NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A fugitive accused of killing a man in Tennessee and attempting 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 say. said.
In a social media post Sunday, Columbia police said 45-year-old Nicholas Wayne Hamlett was recognized by an employee at a hospital in the South Carolina city. Authorities confirmed his identity with a fingerprint scanner and he is in temporary custody of the US Marshals Service pending extradition to Tennessee.
Authorities in Monroe County, Tennessee and elsewhere had been searching for Hamlett since last month.
“After observing Hamlett at a local hospital, a good citizen alerted 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 he had fallen off a cliff while running from a bear. Hamlett used the name Brandon Andrade and claimed he was injured and partially in the water, authorities added.
When responders searched the area near a highway bridge in Tellico Plains, where the call originated, 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 several times. The person who used 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.
Forensic officials also determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, which is not consistent with a high fall or a bear attack, Jones said.
Hamlett likely fled his home in Tennessee before police could verify his real identity, authorities said. That sparked a manhunt for Hamlett, who was considered armed and dangerous. The US Marshals Service had offered a reward of up to $5,000 for help finding him.
On October 31, law enforcement officers searched Chapin, South Carolina, with helicopters and police dogs after receiving information that Hamlett was in the area. They told residents to lock their doors on Halloween night. The next day he was seen near a high school in the city.
On November 4, the Tennessee Sheriff’s Office identified the dead man as 34-year-old Steven Douglas Lloyd of Knoxville. It said that Hamlett had befriended Lloyd and then lured him into the woods to kill him and take his identity.
According to the sheriff, Lloyd’s family said he had been diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder and was expected to leave home and live on the streets, but remained in contact 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 hear that their beloved son’s life had been taken by someone Steven trusted.”