Detectives said the first report did not match what officers and medical examiners later found.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A predawn emergency call from east Charlotte led police to a dead 19-year-old woman, a searched apartment and charges of murder and rape against her boyfriend.
The first public facts in the case were narrow: an unresponsive woman, an apartment on the 6600 block of Yateswood Drive and a death at the scene. Within days, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said the case had become a homicide investigation. The woman was identified as Isabella Mary Alexandria Stroupe. The suspect was identified as Thomaz Kenon Hamilton, 24, who police said was later arrested without incident and charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape.
The timeline began around 3:30 a.m. May 1 in the Hickory Grove area. According to court records described by investigators, Hamilton contacted authorities from a QuikTrip gas station and said Stroupe had stopped breathing at his nearby apartment. Officers, Charlotte Fire and MEDIC responded to Yateswood Drive. Inside the apartment, first responders found Stroupe on a bed and pronounced her dead. Police said homicide detectives and Crime Scene Search personnel were called to investigate. That early response set the frame for the case: a death reported as a medical emergency, but handled by police as a scene that required evidence collection, interviews and review by the medical examiner.
What investigators found inside the apartment soon became central to the allegations. Police records described by news accounts said Stroupe had minimal clothing and was bound with tow straps. Investigators reported visible injuries. A search found a bloodied knife wrapped in cellophane, a baseball bat, a sword, a bloodied mattress and bloodied clothing, according to the affidavit. Broken cellphones were also described in accounts of the records. Police have not released photos from inside the apartment, a complete inventory of seized items or lab results tied to the search. Still, the items listed in court records helped support warrants that came after the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.
Hamilton told detectives that Stroupe had a heart attack while the two were having sex, investigators said. The autopsy findings raised a different picture. Police said the medical examiner found stab wounds and multiple fractured bones. The affidavit described by investigators said Stroupe had been tortured over several months and would have been physically unable to consent to sex. Those findings are the basis for the most serious parts of the case, including the rape charge. Authorities have not said whether the alleged torture was documented through older injuries, healing fractures, statements, forensic evidence or some combination of findings. They also have not released Stroupe’s official cause of death in full detail.
The investigation moved publicly on May 5, when CMPD announced that detectives had identified Hamilton as a suspect and obtained warrants for his arrest. The department said members of the Violent Criminal Apprehension Team located him that day and took him into custody without incident. He was brought to the Law Enforcement Center for an interview with homicide detectives, then transferred to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office. Police listed the charges as first-degree murder and first-degree rape. The department said Stroupe’s next of kin had been notified. The release also said the investigation remained active and ongoing, meaning more evidence and court filings could follow.
The case is now in the legal stage, where police findings must be tested in court. First-degree murder is the most serious homicide charge in North Carolina, and first-degree rape is a felony charge that can carry severe punishment. Police have not announced a plea from Hamilton, and available public reports did not show whether a defense attorney had issued a statement. Hamilton was reported held without bond at the Mecklenburg County Jail. His next court date was listed for May 27. Prosecutors will decide what evidence to present, whether to seek additional court orders and how to move the case through hearings before any possible trial.
Stroupe’s family has spoken publicly through a fundraising page that described the shock of her death and the cost of funeral arrangements. Her sister, Marleigh Bailey, wrote that Stroupe loved reading, fan fiction and My Little Pony. Bailey called her sister a “total bookworm” and said the loss left a large hole in the family. The family’s words added personal detail to a case that police have described mostly through dates, charges and evidence. They also placed Stroupe’s age at the center of the story. She was 19 when she died, and police have not released any public record showing how long the relationship with Hamilton had lasted.
The location remains part of the investigation. The 6600 block of Yateswood Drive is near Albemarle Road, a busy east Charlotte corridor with apartment communities and commercial stops. Police have not said whether any neighbors, employees at the gas station or other witnesses gave statements. They also have not said whether surveillance video was collected from nearby businesses or the apartment area. Those details could become part of later court records if prosecutors use them to build a sequence of events. For now, the official timeline moves from the gas station report, to the apartment discovery, to the medical examiner’s homicide ruling, to the May 5 arrest.
The next known step was the May 27 court date in Mecklenburg County. As of May 26, the police case remained open and Hamilton remained charged, not convicted.
Author note: Last updated May 26, 2026.