‘Distressed’ 911 caller told police he fell off a cliff during a bear attack. Now he’s wanted for murder.
A Tennessee man called police saying he’d fallen off a cliff while a bear was chasing him. However, law enforcement is now saying the 911 caller murdered a hiker and then attempted to stage the victim’s death as a bear attack.
A man called 911 dispatch at 11:34 p.m. Oct. 18 to inform authorities that he was “injured and partially in water,” according to a news release from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
A manhunt is under way for Hamlett, and police said he should be considered armed and dangerous.
The “distressed hiker” told police he had fallen off a cliff while running away from a bear. The hiker told law enforcement that his name was Brandon Andrade. The call was pinged in the area of the Charles Hall Bridge on the Cherohala Skyway in Tellico Plains — a small mountain town in east Tennessee.
When first responders arrived, they searched the area and discovered a bloody corpse at the bottom of a cliff. The dead man had Brandon Andrade’s identification.
But law enforcement determined that the victim was not Andrade. Investigators said the ID had been stolen and used multiple times.
Detectives with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division and the Monroe County Violent Crimes Unit identified Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45, as the suspect who had been using Andrade’s stolen identification.
“Mr. Hamlett had used a false name when speaking with law enforcement in Knox County, TN after the distressed hiker call. Before his real identity had been verified, Mr. Hamlett is believed to have fled from his Tennessee residence,” the sheriff’s office said.
Investigators said the man who was found dead at the bottom of the cliff was murdered. Police did not identify him; they referred to him as John Doe.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Hamlett for first-degree murder. A manhunt is under way for Hamlett, and police said he should be considered armed and dangerous.
Hamlett is 5’7″ tall, weighs 170 pounds, and has brown hair and blue eyes.
Authorities said if you see Hamlett, call 911 or Monroe County Dispatch at 423-442-4357.
Apparently, this isn’t the first time Hamlett has been accused of an incident like this.
In 2009, Hamlett was accused of holding a man at gunpoint, trying to hit him with a baseball bat, and attempting to bury him alive, according to AL.com. He was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping before pleading to a lesser offense of felony assault. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his crimes in 2012. In that case, Hamlett used the alias Joshua Jones. Hamlett also was wanted in Alabama on a parole violation.
As Blaze News reported earlier this month, a Montana father was so brutally mangled to death while camping that his friends thought he was mauled in a bear attack. However, detectives said the “loving” dad was not killed by a bear – but rather he was the victim of a grisly homicide.
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