In the summer of 1984, a wave of terror swept across the Midwest, leaving a trail of grief and devastation. At the heart of this tragic story is Tamika Turks, a seven-year-old African American girl from Gary, Indiana. On June 18, 1984, young Tamika and her nine-year-old aunt, Annie, were walking to a candy store when their innocent outing turned into a nightmare.
They were approached by Alton Coleman and his accomplice, Debra Brown, who lured the two children into a wooded area with the false promise of playing a game.
Once they were isolated, the joyful pretense shattered, revealing a sinister reality. Coleman and Brown bound the two girls with strips torn from Tamika's own shirt. When Tamika began to cry, she was brutally stomped on. The assault on both children was vicious and depraved. While Annie miraculously survived the horrific ordeal, Tamika was not as fortunate. Her small body was discovered the following day, on June 19, 1984, in the same wooded area. The cause of her death was determined to be strangulation and blunt force trauma.
The murder of Tamika Turks was part of a wider, multi-state crime spree by Coleman and Brown that included multiple murders, rapes, and kidnappings. Their reign of terror prompted a massive manhunt, and they were eventually added to the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. The pair was finally apprehended in Evanston, Illinois, on July 20, 1984, bringing an end to their 53-day rampage.
Both Alton Coleman and Debra Brown faced numerous charges in multiple states for their heinous crimes. For the murder of Tamika Turks, Coleman was convicted and sentenced to death in Indiana. He was also sentenced to death in Ohio and Illinois for other murders and was ultimately executed in Ohio on April 26, 2002. Debra Brown was also convicted for her role in Tamika's murder and received a death sentence in Indiana. However, her sentence was later commuted to a 140-year prison term in 2018. Brown also had a death sentence in Ohio commuted to life in prison, partly due to her low IQ and what was described as a 'master-slave' relationship with Coleman. She remains incarcerated. The brutal and senseless death of Tamika Turks left an indelible scar on her family and the community of Gary, Indiana.
