Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Tennessee reported Friday that Nicholas Wayne Hamlett is accused of staging his own death by posing as “distressed hiker” Brandon Andrade during a 911 call on October 18.
According to the sheriff’s office, the caller claimed to have been hurt and half submerged in water after falling off a cliff while escaping a bear.
The call was placed to Tellico Plains, a tiny mountain community in Tennessee with a population of about 2,000, near the Charles Hall Bridge on the Cherohala Skyway.
A “deceased male” with a “identification of Mr. Brandon Kristopher Andrade on his person” was discovered by search and rescue and emergency personnel when they arrived on the scene, according to the sheriff’s office.
Investigators eventually discovered, however, that the deceased individual was not Mr. Andrade but rather that the identification had been stolen and used several times.
The ID was later discovered to have been used by Hamlett, who is wanted in Alabama for parole violations.
