A Georgia woman has been arrested for allegedly murdering her girlfriend and chopping her up into 13 “pieces” — hiding her hands, feet, and head somewhere, and burning the rest of her remains on a street corner — after the victim attempted to leave her, according to prosecutors.
“This case involves what are just horrific facts,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said at a press conference on Wednesday, announcing Angel Thompson’s arrest after nearly a decade of not knowing who killed Nicole Alston, 24.
On December 6, 2007, Troup County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a suspicious black bag on fire near the intersection of Whitfield Road and Stitcher Road in Hogansville. The inside contained Alston’s torso and other body parts.
“When they found her body, it was cut,” Willis said.
“They found 13 pieces of her body but were unable to identify her,” she told reporters. “The reason that they were not able to identify her is because, until this day, we still have not been able to find her hands, her feet, or her head.”
Local authorities reviewed the case in 2023, and DNA evidence was sent to Innovative Forensic Investigations in Virginia and Gene by Gene Laboratories in Texas for testing. The findings were turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) crime lab, and on December 13, 2023, authorities confirmed that the remains belonged to Alston, who had relocated to Georgia from Manhattan, New York, “to start her life,” according to Willis and Alston’s mother, Sylvia Austin.
“She came to Georgia with this person who told her she was going to help her,” Austin stated at Wednesday’s press conference. “Nicole said, ‘She’ll help me. I’m going to be fine.”
According to Willis, Alston was eventually identified after Austin’s sister conducted an Ancestry.com search. Thompson was arrested and charged with concealing Alston’s death in August 2023, but not with murder. It’s unclear why she was charged this week, with officials only revealing a paper trail indicating how Thompson allegedly stole Alston’s identity.
According to police, Alston and Thompson were living together at 9100 Cascade Palmetto Highway before she went missing. According to Austin and Willis, things began to deteriorate between the two of them, with Alston, who was allegedly the primary provider in the relationship, informing her mother that Thompson had become “abusive” toward her.
“She wanted to come home… but said she had it under control,” Willis told reporters. “That was her last phone call.”
Thompson, who is charged with one count of malice murder and two counts of identity theft, allegedly killed Alston using “homicidal violence by undetermined means,” according to local authorities. She had outstanding warrants in New York at the time and was allegedly concerned about returning there, according to Willis, on top of potentially losing her primary source of income — Alston.
“This involves classic domestic violence, where the young lady was basically not going to allow both her lover — and I hate to say such a nasty term — but really ‘cash cow,’ the person that was bringing her money, to go,” said Willis. “And it ended tragically.”
According to police, Thompson began using her identity and attempted to sell her car less than a month after killing Alston. She even rented out her apartment, according to a police officer who spoke at Wednesday’s press conference.
“It’s beyond the pale of what it took to do this,” the official said. “It took a true sociopath.”
A Fulton County detective who spoke at the press conference told reporters that after Alston’s body was discovered, Thompson was “already on dating websites, trying to meet people, rent the room, sell the car.” She allegedly opened email and bank accounts in her name, as well as communicating with government agencies in order to fraudulently obtain benefits.
“She did it very well, and I believe she did it alone,” the detective explained. “Which is why it took so long to get where we are.”
Thompson is accused of making nearly $140,000 using Alston’s identity. This includes more than $60,000 in social security, $17,000 in food stamps, and around $60,000 in HUD housing assistance. The fraud allegedly continued from the end of 2007 until Alston’s benefits were terminated in March 2015, a total of eight years.
“Immediately after this young lady went missing and we now know is deceased, the suspect was trying to recruit other victims,” Willis told the media. “We believe this ties directly to trafficking other women.”
Willis told reporters on Wednesday that in her 29 years of practicing criminal law, she had never seen a slaying like this.
“This is by far one of the top three most gruesome cases,” she told me. Nicole’s mother claimed she was exploited. And she didn’t deserve this.”
