In an alarming case of identity theft and murder, Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45, was arrested in Columbia, South Carolina, on Sunday, facing first-degree murder charges from Monroe County, Tennessee. Authorities described Hamlett’s crime as a plot to steal the identity of his victim.
The sequence of events began on October 18, when a 911 call, allegedly from a hiker named Brandon Andrade, reported a bear attack in Tellico Plains, Tennessee. When first responders arrived, they found the body of a man with Andrade’s identification. However, further investigation revealed that the dead man was not Andrade, but 34-year-old Steven Douglas Lloyd, who had mental health issues and was known to live on the streets.
Upon deeper scrutiny, it was uncovered that Hamlett had used Andrade’s ID, with investigators later confirming that the deceased was, in fact, Lloyd. Authorities also found that Hamlett had befriended Lloyd and lured him to a remote area where he killed him in order to steal his identity.
Hamlett, who was wanted for a parole violation in Alabama, was eventually tracked down by the FBI, who used his fingerprints to confirm his identity. He was taken into custody without incident, and authorities are continuing their investigation into the case.
The murder of Lloyd, a man who trusted Hamlett, has left his family devastated by the betrayal.