A man accused of murder after a 911 call about a fake bear attack in the mountains of Tennessee led authorities to a dead man last month has been found and arrested, police said Sunday.
The arrest of Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45, in Columbia, South Carolina, ends a manhunt that was launched after the call late Oct. 18 to 911 dispatchers in Monroe County.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said it was informed Sunday that Hamlett, who had been sought on a first-degree murder warrant, was found and arrested in South Carolina.
“The sharing of Hamlett’s wanted poster led the public, whom is our most valuable resource, to act as our eyes and ears,” Monroe County Sheriff Tommy J. Jones II said in a statement.
The case began when a man claiming to be Brandon Andrade called 911 and claimed that was injured after he was chased by a bear and fell off a cliff, authorities have said.
The call was pinged in the area of the Charles Hall Bridge on the Cherahola Skyway in Tellico Plains, a small mountain town in Tennessee with a population of about 800 people.
A body was found, with an ID of Brandon Kristopher Andrade — but it wasn’t him, and Andrade’s identity had been stolen and used multiple times, the sheriff’s office said.
The person also was not killed by a bear, officials said.
“Once detectives laid eyes on the body, the injuries that the deceased had was not consistent with a bear attack, was not consistent with a fall,” Jones said at a news conference last month. The cause of death was found to be blunt-force trauma to the head, he said.
“It was very easy to rule out,” Jones said.
A first-degree murder warrant was obtained against Hamlett after investigators determined that Hamlett, who was wanted on a parole violation out of Alabama, had been using the stolen identification before the body was found.
The dead man was later identified as Steven Douglas Lloyd, 34, who authorities have said Hamlett befriended during the summer, NBC affiliate WBIR of Knoxville reported.
Hamlett was arrested in South Carolina after a hospital employee recognized him and alerted authorities, Columbia police said. Fingerprints confirmed his identity, police said.
Hamlett was in custody Sunday and arrangements were being made to extradite him to Tennessee, Columbia police said.
It was not clear whether Hamlett had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. His case did not appear to be available online on Monroe County court records Monday.
