After many weeks of searching — and one Halloween night spotting — Hamlett was taken into custody in Columbia, S.C. on Sunday.

“After observing Hamlett at a local hospital, a good citizen alerted the authorities and brought this manhunt to a peaceful end,” Monroe County Sheriff Tommy Jones said in a release.

Columbia police say a hospital employee recognized Hamlett and alerted authorities, who verified his identity using fingerprints. They say arrangements are being made with Tennessee authorities to extradite Hamlett to Monroe County.

What happened in the woods?

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office says a distressed hiker called 911 shortly before midnight on Oct. 18 “claiming to be a Mr. Brandon Andrade.”

“He advised the dispatcher that he had fallen off a cliff while running from a bear,” it said, adding that the call came from near a bridge on the Cherohala Skyway — a 43-mile national scenic byway — in Tellico Plains. “The distressed caller claimed that he was injured and partially in the water.”
According to the dispatch call obtained by the Knoxville News Sentinel, the male subject had “hit his head,” was “unable to move” and his phone only had “2% battery — unable to get him back on 911.”

Search and rescue teams rushed to the area and found a man’s body “with an identification of Mr. Brandon Kristopher Andrade on his persons.” He was transported to the forensic center while investigators combed the scene.

After further investigation, detectives determined that the deceased man was not Brandon Andrade. In fact, they said, that identification had been “stolen and used on multiple occasions” — in this case, as they quickly discovered, by Hamlett.