A Georgia woman murdered and dismembered her girlfriend before setting her remains alight and stealing her identity to live off her government checks for almost a decade, police said.
Angel Marie Thompson, 41, is accused of killing her girlfriend Nicole Alston in 2007 and leaving her burnt remains by the side of an intersection in Troup County.
Prosecutors said that after Thompson killed Alston, who was 24 at the time, she then assumed her partner’s identity and collected almost $140,000 in government benefits through 2015.
She also bought cars and rented apartments in Alston’s name, according to arrest warrants reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Alston’s murder went cold for decades as cops were unable to identify her charred remains.
Thompson’s arrest came after authorities sent evidence for advanced DNA testing in early 2023.
The remains were connected to Alston through a public genealogy test her sister had taken, with longtime investigator Clay Bryant subsequently joining the case.
Alston and Thompson moved from New York in 2007, but their relationship turned abusive after they began living together in Fulton County, Georgia, cops said.
Thompson sexually trafficked her girlfriend and murdered her when she tried to leave the relationship, Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis said.
Willis added that Alston’s case was one of the most gruesome investigations she has ever seen.
‘There was no way to identify her,’ she said.
The prosecutor was joined by Alston’s mother Sylvia, who grew emotional as she said she, ‘wished I never let her come to Georgia’.
‘She didn’t deserve this,’ she said.
Thompson was on dating sites within hours of Alston’s body being in a burning bag by the side of the highway, Sandy Springs Detective John Nanoff said.
He added that Thompson then used Alston’s name to open bank accounts, acquire a driver’s license, receive housing assistance and get Social Security benefits.
Nanoff said that he was stunned by the ‘meticulous’ alleged murder.
‘It’s astounding that she was able to do what she did for how long she did it,’ he said. ‘I’ve never seen something so calculated.’
Detectives said that they believe Alston was killed inside the couple’s apartment.
DNA testing reportedly found large quantities of blood evidence even 17 years after Alston’s death.
Thompson’s arrest comes a year after she was booked on a single charge of concealing the death of another, after prosecutors said she had been collecting Alston’s government checks for years.
She was released on bond two years later, and cops said this week that they believed she was responsible for Alston’s death at the time, but did not have enough evidence to charge her.
She is currently charged with murder and identity theft.
Willis said she plans to include human trafficking charges to Thompson’s case and will present the case to a grand jury by the end of October.