Fugitive Nicholas Wayne Hamlett‘s alleged motive for the October murder of Stephen Lloyd in Tennessee has been revealed. According to the authorities, Hamlett had a financial incentive for the murder, which came to national attention last month when police say Hamlett reported it was a bear attack.
On Oct. 18, 911 dispatch near Chattanooga, TN, received a call from someone claiming to be Brandon Andrade. The man, who authorities believe was Hamlett, said he’d been hiking in the wilderness when he said a bear chased him off a cliff, that his cell phone was low on battery, and he was injured. When help arrived, they found a man dead with Andrade’s ID, but the body was Lloyd, who police now allege Hamlett lured into the woods and then murdered.
Hamlett, 45, was on the run from Alabama for a parole violation stemming from a 2012 conviction for an attempted murder involving a plan to bury a man alive. Hamlett was paroled in 2016, and sometime after that, he stole Andrade’s ID, and Hamlett has used it several times since then.
Authorities announced Hamlett was a suspect in Lloyd’s murder, and a multi-state, weeks-long manhunt was conducted before Hamlett arrived, unconscious and severely dehydrated, at a South Carolina hospital, where he claimed to have amnesia. Staff recognized him from police records, and he was arrested.
An $8 million life insurance policy
Before Hamlett’s arrest, investigators believed that he murdered Lloyd — who sometimes lived unhoused and who struggled with mental health issues, making him particularly vulnerable to manipulation — to plant Andrade’s ID and throw investigators off his trail. But reports now say that Hamlett took out an $8 million insurance policy in Andrade’s name and staged the murder to look like a bear had attacked and killed him, so Hamlett could collect the money.
Other new information involving Hamlett’s case is that he’s reportedly married to Taylor Ann Fiber of Knoxville, who has also now been arrested and charged with accessory and false reporting for helping Hamlett flee Tennessee for South Carolina, and for lying to the authorities about her husband’s identity.
After his arrest, Hamlett was expected in South Carolina court Monday morning, but a prison guard said at that time he was on suicide watch. Hamlett did appear in court Tuesday, and the judge denied Hamlett’s bond, Knoxville’s WBIR reported.
Hamlett is currently charged with parole violation and first-degree murder stemming from Lloyd’s death. Hamlett has not yet entered a plea or been arraigned.
911 call audio released
Furthermore, audio from the bizarre 911 bear attack call has also been released and in it, dispatch says, “He’s fallen off the cliff at some waterfalls. He fell on his head. He’s hurt pretty bad. Said he can’t move his leg.”
Details of Hamlett’s criminal history related to his Alabama murder conviction have also emerged. According to Tennessee news outlet WATE, in 2009, in Elmore County, Alabama, law enforcement responded to a call from a man who said Hamlett had tried to kill him.
The victim told police he overpowered Hamlett and had him detained. Police found a freshly dug grave with two knives, a shovel, and bleach at the scene. Hamlett, who had prior convictions, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison before his 2016 parole.
Hamlett’s preliminary hearing for Lloyd’s death in Tennessee is expected Nov. 26. South Carolina authorities said they would update Hamlett’s case Friday. Referring to her murdered son, Lloyd’s mother said, “He was being tricked that he was going to get money and a house and all this stuff, and he said, ‘Momma, this is the nicest guy I‘ve ever met.’ I hope at the end Steven went out still believing that.”
