Steven Douglas Lloyd (34), allegedly murdered by Nicholas Hamlett (45), and the death was initially blamed on a bear attack

[Bewitchingstorm]

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. − A manhunt was underway Monday for a slaying suspect who police say used a bogus identity when he made a bizarre 911 call claiming he fell off a cliff while running from a bear near the scenic Cherohala Skyway in rural southeast Tennessee.

The call came in on Oct. 18 from near Tellico Plains, Tennessee, about 50 miles southwest of Knoxville in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. The caller identified himself as Brandon Andrade and said he hit his head and could not move his legs. Monroe County Sheriff Tommy Jones said first responders descending on the scene found a man's body and Andrade's ID.

Detectives determined the victim was not Andrade and had been murdered, Jones said. Ten days later the identity of the victim remains a mystery.

Sheriff's detectives discovered the ID had been stolen and used several times by Nicholas Hamlett, 45, who was wanted by police in Alabama for a parole violation. Jones said Hamlett used another false name when speaking with detectives after the 911 call. By the time his real identity had been verified, Hamlett had fled the area.

An arrest warrant charging first-degree murder has been issued for Hamlett, Jones said in a news release issued Friday.

The FBI, state and local authorities are now looking for Hamlett − and for the identity of the victim. The sheriff's office said Monday that there were no updates on the case and that a briefing was planned for Wednesday.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...e/75892344007/

[Nic B]

So who is Brandon Andrade? I am so confused.

[raisedbywolves]

So Nicholas seems nice.

https://www.al.com/crime/2024/10/ala...ee-murder.html

Detectives with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the county’s Violent Crime Task Force viewed the scene and determined that the body did not match Andrade’s ID.

Authorities learned that Andrade’s identification had been stolen and used on multiple occasions by Hamlett.

Hamlett was previously arrested in 2009 in connection to an incident in Elmore County in which he held a Prattville man by gunpoint and attempted to strike him with a baseball bat before buying him in rural Coosada, according to court records.

Hamlett, according to the original reports of the incident, was using the name Joshua Jones when he reached out to the victim so “he could get some insurance.”

Hamlett was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping before pleading to a lesser offense of felony assault in 2012 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. According to court records, he had four prior felony convictions.

I wonder why he called the police at all? It sounds like they might not have found the body ever or for a long time, and then might not have been able to tie it to him if he hadn't made the call.

[Bewitchingstorm]

I wonder why he called the police at all? It sounds like they might not have found the body ever or for a long time, and then might not have been able to tie it to him if he hadn't made the call.

I wonder if he needed the insurance money or something? I mean, none of this makes any sense.

[Bewitchingstorm]

A man accused of killing a person and staging it as a fatal bear attack in Tennessee was taken into custody in South Carolina over the weekend on murder charges, in what authorities described as a plot to steal the victim’s identity.

Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45, was detained without incident on Sunday in Columbia, South Carolina, after being recognized at a local hospital.

The FBI was able to use Hamlett’s fingerprints to verify his identity, authorities said.

The incident began on October 18 when a man who identified himself as Brandon Andrade called 911 pretending to be a distressed hiker who’d fallen off a cliff while running from a bear.

When first responders arrived at the scene, they found a dead man with identification belonging to Andrade.

But investigators determined the body was not Andrade and that Andrade’s ID had been stolen and used on multiple occasions.

The dead man was ultimately identified as Steven Douglas Lloyd, 34, of Knoxville, Tennessee. He had a mental health disorder and “was known to leave home and live on the streets,” the sheriff’s office said.

According to the sheriff’s office, Hamlett had befriended Lloyd and “lured him into a wooded area to take Steven’s life and his identity.”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/11/us/be...der/index.html