On Thursday, September 18, 2025, a Hamilton County courtroom delivered a verdict that brought some closure to a chilling case in Chattanooga.
Gabriel Fitzgerald Boykins, 50, was sentenced to 45 years in state prison for the brutal murders of 40-year-old Tamara Church and her 8-year-old daughter, Aquarious Church.
The sentencing came just three months after a Hamilton County jury found him guilty on two counts of second-degree murder in June 2025.
The case began on May 19, 2020, when family members reported Tamara and her daughter missing.
Just one day earlier, Tamara’s recently purchased white 2004 Honda Odyssey was found burning along Lynnbrook Avenue in Chattanooga’s Ferger Place neighborhood.
Investigators quickly realized something was wrong, so they dug deeper.
Tamara’s cell phone showed no activity after May 17, and its last known signal traced near Greenwood Road.
This information eventually led authorities to a wooded area close to a cemetery, where on July 9, 2020, after a 51-day search, the bodies of Tamara and Aquarious were discovered.
The mother had signs of strangulation and blunt force trauma, while her daughter’s skull had been crushed.
Further investigation revealed more chilling details. In 2016, Tamara had taken her daughter, Aquarious, to the hospital after she reported that she was sexually assaulted.
When she was asked who the attacker was, the girl identified Boykins as the person responsible, as per Law&Crime
Despite his claims of innocence, investigators built a strong case against Boykins.
According to police, he had previously been in a relationship with Tamara and had a history of alleged abuse.
When detectives searched Boykins’ apartment on Foust Street, they uncovered what appeared to be a large pool of blood that had been cleaned up.
The unit looked abandoned, though Tamara was known to have stayed there, as per Chattanoogan.com
Surveillance footage from July 2020 also showed a man who looked like Boykins walking away from the burning car and heading toward his residence. He was eventually found and taken into custody.
When the police located him, he was with another of Tamara’s daughters in his care, and thankfully, that child was alive.
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| Gabriel Boykins |
Boykins was first arrested in 2020 and charged with two counts of homicide and abuse of a corpse.
However, the state’s first attempt to convict him in November 2024 ended with a hung jury, but in June 2025 prosecutors finally secured a conviction.
During the trial, the jury heard about the chilling details of the murders, the attempts to cover them up, and the devastating loss felt by Tamara’s surviving children and family.
Judge Amanda Dunn, later handed down a sentence 20 years for Tamara’s death and 25 years for Aquarious'. Both sentences are also meant to be served consecutively.
"Is there any greater cruelty than a child watching her mother be hurt or a mother watching her child be hurt? One of them watched the other die,” Judge Dunn said during the hearing, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press
With Boykins now serving his 45-year prison sentence, the Church family and the Chattanooga community finally see some measure of accountability.
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