A person accused of killing an individual and staging it as a deadly bear assault in Tennessee was taken into custody in South Carolina over the weekend on homicide fees, in what authorities described as a plot to steal the sufferer’s identification.
Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45, was detained with out incident on Sunday in Columbia, S.C., after being acknowledged at an area hospital, in keeping with the sheriff’s workplace in Monroe County, Tenn.
The FBI was ready to make use of Hamlett’s fingerprints to confirm his identification, authorities stated.
Hamlett has pending fees for first-degree homicide out of Monroe County, Tenn., and a parole violation out of Alabama, the sheriff’s workplace stated in a press release. It’s unclear if he has retained an lawyer.
The incident started on Oct. 18 when a person who recognized himself as Brandon Andrade known as 911 pretending to be a distressed hiker who’d fallen off a cliff whereas working from a bear on the Cherohala Skyway in Tellico Plains, Tennessee.
When first responders arrived on the scene, they discovered a useless man with identification belonging to Andrade.
However investigators decided the physique was not Andrade and that Andrade’s ID had been stolen and used on a number of events, authorities stated. Investigators additionally found Hamlett had been utilizing Andrade’s identification and that he was needed in Alabama on a parole violation, the sheriff’s workplace stated.
The useless man was finally recognized as Steven Douglas Lloyd, 34, of Knoxville, Tenn. He had a psychological well being dysfunction and “was recognized to go away house and reside on the streets,” the sheriff’s workplace stated.
In accordance with the sheriff’s workplace, Hamlett had befriended Lloyd and “lured him right into a wooded space to take Steven’s life and his identification.”
“The household was shocked to be taught that their beloved son’s life had been taken by somebody that Steven trusted,” the workplace added.
