By Jonathan Mattise
Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A fugitive accused of killing a man in Tennessee and trying to pass off the body as someone else’s by calling 911, identifying himself as that person and saying he had fallen off a cliff while being chased by a bear has been captured in South Carolina, authorities said.
In a social media post Sunday, the Columbia Police Department said Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45, was recognized by an employee at a hospital in the South Carolina city. Authorities confirmed his identity with a fingerprint scanner and he’s in the temporary custody of the U.S. Marshals Service while awaiting extradition to Tennessee.
Authorities in Monroe County, Tennessee, and elsewhere had been looking for Hamlett since last month.
“After observing Hamlett at a local hospital, a good citizen alerted the authorities and brought this manhunt to a peaceful end,” Monroe County Sheriff Tommy Jones said in a social media post.
The sheriff’s office said last month that Hamlett called 911 on Oct. 18 claiming to have fallen off a cliff while running from a bear. Using the name Brandon Andrade, Hamlett claimed he was injured and partially in the water, authorities added.
When emergency responders searched the area near a highway bridge in Tellico Plains, where the call had come from, they found the body of a man with Andrade’s ID on it.
However, authorities determined that the man was not Andrade, whose ID had been stolen and used multiple times. The person using Andrade’s stolen identification was Hamlett, who was wanted in Alabama for a parole violation, the sheriff’s office said. Andrade was alive and well, authorities confirmed.
Forensics officials also determined that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, which isn’t consistent with a high fall or a bear attack, Jones said.
Hamlett likely fled his Tennessee home before police could verify his real identity, authorities said. That set off a manhunt for Hamlett, who was considered armed and dangerous. The U.S. Marshals Service had been offering a reward of up to $5,000 for help finding him.
On Oct. 31, law enforcement officers searched Chapin, South Carolina, with helicopters and police dogs after getting information that Hamlett was in the area, telling residents to lock their doors on Halloween night. He was spotted near a high school in the city the next day.
On Nov. 4, the Tennessee sheriff’s office identified the dead man as 34-year-old Steven Douglas Lloyd, of Knoxville. It said Hamlett had befriended Lloyd, then lured him into the woods to kill him and take his identity.
According to the sheriff, Lloyd’s family said he was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder and would leave home and live on the streets, but remained in touch with his family.
“Steven loved the outdoors and was so helpful when it came to others,” Jones wrote in a Nov. 4 social media post. “The family was shocked to learn that their beloved son’s life had been taken by someone that Steven trusted.”