Tennessee investigators have issued a first degree murder warrant for a man they say killed a hiker, planted a fake identification on him, and then called 911 pretending to be the hiker, saying he’d fallen from a cliff while fleeing a bear.
The 911 call initially came in just after 11:30 p.m. on October 18 to Polk County in the southeastern corner of Tennessee but was transferred to Monroe County, just to the north of Polk, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. The caller identified himself as “Brandon Andrade” and said he was “injured and partially in the water.”
Emergency services pinged the call from the area of the Charles Hall Bridge on the Cherohola Skyway near Tellico Plains and set out with search and rescue to locate the distressed caller. They soon found a dead man with identification for “Brandon Kristopher Andrade.”
Last week, investigators determined that the dead man was not Brandon Andrade and that in fact that particular ID had been stolen and that it had been used by Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45, who was wanted in Alabama for a parole violation.
According to AL.com, Hamlett — who has used multiple false identities in the past — was arrested while using the name Joshua Jones in 2009 for hitting a man with a baseball bat and then burying him alive in rural Coosada. He was initially charged with attempted murder and kidnapping but pleaded guilty to a lesser offense in 2012 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Court records say he had four prior felony convictions. It’s not clear when he was released from prison on parole.
Hamlett reportedly has ties to Alabama, Montana, Tennessee, Alaska, Kentucky and Florida, AL.com said, as well as South Carolina, WYFF reported.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office has not yet identified the dead man or said how he died.
Hamlett is descibed as 5 feet 7 inches and 170 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes. His current whereabouts are unknown, and he “is considered dangerous and could be armed.”
