Woman used friend’s identity for 8 years — but no one knew the friend was dead, Ga. police say

By Olivia Lloyd
Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.)

TROUP COUNTY, Ga. — For eight years, a woman assumed the identity of her friend found dismembered in 2007, Georgia authorities said.

Trending

NYPD

Teens tied to Venezuelan gang ambushed NYPD officers in ‘wolfpack’ attack, mayor says

Members of Diablos de la 42, an offshoot of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, used scooters and bottles to attack officers trying to stop a robbery, Mayor Eric Adams said

May 12, 2025 09:27 AM

NYPD

NYC mayor says 500 bodegas will get silent panic buttons in $1.6M initiative

Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the city will equip the bodegas with “Silent Shield” buttons that would link cameras in the food stores to the PD in real time

May 11, 2025 07:00 AM

Legal

Wis. prosecutor clears Ohio police of wrongdoing in fatal shooting near GOP convention

Columbus officers could be heard on BWC footage before the shooting identifying themselves as police and ordering a man to drop knives he was using to threaten another man

May 11, 2025 06:00 AM

Bizarre Beat

Herd of ‘hoofed hooligans’ escape — and end up 14 miles from home, Ga. cops say

Gilmer County Sheriff’s deputies were able to wrangle the whole herd and return the goats to their owner

May 11, 2025 08:00 AM

But law enforcement didn’t know the dead woman’s identity until 2023.

Now, Angel Marie Thompson is charged with concealing a death as investigators are still working to figure out who killed Nicole Alston 17 years ago, the Troup County Sheriff’s Office said in a Sept. 3 news release.

McClatchy News couldn’t locate an attorney for Thompson.

In December 2007, the Troup County Sheriff’s Office was called to investigate a burning bag on the side of the road that contained a body with the head, hands and feet missing, McClatchy News previously reported.

For 16 years, investigators didn’t know who the body belonged to. But in 2023, DNA and genealogical analysis led to the identification of the remains as Alston, according to the sheriff’s office.

Investigators said they contacted Alston’s family, who told them she moved from Manhattan to the Atlanta area when she was 24 with Thompson. Family members stopped hearing from her around the time of Thanksgiving 2007, according to deputies.

But as investigators were working to identify Alston all those years, Thompson is accused of assuming her identity and fraudulently obtaining $200,000.

Thompson began collecting her friend’s supplemental security income benefits, food stamps and getting Section 8 subsidized housing in Alston’s name, deputies said.

According to investigators, the scheme ended in 2015 when the Social Security Administration asked “Alston” to make an appearance in person to continue receiving benefits.

At that point, Thompson “reassumes her original identity,” deputies said.

In August, an investigator learned Thompson lived under Alston’s name for eight years, and she was arrested Aug. 19, deputies said.

Other agencies in Georgia are investigating the fraud. The death investigation is ongoing.

Troup County is about a 50-mile drive north from Columbus.

___

(c)2024 the Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.)
Visit the Merced Sun-Star (Merced, Calif.) at www.mercedsunstar.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.