A 23-year-old North Carolina man was arrested for murder this week after an hours-long manhunt that included the suspect walking and hitchhiking away from the crime scene in the North Georgia mountains.
The saga began on Sunday when the Hall County Sheriff’s Office got a tip about a possible homicide in Rabun County, some 50 miles away. Hall County deputies contacted their counterparts in Rabun County, who came to Gainesville to speak with the tipster, the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office said.
Rabun County authorities called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to assist, and on Monday afternoon the two agencies executed s search warrant on a property in Clayton, where they a shallow grave that had contained human remains. As the scene was being processed, detectives collected information that led them into the Chattahoochee National Forest, where they found a body. They were unable to identify the person because of the body’s condition, however, and are awaiting autopsy results.
On Tuesday morning, detectives had enough evidence to secure an arrest warrant for Keegan Phillips, a 23-year-old from Otto, North Carolina, about 13 miles north of Clayton, and began searching for him.
Phillips had left Rabun County, however, and made his way about 50 miles south to Gillsville, where a father and son saw him walking along the road and offered to give him a ride, WXIA reported.
“He just stuck his hand out, just I mean very quickly, I told my son ‘let’s get ‘em,’ I help everybody,” Russell Jimerson said.
Jimerson said the ride didn’t last long because the hitchhiker seemed confused about where he wanted to go, but he recalled a really awful smell that accompanied his rider, possibly coming from a backpack he was carrying. The let him out, but passed him by again later in the morning and once more offered a ride.
This time, Jimerson said, he told them he’d been walking from Rabun County — and he no longer had the backpack. Jimerson dropped him off along Gillsville highway and thought nothing more of it until he heard police were swarming the area where he dropped the hitchhiker off. Although police have not confirmed it, reports indicated that Phillips was carrying the head of the victim with him.
Jimerson called 911 himself and was cooperating with authorities.
Meanwhile, a resident called 911 and reported they were holding Phillips at gunpoint at their home, but the suspect had gotten away and fled into the woods by the time police arrived, the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office said.
Around 7 p.m., however, authorities brought him out of the woods in handcuffs. He’s been charged with murder.
Later that night, the GBI said a second man, 62-year-old Robert Lee Peppers, had been arrested and charged with concealing a death and unlawful disposal of a body in the same case. Both men are being held in Rabun County.
Police have not yet released the name of the victim, although they said earlier they had received a missing persons report for Martha Angela Ledford, 22, who was last seen a week earlier. Obituaries published for Ledford after the arrests say she was a mother of a young daughter.
For the latest true crime and justice news, subscribe to the ‘Crime Stories with Nancy Grace’ podcast.
[Featured image: Robert Lee Peppers and Keegan Phillips/Rabun County Sheriff’s Office]
