Isabella Stroupe Found Bound and Tortured in Yateswood Drive Apartment
A 24-year-old Charlotte man is behind bars after police say he spent months torturing his 19-year-old girlfriend before raping and murdering her in a domestic violence nightmare that ended with her body found bound and battered inside their Yateswood Drive apartment.
Thomaz Kenlon Hamilton, 24, of Yateswood Drive, faces first-degree murder and first-degree rape charges in the May 1, 2026 slaying of Isabella Mary Alexandria Stroupe, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department affidavit.
Hamilton called 911 from a nearby QT gas station on Albemarle Road around 3:35 a.m. claiming his girlfriend had stopped breathing at their shared apartment. When officers and medics arrived, they found Stroupe — who had just turned 19 in October — dead inside the residence.
She was wearing minimal clothing and was bound with a tow strap, the affidavit states. Investigators documented multiple injuries, blood-soaked clothing, a bloody mattress, a knife wrapped in cellophane with suspected blood, a baseball bat, a sword, and several damaged cell phones.
An autopsy revealed broken and fractured bones, stab wounds, and evidence that Stroupe had been tortured over a period of several months. Detectives were told the young victim “would have been physically unable to provide consent for vaginal sexual intercourse.”
ISABELLA STROUPE
During a voluntary interview with homicide detectives, Hamilton advised that he was in a dating relationship and lived with Stroupe. He claimed that during the incident he was using his penis to have vaginal intercourse with her when she suddenly suffered a suspected heart attack. He insisted no one else was in the apartment.
Investigators say the evidence tells a far different story.
Hamilton was formally charged on Tuesday, May 5, 2026. He is currently in jail.
