COLUMBIA, S.C. — There are new details in how a wanted murder suspect from Tennessee was captured in Columbia.
News19 spoke with the US Marshals Service Tuesday about how 45-year-old Nicholas Hamlett made his way here to South Carolina.
“He arrived in South Carolina either October 18th or the 19th through a Greyhound bus that he took from Knoxville,” said U.S. Marshal Carlos Flores, Deputy Commander of the Carolinas Region Fugitive Task Force.
Hamlett was wanted out of Tennessee for a killing that took place back on October 18th in Monroe County. Authorities believe he killed a hiker and then stole his identity. He was spotted in late October in Chapin, prompting a manhunt in that area. However, he wasn't immediately located.
However, over the weekend, Hamlett was found unconscious on the side of the road near St. Andrews Park. The person who found him then called for an ambulance.
“He was hiding in the wooded area of Harbison State Park and Chapin. From my understanding, he was possibly trying to contact his family members but at that point, through our investigation, we developed information that he was in that area," Flores said.
Investigators say Hamlett was taken to a local hospital in Columbia for dehydration.
“Once he got to the hospital and he gained consciousness they asked for his name at which point he said he had amnesia and he cannot remember anything. Hospital staff started looking for an individual that may be missing from the Harbison area, at which point one of the nurses saw his wanted poster that had been pushed out and that's when they kind of saw the similarities and called 911,” Flores said.
From there the U.S. Marshals fingerprinted the suspect and identified him as Hamlett.
He is still in the hospital, but investigators say once he is cleared, he will be extradited back to Tennessee, where he faces several charges.
"He has an active homicide case, he is a suspect for that homicide case up in Tennessee and he does have a federal arrest warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution out of the Eastern District of Tennessee," Flores said.