U.S. man accused of staging bear attack after murdering friend

A man accused of killing a person and staging it as a fatal bear attack in Tennessee was taken into custody in South Carolina over the weekend on murder charges, in what authorities described as a plot to steal the victim’s identity.

Nicholas Wayne Hamlett, 45, was detained without incident on Sunday in Columbia, South Carolina, after being recognized at a local hospital, according to the sheriff’s office in Monroe County, Tennessee.

The FBI was able to use Hamlett’s fingerprints to verify his identity, authorities said.

Hamlett has pending charges for first-degree murder out of Monroe County, Tennessee, and a parole violation out of Alabama, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. It’s unclear if he has retained an attorney.

The incident began on October 18 when a man who identified himself as Brandon Andrade called 911 pretending to be a distressed hiker who’d fallen off a cliff while running from a bear on the Cherohala Skyway in Tellico Plains, Tennessee.

When first responders arrived at the scene, they found a dead man with identification belonging to Andrade.

But investigators determined the body was not Andrade and that Andrade’s ID had been stolen and used on multiple occasions, authorities said. Investigators also discovered Hamlett had been using Andrade’s identification and that he was wanted in Alabama on a parole violation, the sheriff’s office said.

The dead man was ultimately identified as Steven Douglas Lloyd, 34, of Knoxville, Tennessee. He had a mental health disorder and “was known to leave home and live on the streets,” the sheriff’s office said.

According to the sheriff’s office, Hamlett had befriended Lloyd and “lured him into a wooded area to take Steven’s life and his identity.”

“The family was shocked to learn that their beloved son’s life had been taken by someone that Steven trusted,” the office added.