Inset: Angel Marie Thompson (Troup County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The location where Nicole Alston’s body was found (WTVM).
A Georgia woman is accused of assuming the identity of her friend and stealing $200,000 of her benefits after the victim’s dismembered remains were found in a burning bag on the side of a road.
Angel Marie Thompson faces a charge of concealing the death of Nicole Alston, 24, authorities said in a news release.
The case began in early December 2007 when deputies with the Troup County Sheriff’s Office found remains at Whitfield and Stitcher roads in a smoldering black bag, the agency said. The hands, feet and head were missing.
Authorities thought the victim was killed somewhere else and disposed of in Troup County, said Sgt. Stewart Smith with the Troup County Sheriff’s Office told local Fox affiliate WAGA.
The remains went unidentified until early 2023 when investigators — reviewing cold cases — sent DNA from this case to forensics labs for analysis and genetic genealogy forensics. The results were sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab for comparison, and a match was made to Alston on Dec. 13, 2023.
Through the victim’s family, authorities learned that Alston and Thompson moved from New York to Atlanta in 2007 and Alston’s family last heard from her around Thanksgiving of that year, two weeks before her body was found. Investigators also learned that at the time they headed south, Thompson was wanted in New York for theft and identity fraud.
Officials said following Alston’s death, Thompson identified herself as Alston for eight years, collecting her benefits between 2007 — when Alston’s unidentified remains were found and 2015 — when the Social Security Administration contacted Alston/Thompson to come in to requalify for benefits, and Thompson resumed her original identity. Additional agencies in Georgia are probing the estimated $200,000 in fraud.
Troup County investigators, meanwhile, are continuing to investigate who killed Alston.
“At this time, we can’t really say 100% if this person was the killer or not,” Sgt. Stewart Smith with the Troup County Sheriff’s Office told local ABC affiliate WSB. “We don’t believe the actual homicide took place in Troup County. We believe it took place somewhere else, and it was just discarded there on the side of the road.”
Thompson was arrested on Aug. 19. Details about her status and next court appearance were not immediately available.
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