John Jefferson
Nicholas Wayne Hamlett (Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee).
“I was running from a bear,” a 911 caller said, muffled, after an apparent fall at a waterfall. But authorities say he was actually a murderer staging a fatal fall. Yes, authorities found a body. It wasn’t him.
You can hear the audio below. In it, a 911 dispatcher from Polk County, Tennessee, transferred a call to her Monroe County counterpart on Oct. 18. Authorities have said that a hiker going by the name Brandon Andre claimed to have fallen off a cliff. In truth, investigators, say the caller was actually Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45.
The audio below shows pictures of Hamlett that deputies released during the search for him.
In this audio, the Polk County dispatcher told her counterpart, “He’s got two percent left on his cellphone. He fell off the cliff at some waterfalls. He fell on his head. He’s hurt pretty bad, said he can’t lift his legs.”
The Monroe County dispatcher ended up asking the caller (allegedly Hamlett) for more detail about his location.
“I’m at the waterfall,” he said in the audio.
The call pinged in the area of Charles Hall Bridge on the Cherahola Skyway in Tellico Plains, authorities said. First responders showed up, searched the area, and indeed found a dead man with the identification of Brandon Kristopher Andrade on his body.
But when law enforcement dug deeper, they learned that the victim was not Andrade, and that, in fact, the ID had been stolen and used multiple times elsewhere. They claim that Hamlett had been using the ID and was wanted in Alabama on a parole violation.
Investigators eventually identified the victim as Steven Douglas Lloyd, 34, seen below.
Steven Douglas Lloyd (Monroe County Sheriff’s Office).
Investigators claim that Hamlett made friends with Lloyd with the intent of killing him to steal his identity. Hamlett lured him out to the woods and concocted a scheme to cover up the killing, detectives said. He allegedly wanted to collect life insurance money from under Andrade’s name.
Authorities arrested Hamlett in South Carolina, crediting help from an eagle-eyed hospital worker who recognized him as a fugitive. His wife, Taylor Ann Fiber, is charged with helping him attempt to evade law enforcement.
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