HALL COUNTY, Ga. — New details have been released in the homicide that prompted an hourslong manhunt in the small town of Gillsville which is right on the line of Hall and Banks counties.
The Rabun County Sheriff's Office said it started on Sunday when the Hall County Sheriff's Office contacted them about a possible homicide in their jurisdiction. Detectives traveled to Hall County to question a person who reported the alleged crime to Hall County authorities. Neither agency elaborated on the person's tip.
As this was happening, the Rabun County Sheriff's Office said they received a missing persons report for Martha Angela Ledford. It was determined she'd not been seen for several days prior to her being reported missing.
As the investigation ramped up throughout the evening on Sunday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) was called into assist the Rabun County Sheriff's Office.
On Monday afternoon, the GBI along with the sheriff's office executed a search warrant on Peppers Lane in Clayton. A K-9 alerted authorities to human remains which were found buried in a shallow grave on the property.
The human remains were analyzed and collected. The sheriff's office said they also established a crime scene on the property. As the scene was being processed, information gathered led both agencies to a location on Patterson Gap Road in the Chattahoochee National Forest. The sheriff's office said deputies and agents with the help of a cadaver dog found a body at this location but due to it's condition they were not able to identify the person.
On Tuesday morning, the sheriff's office said a judge signed off an a murder warrant for Keegan Phillips, 23, of Otto, North Carolina. As the agencies worked to track down the accused killer, what they didn't know is Phillips already left town on foot.
In an exclusive interview with 11Alive, Russell Jimerson, of Gillsville said he and his son were picking up his paycheck in Lula when they noticed a guy walking down the road.
"He just stuck his hand out, just I mean very quickly, I told my son 'let’s get ‘em,' I help everybody," Jimerson explained.
Jimerson said he didn't notice anything that really stood out about the guy other than an awful smell. He did mention he had a backpack on him the first time he picked him in Lula.
Jimerson said he and his son let him after he seemed confused about where he was going, but they ended up picking him up a second time on Tuesday morning before bringing him back to their small town which is about nine miles away. The only thing he mentioned is that when he picked him up the second time, the man didn't have his backpack.
He said the guy told him he'd been walking from Rabun County, but he didn't really elaborate on why he was walking.
Jimerson said he dropped the man off along Gillsville Highway and really didn't think much more about it until he heard cops were swarming the area where he and his son dropped off the man.
Jimerson explained his phone started blowing up. He said he was telling his buddies that the news was odd because that's the same area he dropped of a man who was hitchhiking out of Lula.
"My buddy said 'Is this a joke, did you pick up a hitchhiker?' I said, 'No I really did,"' Jimerson said.
He said from that point on everyone was calling him because it had gotten around this hitchhiker was Keegan Phillips, who was wanted for murder out of Rabun County.
He said a buddy called him and said, "You won't believe what happened, a guy in Rabun County murdered someone last night and has their head."
Jimerson said he was kind of taken back but explained the awful smell he remembers when the man got into this truck with the backpack.
"I said man, you won't believe what I'm fixing to tell you, there's a smell in this car, it's awful," Jimerson said over the phone to his friend.
Jimerson said he eventually called 911 and has been cooperating with authorities.
In the meantime, as the manhunt was ramping up in Gillsville in the area where Phillips was dropped off by Jimerson, the Rabun County Sheriff's Office said they got word Phillips was being held at gunpoint by a homeowner.
However, the sheriff's office said by the time they got on scene, he'd managed to run off into some nearby woods.
As the manhunt continued in and around the Gillsville community, the sheriff's office said they discovered a second crime scene off Alexander Lane back in Clayton. The sheriff's office didn't elaborate what was found at this scene but described it was "crucial evidence."
It was about 7 p.m. on Tuesday evening, Phillips was finally apprehended off Bryant Quarter Road.
He was taken back to Rabun County where he was officially booked on a murder charge.
A second man from Lula was arrested and charged with concealing the death of another and abandonment of a dead body.
As of Friday night, the Rabun County Sheriff's Office said they are still working to positively identify the remains and body found at the multiple crime scenes.
A motive wasn't mentioned by the sheriff's office as to what led up to this killing.
