A woman’s disappearance highlights the national media’s lack of attention to missing women of color

When Tamika Huston disappeared, a trail of evidence led South Carolina investigators to a years-long search for her. Their discoveries would bring to light a shocking murder and an unexpected killer, but Huston’s story would highlight the concerns of the families of missing women of color and the lack of national media attention to their cases.

“I was shocked because I have to tell you, I think I was very naive to what was going to happen here,” said Rebkah Howard, Huston’s aunt, who is also a public relations specialist, in a new “20/20” Interview about it “It fell on deaf ears.”

When 24-year-old Huston went missing in May 2004, her family was sure her case would attract national media attention. Stories about missing white women like Lori Hacking or Laci Peterson dominated the news cycle, but not those of women of color like Huston.

A new “20/20,” airing Friday, Sept. 27, on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu, features new interviews with Huston’s relatives and investigators who worked the case.

Howard recalled the day she reported her niece missing after realizing neither she nor Huston’s mother, Gabby, had heard from her. Howard notified Spartanburg police, who quickly dispatched to Huston’s apartment.

Police found nothing unusual outside the house. Huston’s car was missing and officers initially assumed Huston had gone on a trip. But a closer look by investigators revealed a more disturbing scene.

Huston’s beloved dog Macy had given birth to a litter of puppies, most of which had died in the empty house. Macy was found emaciated and struggling to survive. Their water and food bowls were empty. Police noted that the dog had drunk all of the water from the toilet, which they said indicated Tamika had been missing for an extended period of time.

Huston’s ex-boyfriend Terence Moss, who came forward to offer his assistance in the investigation, became the first person targeted by police.

“You are only afraid of the police if you have done something wrong. I didn’t do anything wrong,” Moss told “20/20” co-host Deborah Roberts. “I told them everything.”

The police eventually cleared Moss of suspicion.

About a week after she was reported missing, Huston’s car was found abandoned at an apartment complex.

“It was a stressful moment … we were stuck for a while,” Spartanburg Police Maj. Steve Lamb, who oversaw the investigation into Huston’s disappearance, said of the lack of significant forensic evidence from the car.

However, a piece of evidence found in her car would unlock a treasure trove of clues: a set of keys – keys that investigators said did not match Huston’s car or house, or even belonged to her. One key had the mysterious engraving “AA14”. Luckily, a locksmith who worked in the city for decades was able to replicate the unique engraving.

“It was a code that he realized he had created,” Lamb said. “It was his own little coding system, so he knew he had made that key.”

The key belonged to the Freemont School Apartments and police were eventually able to trace the key to an apartment previously occupied by Christopher Hampton.

Huston’s family told investigators they didn’t know anyone by that name.

Zelda Teamer, Huston’s best friend, remembered meeting Hampton once. She said Huston brought Hampton with him on a casual visit to her home in 2004.

“He was kind of distant,” Teamer told “20/20” about the encounter. “I ask myself, ‘Where does he come from?’ She said, ‘Oh, he’s just my friend.'”

This encounter was the last time Teamer saw her friend alive.

Investigators learned that Huston had recently started dating Hampton before she went missing. At the time of her disappearance, Hampton was on probation for a bank robbery.

Authorities questioned Hampton in December 2004, when he denied knowledge of Huston’s whereabouts or the circumstances of her disappearance.

In January 2005, Spartanburg police conducted a search of Hampton’s old apartment at Freemont School.

Blood stains doused with cleaning products were found on the bedroom carpet. The blood was tested and showed a positive match for Huston.

“Investigators found a really big bleach stain, Latin for ‘I’m covering something up,'” said Trey Gowdy, the Spartanburg attorney at the time.

Nearly a year after her disappearance, her case was featured on the crime series “America’s Most Wanted,” thanks largely to the persistence of Howard and journalist Tiffany D. Cross, then a young AMW producer who was drawn to the case , because that’s what Tamika looked like to her.

“In the early 2000s, there were a lot of missing white women who were getting an inordinate amount of attention, and it was very frustrating to be a Black woman working in newsrooms,” Cross told “20/20” about the disparity in newsrooms Missing Persons Reporting. “With the number of missing black people, that didn’t work.”

National media attention prompted an anonymous 15-year-old caller to speak out when she was in Hampton’s apartment and noticed a suspicious stain on the floor and a dresser blocking a closet door.

In June 2005, police also received a crucial piece of evidence from Hampton’s ex-girlfriend and the mother of his child. She said Hampton sent her his wallet for safekeeping when he was sent back to prison for a probation violation related to a previous bank robbery conviction. The ex-girlfriend said she found a photo with a blood stain in Hampton’s wallet and turned it in to police. Tests showed the blood was a positive match for Huston.

With authorities poised to charge him with murder, Hampton eventually revealed to police what he believed happened to Huston. He told investigators that the two had gotten into a heated argument over money when he lashed out at her and hit her in the head with an iron. He put her body in his closet, locked it and barricaded it with a bedroom dresser. Hampton would then bury Huston in a shallow grave early the next morning.

In August 2005, Hampton led authorities to Huston’s gravesite, a wooded area on Tyger River Drive in Duncan, South Carolina.

“When we found out, it was just me and my dad,” Huston’s younger sister Antonia told 20/20. “I just remember him screaming loudly and then I knew my sister was never coming back.”

Hampton pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison. He is currently incarcerated at the Tyger River Correctional Facility in South Carolina.

Huston’s death and the lack of national media coverage of her disappearance led to the creation of the Black and Missing Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness for missing people of color. Howard joined the organization’s board of directors to continue her involvement in her niece’s memory.

Actress and activist Erika Alexander, best known for her starring role in the 1990s sitcom “Living Single,” created “Finding Tamika,” an award-winning audio series highlighting the case. She told “20/20” that because of Huston’s story, “we’re looking for black and brown girls.”

“I know how unimportant black girls are,” Alexander said, “and I always want to show how much value they had to me…so of course she was important to me.”

To this day, those who knew and loved Huston say it is difficult to get stories about women of color known.

“After all this, 20 years have passed. It means a lot that people still care about her and use her story to think about the larger issue,” Howard said. “I’m grateful that people are still interested in and attracted to Tamika. She was an incredible young woman.”

Denise Martinez-Ramundo, Joseph Diaz and Brian Mezerski contributed to this report.