Bio

Wayne Tompkins was born on March 12, 1957. He grew up in a troubled environment, facing many challenges in his early life. As a child, he struggled with issues that affected his family, including instability and loss. His father, Thurman, was fatally shot in a robbery during the 1980s while he was working at a gas station. This tragedy deeply impacted Tompkins and his family.

In the early 1980s, Tompkins became involved with a woman named Barbara Wallace. They lived together, and he played a role in her family, including being around her children. One of these children was 15-year-old Lisa Lea DeCarr, Barbara's daughter. Tompkins and Lisa did not have a typical stepfather-stepdaughter relationship; rather, he was in a position of authority as her mother's boyfriend.

In March 1983, on the day Lisa disappeared, Tompkins had been living with Barbara and her children. While Barbara was busy packing at her mother's house, Tompkins frequently went home to retrieve items needed for the move. When he returned later that day, he claimed that Lisa had run away. His story raised suspicion, especially in light of the close bond he had with the family.

After Lisa's disappearance, investigators would later discover troubling details about Tompkins’ behavior. Despite all these complexities from his early life and relationships, it is clear that Tompkins’ actions and choices in the years that followed would shape his fate and that of Lisa. This narrative sets the stage for the events that unfolded in the subsequent years, leading to his arrest and trial.

Murder Story

On March 24, 1983, Lisa Lea DeCarr, a 15-year-old girl, disappeared from her home in Tampa, Florida. Wayne Tompkins, who was living with Lisa's mother, was the last person to see her. On that day, he went back and forth from his mother's house to help her pack while keeping watch over Lisa. When Lisa's mother returned home, Tompkins claimed that Lisa had run away. He told her that the last time he saw Lisa, she was wearing jeans and a blouse, not the pink bathrobe she had on earlier.

Several months later, in June 1984, police discovered Lisa's decomposed body buried beneath the house where she lived with her mother and Tompkins. Her remains were identified through dental records, and the medical examiner determined that she had died from strangulation. Evidence suggested that a sash from her bathrobe was used in the strangulation.

While Tompkins was in jail on separate charges, he confided to a fellow inmate that he had strangled Lisa after she fought off his sexual advances. Another key witness, a friend of Lisa's, testified that she had seen Tompkins on top of Lisa, attempting to remove her clothing, just before Lisa's disappearance.

Tompkins was arrested on September 14, 1984, and later charged with first-degree murder. After a trial, he was convicted and sentenced to death on September 19, 1985. Multiple appeals followed, but the Florida Supreme Court consistently upheld his conviction and sentence.

Tompkins' legal journey included numerous appeals and requests for post-conviction relief. Despite claims of ineffective counsel and efforts to obtain new evidence, the courts found that the evidence against him was overwhelming. On February 11, 2009, after the exhausting legal process and multiple attempts to delay his execution, Tompkins was executed by lethal injection in Florida.