On May 18, 2001, in Phoenix, Arizona, 25-year-old Charles Findley was tragically murdered in his home on East Roberts Road. His girlfriend, Tanya Ramsdell, who was five months pregnant, was also killed. The person responsible for their deaths was an acquaintance, Tracy Allen Hampton, who had been living with the couple. The events that led to this violent outcome began two days earlier when officers from the Department of Public Safety visited the residence to serve a traffic ticket to
Hampton.
In Hampton's absence, Findley provided the officers with a photograph to help identify him. Hampton later found out about this and perceived it as a betrayal. On the morning of May 18th, after a period of methamphetamine use and an argument with Findley, Hampton returned to the house. He found Findley kneeling on the floor and fatally shot him in the forehead. Immediately after, Hampton went to the bedroom where Tanya Ramsdell was sleeping and shot her in the head as well.
Tracy Allen Hampton was arrested on May 31, 2001. While incarcerated and awaiting trial, he confessed the murders to a fellow inmate. His motives were rooted in his belief that Findley had acted as a 'rat' for cooperating with the police. His actions were also influenced by his white supremacist ideologies, as he was reportedly angered by the belief that Ramsdell's unborn child had a Black father. In 2002, Hampton was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Findley and Ramsdell, and one count of manslaughter for the death of the unborn child. He was subsequently sentenced to death.
