A 45-year-old man who was arrested more than 15 years ago in Elmore County for attempting to bury a man is wanted by Tennessee officials regarding a homicide investigation.
Nicholas Wayne Hamlett is wanted for first-degree murder and is considered armed and dangerous, according to an alert issued Friday by Monroe County, Tennessee, Sheriff Tommy Jones.
He has ties to Alabama, Montana, Tennessee, Alaska, Kentucky and Florida, and is previously charged and wanted for a parole violation in Alabama, according to authorities in Tennessee.
Hamlett uses multiple aliases and is said to be 5-foot, 7-inches tall and 170 pounds. Authorities said Hamlett’s location is currently unknown and if you see him, do not approach him and call 911 immediately.
Monroe County 911 received a transferred call around 11:34 p.m. on Oct. 25 from dispatchers about a distressed hiker, claiming to be a man named “Brandon Andrade,” who had fallen off a cliff while running from a bear. The caller told authorities he was injured and partially in the water. Authorities were able to ping the incident in a rural area about 80 miles northwest of Chattanooga.
Emergency personnel and search and rescue crews found a dead man with Andrade‘s ID on him and brought the body to the Knox County Regional Forensic Center. Detectives with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and the county’s Violent Crime Task Force viewed the scene and determined that the body did not match Andrade’s ID.
Authorities learned that Andrade’s identification had been stolen and used on multiple occasions by Hamlett.
They believe Hamlett may have been involved in the unidentified man’s death.
Hamlett was previously arrested in 2009 in connection to an incident in Elmore County in which he held a Prattville man by gunpoint and attempted to strike him with a baseball bat before buying him in rural Coosada, according to court records.
Hamlett, according to the original reports of the incident, was using the name Joshua Jones when he reached out to the victim so “he could get some insurance.”
Hamlett was charged with attempted murder and kidnapping before pleading to a lesser offense of felony assault in 2012 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. According to court records, he had four prior felony convictions.
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, along the FBI and various other law enforcement agencies, has been working to find Hamlett and get more information on the dead man who has not yet been identified.
The dead man is currently known as a John Doe. Special agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are currently working on a sketch of John Doe to be released to the public for the purpose of identification.
The incident is still under investigation and further information will be released at a later time, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.