408: The Girl Who Looked Like Me (From 20/20)

Summary

True Crime Obsessed Podcast – Episode 408: The Girl Who Looked Like Me (From 20/20)
Release Date: December 31, 2024

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Introduction and Background

In Episode 408 of True Crime Obsessed, hosts Jillian Benzavalli and Patrick Hines delve into the harrowing case of Tamika Houston, a young Black woman whose disappearance in June 2004 remains a poignant example of how media biases can obscure critical true crime stories. This episode, titled "The Girl Who Looked Like Me," not only recounts the tragic events surrounding Tamika’s disappearance but also critiques the systemic neglect of missing persons of color in mainstream media.

Tamika Houston's Disappearance

Tamika Houston, a vibrant and talented singer who had even auditioned for American Idol, vanished on June 16, 2004. The episode opens with the discovery of Tamika's abandoned car, raising immediate concerns about her whereabouts. "Her car was found abandoned," Jillian Benzavalli notes at [00:26], marking the beginning of a complex investigation.

Tamika's aunt, Rebecca, became alarmed when prolonged attempts to contact Tamika went unanswered. "When I got the phone call, I just lost it. Where was Tamika? What happened to her?" Rebecca's distress is palpable as the hosts discuss the initial steps taken to locate her.

Investigation and Media Coverage

The investigation faced significant challenges, notably the lack of media attention compared to other high-profile missing persons cases involving white women. Patrick Hines articulates this frustration, stating at [02:06], "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?"

To address this disparity, Erica Alexander, an actress and activist, spearheaded a podcast titled Finding Tamika. Her deep personal connection to the case—stemming from her realization that Tamika "looked like her"—underscored the importance of elevating marginalized voices in true crime narratives. Erica’s dedication is evident when she mentions, "[Erica Alexander] was approached about creating a podcast because somebody told her about this story and she was sort of like, no one else was gonna do it, so I'm gonna do it" at [06:26].

Key Evidence and Suspects

A pivotal piece of evidence in the case was a mysterious set of keys found in Tamika's abandoned car, which did not belong to her. "You find keys in this car that don't seem to belong to her," Jillian Benzavalli explains at [02:29]. The investigation revealed that these keys were linked to another apartment complex, leading police to suspect involvement from someone Tamika may have encountered.

Terrance, Tamika’s ex-boyfriend, emerged as the prime suspect. Despite presenting himself as caring and supportive in later interviews, historical evidence pointed to a tumultuous relationship marked by domestic violence. Patrick Hines critiques Terrance’s contradictory behavior: "He’s lovely here in this interview," contrasted with his earlier unhinged demeanor at [11:31].

Elaine Painter’s Visions

Adding a supernatural layer to the investigation, Elaine Painter, a psychic, claimed to have visions related to Tamika’s disappearance. Initially dismissive of Tamika being in water, Elaine’s second vision revealed blood in a closet ([07:10]). This discrepancy puzzled investigators and listeners alike, raising questions about the reliability and impact of such testimonies in true crime narratives.

Trial and Confession

After months of investigation without substantial progress, the case culminated in Terrance Hampton pleading guilty to Tamika’s murder in 2006. This unexpected confession shocked both the hosts and listeners. "He ends up pleading guilty," Patrick Hines remarks at [55:44], highlighting the abrupt end to a five-year-long mystery.

Despite the confession, lingering questions about Terrance’s motives remained. The hosts emphasize the senselessness of the crime: "And we say... it's totally senseless," Jillian Benzavalli expresses at [56:26]. The lack of clear motive left Tamika’s family grappling with the tragedy, underscoring the broader issues of violence against Black women and the societal neglect of their stories.

Media Bias and Advocacy

The episode critically examines the media’s role in perpetuating biases, emphasizing how Tamika’s case was overshadowed by those involving white women. Tiffany D. Cross, a journalist at America's Most Wanted, pushed for increased coverage of Tamika’s disappearance, revealing the systemic issues within media institutions. "Why are we only seeing white faces on tv?" Rebecca challenges Patrick Hines at [25:09], encapsulating the episode’s central critique.

Erica Alexander’s efforts to create a podcast about Tamika’s case served as a catalyst for broader advocacy, leading to the establishment of the Black and Missing Foundation. This initiative aims to address the disparities in media coverage and support for missing persons of color, providing a beacon of hope amidst the overwhelming challenges faced by Tamika’s family.

Insights and Reflections

Hosts Jillian and Patrick reflect on the emotional toll of the case, both personally and within the community. They highlight the importance of representation and the need for more voices like Tiffany’s and Erica’s to ensure that all missing persons receive the attention they deserve. "We need more Tiffany's out there now," Jillian asserts at [57:54], reinforcing the episode’s call to action against systemic injustices.

Notable Quotes

• Jillian Benzavalli [00:26]: “Her car was found abandoned.”
• Patrick Hines [02:06]: “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?”
• Erica Alexander [06:26]: “No one else was gonna do it, so I'm gonna do it.”
• Jillian Benzavalli [11:31]: “He's lovely here in this interview.”
• Patrick Hines [55:44]: “He ends up pleading guilty.”
• Jillian Benzavalli [56:26]: “It's totally senseless.”

Conclusion

Episode 408 of True Crime Obsessed not only recounts the tragic disappearance and subsequent murder of Tamika Houston but also serves as a powerful commentary on racial biases in true crime media coverage. Through detailed storytelling, critical analysis, and heartfelt discussions, Jillian and Patrick shed light on the systemic issues that allow the fates of Black women to be overlooked. The episode underscores the necessity for increased representation and advocacy, ensuring that stories like Tamika’s are heard, remembered, and addressed with the urgency and compassion they deserve.

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For more in-depth discussions and additional content, listeners are encouraged to visit the podcast’s Patreon page, access exclusive episodes, and support the ongoing efforts to highlight underrepresented true crime cases.

Transcript

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Girl, I'm going to a 10 o'clock show tonight.

[Patrick Hines]

Why?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I don't know you.

[Patrick Hines]

Why?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

It's my friend and I made these plans on Saturday.

[Patrick Hines]

You know what? You had me and it's your friend. Be a good, supportive friend.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You're welcome, Matt Doyle.

[Patrick Hines]

But you of all people, I'm going to be.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

If it weren't him, I would just sleep at the table.

[Patrick Hines]

I. Yeah, you especially.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Hi. Jillian Benzavalli. Hi.

[Patrick Hines]

Patrick Hines.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Hey, fam. Join us over on the Patreon. A million reasons to do. For example, we do drag bingo once a month. We've got over 450 full ad free episodes for you to download a binge. We're starting to do even more of the interviews with people. Like we did the interview with Sarah Turney after we covered Sarah's documentary about her sister Alyssa. Kathy from into the Fire. Sky Borgman, who did the Lacy Peterson doc. Yeah, so many things. But the other thing in the month of December, this at the hero belt here is when we send out the calendars.

[Patrick Hines]

Okay. So we've been doing the calendar for like a few years now.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I think this is the third one.

[Patrick Hines]

And every month is like, I don't know, we work hard on it. We have an amazing artist that we know named Square and he does it all. And so like we work really hard on it, like brainstorming, figuring out what we should do. And we love it so much. And so you're getting, they're like every.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Month is a cartoon version of something from the TCO universe. And it's just like really fun. It's really arty. So if you're already on the Patreon, if you want to upgrade to the hero belt here, you're going to get it. If you join now anytime in the month of December at the hero belt here, we're going to send it to you.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

So you know, we always get asked how to get the calendar. If you're not already there, that's how.

[Patrick Hines]

You do it, right? Is this a while supplies last situation?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

It's a while supplies last. We always order enough. We have run out in years past.

[Patrick Hines]

We order enough for the amount of $20 people that we have already and then we over order. So that's the like if you're joining like late in the month, that's the wall supplies last thing. But if you're already at the $20.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Oh, you're getting it. Oh my God, you're getting it, girl. Tell the people what we're talking about today.

[Patrick Hines]

This is so highly requested. When this came out, my DMs blew up.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

So.

[Patrick Hines]

This is a 2020 special. It's called the Girl who Looks Like Me. It's about a woman named Tamika Houston. It's season 4747 episode two. She had this captivating smile and beautiful eyes, and I prayed that they would find her alive.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

There was no just up and leave. When I got the phone call, I just lost it. Where was Tamika? What happened to her?

[Patrick Hines]

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? It was just a horrific scene. We started just building flowcharts of family and friends.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Her car was found abandoned.

[Patrick Hines]

You find keys in this car that don't seem to belong to her.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

That was just the beginning. Oh, my God.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, her blood is all over your floor.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

How you know how to blood? It could be in my blood. No, it can't be anybody's blood. How long do you think we've been doing this?

[Patrick Hines]

A local woman who says she sometimes has visions. I could see blood on my body on the left side of the closet. There's no way she could have known that.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I get goosebumps. Friday night.

[Patrick Hines]

You gave a lot of your life to the story.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

That's what it needed. What really happened to Tamika Houston?

[Patrick Hines]

You said this case touched you like no other had.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Why? Because I know how much black girls don't matter. I watched this like three times. This is a really good, really good episode.

[Patrick Hines]

It's a really amazing. There's like many stories being told at once. We're covering a lot of issues here.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Which, you know, they do it really well. It's Deborah Roberts reporting. I also just love her.

[Patrick Hines]

She's amazing.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

She's so good. So it's June 16, 2004. We're at a house and we're told that when the police entered the house that day. So they've been called to the house for some reason. When the police entered the house that day, they encountered a disturbing sight. There was a dog that had delivered a brand new, new litter of puppies, but there was no human owner in sight.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. So Tamika's dog Macy had given birth to puppies. Only one survived. And these poor dogs, like, they drank all of the water out of their bowls, all the water out of the toilets.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

What we're saying is this horrible tragedy with the dogs happened, but also, like, where's Tamika? Because she's not been home for a very long time. Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

They say the dog Macy was on the verge of starvation. We don't hear about the dogs again, but I am assuming that they went to loving, beautiful dogs.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Oh, my God. Of course. So we meet Tamika's aunt Rebecca, and she's the one who gets the alarm bell sounded. Right. Because she says no one had seen Tamika in a while.

[Patrick Hines]

She says, I panic at that point because it's one thing for. 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.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Tamika's not responding to that message from aunt Becca. So, like, shit is going down.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And Tamika's ex boyfriend is here too. Terrance. It's spelled Terrence, but it's pronounced Terrance. He is telling us, too, that, like, she was just an amazing person. Tamek. She was super talented. She was a singer. She auditioned for American Idol.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Oh, my God. Like, she, like, I don't know if the American Idol is still a thing, but she was auditioning for American Idol. She was one of 10,000 people in her, like, area to do it, and she still made it through the first round.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, I saw some memes speaking of American Idol. That was like, American Idol was kind of amazing because they set out to find the best singer in America, and they got it on the first try with Kelly Clarkson.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

They kind of never failed.

[Patrick Hines]

They never did with Kelly. The first time, they were like, let's give this a whirl.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know. And now we have Kelly Clarkson and our friend Jessica. Hey, girl.

[Patrick Hines]

Hey, girl.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Think of the people who came out of Carrie Underwood, Adam Lambert, like, Like, Ruben Stutter. Like, all these amazing people.

[Patrick Hines]

I know William Hung will that. That was American Idol, right?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

That was 100% American Idol.

[Patrick Hines]

But Antonia is here, too, and Tamika's sister, and she. I love when family members are super real. And she was like, we loved each other. We fought like sisters, but we loved each other like sisters.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yes. But we do learn that this family is close. Like, they're in the south on the east coast, and. But they've got family all up and down, like North Carolina, South Carolina, Miami. And, like, they're just saying that Tamika would sometimes just get in the car at anybody's house in any of those states.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, Tamika's amazing. She was a singer. We talk About Sister Act 2 for a second with Lauryn Hill. Tamika loved people, loved animals. And then Erica Alexander appears. She's the host and creator of Finding Tamika. And immediately I'm like, oh, my God, is that. Yes, she's the cop from Get Out. But most importantly, she was on Living Single, which was before my time, but still an incredibly important show.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah, she's amazing. I recognized her too. But I just love that she's like this like, very successful actress who decides she's gonna make a podcast because somebody told her about this story and she was sort of like, no one else was gonna do it, so I'm gonna do it.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. So she's like an actress, but she's also an activist and a documentarian.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

In 2020, in the midst of protest over racial injustices in this country, she was approached about creating a podcast about Tameka Houston's disappearance.

[Patrick Hines]

And at the time I thought actually probably no, because 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, Erica, who. No one really talks about the missing black women, so I'll do it.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And I've got to say, as a person who listens to a lot of podcasts, I remember when this podcast came out and hearing pieces of it now, I'm like, Erica, did you write your own copy? Because the copy is so beautifully written. Yeah, like, it is so well done. It looks like she's like making this. Like she's a one person powerhouse of a podcast producer.

[Patrick Hines]

I wouldn't be shocked if that was the case because Erica completely dives into this. She's working with Tameka's friends and family.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

She's on the ground. Like, she's not like a fancy LA actress who's like, putting in the money and letting somebody else do the work. She goes to Spartanburg and she's like, investigating, riding along with the cops.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, she's in 1,000%. She's on the ground in Spartanburg, South Carolina. And so June 16, 2004, two days after Tamika was reported missing, her Aunt Rebecca goes to South Carolina and she's the one who's on top of the police. She's like, no, we're not going to forget about this.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

No. Aunt Rebecca got in the car when Tamika was not returning her calls and was like, I'm getting there to, like, something's got to be done. And Rebecca tells us earlier she was Tamika's aunt, but she was only seven years older than her. We've seen this in other, in other cases where so like, they were kind of raised more like sisters. Yeah, they Were very, very.

[Patrick Hines]

And Rebecca has experience in media and pr. She's going to use that. Rebecca is also half Ethiopian and half white, but she looks like she's white. She's very white. Passing. And that cannot be ignored. And because we will dive into the fact that she's, like, using her whiteness for good here to try to get someone to give a shit about Tamika because the timeline is interesting. Travel down the road.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Back again, Girl Z Bionics is back with their pre alcohol. I got to tell you, we've been drinking this stuff like crazy. We tis the season to Christmas party. We're going to one tonight. I got the pre alcohol in my bag.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, I made sure we ordered it in November so that we were good for the holiday season.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Look, we all know that. We've all tried to find ways to feel good after a night of drinking. Listen, this pre alcohol is the thing that actually works. I gotta tell you, like, no more bad mornings. I'm telling you. Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

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[Jillian Benzavalli]

Here's how it works, fam. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's this byproduct, not dehydration, that is to blame for your rough next day.

[Patrick Hines]

So pre alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Right. So, fam, this is a proactive solution that wards off feeling miserable the next day instead of a reactive approach like drinking electrolytes or eating greasy food. Which I might do anyway.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. So all you do is, like, you take the zbiotics Pre alcohol.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. Which Steve insists on. We've got it, like, stocked in our bar.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And then you do the regular responsible things, like you still drink your water in between drinks. You still eat.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

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[Jillian Benzavalli]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Jillian Benzavalli]

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[Patrick Hines]

Thank you, Zebiotics, for sponsoring this episode and our good times. And some good mornings.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And some really good morning. Good mornings. Absolutely. One more quick thing. It tastes really good. It's like a little tiny thing. You just. You throw it back real fast. Tastes good.

[Patrick Hines]

Easy peasy, Easy peasy dun and done. Bye.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Bye.

[Patrick Hines]

So the family is on the news. Flyers are being put up all around town. Now here's what's going on at the time of Tameka's disappearance. The reason why it took a moment for it to be discovered that she was missing. Cause she was at a crossroads. 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 kind of like a perfect storm of events.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

That means she wasn't really in daily contact with anybody. Cause she's just sort of like floating through life at the moment. So, like, she's, you know, she's close with her aunt, she's close with her mom, she's close with her best friend, but she's not talking to anybody necessarily every single day. So the fact that, like, a bunch of people haven't heard from her in a couple of days didn't raise alarm bells.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. And if she was leaving anywhere to go on any trip to, like, visit family members, which she would do all the time, just be like, knock on the door, like, hey, I just drove 40 hours to say hi. She would do that.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Literally would drive from South Carolina to Miami to have dinner with Aunt Becca.

[Patrick Hines]

But here's what she would do. She would call someone else and say, that's what I'm doing. She never, ever, ever in a million years would leave Macy by herself pregnant in the house right now.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

So Terrance is here. And as we said, he was Tamika's last boyfri. Can we talk about him for a second?

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

This is very complicated because he is here acting very sane.

[Patrick Hines]

He's lovely here in this. In this interview.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

He's lovely. He's caring, he's crying. He's saying all the right things. In everything that we learn about him from the time of Tamika's disappearance, he is acting unhinged, not great. He's acting as though he's having a mental health crisis. We also learned that there was, like, domestic violence between them. Now, they don't get specific. They don't say who hit who, but they say that there was, like, domestic violence going on between the two of.

[Patrick Hines]

Lance admits that their relationship was, quote, violent.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yes. And, like, when we see him in his police interviews, he's just giving off really fucking weird vibes. But we see him Here. And he seems lovely.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

So I'm just conflicted about this guy.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And we'll get into how he's acting when we get there, because it is, like, there's a lot of context there.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Well, he tells their love story that, like, his family owned a corner store, like, in town. And one day Tamika was there just, like, getting her stuff. He goes out to get on his motorcycle. As I was getting on my motorcycle, I heard a voice say, do you have an 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, you know, something deeper than that. Take mine. Get on.

[Patrick Hines]

What? Oh, my God.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know this is a dumb thing to say, but it can't be understated. Tamika was so beautiful, like, just such a physically attractive woman that, like, she walks up to this guy on a motorcycle who's like, you take my helmet.

[Patrick Hines]

With, like, a perfect line. You got an extra helmet? Like, what? Oh, my God.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

Everything is like, you know, it's more than just love. It was something deeper. And I'm like, right, Then why did you break up? Because all I'm hearing is how great everything is.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. And it's actually Terrance, who's the one who gets in touch with Tamika's family to, like, alert them that, like, no one's heard from Tamika in a while. Right.

[Patrick Hines]

Because they'd been in touch, but she wasn't answering his calls anymore. So he leaves a very sweet message, sweet and polite message to Aunt Rebecca.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

He's like, I can't get in touch with Tameka. I just want to know she's safe. That's all. Thank you. And Aunt Rebecca's like, okay, well, first of all, you just broke up, so it's not that crazy that she wouldn't be answering your call.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

She's probably just ignoring you, dummy.

[Patrick Hines]

But she'll probably answer when I call.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Right?

[Patrick Hines]

But to me, it didn't answer when Rebecca calls.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And that's what I was saying at the top of the episode was that, like, that's why she gets in her car and drives to South Carolina, because she's like. It would be one thing to, like, you know, if it was like, hey, give me a call, girl. But this was like, tamika, where are you? And she's not responding to that.

[Patrick Hines]

And we see. But of course, all eyes are on Terrance. Right?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Of course. Right. Of course.

[Patrick Hines]

So we see Aunt Rebecca talking to the cops about him.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And Tamika had Told her aunt Rebecca that Tarance was acting very strange, like, the last time she saw him.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And, like, saying the behavior, like, quoting scripture.

[Patrick Hines]

Excessively quoting scripture, like, pacing the floor.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Saying that, like, his actions were being directed by God, like, once again. And we're going to see some video footage of him later. Like, he seems like in that time, he's having some kind of mental health crisis. Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Because we learn now that, like, it wasn't all puppies and rainbows. They had a very tumultuous relationship. They'd had domestic violence issues in the past. And like you said, we don't know the specifics of that.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And one thing that I didn't really fully understand until the very end of this episode, these interviews that we're seeing now are 20 years later. So, like, torance, like, he seems like whatever he was going through back then, he's. He's come through it, and he seems like a very good dude now. But, like, I mean, for all of these people, Aunt Becca, all of the best friends, this was 20 years ago.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You know?

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And speaking of that, this is all happening around the same time as Lacey Peterson.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Right.

[Patrick Hines]

So Scott Peterson is all over the news.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

He's a suspect in the murder of his wife, Lacy.

[Patrick Hines]

Scott Peterson attended this New Year's Eve vigil for Lacy in Modesto, California.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

All the way across the country in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Tameka's family is holding a vigil, too, and all eyes are on her concerned ex boyfriend, Terrance. This is, like, the same week that Lacy Peterson went missing.

[Patrick Hines]

And, like, Terrance goes to Tamika's vigil.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Exactly.

[Patrick Hines]

And now, like, Scott was being shady at Lacy's vigil. So, like, people are thinking, is this a Scott Peterson thing all over again?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And it feels a little bit like Tarant is leaning into it. I don't know.

[Patrick Hines]

And so this is where we get the first. Because, like, the fact that the whole vibe of Tarance was different then than it is now in this interview. This is the big reveal here.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

Because he's like, he. We hear that lovely, very polite message to Aunt Rebecca, and then we see the footage of Tarant being interviewed two days after Tamika is reported missing. And it's a very different to Ranson, who we're speaking to today, because he's like, you know what? Everyone sees me as Scott Peterson. I'm here to help. If I wanted to run, I would run. This is where he admits to the police when he's being questioned that their relationship was violent.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And that actually means Something to the cops. The fact that the cops are saying he brought that to us sort of takes suspicion off of him a little bit. I mean, you know what I mean? Because at least. At least he's being honest. Honest. He's doing all the things that we kind of wish Scott Peterson had done, which was like talking to the cameras at the visual.

[Patrick Hines]

The difference is that Terrance didn't actually kill Tamika.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Well, exactly. And honestly, like, back in the day, I would have been very suspicious of tarant. He's got a chip on his shoulder in his interview with the cops. He's acting very strangely.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. So June 2004, Tamika has been missing for one week. She's been reported missing for a week?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

A week later, Tamika's car is found at an apartment complex across town. It's the Barksdale Apartments.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. The cops say that they could tell that the car had been there for a while. And there's no forensic evidence that they can collect. There's no blood. There's no DNA that they can see.

[Patrick Hines]

But the only. So at first, it's kind of a nothing burger. Except they find a bunch of keys. It was a set, I believe, five or six keys.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You can tell.

[Patrick Hines]

One's a house key, two of them's a vehicle key, and maybe two more as locks.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

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. Come from.

[Patrick Hines]

What are all these keys for and where they come from?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And they seem to say that they are pretty certain these keys don't belong to Tamika. So it's kind of like, do these keys belong to the killer? Right.

[Patrick Hines]

And what's going on here? Yeah, and that. So it's like, okay, I guess we'll hold on the keys for now because that's kind of nothing.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And then we get this 911 call. Someone calls 911 and says, hi, my brother just came into my house and told me that he killed his girlfriend and put her body in Cleveland park lake. Oh, and P.S. my brother lives at Barksdale Apartments.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And this happened the exact same time that Tamika went missing.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. So Tamika's car is found at Barksdale Apartments. Y we have this 911 call saying that my brother just said he killed his girlfriend and put her body in Cleveland Lake, which is like, around the corner from the apartment. Like, is this connected?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

It's also like this. Cleveland Lake is one of those man made, like, it's a very Small lake.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

It's not like a big thing.

[Patrick Hines]

It's like a pond almost.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Right. Truly. And it doesn't seem very deep. They send in divers and cadaver dogs. They find nothing. And the cops eventually determine that this 911 call was not connected to Tamika's case. But it is a very strange coincidence.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, we're going to solve that, too, right?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Right. Exactly.

[Patrick Hines]

Did the brother really kill his girlfriend? And, like, what. Can we look into that one of.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Those epis where we learn that, like, prank calls like this happen all the fucking time.

[Patrick Hines]

We. I mean, how many times have we been screaming about this on the show? Like, what. What does you. What do you get out of.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

Pranking and throwing or giving the family hope or destroying. What do you.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You know? Because it could even be that they. That the caller wasn't a prank. Like, maybe the brother really did say that, but the brother's making it up.

[Patrick Hines]

That's what I'm saying. Like, can we make sure.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Can we get some eyes on the brother?

[Patrick Hines]

Girlfriend is okay.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

Where did she go? Can we solve that one, too?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I couldn't agree.

[Patrick Hines]

Probably not.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

We got to throw it on. Throw it on the stack.

[Patrick Hines]

GP you know what? We have to talk about Elaine Painter. Because Elaine, 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. And I moved the paper over, and I just put my hand on her face and I prayed that they would find her alive, come back to me. I just pray a lot. I'm not a psychic. I don't read cards.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

She's not.

[Patrick Hines]

She's not, quote. She just prays a lot.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

She prays a lot, talks to God. Now she. She like. Because what we are hearing is, I'm.

[Patrick Hines]

Not laughing at people who pray a lot and talk to God. No, that's not what I'm saying.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You're looking at one. I pray literally every single day. Wonderful. And I literally talked to God. Have I ever told you when I was a little kid, oh, my God.

[Patrick Hines]

Girl, can you catch a break?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I used to. I used to.

[Patrick Hines]

God, sometimes you just don't come through.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

To quote Tori, God's got a lot going on right now.

[Patrick Hines]

I know. Who the fuck am I?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

When I was a kid, I used to sign off on my prayers. I would, like. I would pray to God. I would pray at night, and then I would say, thank you so much. Signed Patrick Joseph Hines. And then I would give my address.

[Patrick Hines]

That's adorable.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

In case God didn't know.

[Patrick Hines]

Just in case she didn't know.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Just in case she didn't know. You know what I mean?

[Patrick Hines]

She's not Santa. Santa needs the address.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Well, it was particular around Christmas. I would always give my address around Christmas just in case God needed us.

[Patrick Hines]

Or those two are Christmas, which, you.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Know, they must be.

[Patrick Hines]

They have to be.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You know what I mean? Did I tell you we got a. We got an elf on the shelf.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, God.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know. Steve was very against it, but, Daisy.

[Patrick Hines]

Really, you're for it.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I don't care if you're doing it anyway.

[Patrick Hines]

Steve's gonna do the whole thing.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

No, the elf moves itself. That's how it works.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh, right.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You didn't know, right?

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

No, the elf moves itself.

[Patrick Hines]

So you have a new roommate.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Her name is Sophie. It's the little boy elf on the shelf. But Daisy's decided it's a girl with a short haircut. Her name is Sophie. Daisy is utterly amazed. Every morning she wakes up, she cannot believe that Sophie moved again.

[Patrick Hines]

Where has Sophie been?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Really? Every. Well, Sophie causes a lot of mischief.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, that's kind of their whole thing.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. One morning she was in our wine decanter. We made sure she could breathe, but she was in the wine decanter. This morning, she was on our light fixture. Okay, yeah. She's all over the place.

[Patrick Hines]

And then what happens? So Daisy wakes up. Oh, my God. Sophie, you're in the light fixture, and then what happens?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

That's really it.

[Patrick Hines]

They wave to each other.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. They're amazing. Well, actually, one day, Steve did wake up, like, Daisy woke up before us. And Steve caught Daisy, like, whispering to the elf.

[Patrick Hines]

You know. What?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Like what, daddy? What? What? Pretending she wasn't. But she had better.

[Patrick Hines]

You're gonna come home.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know. I know.

[Patrick Hines]

And your house is gonna be turned upside down.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

The elf today.

[Patrick Hines]

And Daisy and the elf are gonna be pointing at each other. She did it. And I don't know anything about anything.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I didn't. I didn't see a thing.

[Patrick Hines]

I didn't see a thing.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Oh, my God.

[Patrick Hines]

Sophie.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Sophie Golden's gonna be trying to tell us.

[Patrick Hines]

Arf, arf, arf. Golden's gon Sophie soon enough. You better keep Sophie high up.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

Sophie better get herself to high places.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Exactly.

[Patrick Hines]

Travel down the road.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Back again, girl. Ancient nutrition is a sponsor this month. Look, none of us are aging in reverse biologically. But the ancient nutrition is all about helping you, making you look and feel your best.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, it's this collagen supplement that they have and it's all about like your hair, your nails, your skin. It's trying to, you know, it's helping you look, look and feel younger and more importantly, more healthy.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. Ancient Nutrition's multi collagen Advanced Lean supplement. Get this contains 10 types of collagen from 10 real food based sources.

[Patrick Hines]

And this formula is powered by clinically studied ingredients that promotes fat loss and healthy weight management as well as building lean muscle.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I'm so excited. I'm going to like incorporate this into my daily routine. And you know, I've been like doing the thing where I've been trying to get fit and feeling better. 20, 25, better watch out.

[Patrick Hines]

And it's so easy because you can just like put it into your morning coffee or your favorite smoothie. You can have it in something that you're already having anyway.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Exactly. Making it so easy.

[Patrick Hines]

So easy. And collagen can also reduce joint discomfort and improve the look and growth of your skin, hair and nails. So that's a bonus too.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Look, I could use all the help I could get in the hair department, so I'm going for it.

[Patrick Hines]

And if you like, make a sound when you stand up.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. It's like, you know, to the old man, noises, joint.

[Patrick Hines]

You need some joint help.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Oh, you mean like from your body, not from your mouth?

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. No, but if you're like, oh, if moving makes you audibly react, maybe you should take a look at your joints.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Totally great advice from Dr. Jillian. You know, right now Ancient Nutrition is offering 25% off your first order when you go to ancientnutrition.com TCO that's ancientnutrition.com.

[Patrick Hines]

TCO for 25% off your first order.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Ancientnutrition.com TCO go have better hair than me.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And be quiet when you get up.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Be quiet when you get up.

[Patrick Hines]

You know, little note shout. Go ahead.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

All right, so anyway, what are we gonna say about this Elaine lady?

[Patrick Hines]

So Elaine had a vision. She sees someone running through the woods or the bushes and she knows that it's connected to Tamika because Tamika is on the news. She's not getting enough coverage. But if you live in, in this town, you, you know about Tamika and she saw this vision. So Elaine calls police and they take her very seriously. Right away.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

They take her very seriously. They take her on a ride along.

[Patrick Hines]

Because she apparently has information about other cases as well. And we don't hear anything about that, which is. Okay, this is Tamika's story.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Like, Tamika and I want to say, the cops say, like, look, we. Like, we give credit to every call. Like, what. What else are we doing? Like, let us give this one a.

[Patrick Hines]

Shot because, like, she's a delight. She's a fantastic woman. Do I hear shade towards Elaine? Like, they love Elaine.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Elaine does seem like, like, a hoot and a half.

[Patrick Hines]

She's a pleasure to have in the ride along.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Totally. She reminds them all of their moms. You know what I mean? Like, that's what it really comes down to.

[Patrick Hines]

So they're driving around with Elaine and they're asking her questions, and they're like, do you think Tamika is in the lake? Because we got that call about the lake.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And she's like, nope, you will not find Tamika in a body of water. I am positive.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Put a pin, fam. And she says, also, she says she wasn't shot, but there was a lot of blood.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

So we'll come back to Elaine, and.

[Patrick Hines]

Nothing really happens after this first ride along, but they do another one with Elaine a few months later because Elaine has a very specific vision. And now remember how she said, you definitely won't find Tamika in water? She her second vision. And this is a few months later. So I guess I'm not making a joke, but I guess she'd been preying on it, you know, whatever. And months later, she goes on another ride along with them after she says.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

She has a new and very specific vision. Vision.

[Patrick Hines]

I could see blood. Her crumbled body in the left side of the closet. And there is a lot of blood. And so we will get to that later.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. So we're back with Aunt Rebecca now. This is where we are. We're reminded she's a PR executive, but now we learn that her husband is an NFL football player.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. So she's married to Desmond Howard, who, according to the Internet, is, like, a super duper famous professional football player. He's super talented, has a ton of accolades. You go to his Wikipedia. His, like, list of awards is, like, a mile long.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And football's the one with the field.

[Patrick Hines]

It is. So it's what Taylor's boyfriend does.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Oh, got it, got it, got it. I can't believe that guy has to work.

[Patrick Hines]

I know.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

That's why.

[Patrick Hines]

So Desmond now does commentary for ESPN for college football. But he's, like, a very famous guy. So you'd think between Rebecca's media training and the fact that her husband is famous, that Tamika's story would be everywhere.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Right, Right. And like. And like, you know, they're really highlighting that the fact that Tamika was a black woman. Like, media outlets were not interested. There was nothing they could do.

[Patrick Hines]

And even Rebecca being very white passing isn't helping. So Tamika was getting local coverage.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

But all the white women were getting naft.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

So this is where Aunt Rebecca, who's very persistent, takes a chance and goes to America's Most Wanted.

[Patrick Hines]

And now we meet Tiffany D. Cross, who's awesome. She's a journalist, and she's working at America's Most Wanted at the time.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And she says that she was really drawn to Tamika's story, quote, because Tamika looked like her right now. Like, this is why elevating not white people to important jobs in all sectors is so fucking important, because this was personal to Tiffany. She saw Tamika. She said, when she says Tamika looked like me, she doesn't mean she looks just like me. She means she's another black woman. And, you know, I don't know how many black producers there are in America's Most Wanted, but I'm guessing not as many as white producers.

[Patrick Hines]

And Erica Alexander would agree, I'm sure, because then she made the podcast about it. So it's like they're all sort of seeing each other in. In this story.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And because Tiffany pushed it through at America's Most Wanted, she's like, there's no way that we are not going to do this story.

[Patrick Hines]

So it's October 2004, and Tiffany, the journalist goes to Spartanburg, South Carolina, and she starts working on the story.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Literally, everybody's there. She's there, Erica's there. Like, everyone is going to Spartanburg to, like, get the bottom of what happens.

[Patrick Hines]

And now Tarrant is, of course, still a person of interest. He's the ex boyfriend. They had a tumultuous relationship. There's documented violence. But he's also being, like, overdramatic and unhinged.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

So this is what I. One of the things I didn't understand. Tiffany sends her crew from America's Most Wanted with hidden cameras to go talk to him that I didn't like. It's like, just ask him if he wants to talk on camera, and if he doesn't, then he doesn't. But we see the producer talking to Terrance and Toronto's like, front yard, and he doesn't know he's being filmed because, like, we're seeing that the camera from, like, within the car or whatever. But Toron is, like, yelling at the producer. Then he's on his knees with his arms out like, he's praying. Like, Terence is unhinged.

[Patrick Hines]

And so. But again, it's a lot of theater, and again, not the tourance we're speaking to today. Like, a lot has changed in 20 years.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

But we also get a drop in from Tarance today. And he tells Deborah, our host, that Tamika was very, very spiritual, but she knew she wasn't going to live past 25 years old.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

We talked about her not being here at 25. You talked about. About her not being alive? Yes, yes. What do you mean? She knew that something tragic was gonna happen to her. You're saying she didn't think she was going to live? No, she knew. I didn't say think. She knew she wasn't gonna live to be 25.

[Patrick Hines]

Knew she wouldn't make it to 25. She knew it. We had that conversation many times.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And you know what? It wasn't just her aunt. It was also. Tamika's best friend is here to corroborate that.

[Patrick Hines]

Yes.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Which is kind of like, look, I have a friend who used to say shit like that all the time. He's still alive and he's older. And I'm like, why do people have that kind of premonition? That is. I don't.

[Patrick Hines]

Because Deborah, our host, is like, I'm sorry, what?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

And she asks Tarant. And she goes, why did she think that? And Terence corrects her. She goes, no, no, no. Not think new. She knew.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I mean, you would think then that Tamika would be like, I don't know, would be more involved with more dangerous people or would be doing some really dangerous job or something. Like it was just some kind of premonition that she. Oh, my God. So by the way, this, like, all of this happens to her, like, just a couple months shy of her 25th birthday.

[Patrick Hines]

God, I know. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months. There's real. No movement on the case at all.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

But now we learn something pretty cool. The cops take that ring of keys to a locksmith.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, wait a second. This is.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Whoa.

[Patrick Hines]

But is it this scary?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Learn about locksmithing?

[Patrick Hines]

Well, because we have this full set of keys, right? We have no idea, like, what the keys are for. But the key maker.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I wasn't expecting that kind of reaction.

[Patrick Hines]

The key maker put a code on the keys and we can track them down. And I'm like, that's kind of weird and unsettling that the key maker can tell all this information about your key.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Meet the actual guy who made these actual keys. And it was random. They Walked into, like, the local locksmith, and that guy was like, oh, I can tell by the code on these keys that I made these keys.

[Patrick Hines]

AA14.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. And I can tell you exactly what building they go to. And I don't know, it makes. We don't get any contact. But I. It. It makes some kind of sense to me that, like, keys really are power. Like, you wouldn't want me with a copy of your key running, like, making 100 copies and running around, handing it to people out. Like, I guess it's good to be able to at least track the keys back to the person who made them.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. But it is weird that he's like, oh, I have all of this information. But what's even weirder, it probably also.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Makes more sense, like, in the 1800s or something like that. I guess.

[Patrick Hines]

So I was just like, wow. And also, I guess they're the cops being like, we're investigating this case. Like, if I walked in and was like, can you tell me about a 14? The fuck are you?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Exactly. But it means something to him. He knows about the code for keys.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. But the keys match these Fremont School apartments, which are close to the Barksdale apartments, which is where her car was found. So the cops just, like, go door to door, trying the keys.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Finally, the key opens a door to a storage room. But it's a we are nothing burger.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Because, 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. They're just moving the locks around and.

[Patrick Hines]

Not keeping a record of anything. Unlike the key maker guy who knows everything, who has a record. So they're just like, I don't know. I don't know where that lock is now. Like, there's no help at all.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And truly, like, I guess I'm not that mad about that because it is kind of like we're not used to, like, a key being a major clue. This is the first time I feel like. Like, in eight years a key's been, like, a clue in a murder investigation.

[Patrick Hines]

It does feel like a murder mystery dinner thing where someone's like, where's this key? I found this key on the floor. And that's very Golden Girl Story dinner. Like, where's the key? And then someone has, like, a matching key. And whoever has the matching key in her purse did it.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You should run a dinner theater. Right? You'd be great at that.

[Patrick Hines]

Would I?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah, I mean, you got great ideas. You're one for one.

[Patrick Hines]

So far, it's all about the key.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Totally.

[Patrick Hines]

That's all I can do. So the cops are asking around because they want to know if Tamika was ever seen near this building or if she has any connection. Connection to this building at all.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Turns out she was there all the time.

[Patrick Hines]

She was there to hang out with some guy named Chris. And I'm like, who the hell is Chris? Zelda is like, good question, girl. Because BFF Zelda met Chris once and immediately hated him. Got bad vibes right away.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And not only that, the one time Zelda met him, it was the last time she ever saw Tamika.

[Patrick Hines]

And Chris was an asshole. And Chris is an asshole and a rapist and a pedophile.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

So Chris Hampton. His name is Chris Hampton. He sucks. He tries to be a bank robber. And he thought it was smart calling the FBI, FBI being like, excuse me, stop putting my name in the paper. I did not rob that bank. Meanwhile, he absolutely did rob that bank.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And so you know what I definitely didn't do? I definitely robbed that bag.

[Patrick Hines]

And they're like, girl, we're like, already on our way to arrest you.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Like, we know you did it. Stay right there. We're going to come talk to you in person.

[Patrick Hines]

He is just the fucking worst.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Travel down, girl.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

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[Patrick Hines]

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[Jillian Benzavalli]

I gotta tell you. The silver infused fabrics they're using are inspired by NASA fam. Miracle made sheets are thermoregulating and they're designed to keep you at your perfect temperature all night long. So this is the thing, like, you see to get really hot sometimes, especially in the winter if you've got a lot of covers on top of you, like, you're just roasting under there. But these sheets really like thermo regulate. Like they say they keep you nice and cool.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And it's no matter the weather, so in summer too, you can struggle with that. But I also, like, need to be undercover or I can't sleep. So this is really solving all my problems.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

They're just like, also luxuriously comfortable without the high price tag of other luxury brands. So, like, you go you could get those like million thread count ones for $9,000. Or you get Miracle Made for exact same look and feel.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And you don't have to go to a fancy five star hotel to be in a hotel bed. You can just have the hotel bed at exactly.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

So fam, go to trymiracle.com tco to try miracle made sheets today.

[Patrick Hines]

And whether you're buying them for yourself or as a gift for a loved one, if you order today, you can save over 40%.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And if you use our promo code TCO at checkout, you'll get three free towels and save an extra 20%.

[Patrick Hines]

I love it.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

Miracle is so confident in their product. It's backed with a 30 day money back guarantee. So if you aren't 100% satisfied, you'll get a full refund.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

So, fam, upgrade your sleep with Miracle made.

[Patrick Hines]

Go to trymiracle.com TCO and use the code TCO to claim your free three piece towel set and save over 40% off.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Again, that's try miracle.com TCO to treat yourself.

[Patrick Hines]

Thank you Miracle made for sponsoring this episode and my sleep.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Saying free three piece is not easy.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, but we both did it in one try, so.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Did it one take one else's face.

[Patrick Hines]

So it's December 2004 and Chris is a person of interest. Now, according to Zelda, the bff, she was like, I think maybe they were dating. According to Chris, sitting in the his police interview, he describes Tamika as, quote, one of the girls he was messing with. Like, fudge you.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. And like he also has a pregnant girlfriend. Like this guy. He's the most disgusting person we've talked about.

[Patrick Hines]

And Tamika was apparently very cool with that, according to Chris. Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't. I just don't believe a word.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And I also don't feel like Chris and Tamika knew each other very long. I get the sense they knew each other for like a week or something.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, because BFF Zelda didn't know.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Right. Like, I don't think Tamika had all the details on this guy because she would not have been hanging out with him if she did.

[Patrick Hines]

No. You know, a few weeks after this interview, Chris Hampton again writes another letter to the police. Remember he said to the FBI, I didn't rob that bank. And they're like, yes, you 100%.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, he does. On Christmas Eve, this is. He writes a letter to the FBI agent on the case. And it's a pretty long letter considering the fact that it exists at all is weird.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Well, good point, G.P.

[Patrick Hines]

He'S like, hey, just so you know.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Merry Christmas, happy Holidays.

[Patrick Hines]

Just. Just want to let you know, I want to put this in writing. I just learned, like, today.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

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.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

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 it's because he thinks.

[Patrick Hines]

We know something that we don't know. Someone came into my apartment, and I noticed that because the door was cracked a little bit. You know, they call me Columbo around the apartment. Tamika had given me a comfort that she was letting me use. That comforter is now no longer in my apartment. I think this mystery person definitely took it.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I've taken it.

[Patrick Hines]

You know what? They also did. And, you know, you don't have to thank me for doing your job for you. Here's what they also did. Coppers. They poured beer on my floor and smeared mayo, ketchup, hot sauce, flour, and all kinds of other stuff all over my bedroom floor. And so because of that, I had to get all of my carpets cleaned. And I'm just telling you. Cause it's the holiday season and goodwill towards men. And so. But why he's actually doing this is because. Because he thinks the cops know something that they actually don't know.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

But the cop says to us, as soon as he mentions the carpet cleaner, it cuts right to the cop. He's like, what a fucking moron.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, I took a screenshot of what he said about the carpet cleaning. I rented a carpet cleaner from blah, blah, blah and Park Hills. If you want to go check the date. They probably still have a record of it, if. So. I saw Tameka last. The day before I rented the cleaner. I thought it was Tameka that did that to my room, but then I thought she didn't have any reason to do that. But the comforter is definitely gone.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I mean, it's so insane. The cop is saying, like, he thinks we have information on him and we don't. But now we do.

[Patrick Hines]

But he's also not. I'm like, are you telling them because you want help trying to figure out who did this?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Right?

[Patrick Hines]

Because I'm not hearing that in this letter, you fucking idiot.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Because if you see some of the things that got smeared on his floor, Hot sauce Ketchup. The cops are saying, like, wait, you have a big red smear on your floor that you got that you. That you rented a carpet cleaner to.

[Patrick Hines]

Get rid of the day after Tamika was last seen and at your apartment. And also speaking of that apartment, when the cops go to his apartment, he since moved out. Because he moved out, like, right after Tamika went missing.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Exactly.

[Patrick Hines]

So they go. And they're like, yeah, let's check out this ketchup stain.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

My favorite thing is that he doesn't live there anymore, but the lady who does live there is like, come right on in.

[Patrick Hines]

Come on in.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Could. Could you explain this bleach stain on my carpet?

[Patrick Hines]

That'd be great, because there's this enormous bleach stain, and to one of our talking heads was just like, That's Latin for I'm covering something up. He says that for every case. That's Latin for covering something up. It's a good line.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

It's a good line.

[Patrick Hines]

He uses it a lot.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

It's Evergreen 2020. Uses it, like, in every bump going into it, out of every commercial, the whole time.

[Patrick Hines]

It's the trailer before, during, and after. It's right in the middle.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

They do that.

[Patrick Hines]

That, like, midway trailer where it's like, here's what we did. Here's what we're doing and everything. A good line.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

It's a good line.

[Patrick Hines]

He uses it a lot.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I'm laughing. It's laughter. I'm covering something up.

[Patrick Hines]

So they pull up the carpet right where the bleach stain is.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

There's blood everywhere.

[Patrick Hines]

There's blood everywhere. It's in the carpet. It's in the closet.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

This idiot cleaned the carpet of the blood, but didn't lift the car. Like, didn't realize the blood was going to soak through onto the floor. Idiot. Idiot.

[Patrick Hines]

But there's blood, not just under the carpet.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. Once we pulled the carpet up, there was large amounts of blood. It soaked through.

[Patrick Hines]

Through the carpet and was just on.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

The floor and a lot in the closet.

[Patrick Hines]

There's blood everywhere. And Tamika's in a closet.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. I mean, that's definitely.

[Patrick Hines]

Yes.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I mean, there's. There might be something to Elaine Painter.

[Patrick Hines]

Because what happens is, Elaine, the day they found all this, nobody know. Like, the cops are at this piece of shit's apartment. They find this stuff. They're like, oh, my God, we got to get back to the station and figure this out.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

The minute they get in, ring, ring. Elaine's like, you found the closet, didn't you?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, literally. And Nobody should have known that that was not public. The minute. Minutes after. After they find all of this blood in the closet. Like, Ring, Ring, there's Elaine.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

They bring Elaine to the crime scene, and she's like, as soon as I walked in and I saw the closet, I knew that that's where she died, Right? Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

She's not even being I told you so about it. She's here to help, but she's like. She's like, how was that? Closet.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

I was right.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I was. I know. So they haul this Hampton guy in for another interview, and he's just. The fucking word. Yeah. It's always so awful watching these people in these interviews, just like. Just. Just denying the obvious, because they're saying to him, we know you killed her. We got her. Now they're lying to him. They don't know this for certain yet because the DNA hasn't come back. And they admit it to us, but they're saying to him, we got her blood all over your room. It's everywhere. We know you killed her. We just need to know what you did with the body.

[Patrick Hines]

And the killer's like, I don't believe you. And the cops are like, well, you don't have to believe in it. That's the truth, and that's what we know.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And Chris is like, didn't you get my letter? It's ketchup. Where's the holiday cheer, fellows?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Watching these videos. I'm watching these, like, the videos where they're just denying the. It just makes me cry. I don't know how these cops stay calm.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. And the cops, even. They do admit that they're lying, which is just. I want to slow down on it. We fucking hate Chris. We date this guy. But remember, the cops can and will lie to you.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

The cops can and will lie to.

[Patrick Hines]

You when at any opportunity, they will lie to you because they're saying they. They actually don't know it's Tamika's blood. They're saying it is. Right.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

It ends up being her blood. Like, they do get the DNA back pretty quickly, but they haul him in before the DNA results come back.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, they got the letter, and they're like, oh, God.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And what they want is the body. They want to make him believe that they know that she's dead. Maybe we can make a deal with you. We can just go easier on you if you just tell us where she is.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And at this case, I'm like, all right, I hate this guy. All the evidence is pointing to that he did It. But remember everyone and tell your kids the cops can and will lie.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah, well, they can't get him on this, but they do get him on a parole violation for the bank robbery that he says he didn't do.

[Patrick Hines]

That other letter. What is with the letters?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

Writing campaign.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

He's an idiot. I mean, honestly, rule number one of being a criminal, don't put anything in writing. Even I know that.

[Patrick Hines]

And don't go back to the scene of the crime.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Oh, my God.

[Patrick Hines]

Even in letter form, they take him to jail.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And now we're going to watch the segment on America's Most Wanted.

[Patrick Hines]

So Tamika's been missing for 10 months and that's when her segment airs.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Now, the way America's Most Wanted does this. I did not know.

[Patrick Hines]

I didn't know this either.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

The way they do this is they put. Put the episode out and in real time. They've got investigators at a call center in dc.

[Patrick Hines]

It's an interactive show.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Literally, you can call in if you have a real tip. You can speak to the actual investigator working the case who's there on camera.

[Patrick Hines]

And so this is what's happening the night of Tamika's episode. We see it. It's like a telethon, only like actual, like work and justice can be done.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Maybe they're not actors. Like, you see the people at this call center. They are all trained professionals who are there to take tips as they come in.

[Patrick Hines]

Right. So here's what happens the night of Tamika's episode.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

A quote, juvenile girl calls. She's fif.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Fifteen.

[Patrick Hines]

She's fifteen. She says she 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 said 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 helps seal up some information in reference to the case. She was there the night of the murder. The killer said all of the red stuff on his bedroom floor was from both Kool Aid and or ketchup. They bring her in for questioning. We don't see her face or hear her voice because she's underage.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

But we do see the video. They blurred her face and changed her way, but we see it and it's like she's fucking 15 years old.

[Patrick Hines]

And like no one's talking about the fact that there's a 15 year old in his bedroom.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, we're not going to talk about the fact that he raped her.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know she's 15.

[Patrick Hines]

Even if she said yes in the moment, I don't care. It's not consensual. He's a rapist 100% and a pedophile.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And, like, we're going to learn. He brought her into his bedroom and had sex with her with Tamika's body in the closet.

[Patrick Hines]

He's a fucking creep two feet away. Yeah. So Tiffany the journalist is here to just, like, sort of remind everyone how fuck frustrating it is for her to be a black woman in journalism when all of the white women are getting all the publicity.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Now when she's saying that, they cut to, like, an image of all of the white women who went missing around the same time as Tamika. These are all household names. Maura Murray, Lacy Peterson, Natalee Holloway, Chandra Levy, Lori Hacking. We've covered many of these multiple times. You can put any of those names into Apple podcasts. You'll get 15 podcast episodes about them. Like, it is absolutely true, the outsized attention these cases got compared to Tamika or any other.

[Patrick Hines]

And she's saying, like, she was in those newsrooms and she's, like, trying to do her job and seeing all these white girls, like, imagine being in that newsroom being like, what about Tamika?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

And so Rebecca says, Aunt Rebecca says. 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? Why are we only seeing white faces on tv? Now, Rebecca says this to our host, Deborah, who's black.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

And Deborah says, yeah, I know. Because Deborah reported on the Natalee Holloway.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Case and didn't know which would happen at the same time as Tamika. And she did not know about Tamika.

[Patrick Hines]

And to be clear, it's not that these cases are not important. No one is saying that Natalee Holloway doesn't matter. The point is that they're all important.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

And it's so obvious that the white girls get all the attention and the non white girls just don't.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Which is what I was saying before. It's why Tiffany, being a producer on America's Most Wanted, it's why this episode is called she Looked Like Me. But it's why it's important that people who are not white are being elevated to positions of power in all industries.

[Patrick Hines]

Because it's also not fair for Deborah, the host, who's just doing her job covering Natalee Holloway and saying that Like, I hadn't heard of Tamika Houston, and that's a problem. But it's also not her job to just find every. Like, that's why the Tiffany's of the world and that's why all of these stories need to be amplified all over the world. Because you can't. Not one person can do all the work.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

No, but like you think about Aunt Rebecca who was running around. She's got a background in PR probably, I'm assuming 2020 got a fax, you know what I mean? I'm sure they did, but like, it's just like. Like everything else, it just gets filed away because there wasn't a Tiffany working at 2020 at the time who was going to be like, hey, we need to be telling these stories about missing people other than these missing white women.

[Patrick Hines]

Or an Erica Alexander to make a podcast about it. Year 2020. Because she says it's not just about being found, it's about not being forgotten.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And so we get back to the killer. He's in prison for violating his parole for the bank robbery. And I guess we. We're not going to talk about the sexual assault of the 15 year old. No charges about that. I know, but his ex girlfriend, now all the people in his life are coming to get the killer.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. Because remember, the reason he was like, quote, couldn't be with Tamika was because he had a pregnant girlfriend. The pregn girlfriend calls the cops and was like, I got all of his girlfriend now. Ex girlfriend. She's like, I got all of his shit. Do you. Whatever. You can have whatever you want of it. 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.

[Patrick Hines]

There was some smudge marks that looked like blood in a partial print. We do the testing on it. This Tamika's blood. They test all this blood and it's Tamika's blood. It's not shocking, but it's fucking infuriating. Her blood is all over his apartment.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

And so it's like, what? What did he do to her? And why did he do this?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

What happened? I know.

[Patrick Hines]

So Trey Gowdy is the prosecutor and it's been 15 months since Tamika has gone missing and he's ready to charge the son of a bitch.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Thank God.

[Patrick Hines]

Travel down the road, girl.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Masterclass is back. Before we say anything else, Masterclass is a great gift. If you know somebody who likes to learn, who likes to like, expand their horizons or get better, that One thing that they like to do, like, me and the writing and whatever. Masterclass is what it's all about.

[Patrick Hines]

Totally. So with Masterclass, you can learn from the best to become your best. And Masterclass is the only streaming platform where you can learn and grow with over 200 of the world's best.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah, this is all about masterclasses with, like, people at the top of their fields. Right? So, like, my writing classes were with David Sedaris and Aaron Sorkin. You can do, like, the Anna Wintour fashion stuff. You do the RuPaul stuff. Like.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I mean, any industry people at the top of their class. Right. And for just 10 bucks a month, an annual membership with Masterclass gets you unlimited access to every instructor.

[Patrick Hines]

That's the thing. Because I used to think that you had to pick and choose and, like, pay by course or pay by instructor.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You would think.

[Patrick Hines]

But with this, it's like $10 a month annual membership, and you're just learning until you can't even see straight anymore.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Nothing. And, like, you can, like, take a class in something you never even knew you were interested in. Like.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, like, you're a fan of the person, and then you're learning, and you might find a new interest.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You can also learn anywhere, fam. You can watch the Masterclass classes on your phone, your computer, your smart tv, or even in audio mode if you want to. Just, like, on the plane or whatever.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, that's a fancy word for podcasting. You can listen to the podcast.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Welcome to our audio mode program. So, fam, Right now, our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual [e-mail].

[Patrick Hines]

TCO that's 15% [e-mail] TCO masterclass.com TCO go better yourself.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Learn from the best. Or give it as a gift.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Give it as a gift.

[Patrick Hines]

Right Idea.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Right? You're full of them.

[Patrick Hines]

Full of them.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

So it's August 12, 2006, and this Hampton guy, the killer, he's released from jail for his parole violation, and the cops are there to pick him up. And they're, like, buttering him up. He's nervous. They're like, why are the cops here? They're like, we're just gonna drive you home, friend. They take him out for cheeseburgers, and the cops are very. It's like, very important that they get a bottle of ketchup.

[Patrick Hines]

It's like, I can't believe this worked.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Because the theater of it all. Yeah, but it does work.

[Patrick Hines]

They want the bottle of ketchup to be on the Table so they can make the like, whoops, don't spill the KE joke.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

They make that stupid joke and for whatever reason, I don't know why, maybe we're missing a lot more of the story. I don't know. One of the cops is like, oh, watch the ketchup. Remember, you had bad luck spilling ketchup, literally. And he kind of laughed about it or snickered about it. And I think that was kind of the, the turning point for him. He stood up and he said, let's go. And I said, where do you want to go? And originally I thought he must to jail, but he said, I'll. I'll take you to where she's at. Let's go. I'll take you to Tamika.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You know, I was thinking a lot about this and I. I think it just comes down to some combination of a crisis of conscience and I'm never going to get away with this anyway.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You know what I mean? Like, why drag myself through this? You know what I mean?

[Patrick Hines]

Like, he doesn't give a. So, like, it's a little easier, I think, to be like, you know, fuck it.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

He's like, I'm never going to get away with this. I'm just going to pretend that I didn't do this forever. Like, like, fuck that, let's go.

[Patrick Hines]

And like, yeah, a lot. Yeah. It's just at least we have this.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You know what?

[Patrick Hines]

I'm not giving him any credit for anything, but at least me neither.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

But like, I would like to think, and I'm sure that it is true that Tamika was such an exceptional person that maybe, maybe, maybe somewhere in the recesses of his mind he was like, he's seeing her face and it's like, she doesn't deserve what I did to her. You know what I mean? Not, not because he's a good person, but because she was a good person.

[Patrick Hines]

He'S probably gonna use it and be like, well, I told you about Tamika. Can you knock a couple decades off?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Right.

[Patrick Hines]

No. Bitch. So he takes them to a location outside of their jurisdiction. It's a few towns away. And he go several hundred yards into the woods and he shows them that he buried Tamika. And he covered this like air quotes grave with branches. And he. And he had placed the branches like a cross. And the cops were like, trying to be respectful.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

We see this and it's pretty obvious to me, like, if you're a hiker walking through the woods and you came upon that scene, we see pictures of if it were Me and I were in the woods and I saw that I would call the cops.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Because I would be like, I don't know what's going on here, but something is going on here.

[Patrick Hines]

It's not like one of those like roadside memorials that you see. It's not, it looks, it's very much like a grave. Like someone or something is like clearly.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Marking a grave is what it seems like.

[Patrick Hines]

And it could be like a beloved family pet. But there was a burial that like, that's why I said somebody or something. Like you don't know what it is.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. So like this is insane, right? Because the cops go out there and they, they get the remains, they collect the remains, they tell the family where the location of the burial was. The family goes out there and I'm standing there and my eyes are full of tears and. And I remember looking down cause I felt like I was stepping on something and I reached down and pick it up and it was actually one of her bones.

[Patrick Hines]

The cops did not completely clean the area.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I mean they are absolutely fucking beside themselves.

[Patrick Hines]

It is a major fuck up.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I have to go back. I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait. It's unbelievable. It shows you. I'm sorry. Like these cops come across in this episode like they care. Until you get to a moment like this and you're like, they, like they can't have cared as much as we wanted them to.

[Patrick Hines]

And I'm sure they'd say, well, that was the crime scene people's job, those technicians, whatever, I don't care. You don't invite. Invite for whatever. You don't tell a family. You can go pay your respects to this location without making fucking damn sure. Also, how about for the autopsy? And also how about for the respective. Tamika, there are a million reasons why you should have looked over that spot, no less. And I'm not even kidding, like 20 times. And then have someone else do it 20 times and then have someone else do. Because to make extra sure it's not.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Like they were looking for extra remit. They like, it's unavoidable. You just, they walked right into it.

[Patrick Hines]

And it's just, it's, it's absolutely horrifying. And it's a major, major fuck up for the police that the family had to go through that on top of everything else. Horrifying.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

We've never seen anything like that.

[Patrick Hines]

So here's what the killer says happened. He and Tamika are at his apartment, they have a fight about money. Yeah, like, okay, money for what?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And he's saying his. His argument is that she was upset that he was trying to save money for his kid.

[Patrick Hines]

Right.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Rather than giving her money.

[Patrick Hines]

And then all of Tamika's family and friends, that's not her. She's not like that. She's super generous. And if, like, what are you talking about?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Like, why would. Like, she doesn't need money from you. She doesn't need your money, you piece of.

[Patrick Hines]

And you should be taking care of your kids. So Tamika also wouldn't be like, no, don't take care of your kids. What?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And like, meanwhile, he's ironing a shirt while they're having this argument. And he says. She says, you always talk about that baby. You making the money. You, can you give me some money now? Y.

[Patrick Hines]

She stood up and I'm saying, she went to architecture.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

You, like now.

[Patrick Hines]

So I just.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

What happened? I just turned 29. She got in his face and he just couldn't take anymore and he snapped. And he turns around and he hits her with the iron.

[Patrick Hines]

Because she's like demanding money from him. And he's like, no, I have to pay a parking ticket. Of course I have to save up for the baby. Like, I don't have any money to spare. And she's like insisting that he gives her money.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Right?

[Patrick Hines]

And he's saying. He's just so fucking rude. He just keeps telling the cops. Like, she just yap, yap, yap, yap, yap. Like on the closed captions. Says yap like eight times like this.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Well, he says that she then falls to the ground and he panics and runs. Like thinking she's still alive. He runs and then comes back later. He says, expecting that she would have gotten up and left. Like this is a completely made up story.

[Patrick Hines]

It's ridiculous. According to him. He comes home and Tamika is still there on the floor, and he panics.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

He realizes now that she's dead. Once again, I don't believe a word of this.

[Patrick Hines]

No, no, no. Except the part that he hit her and killed her. That's like where the truth is.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

He beat her to death.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, so? So he panics, wraps Tamika in a comforter, puts her in his closet, puts the dresser in front of the closet. This is when the 15 year old girl shows up. He rapes her. They say they have sex, but he rapes her.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Tamika's in the closet.

[Patrick Hines]

In the closet. And after the assault on the 15 year old, he takes Tamika to the woods, digs the grave and buries her. My question is always, if you're gonna bring the cops to where she is. Just be honest about what you did.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

Unless he's trying to use it for leverage for himself. Like, I took you to the body. Can you knock a few years off? Why not just be.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Hon, he's just so insane that he can't even come to terms with his own monstrousness.

[Patrick Hines]

Truth that always. Like, I'd love to talk to, like, an expert on this psychologically, to be like, no, this is why they're not. It's crazy.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. Like, he can't even say out loud the horrible thing that he did. What? It comes down to you.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah, that's it. But months later now, because, remember, she. It had been, like, over 10 months since she'd been missing.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Right?

[Patrick Hines]

So months after the fact, he goes back to the gravesite, removes. I'm sorry, everyone. Months later, he returns to that grave site, removes some bones as well as Tamika's skull, and takes that and disposes of it at another location, puts those other remains in a different location in a river. And so Elaine apparently had this exact vision the entire time.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

But I was like, elaine, you said in the beginning, you're not going to find her anywhere near water. So, like, I don't know.

[Patrick Hines]

Well, not. Yeah, I guess Elaine would say, well, he moves after the fact. Like, her vision was what happened that day.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Oh, I guess. I guess. I don't know why you believe in Elaine more than I do.

[Patrick Hines]

I just say what she told. I got my Colombo, my Columbo hat, my trench coat, and just thinking, if that's what she saw that day, I mean, she did call the cops that minute almost to the minute when they found her. Saying, like, right about the closet.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

No, I get it. I'm here for a psychic because there's.

[Patrick Hines]

Another connection as well.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

So Elaine has become friends with Tamika's family.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yes.

[Patrick Hines]

And she calls Aunt Rebecca, who's pregnant with twin boys. Nobody knew that Rebecca was pregnant. Only Rebecca, her husband, and their doctor. Like it. It was very early because Rebecca had had miscarriages in the past, so she wasn't saying anything. She was keeping it super private. Now Elaine calls Rebecca and she's like, hey, I have to tell you, I keep seeing visions of Tamika, and in these visions, she's holding these two blue bundles. I don't know what it means. Do you know what it means? And Rebecca's like, yeah, she's talking about my twin boys that nobody on earth knows about. We knew that they were boys, and. And we just didn't tell Anyone. Because we were. I don't know.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

We haven't told anybody that we're pregnant yet. Even so, I know we need to get a lane on more cases. Then fine. I' for Elaine, but we got to get her solving more crimes, you know? Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

So it's 2006. The killer goes on trial. It's two years after Tamika was murdered. It felt like it was going to be, you know, really tough couple of weeks in. In Spartanburg. But on the first day of trial, he ends up pleading guilty. I was shocked. I was shocked.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Are you guilty of the crime of murder?

[Patrick Hines]

Yes, sir. I don't know why he pled guilty. He wound up getting the exact same sentence that he would have gotten had he gone to trial and lost.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

He surprises everybody by pleading guilty. Nobody's expecting that. Like, he just. It seems like he doesn't want to go through a trial. He just wants to get it over with.

[Patrick Hines]

And I'm sure Tamika's family is, like, in some way, kind of thrill. I mean, he's in prison for life. He goes away forever.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

We know who did it. There's no mystery here.

[Patrick Hines]

They don't have to go through the trauma of a trial. Like, okay, but, like, why did he do. I don't believe the story about the money. Why did he do this?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

And that's what Rebecca keeps saying. That's what everyone keeps saying, is that the more details they got, the more they're like, this was just so fucking senseless. Like, this just. And we say. I feel like we're saying this more. More and more and more lately. Like, there's no answer. There's no reason. It's totally senseless.

[Patrick Hines]

And nobody knew who he was.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, the best.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

He was new. He was new in her life.

[Patrick Hines]

Like, best friend Zelda just met him and hated him.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And couldn't see what Tamika saw in him. And then the next day, she was killed. And, like, Aunt Rebecca didn't know about him. It's like, what was there? Did they just meet? I don't understand.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

He just seems very new. And it seems like something happened. They got into some kind of fight.

[Patrick Hines]

She probably said, I fucking hate you, you dirt bad. I know that You're a piece of shit.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah.

[Patrick Hines]

And he killed her.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I'd love to know if he. The other history of violence. You know what I mean? Except that we don't care about, like.

[Patrick Hines]

After eight years of still wondering why. Why did the woman get killed? Because she said no. Because men are gonna. Men, like, what the fuck? So you know, kind of ends with Eric Alexander, who is the actress who made the podcast. You said that this case touched you.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Like no other had.

[Patrick Hines]

Why?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Because I know how much black girls.

[Patrick Hines]

Don'T matter, and I want to always be a reflection of how much value that they had to me.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I mean, and she's so emotional when she says that, you know? And, like, I know that that is. I know. I know that that is real. It just really hit me the way that she said it.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Because she's a black woman with power. You know what I mean? Like, she's a famous actress. She's like. She's a black woman with power saying black girls don't matter, and it's like, fuck, fuck. That is so true. You know, And I. It's again, I cannot say enough. We just need more Tiffany's out there now. Of course we need more fucking white people to be campaigning, stories to be told. Of course. But we need more Tiffany's, too.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah. And that's what I'm saying. Like, for Deborah, our host, to be covering Natalee Holloway and not know about Tamika's case, like, that's where the unfairness comes, where it's like, it can't be the burden on them either, on these black women to tell these black stories. So, like. But this case actually led to the start of the Black and Missing Foundation. It's bam. Fee b a m f I dot org. You should donate. I did. So check that out if you want to. But, like, that's just some good. Some. A little bit of hope that came out of this case.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Yeah. You know, on the 20th anniversary of Tamika's murder, we see Aunt Becca and best friend Zelda getting together. And that was really the moment where I was like, oh, my God, this was 20 years ago.

[Patrick Hines]

They hadn't seen each other since.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

I know, I know.

[Patrick Hines]

And so they're, like, looking at photos and hugging, and it ends with footage of Tamika singing at Aunt Rebecca's wedding. And, you know, like, her sister's thinking about what could have been. And also, like, a plug for Finding Tamika. You can listen to Finding Tamika wherever you get your podcast.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Oh, good one, gp.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Okay. Oh, my God, girl. We did the girl that Looks like me from 2020. It was real. This was such a good one.

[Patrick Hines]

It was, yeah, really good. Very highly. The minute it came out. So, dear listeners who were in my DMs, thank you for sending it to me, fam.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

If you want more, GP and me. And who could blame you head on over to the Patreon. Don't forget, if you want the calendar, you've seen it every year. Tis the season. If you sign up at the hero belt here or you upgrade, you'll get it there. But if you just join us at the 5, you're going to get over 450 full attribute bonus episodes. We put all of the interviews we've been doing with subjects of the documentary there as well.

[Patrick Hines]

Yeah.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

So much stuff over there in the pace drag.

[Patrick Hines]

Bingo. So much fun. The whole thing is a party.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

What do we do? Next Girl.

[Patrick Hines]

Oh God. Worst X ever that series.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Worst X ever.

[Patrick Hines]

The second episode, it's called Betrayed by the Badge. Oh, the fucking double meaning of Betrayed by the Badge. I can't.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Oh my God. Really?

[Patrick Hines]

It is insane. The story is crazy.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

All right, well fam, stay tuned for the trailer for that. And we love you.

[Patrick Hines]

We love you. Stay safe out there, everyone.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

Stay safe.

[Patrick Hines]

Bye.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

All right, bye. Emotions, especially with exes, bring out the.

[Patrick Hines]

Absolute worst in people.

[Jillian Benzavalli]

This is 911. I've seen instances where X's kill each other.

[Patrick Hines]

Ma'am. Yeah, what incident happened?

[Jillian Benzavalli]

But as far as this elaborate plot was just gut wrenching.

[Patrick Hines]

Horrible, plain and simple.