Nicholas Hamlett, seen on these photographs from his wished poster, was the topic of a weekslong manhunt following the Oct. 18 homicide of Steven Lloyd. Authorities say Hamlett befriended Lloyd and lured him right into a wooded space in Tennessee, killing him in an tried id theft plot.
Monroe County Tennessee Sheriff’s Workplace
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Monroe County Tennessee Sheriff’s Workplace
In mid-October, a person referred to as police in jap Tennessee claiming a bear had chased him off a cliff. However authorities arrived on the scene to search out the physique of a unique man, sparking a multistate manhunt for the caller that ended along with his arrest on homicide costs this weekend.
Authorities say Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45, befriended and lured his sufferer right into a wooded space to take each his life and id. Hamlett, who was utilizing an alias on the time, has a prolonged felony historical past and was already wished in Alabama for parole violation.
After the October incident, one other warrant was issued for Hamlett’s arrest on first-degree homicide costs in Monroe County, Tenn.
State and federal authorities warned that Hamlett, whom they thought-about harmful and probably armed, was identified to journey underneath aliases. They urged Hamlett to show himself in, and requested the general public for assist: The U.S. Marshals Service supplied as much as $5,000 for info resulting in his arrest.
After many weeks of looking — and one Halloween evening recognizing — Hamlett was taken into custody in Columbia, S.C. on Sunday.
“After observing Hamlett at an area hospital, a superb citizen alerted the authorities and introduced this manhunt to a peaceable finish,” Monroe County Sheriff Tommy Jones said in a release.
Columbia police say a hospital worker recognized Hamlett and alerted authorities, who verified his id utilizing fingerprints. They are saying preparations are being made with Tennessee authorities to extradite Hamlett to Monroe County.
What occurred within the woods?
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Workplace says a distressed hiker called 911 shortly earlier than midnight on Oct. 18 “claiming to be a Mr. Brandon Andrade.”
“He suggested the dispatcher that he had fallen off a cliff whereas operating from a bear,” it stated, including that the decision got here from close to a bridge on the Cherohala Skyway — a 43-mile nationwide scenic byway — in Tellico Plains. “The distressed caller claimed that he was injured and partially within the water.”
In line with the dispatch call obtained by the Knoxville Information Sentinel, the male topic had “hit his head,” was “unable to maneuver” and his cellphone solely had “2% battery — unable to get him again on 911.”
Search and rescue groups rushed to the world and located a person’s physique “with an identification of Mr. Brandon Kristopher Andrade on his individuals.” He was transported to the forensic heart whereas investigators combed the scene.
After additional investigation, detectives decided that the deceased man was not Brandon Andrade. The truth is, they stated, that identification had been “stolen and used on a number of events” — on this case, as they shortly found, by Hamlett.
“Mr. Hamlett had used a false title when talking with regulation enforcement in Knox County, TN after the distressed hiker name,” the sheriff’s workplace defined. “Earlier than his actual id had been verified, Mr. Hamlett is believed to have fled from his Tennessee residence.”
That set off a multi-agency investigation — by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, FBI and others — to find Hamlett and establish the sufferer.
Who was concerned?
On Nov. 4, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Workplace introduced it had identified the victim as 34-year-old Steven Douglas Lloyd of Knoxville, Tenn.
It stated Lloyd, a foster baby who had been adopted by a “nice loving household,” suffered from belief points and psychological well being points together with reactive attachment dysfunction.
“Steven was identified to go away house and stay on the streets, however saved in touch along with his household,” the sheriff’s workplace stated. “Steven cherished the outside and was so useful when it got here to others. The household was shocked to study that their beloved son’s life was taken by somebody that Steven trusted.”
Authorities didn’t specify how lengthy the 2 males had identified one another, however stated Hamlett “met Steven, befriended him and lured him right into a wooded space to take Steven’s life and his id.”
Officers stated at an Oct. 30 press conference that Lloyd’s reason behind dying was blunt pressure trauma to the pinnacle, including that his accidents had been “not in line with a bear assault” or “a fall from a really excessive elevated cliff.”
Additionally they stated his killing was “not an remoted incident by any means,” given Hamlett’s violent felony historical past.
Hamlett was arrested in Alabama in 2009 over an incident during which he held a person at gunpoint and tried to hit him with a baseball bat, with plans to ultimately bury his physique in a rural space, AL.com reports.
Citing court docket information, the location says Hamlett was going by the title Joshua Jones when he approached the sufferer so “he might get some insurance coverage.” Hamlett, who had 4 prior felony convictions, was charged with tried homicide and kidnapping however in the end pleaded to the lesser offense of felony assault.
Hamlett was sentenced to twenty years in jail in 2012 and paroled in July 2016.
The place did Hamlett go?
Within the weeks after Lloyd’s dying, authorities urged the general public to be looking out and for Hamlett to show himself in.
“Let’s finish this peacefully. Flip your self in. Have your day in court docket,” Joseph Carrico, the particular agent in control of the FBI’s Nashville subject workplace, stated on the press convention. “We are going to discover you, irrespective of the place you disguise.”
Authorities warned that Hamlett has ties to Tennessee, Montana, Alaska, Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida, suggesting he had fled to a different state.
Their hunch proved right.
On Halloween evening, police in Chapin, S.C., — the place Hamlett apparently has household — stated he was reported to be in the area and urged trick-or-treaters to be further vigilant. They confirmed that he was noticed close to the native highschool within the early morning of Nov. 1 and that state and federal authorities had been looking the world.
Their efforts had been unsuccessful. The next Friday, every week after the sighting, police stated Hamlett was not believed to be on the town.
Two days later, he was noticed on the hospital in Columbia, about 25 miles away.
Officers with Carolina’s Area Fugitive Job Pressure stated a dehydrated Hamlett had checked into the hospital as a John Doe, ABC affiliate WPDE reports. That is the place police say an worker acknowledged him from a wished poster.
“The sharing of Hamlett’s wished poster led the general public, whom is our most precious useful resource, to behave as our eyes and ears,” Jones stated.