like between the two of them, tamika and zelda? >> zelda and tamika loved each other. they were, you know, thick as thieves right away. they were more than friends. they were sisters.

>> at the time, tamika lived with her father anthony in spartanburg, south carolina, where she would eventually settle. >> she loved my dad. they fuss, fight, just like any other father and daughter relationship. but i do know that my dad, he loved the ground that my sister walked on. my name is antonia. tamika was my big sister. i couldn't tell that she was much older than me. she was always playing the games that i wanted to play. they say my sister had a temper. she would snap on you in a blink -- in a blink of an eye. but she was a really good person. >> she was free-spirited and very, very spiritual. because she grew up in a church. >> she had a humble spirit that was just -- oh, my god, that was just so different. >> she was talented. >> oh, she had a voice, yes. yeah, she could sing. she really could. >> she wanted to try for "american idol." tell me about that.

>> we went to "american idol." god, that was an experience. >> over 10,000 people packed into the georgia dome. >> and we were excited. we were happy to be there. and she made it through the first round. >> her favorite artist was lauryn hill. she could sing her songs just the way that she sung them. >> and like lauryn hill in "sister act two" -- ♪ i sing because i'm happy ♪ >> tamika does a rendition of "his eye is on the sparrow" at her aunt's wedding. ♪ ♪ his eye is on the sparrow ♪ >> she sang at your wedding. >> she did. yeah. it's one of the most special memories we have. we talked about it for years even before i was engaged to be married. she said, "i'm going to sing at your wedding one day." ♪ he watches he watches me ♪

>> everyone talked about her big voice in this tiny, tiny body that you just would not or could not ignore. >> you were just drawn to her. and people, strangers were drawn to her. she was a little, i think, too open-hearted to folks and a little bit too trusting. >> she had a soft heart for people and for animals. >> yeah. she loved animals. i'm not a dog person, but tamika loved her dogs. >> and now, strangely, police have found her dog, macy, seemingly abandoned with tamika nowhere to be found. >> there was no way she would just up and leave her beloved dog to starve. >> in your heart, you are thinking something's wrong. >> i knew, knew, knew at that point that time was of the essence. she's disappeared. she's gone. we have to find her. she has to be in danger.

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♪ that's actress erika alexander shining on the red carpet after starring in the oscar-winning movie "american fiction." >> one day, maybe you'll learn that not being able to relate to other people isn't a badge of honor. >> but so many remember her as that hard-charging lawyer in the '90s sitcom "living single." >> i'm the lawyer here. i know how to work the system. >> erika is also an activist and documentarian. in 2020, in the midst of protests over racial injustice in this country, she was approached about creating a podcast about tamika huston's disappearance. >> and at the time i thought, actually, probably no. 'cause i knew then that very few people would want to make something about a black girl. but then, of course, i said yes, thinking, well, if not you, erika, who?

audible originals presents "finding tamika" hosted by erika alexander. >> months of reporting leads to "finding tamika," a ten-part true crime audio series executive produced by actor and comedian kevin hart, an influential radio host charlamagne tha god. >> kevin was on the same time that i was. he was like, "man, this is a story that we need to amplify because of the epidemic of black women that go missing in this country." >> you really gave a lot of your life to this story. >> that's what it needed. it needed sweat equity. >> if you know anything about erika alexander, if you've ever worked with her, she's hands-on. >> i hunted for clues and explanation with the family. i rode along with the detective who trailed the case, all with the goal to truly find out what really happened to tamika. >> you went to spartanburg. you wanted to see the location. >> yeah, yeah. >> you needed to be there. >> it was important to be there because everything took place there.

cool spartanburg. >> spartanburg. it's a small town in the south. started out as a cotton mill area. >> a lot of people come here to raise their families, so i would describe it as a place that you can call home. >> if you look at the statistics, i don't think spartanburg is per capita any more violent than any other. but like every other jurisdiction, you're far more likely to be killed by somebody that knows you than you are a stranger. >> i remember just sitting outside of her house in the car by myself, still not knowing what's going on. and then i heard that my sister was missing. we definitely thought she would be walking down the street in a minute.

>> i remember rebecca calling and saying that they were coming here to meet with the police department. it was just like, "oh, my god, what's going on?" >> i booked a flight and i had to come here. >> rebecca, well connected in the pr world, jumped in to use her experience in the media to help spread the word about her niece's disappearance. >> the first thing i did after landing was go directly to the police station. i remember being very fixated on getting the public information officer to do a press release. >> i remember her saying she wasn't going to leave the building till someone did some media stuff. and we did. and i think just of her persistence, that i felt like it was important. >> tamika's mom gabriela makes an emotional plea on the local news for her daughter's return. >> i know deep down in my heart

that somebody knows something. but please, just, we plead. just let us know where she is. >> we just designed a flyer, and we're just putting up all around town. >> flyers have gone up in the neighborhood to help police. >> at the top in bright red type was the word "missing." below it in black all caps "tamika antoinette huston." next to a description of her tattoo was a photo of tamika. it's the tamika everyone knows -- confident, assured, and in control. >> what are you hearing from her friends around that time, about her habits? >> a lot of her friends are thinking she's out of town. and a lot of people originally are saying that that's not unusual. >> they thought she was going on a trip. and all those little possibilities we have to run down. >> normally she would've told someone, some family member where she was going or if she

was going somewhere. >> when she disappeared, tamika was living alone. she had recently quit her waitressing job, and her family says she was trying to find herself. >> the reason why i took a moment for it to be discovered that she was missing, because she was at a crossroad. she wasn't working. she had told her mom that she wanted to return to school. >> she had broken up with her boyfriend. >> she had broken up with her boyfriend. so it was just kind of a perfect storm of events. >> you're her last known boyfriend. how did you meet, and what was special about her? >> my family had a corner store. it was called shirley's pantry. i leave the pantry. and i saw tamika, and tamika's 4'11". >> small. >> yes, but thick in the waist. very thick in the waist. and i could see she was very attractive. as i was getting on my motorcycle, i heard a voice say, "do you have a extra helmet?" so i said, "no, you can wear mine." it was like love at first sight. it was like a trust love, not just an attraction. it was something deeper than

that. >> tamika was someone who came into terence's life like a comet. he was newly separated, and her boldness and free-spiritedness was a breath of fresh air. >> i know that she was deeply in love with him and vice versa. >> i remember terrance being a funny guy. always joking, always laughing. and he kept my sister smiling. i do remember that. >> terence was actually the first boyfriend that tamika was really serious about. overall he seemed to me to have a very kind heart. he seemed very protective of tamika. >> and it was terence who raised the alarm about tamika being missing. >> i got a phone call from terence, who left me a message actually. >> hi, aunt becky, this is terence. i have been trying to get in contact with tamika. nobody seems to have heard from her.

i just want to know she's safe. that's all. thank you. >> he said that he hadn't been in touch with tamika, that she wasn't returning his phone calls. my instinct was that i know that one of the last conversations i had with her, she had told me that they had broken up. so i thought that she was perhaps just avoiding him. but surely she wouldn't avoid me, so i'll just call her. >> days with no word from tamika, rebecca contacts the spartanburg police department asking them to conduct a welfare check on her home. so it wasn't unusual for her mother or relatives not to have heard from her for a while? nobody was alarmed right away? >> not right away. not until we went to the house and macy was there. >> tamika's ex-boyfriend terence kind of got the ball rolling, started calling people. >> he's the one who told everybody that he couldn't find tamika. so it's a very ironic thing to be the person who calls rebecca and the mother -- gabby, and

says, "i can't find tamika," and suddenly the eyes start turning towards you. >> you always look to boyfriends. that's the first place you look. >> "20/20" obtained never-before-seen law enforcement interviews. in this videotaped statement, rebkah tells police that tamika had shared some concerns about terrence. >> he was staying up real late at night, not really sleeping, pacing the floor, quoting scripture excessively, that his actions were being directed by god. it just worried me. >> according to talking to her friends and other people in the community, those two were over. >> she was like, "oh, well, we're not together anymore." and she started to cry about it, and i was like, "well, you guys, y'all will get back together." and she was like -- she called me zeke. she was like, "zeke, i don't know about that this time around.

i think i'm done." >> she and terence had a pretty volatile relationship. >> so you got the feeling that, anyplace where there's smoke, there's fire. and he admitted to that. >> she and he had had some domestic violence-type issues prior. so that was the first person that we were interested in in this case. >> her and terence had this domestic dispute, so it was all kind of thoughts going through my mind. >> now, was terrance involved? did he do something and something had gone too far? >> police want to know what terrence knows. so they bring him in for questioning.

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after receiving the largest ethics fine in city history for breaking campaign laws. mark authorized a commission almost every year he was in office. he was even caught taking donations from people he would then appoint to commissions, including a felon convicted of bribery. san francisco's challenges demand urgency, not more of the same failed insiders. laci peterson was 8 1/2 months pregnant when she disappeared from her modesto home christmas eve. >> her husband scott says he was out fishing when she vanished. >> around the same time tamika has gone missing, scott peterson is in the news. he's a suspect in the murder of his wife laci. >> scott peterson attended this new year's eve vigil for laci in modesto, california. >> all the way across the country in spartanburg, south carolina, tamika's family is holding a vigil too, and all eyes are on her concerned

ex-boyfriend, terence. >> we really worried about her. been by tamika's home, and none of her mail has been picked up. she hadn't called her mom. >> there's a vigil for tamika. >> mm-hmm. >> you attend this vigil. >> mm-hmm. >> you're tamika's last known boyfriend. >> yeah. yeah, yeah. >> now she's missing. you've got to know that people are going to look at you. >> yeah. oh, yeah, i was prepared for that. >> terence was at that vigil, and some people were looking suspiciously at him. >> i know that anthony, tamika's dad, had strong feelings about that. >> i felt like maybe he wasn't being as forthcoming about information. and i just wanted to make sure that he was telling me everything he knew or if he wasn't going to tell me, that he was at least being forthcoming with police. >> and now with cameras rolling, terence is ready to answer some questions. >> i want y'all to tape it. yeah, do that, man. yeah, yeah. >> i'm going to do that. i'm going to shut the door. >> ain't no problem. that's fine.

>> the microphone is right there. >> good, good. >> we started following up on past history and interviewed him to see if he may be linked to her disappearance. >> if you talk to anybody, man, that knows me, that knows me, man, i ain't nothing but love, man. i ain't nothing but love. and you know what i'm saying, i have been for the last two weeks, man, scott peterson. >> he was pretty open about the fact that there had been violence in their relationship. that's not something that most people volunteer. >> so the fact that he was honest about something that was inculpatory i think tended to make them believe him a little bit more when he said, "look, i haven't seen her. i understand why you're talking to me, but i didn't do it." >> i could disappear on y'all and make y'all do some work. my people been loading up, man. "you want to leave here?" i'm like, "no, i don't want to leave. i want to know before i leave here." y'all going to tell me something. either she dead or we going to find her before i leave here. >> you tell police that even though you've broken up, that you still have feelings for her.

>> we had to separate. we had to separate, but the bond it wasn't going nowhere. i love her, man. and i miss her, and i want her to come home. >> police have no evidence linking terence to tamika's disappearance, but he remains a person of interest. >> what must it be like to suddenly walk in a room and people are saying that you killed your girlfriend or you could be a murderer? where do you hide? where do you go? you don't. >> word of tamika's disappearance spread through the community with missing persons posters plastered everywhere. one at this gas station caught the eye of a woman who noticed the description of tamika's car matched an abandoned vehicle at her apartment complex.

>> sunday, i get called at home and said that patrol officers had found her vehicle on the other side of town. >> tamika's home is here. and then they find the car across town at this apartment complex, which made no sense. >> yeah. no, not at all. and i think for a while, it confused them. >> you find the car. what's your first assessment once you find it? >> we knew it had been there a while. the windows was cracked. it had been raining in them. we could not link her to being anywhere in that area. >> there was really nothing forensic-wise we recovered from that vehicle. it wasn't like there was her blood or dna or anything. >> now there's her car, but no tamika. so i'm sure that sent fear through her family's heart. >> that was really tough because when you're going through it, it's like your emotions. it's such a range of emotions because at first it's like, "oh, my gosh, they found their car." you're thinking, "oh, well, maybe she's just been staying with someone. this is the break that we need." but then when we all descend

upon, the police are kind of -- it kind of looks like this car has been here for quite a long time. it just makes you even a little bit more desperate. >> kids, they used to say to me, like, "your sister's dead. she's never coming back home. y'all need to stop searching for her." >> finding tamika's abandoned car was a blow to her family. but inside it, police make a key discovery. >> her car was found at barksdale apartments. and during the search of her car, a key was located. >> it was a set, i believe, five or six keys -- you can tell one's a house key. two of them is a vehicle key. and maybe two more is locks. >> they didn't fit her house. they didn't fit her car. we didn't really know what these keys were for or where they had come from. >> that led us in a little bit of the right direction and also into more problems. >> you find keys in this car that don't seem to belong to her. >> correct.

>> that was a critical moment. >> yes. we had no clue where they went to. >> that was an added mystery that the police were dealing with at the time. >> now that tamika's car has been discovered abandoned, detectives want to go back and take a closer look inside her home. >> once we found the car, that kind of started the case to be more suspicious, that it may be something criminal involved. >> i just remember being across the house. as it started to get dark, and they were spraying the luminol, and that very eerie emanating purple-blue lights that you see coming from the house because it was starting to get dark out. and that was really difficult. it felt very surreal. it felt like something i'm used what's going to be revealed? >> no signs of foul play. no new leads atta mika's house. but then a 911 call sends police on a mission.

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her car was found abandoned on the north side of town. >> no one has seen or heard from her in nearly a month. >> i want tamika to know that we love her and we want her to come home. >> in the very beginning, where does this investigation take you? are you getting any leads? >> not really. we put out some stuff locally, media, and talked with the families, neighborhoods, and community people here who knew

tamika, but we really didn't have a lot to go on. >> you get this 911 call. >> yes. >> spartanburg 911. >> my brother just came to my house and told me that he killed his girlfriend and put her in cleveland park lake. >> you have a 911 call that talks about someone being put in the lake that's been killed, and it's pretty much the exact same length of time the car had been sitting in the parking lot. >> did it sound credible that somebody might've tossed somebody in this small lake? >> it sounded credible to us, just the way the guy was talking. >> where's he live? >> he staying over there at, umm, barksdale. >> the barksdale is the same apartment complex where police found tamika's abandoned car, and it's just blocks away from cleveland park lake. police get wind of a 911 call that happened about the time of her disappearance. you listened to it. what did you make of that? >> who is making this phone call? and they're talking about dredging the lake and doing all

these things with the lake. it just adds, kind of, to the desperation of the situation. >> we actually put some divers in that day, two local divers, and they couldn't find anything. and then we put -- cadaver dogs were here as well, and they kind of cleared it. >> that 911 caller was never identified, but police eventually determined it was not related to tamika's case. >> you get a lot of calls, most of which turn out to be either innocently mistaken or crank calls. >> someone had reached out to me and said that they were a psychic, and they could provide me with information where tamika was. and all i needed to do was western union them. >> and you did. >> i did. >> just out of desperation. >> just out of desperation. and he gave me this ridiculous story of, you know, that she was being held against her will. just very vague information.

in hindsight, i know better. >> that's the downside of publicity. there's lots of crank calls. the upside is you get some really, really good information. >> in fact, there were those who truly wanted to help the family. like elaine painter, a local spartanburg woman who says she sometimes has visions about people. >> my husband was leaving for work. he brought the newspaper in and laid it on the kitchen table. he said, "this beautiful girl's missing. she's a young girl. we need to pray for her." so i looked at the picture, and she had this captivating smile and these beautiful eyes. i moved the paper over, and i just put my hand on her face, and i prayed that they would find her alive. i just pray a lot. i'm not a psychic. i don't read cards.

i saw this vision of someone looking through these woods or these bushes, and i knew it was connected to tamika. >> elaine felt her vision was too powerful to ignore, so she calls police. >> we have that quite a bit on major cases. people feel like they know some information in some fashion or form. we listen to everyone who contacts us. we rode around a few places, and she knew some things about some areas of -- that we've had major crime scenes. >> they stopped by this lake, and he said, "do you think she could be in the lake?" i said, "no, she's not in the lake. you won't find her body in water anywhere." he said, "do you think she was shot?" and i said, "no, she wasn't shot." there was a lot of blood. i guess i thought i was just going to ride over there and i was going to see this guy looking through some bushes and say, "okay, case solved." but i would go back home crying

every time, because i thought god sent me to find her, i couldn't, so what am i doing? i'm wasting their time. ms. painter was a very humble, amazing lady. was just trying to help out in the case. and i wanted to listen to her. >> police are actually open to elaine's help. and months later, she goes on another ride along with them after she says she has a new and very specific vision. >> i could see blood, her crumpled body in the left side of a closet. >> a closet? police aren't sure what to make of this. but they do know that time is of the essence. and tamika's aunt rebkah is doing everything she can to push for more public attention. you're a pr exec. your husband's an nfl player. if anybody should be able to attract attention, i would think it would be the two of you. >> yeah, you would think. >> yet you're struggling to get the message out. >> right.

i was used to the media being, you know, enthralled with these stories. i assumed that i was going to be able to get that sort of attention for tamika. and i could not have been more wrong. >> it's hard to beat the media for getting a face out there. whatever leads it could generate, that's what she was after. >> i need all eyes looking for her. anything that i could -- anyone that i could reach out to, i was. >> while tamika's case did get local news coverage, rebkah noticed that some other missing women were getting widespread national attention. >> 27-year-old lori hacking went for her morning jog and never returned. >> tamika was missing, actively missing. i had really had no leads on where she was. that it was pretty devastating to see lori hacking's case become a national story, really overnight. >> and you're being met with silence. >> yeah. >> how frustrating was that? >> extremely frustrating. >> but her persistence pays off. tamika's case is now getting noticed by john walsh's "america's most wanted." >> tamika huston is a young

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as the seasons change, rebkah continued to use her pr skills to advocate for tamika. she focused her attention on fox's saturday evening primetime hit "america's most wanted." >> you had gone to "america's most wanted." >> yeah, i got the attention of a young associate producer at the time, tiffany cross, who said that she was drawn to the story because tamika looked like her.

>> her case file had kind of made it through a lot of producers and landed on my desk. and as soon as i read the story and i just looked through the notes and i talked to her aunt, rebkah howard, this was a story i knew i could own. >> tiffany advocated for our stories. it was officially greenlit. and that october, tiffany was off to spartanburg. >> i just wanted to get on ground and understand who the people in this community were and what they could tell me about tamika. >> when you're thinking about national publicity, "america's most wanted." why did that matter? >> brands. brands matter. that's a top-shelf brand. but also, that means that they have the audience. the audience is looking. it gives them assurance that maybe if they think they know something, that they should call it in. and that's huge. >> i'm tom morris, "america's most wanted." >> the unique thing about "america's most wanted" is we worked alongside law

enforcement. the first person i met in law enforcement on tamika's story was detective steve lamb. >> all the leads that we've chased down have run into basically a dead end. >> i think they helped with the case, putting it out on a national level. >> steve lamb seemed very dedicated to finding out what happened to tamika. >> we started just building flow charts of the family and friends and people that she had dated or had relationships with, and we started seeking out all those individuals to communicate with them. >> one name that kept coming up routinely when i got on site was terence. >> the community and the family felt like terence was a person of interest in the case. >> terence says he expected police to suspect him, but not his own family. especially an aunt who helped raise him. >> so i asked her. "why haven't you gotten with me and called me and prayed with me?" and she looked me in my face,

and she said, "we thought you did it." >> that must have hurt. >> that tore my heart out of my chest. >> terence was very offended that people thought he had something to do with tamika's disappearance. i told terence we wanted to speak with him. i armed our reporter with tiny lipstick cameras, and we set off in a car behind him and sent him to talk to terence. >> you telling me you did not have anything to do with it, correct? >> exactly. exactly. >> at one point, he even got down on his knees talking to our reporter, trying to plead that he did not do this. >> why do you agree to talk to "america's most wanted"? >> i wanted the story to get out. i'm thinking, okay, "america's most wanted," they're stable,

they have good researchers. but you know, y'all didn't come with this. i'm like, "y'all didn't come to help find her. you came to get a confession. you're wasting time." >> of course, you always look to boyfriends. but if there's nothing there, at a certain point, you have to move on. >> over time, we felt like that he was not involved in her disappearance. >> one thing that i've always thought about tamika and i always wanted people to know is that she was a very spiritual person. tamika knew that she would not live long. >> we talked about her not being here at 25. >> you talked about her not being alive? >> yes. yes. >> what do you mean? >> she knew that something tragic was going to happen to her. >> you're saying she didn't think she was going to live long? >> no, she knew. i didn't say, "think." she knew she wasn't going to live to be 25. knew. we had these conversations. >> spartanburg detectives, with the "america's most wanted" team in tow, are now focusing on those keys found in tamika's

car. >> they told us about it, and then we filmed them finding the keys. >> matching the key was basically finding a needle in a haystack. >> and it's that key that begins to unlock the mystery into tamika's disappearance. they were able to trace it back to an apartment complex. but even then, the odyssey was just beginning. >> we go through with management, knocking on the door. >> detectives go from door to door before making a shocking discovery. >> the investigators found a really big bleach stain, which is latin for, "i'm covering something up." new iphone 16 pro at verizon. apple intelligence is pret-ty awesome. (man) nice. (woman) you can get it when you trade in any phone. (man) whoa, whoa, whoa! ♪ (vo) at verizon new and existing customers

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in the very beginning, where does this investigation take you? are you getting any leads? >> people knew that tamika had gone missing. >> was that a real moment for you in this investigation? you finally -- the key unlocks a door? >> you see it on tv, but you know, never in real life. >> that was key piece of evidence that they needed to

figure out what exactly happened to tamika, and that was just the beginning. >> people had seen her here? >> yes, seen her and thought that she had dated someone. >> in apartment 215, fremont apartments. >> the investigators found a really big bleach stain, which is latin for "i'm covering something up." >> and his explanation for the stain was that it was -- >> red kool-aid. >> which is amazing, in a way, because this leads to the discovery which leads them right here. >> i thought you had to be a monster. >> you said that this case touched you like no other had. why? >> because i know how much black girls don't matter. there's a woman out there who's helpless, and we don't know what happened to her. >> family members say tamika would never leave her pet home

alone. >> the weeks turn into months. the search goes on. >> yeah. >> no sign of tamika. >> i still had so much hope that she's going to pop up. she's going to pop up. >> tamika's black honda crx was found here at the barksdale apartment complex. but there was no sign of a struggle, no blood, no tamika. >> they find tamika's car, and then they find these keys. what did you learn about those keys? >> i look at keys all the time, and i never think about what's on them. sometimes there are things that identify them. you think that that's just the key brand. but it turns out that the keymaker had a code. aa14. that's the number on the keys they found in the car. >> and they weren't tamika's keys? >> no, they weren't. but that code was important.

>> fate must have been on lieutenant lamb's side that day as he stepped into one of the local key shops. well, fate and faith. >> we just decided to go to a local locksmith who has been here for decades and show him the keys to see if he had any ideas. and one of the keys had a stamp, and it was a code he recognized, that he had created. >> it was crazy. again, aa14. it told him that he made the key, but it also, through his files, suddenly, boom, he can tell you where those keys fit. >> when this particular key was brought to us, we knew it was a housing authority key. so we then cross-referenced it and we saw the aa14 matched the fremont school apartment. >> that code told him that it was made for the fremont school apartments. >> which is amazing in a way. because this leads to the discovery, which leads them right here. >> how do you even begin to

figure out where these keys go to here? >> we just went to management and told them what we were doing, and we were allowed to try the keys. >> with tamika missing and the clock ticking, the question is, could she be held inside that apartment complex? >> we tried every single apartment. and the last one opened. >> was that a real moment for you in this investigation? you finally -- the key unlocks a door? >> yes. i mean, it was great for us. i think it was one of the turning points in the case. >> it opens like a storage room. and as it turns out, when somebody moves out in those apartments, they just swap locks from an apartment that's empty or another room, and they just swap the locks between the two rooms, and they keep no record of it. >> when he tried the keys and the door opens, that was the key piece of evidence that they needed to figure out what exactly happened to tamika. and that was just the beginning. >> it didn't fit an active apartment. but at least we knew we were in the right apartment complex at

that point. >> we processed it just to make sure she was not being held down there. but it turned into nothing. >> had tamika had any connection to this apartment building, as far as you knew? >> loosely. loosely. we thought that -- we didn't have anything for sure, but now once we started at all to people in the apartment complex and things, people began to know who she was. >> people had seen her here? >> yes. had seen her and thought that she had dated somebody named chris that lived here. >> tamika's best friend zelda had actually met chris, but only one time, the last time she saw tamika. >> she knocked on the door, and she had a guy with her. and they came in, and she was like, "hey, zelda, this is my friend chris." and i was like, "hey, chris." and he was kind of a standoffish. i'm like, "where did he come from?" she was like, "oh, he's just my friend." his demeanor was really odd.

i'm like, who is this guy? >> chris hampton was another boyfriend of tamika's. and he had a little bit of a record. >> he was out on a bank robbery, some probation. >> he had actually called the fbi when they were working that bank robbery saying he hadn't done it, that it wasn't him. but they were already showing his picture. >> what had you known about chris hampton, anything? >> nothing. from my understanding was he was relatively a new person kind of in her universe. i was her aunt. we did have a very sisterly relationship, but i think she would look to me for approval. if she just met somebody that she wasn't really sure about, by the time that she lets me know that she's dating someone, it would be more of a serious type of relationship. so i had no clue whatsoever that she even knew this person. >> he was one of the people she

had dated in the past that we put on the list that we were trying to contact and interview. >> we determined at some point that christopher hampton had been a tenant in an apartment there at fremont apartments. so he -- he very much became a person of interest. >> detectives begin talking with christopher hampton, who tells them that the last time he saw tamika, she wanted to borrow money before heading to myrtle beach for bike week back in may. >> i was assigned as an fbi special agent to the tamika huston matter. we had information that we wanted to confront christopher hampton with to see whether he could validate that information, whether he would cooperate with questioning. >> and you don't remember when you let her borrow that money? >> i told you last time, it was a couple days before bike week started. >> did you see her at any point after that? >> no, that was the last time i seen her. >> he was wanting to be helpful,

and he was trying to get the last information that he remembered, when he last saw her. >> this was your girlfriend? >> nah. we just, you know. she's one of the girls i was messing with. >> he shared that he had a girlfriend that was pregnant. and so that becomes a point of confrontation in these interviews. is tamika aware of this? how does she feel about that? >> she know i had a baby on the way, and she respected that and my baby mama. she respected that. >> did you have anything to do with her disappearance? >> nah. >> okay. >> i don't know nothing about it. she was one person i was messing with, and i hate she missing or whatever. but i got a life to live. never thought i'd be in the middle of something like this. you see it on tv, but not in real life. >> i've got a mother and a father and an entire family doesn't know what happened to this little girl.

>> you know, ain't guarantee nothing happened to her. what if she comes back? >> that's right. >> christmastime. >> while police have no evidence on christopher hampton, they want to keep him talking. then a letter written on christmas eve offers detectives a gift they weren't expecting. what's inside would break the case wide open. >> and instantly, i mean, i knew, why is this guy telling us knew, why is this guy telling us he rented a carpet cleaner? did yo st pay with . . . paypal? yeah, and the cash back's wild. are you guys feeling this? ♪ i want to pay with you everywhere. ♪ you get 5% cash back on any category you choose... really? every single month! and even more when i shop online?! ♪ i want to pay with you everywhere. ♪ i'd really like to pay with this... i know, right? no, i mean like move. oh! every payment. everywhere. every time. don't just pay, paypal. (restaurant noise) allison!

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as the seasons change and the months go by, tamika's family marks a heartbreaking milestone -- her 25th birthday. and on christmas eve 2004, christopher hampton writes a curious letter to law enforcement. >> mr hampton addressed a letter to myself on december 24th. he says in the letter, "i went to my apartment and found that somebody had come into my apartment and poured beer on my floor, smeared mayo, ketchup, hot sauce, flour, and all kinds of other stuff all over my bedroom floor." >> and in this letter, he talked about he had rented a carpet cleaner. and instantly, i mean, i knew. why is this guy telling us he rented a carpet cleaner? he's telling us this because he thinks we know something that we don't know.

>> he goes on to say, "i saw tamika last the day before i rented the cleaner." >> we felt that was very unusual for someone to write a letter to law enforcement about unusual damage in their apartment and renting a steam cleaner right after the last time they saw someone missing. >> i remember steve bringing me the letter. and my thought is, we have a missing young woman that you are connected with, and you want us to believe it's ketchup? keep talking. keep writing. >> that letter raises suspicions about what might've happened in hampton's old fremont apartment. so detectives check it out. which apartment then did you -- >> far corner. >> back here? >> far corner. top apartment. >> we didn't have a warrant, but a lady opened the door and let us in. we didn't tell her why we were there but -- other than trying to investigate a crime. >> the investigators found a really big bleach stain, which is latin for, "i'm covering something up." >> we felt there was enough to

execute a search warrant at that prior apartment he lived in. >> apartment 215. fremont apartments. >> when we were processing chris's apartment, we would walk through doing a videotape, documenting what it looked like before and after. >> straight across the hall, this is the first bedroom. >> we used bluestar to spray on the carpet. you spray in the dark, and if there's human blood there, it will illuminate. and it hit in his bedroom area and in his closet area. >> blood was found underneath the carpet. >> once we pulled the carpet up, there was large amounts of blood had soaked through the carpet and was just on the floor. and a lot in the closet. >> you find blood in the apartment? >> yes. >> but is it tamika's blood? >> we didn't know at that time, but eventually we did. over the course of a few days, we linked dna back to her. >> with this latest development, tamika's family now is

struggling to keep hope alive. when you find out that there is blood in this apartment, what goes through you? >> at that point, i was -- resigned at that point. >> in your gut, you know. >> i felt up until that point, i had a lot of hope. but i think that's when i knew that we weren't going to see her again. >> that same day, lieutenant lamb gets an unexpected call from elaine painter, the woman who said she had visions about tamika's case. >> the night that we found the blood in the apartment, she called me on the phone and said she knew something good was happening in the case. and there's no way she could have known that. >> tamika's blood had been found in a closet, just like elaine painter says she had seen in her vision months earlier. police would later take her inside that apartment. >> and we walked up these steps, and they opened the door, and i saw a closet.

i knew that was where she died. >> there's potentially a big break this morning in the case of a missing 24-year-old woman who disappeared last year. investigators now say they found blood in a former apartment of a person that they've been questioning. >> this is a video of the first interview that i had done with chris. this is shortly after the blood was found in his apartment. >> what's that look like to you, chris? >> some kind of stain, looks like. >> it is. that's underneath the carpet in your room. >> what kind of stain? >> that's blood. see this letter right here that you wrote? >> mm-hmm. >> in that letter you talk about cleaning the floor. all right? and what this is, is a crime scene. >> yeah. i don't know about that. >> when i interviewed him, he was uncooperative. he didn't want to acknowledge

anything. >> whatever happened to tamika happened right there in your apartment. >> yeah, i don't believe that. >> listen to me. i don't care if you believe it or not. i'm telling you, all right? >> no, i came to the apartment. it had all kinds of flour and stuff on my floor, like beer. people poured beer on the floor or something. all kinds of ketchup and stuff like that. i ain't got nothing. i ain't with that. >> he doesn't want to accept the facts for what they are, that this is blood residue. this is not a kitchen condiment. >> well, her blood is all over your floor. >> how you know it her blood? it could be anybody blood. >> no, it can't be anybody's blood. how long you think we've been doing this? you don't know that we can tell one person's blood from another blood? >> i doubt it. >> you ever heard of dna? >> yep. >> i'm telling you the girl died in your apartment. i'm not wishy-washing around there, i'm telling you that. that's a fact. >> watching that now, one of the reasons i would chuckle is the fact that i know i'm lying to

him at that point. we didn't know for sure that that was tamika's blood. we believed it, but we didn't know it. >> we're trying to press him to produce tamika's body. >> you're willing to wear this whole charge yourself? >> if i have to. because i don't know what's going on. you gotta lock me up just to solve your case. >> i'm not looking for a body to hang this charge on. i'm looking for tamika's body. >> the solicitor's office didn't want us to charge him until we had the body. at that time, i don't think we'd ever tried a no-body case. if you don't have a body, it's definitely not a slam dunk. >> i was the circuit solicitor, which everyone else calls district attorney. the goal is not an arrest. the goal is a conviction. >> so we're trying to identify him as the killer. >> then unexpectedly, somebody else surfaces saying she too had been in hampton's apartment. >> there was no reason why she should be in that room.

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tom morris has the story of a young woman with a big voice and a big heart. she may have followed her heart into some big trouble. >> tamika huston has been missing for ten months when the "america's most wanted" segment airs. >> we decided to come to spartanburg to see what "amw" could do to get some answers for tamika's family. >> the tenant had cleaned up what he thought was ketchup.

crime lab techs went to work, and they didn't find ketchup. it was tamika's blood. >> "america's most wanted" was this show that was interactive. >> we'd love to hear from you. you can call 1-800-crimetv. ask for me or the detectives. >> people would watch the show on saturday night in realtime, and anyone could call in with a tip. >> and where are you located? >> the show's got a hotline in their studio in washington, d.c. >> can you describe him? >> where trained employees and law enforcement are at the ready in case a lead comes in. >> my name is steve lamb, and i'm from south carolina. >> we would have cameras there. you would even cover law enforcement walking around from phone to phone. and sometimes they'd say "hey, i have something," and you would give the phone to the detective, and they could talk to the person. >> "america's most wanted." >> round glasses. >> we'll pass this information along. >> lieutenant lamb said they waited. and calls started to come in. and somewhere near around midnight, they got a call from a young woman.

>> someone here locally who felt they may know some information. >> he moved the dresser? >> she is a young juvenile that had a relationship with hampton and had went over to his residence, close to the crime scene time, and had been with him that evening. >> said they go back into his bedroom. she says that he spilled kool-aid in the floor. >> i got an investigator here locally in spartanburg to meet that individual that night. >> she knows exactly where that stain is. >> that kind of helped seal up some information in reference to the case. >> the caller is just 15 years old. police bring her in and interview her on camera. this is the first time that video is being shown publicly. we blurred her and altered her voice. >> when i looked at the show tonight, the "america's most wanted," they said -- they was talking, they said that whoever it was said it was ketchup. that stain did not look like no ketchup. it looked like that was liquid

that had been poured. it looked like it was coming from the closet. >> she said the dresser was pulled in front of the closet door. she knew something that we had not released. >> we had no further evidence pointing to where tamika might be. and the fact that this 15-year-old girl made a link, a connection between blood on this person's floor in his apartment was interesting to us. >> and he didn't have no cover on his bed. it was just a brand-new bed. >> she had visited his apartment, and he had what appeared to be a stain that could possibly have been blood. but he tried to explain it away. >> and his explanation for the stain was that it was -- >> red kool-aid. >> red kool-aid. >> that's what he told me. >> i get goosebumps. there was no reason why she should be in that room. in a way, you're grateful. but then again, you're horrified. >> the witness is implicating

christopher hampton at the crime scene and calling into question his explanation about that carpet stain. >> i knew at that point they were zeroing in on him. >> national media coverage matters in missing persons cases. it's not just any coverage. it's primetime coverage. because although it may take a village to raise a child, more often than not, it takes a nation to find a missing child, or anybody for that matter. >> in the early 2000s, there was a lot of missing white women that got outsized attention. and it was very frustrating to be a black woman working in newsrooms and seeing how different stories stayed on television consistently. >> i was like, "listen, you guys are ignoring black women at their expense in this country. we have 40% of missing persons cases are persons of color. why is it when you turn on your television, you only see white faces?" >> tomorrow marks one week since

18-year-old natalee holloway vanished on the last day of her senior class trip. >> i was reporting on that case in aruba. >> oh, wow. >> yet i had not heard of tamika huston. >> right. you're reporting on natalee holloway, and you're a black woman and don't know about it. >> like other reporters, i too was covering all kinds of stories, often about missing people, women in particular, not realizing some of the people who yent being covered. what did you hear back when you said it seems that you're ignoring black women? >> it was an abc news reporter who did write a story about the disparity in which missing black women versus missing white women are handled by media. that was the first bite that i got. >> why did it matter that she didn't make front-page news? >> that's the gold standard. a national conversation about a missing person is the difference between sometime not only being found, but never being forgotten. >> just hard and very

devastating for me. everything i'm hearing, it's not good. so of course it's killing me. >> she's not out there. if something has happened to my daughter, i just want to put her to rest. >> while tamika's parents are grieving, christopher hampton, in custody for violating his parole on that bank robbery, is busy making calls from jail. >> hello, this is a collect call from -- >> chris. >> like this one to an ex-girlfriend. >> and it was a piece of paper in there, and they had one of your -- you know yellow notebook things? >> uh-huh. >> and it had fingerprints and blood on it. >> yeah, i don't know what it was, man. >> she contacted us and said that she had some belongings of hampton's. >> christopher hampton's ex-girlfriend turned in his wallet. >> lieutenant lamb was going through it and found a drop of blood on a photograph in the wallet. >> there was some smudge marks that looked like blood and a partial print.

we do the testing on it. it's tamika's blood. >> at this point, that was enough to convince the solicitor's office to go ahead and let us charge him. >> you have her blood in his wallet. you have her blood on the floor of an apartment that he used to live in. it's no longer a question of who did it. it is now a question of what happened. >> there was still the outstanding question of, well, then, where was tamika? what happened to her? and only chris hampton had those answers. now i have skyrizi. ♪ i've got places to go and i'm feeling free ♪ ♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me ♪ ♪ control is everything to me ♪ and now i'm back in the picture. feel significant symptom relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi, including less abdominal pain and fewer bowel movements. skyrizi helped visibly improve

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grow the system, exploit the system. take mark farrell's record. after receiving the largest ethics fine in city history for breaking campaign laws. mark authorized a commission almost every year he was in office. he was even caught taking donations from people he would then appoint to commissions, including a felon convicted of bribery. san francisco's challenges demand urgency,

not more of the same failed insiders. it's been 15 months since tamika huston's disappearance. now armed with hard evidence, solicitor trey gowdy is ready to have police arrest christopher hampton for tamika's murder. >> i remember talking to them about, "you need to be there when he's released." when they picked him up, what you really want is, you want answers for the family. where's the body? >> he was scheduled to be released on his parole violation, and they assured me, "listen, we're going to be there

to pick him up, and we're bringing him to question him." >> you are about to see potentially a resolution here. somebody's about to be arrested. >> it's really a tough situation to be in because you just, like -- until you know know, there is maybe that small sliver of hope that one day she'll just walk through that door. >> because there's no body at this point. >> yeah, exactly. so -- it's -- it's tough. you want to know, but then you don't want to know. >> we made arrangements the morning that he was released that we would be there. and over the course of our ride back, he was nervous that we were going to put him in front of cameras. so we went to another location. we got cheeseburgers from a local restaurant, and i made sure that we asked for a ketchup bottle, not the little packs. we want a bottle. and we're sitting there talking, and the ketchup bottle's on the corner of the table.

and i said, "don't knock that off on the floor." and he kind of laughed about it or snickered about it. i think that was kind of the turning point for him. he stood up. he said, "let's go." i said, "where do you want to go?" originally, i thought he meant to jail, but he said, "i'll take you to where she's at." >> my god, tamika. is this where fate, faith, and fortune unfortunately meet? have we finally found you? >> how did you handle that news that he was going to lead police to her body? >> major lamb, i remember him calling me and saying that he finally said that he was going to lead them to tamika. i said, "okay, i'm on the next flight there." >> when i got the phone call, i think i just lost it. yeah, it was tough.

>> it was just me and my dad when we found out. and i just remember him screaming to the top of his lungs. and then that's when i knew my sister was never coming back. >> we get in our vehicles, and he drives us across town, the interstate, into another small town outside of our jurisdiction. >> ms. huston was found in a wooded area. good bit of brush and undergrowth in the area, but some clearings as well. >> we get out of the vehicle. we walk probably a hundred yards into the woods, and he points out where it is. >> it turns out hampton had made a cross with tree branches and laid them on top of the

makeshift grave where he'd buried tamika. >> as if "i'm going to fashion a cross and put it there" is somehow going to mitigate what he's done. >> ms. huston was buried in a shallow grave. some of the remains of mrs. huston had been scattered about the area. >> right here. >> there were a couple bones on the surface that they saw at that time, and it was in spartanburg county. >> multiple law enforcement agencies were at the scene. >> when i arrived that night, they're still processing that scene and trying to collect her remains. it was gut-wrenching at that point. you felt so remote, and you felt like she's been out here alone for all this time. you feel really helpless.

♪ i open my arms for your embrace ♪ ♪ but all i feel is empty space ♪ >> i remember walking down into deep woods. and, i mean, by this time, we were surrounded by trees. ♪ so come back to me come back to me ♪ >> watching the pain on my sister's face, it felt like she was in physical pain. it was really just difficult to see her going through that. >> and i'm standing there, and my eyes are full of tears. and i remember looking down, because i felt like i was stepping on something. and i reached down and pick it up, and it was actually one of her bones.

>> the family came and found a couple bones that had not been picked up. and so, for me, that was a really sad situation. so i told them i'd just do it myself. >> that part of it -- excuse me. you're -- it was supposed to be, you know, cleared first before we got there. >> and yet, through it all, something extraordinary starts to happen. the family begins their long good-bye. and quite naturally in this unholy yet sacred setting, an impromptu ceremony develops at the site. >> the family had put up a little cross and flowers there at the gravesite. >> you had hoped it would be a different outcome. you do have an answer now. but it's certainly not the

answer you wanted. >> it wasn't the answer we wanted. it is such a loss. i miss her so much. >> but how did tamika end up dead, and why? christopher hampton, back in an interview room, is ready to confess. >> i just -- it happened so fast. i snapped and i just -- nt to lot of the things you love. some things should stand the test of time. long-lasting eylea hd could significantly improve your vision. more people on eylea hd had no fluid in the retina, compared to those on eylea at 4 months. eylea hd is the only wet amd therapy that helped 8 out of 10 people go up to 4 months between injections, after 3 initial monthly treatments. if you have an eye infection, eye pain or redness or allergies to eylea hd, don't use. eye injections like eylea hd may cause eye infection, separation of the retina, or rare

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this makeshift gravesite deep in this wooded area near tiger river is where spartanburg investigators say christopher hampton led them. >> deep into the brush, investigators say hampton showed them where he dumped tamika's body. >> -- body just recently identified after a long, grueling investigation -- >> after christopher hampton

leads authorities to tamika's remains, he then sits down to tell investigators what he says happened the day tamika died. >> we returned back to the police department to interview him in reference to the case. >> he tells a story of an argument over money, and he's ironing clothes for work. >> kind of tell me what happened. >> she said she wanted to borrow money. so i said, "i ain't got it right now." i said, "i got a ticket coming i got to pay." i said, "and plus, my baby, she's going to be born, i got to buy some stuff for her." >> okay. then what happened? >> then she got mad. she's like, "well, gosh, you always talking about that baby. you make enough money. you can give me some money now." and she's, "yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap." she stood up, and i'm saying she went hard. she's like, "yap, yap, yap, yap, yap." so i just -- >> what happened? >> i just turned around and swung the iron.

>> they have a little disagreement. and he turns around, hits her with an iron. >> i just -- it happened so fast. i snapped and i just -- >> turn all the way around and show me, so i understand which side we think it is. >> it hit her like -- >> on this side? >> right on the side of the head. >> based on the crime scene, detectives aren't sure about hampton's story. >> i think there was considerably more damage than what probably would've been caused by just getting hit in the head with an iron. >> did you go check her, or did you just -- >> i panicked, man. i got up out of there. >> you panicked and you left. >> i got up out of there. >> when you heard about chris' confession, when you heard him say that he killed her -- >> i was really angry. it seems so violent and so senseless. >> he said it hit her and he didn't know what to do. and then left and came back. >> he felt like she'd be up and gone, which she wasn't.

so he panicked and wrapped her up in a comforter off the bed and put her in the closet. >> he had such little regard for her life that he dragged her in the closet and moved a dresser in front of the closet. it was almost like he wanted it out of sight, out of mind. it didn't happen. >> i'm scared. so i put her in the closet and stuff and put the thing over the thing, the dresser over the door. >> hampton tells them he places a dresser in front of the closet door just as the 15-year-old witness had described to police. >> you're dealing with the psychology of someone who could take a life and then be with this underage girl. and this body is in the closet the entire time. >> he said he wrapped the body up in his bedding and carried her out to the car. >> he goes to walmart and buys a shovel.

the sun's coming up, and he decides to drive down this dirt road, take her in the woods, and he digs the grave. >> okay, what do you do next? >> i buried her. like, put dirt back on top of her. >> put her out in the woods. buried her in the woods. >> horrific. >> did you put anything else on top of it? >> i made a cross with it, like, with the trees, a cross. >> was you doing that just as, like, a burial for her or something? why'd you do that? i mean, that's -- >> i guess because i'm sorry. i didn't mean to do it. >> he is confessing to a homicide, and his intent is to make the event sound as unintentional as possible. and we didn't believe that to be true because he'd gone to great effort to dispose of ms. huston's body.

>> months later, he returns to the gravesite, removes some bones, as well as tamika's skull, and takes that and disposes of it at another location. >> this is a diagram that i made after we had finished processing the scene. and this shape in the middle is the burial site. one of the most interesting things on this, to me, is this is a fence, and you have this creek right here. what i think actually happened was -- because this, her jaw bone, was the only bone that was found on the other side of this fence. i think he likely took the skull, like he said. she couldn't be identified, or to cover up some kind of horrific damage to it, and threw it in this creek. >> i just thought that you had to be a monster to do something

like that to someone after a period of time. >> tamika's life reduced to a pile of bones, picked, plucked, and spread apart by animals, weather, and worry. gone missing, now found. >> christopher hampton placing tamika's body in the woods. the vision elaine painter says she had spot-on. >> that was who i saw looking through these bushes. >> and it seems tamika had one more message to share via elaine. >> when i was very, very early in my pregnancy, and literally the only people who knew that i was pregnant with twins was me, my doctor, and my husband, elaine called me. and i had a couple of miscarriages previously. and she's like, "rebkah." and i could tell she was struggling a bit. she says, "i am seeing tamika, and i keep seeing her, and she's holding these two blue bundles." and i'm like, "really?"

>> i said, "i don't have any idea what this means." i did not know that she was pregnant with twins. maybe god was saying that it is going to be okay, that you're going to get to keep these. >> i was just blown away because, i mean, again, only -- and i knew what the sex would be of my twins. >> twin boys. >> yeah, twin boys. >> and two blue bundles. >> yeah, two blue bundles. and to this day, i always feel like tamika, she's watching them and she's around. >> with the sound of the song "someway, somehow," a memorial service for tamika is held in south carolina. >> these people gathered here at foster chapel baptist church in her honor. >> tamika huston is later buried in fairfax, virginia, just a few miles from her mother's home. >> i was so confused on why she had a closed casket. i was really confused.

i'm like, "i want to see my sister." and then that's when my mom, she kind of explained it to me like, "it's not much in the casket." >> christopher hampton is finally headed to trial. but there's a turn of events in the courtroom. >> i was shocked. >> and on the 20th anniversary of tamika's death, her aunt rebkah gets a welcome surprise.

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♪ nearly two years after tamika huston went missing, her former love interest, christopher hampton, is heading to trial. >> it felt like it was going to be a really tough couple of weeks in spartan burg. but on the first day of trial, he ends up pleading guilty. i was shocked. i was shocked. >> are you guilty of the crime of murder? >> yes, sir. >> i don't know why he pled guilty. he wound up getting the exact same sentence that he would've gotten had he gone to trial and lost. >> mr. hampton, the sentence of the court is that you be committed to the state department of corrections for life.

>> i was really emotional that day, and he really didn't show any remorse. >> life without parole. >> if anyone deserved life, it had to be christopher hampton. >> to this day, those who knew and loved tamika still wonder about the motive for her murder. hampton says she was upset that he was saving money for his unborn child. >> she wasn't like that. she wasn't, "those are your children." no, "those are our children." that's how she was. that's why his story doesn't make any sense. >> my sister was -- she cared a lot. i couldn't imagine her saying that at all. >> i don't know if i'll ever get the true story of what happened. so i'm trying to learn to just come to -- just be at peace with it. >> her family was just beginning to accept a dark new reality -- life without tamika.

>> you said that this case touched you like no other had. why? >> because i know how much black girls don't matter. and i want to always be a reflection of how much value that they had to me. >> what do you most want people to know about this woman that you loved? >> with her death, i've met so many women. i've met so many fathers. i've met so many sisters and brothers. they still haven't found their loved ones. so i know she's putting me on a higher mission. >> the lack of media coverage about tamika's case led to the creation of the black and missing foundation. you advocate with the black and missing foundation. is it still a struggle to get

the stories of women of color noticed? >> it can be, but i think there is more of an awareness of it. >> is that tamika's legacy? >> i do believe that. i do. >> on the 20th anniversary of tamika's disappearance, we brought her best friend zelda and her aunt rebkah together. they hadn't seen each other in years. >> zelda! >> don't do that. >> i'll try not to. >> oh, honey, don't cry. i love you so much. don't cry. oh, honey, don't cry. it's so good to see you. >> it's just been a long time. >> you are the best friend ever. >> i know. >> you know that? >> and she sung at the wedding. so beautiful. >> i miss her.

>> i know. me too. ♪ his eye is on and i know he watches me ♪ >> it just makes me think about what my sister could have been, and it was just so unfair that her life got snatched from her. ♪ he watches he's watching me ♪ >> david: a deeply moving record tonight, deborah. a quick note here. "20/20" did reach out to christopher hampton for comment, he did not respond. >> deborah: so far, david, his appeals have been denied. for more on this case, you can listen to erika alexander's audible original series "finding that make ka." it's available now that's our program for now. thanks so much for watching. i'm deborah roberts.

>> david: i'm david muir. from all of us here at "20/20" and abc news, good night. harris is here, but her trip tonight into san francisco might have had an obstacle or two. our crews spotted a waymo vehicle that had to be driven away from the motorcade route by police. good evening. i'm ama daetz, and i'm dan ashley. >> thanks for joining us. this is likely the vice president's last visit to san francisco before election day, but it has started with one of those only in san francisco moments. >> yes. abc seven news reporter lauren martinez joins us live near the fairmont hotel, where kamala harris arrived about 90 minutes ago. hi, lauren.