Man says he gave Keegan Phillips a ride before murder arrest – A man driving along a rural road thought he was doing a good thing when he picked up a hitchhiker who said he had been walking through the night.
That hitchhiker turned out to be a murder suspect — and he may have been carrying evidence of the crime when he was picked up by the side of the road.
Keegan Phillips is seen in handcuffs (via YouTube screengrab/WXIA). Inset: Phillips (via Hall County (Ga.) Sheriff’s Office).
Man says he gave Keegan Phillips a ride before murder arrest
Keegan Phillips, 23, was arrested Tuesday after an hourslong manhunt, officials in Georgia announced Tuesday. According to authorities, the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office had received information that a man “killed a person and disposed of the body,” and reached out to state law enforcement for help in the investigation on Sunday, Aug. 6.
The victim was found on Monday, Aug. 7, in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. After a multi-agency search in the area of Gillsville Highway, Phillips was arrested “without incident” on Tuesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said in the statement.
According to Russell Jimmerson, Phillips, who hails from Otto, North Carolina, had been in his car just hours earlier.
Jimmerson was picking up his paycheck on Tuesday morning when he saw a man walking, local NBC affiliate WXIA reported. He didn’t know who the man was, but he decided to pick him up when it appeared that the man was looking for a ride.
“He just stuck his hand out, just very quickly. I told my son, ‘Let’s get him,”” he told the station.
“I help everybody,” Jimmerson added.
Jimmerson said that Phillips indicated that he had “been up all night, walking from Rabun County.” Rabun and Hall counties are separated by around 60 miles and two additional counties.
The man said the hitchhiker had a backpack — and that he smelled awful, WXIA reported. It wasn’t until later that Jimmerson learned in a phone call that he had briefly traveled with a murder suspect.
“‘You won’t believe what happened,” he was told. “‘A guy in Rabun County murdered someone last night and has their head.’”
Jimmerson recalled the hitchhiker, his backpack, and the foul smell he carried.
“‘Man, you won’t believe what I’m fixing to tell you,’” Jimmerson said, relaying what he told a friend after the ordeal and learning that he had briefly traveled with a murder suspect. “‘There’s a smell in this car that’s awful.’”
“My buddy said, ‘Is this a joke? Did you pick up the hitchhiker?’” he told the station. “I said, ‘No, I really did.’”
A second defendant in the case, Robert Lee Peppers, age 62, of Lula, Georgia has been charged with concealing a death and unlawful disposal of a body, the GBI said. Both Phillips and Peppers are being held at the Rabun County Detention Center, according to the GBI statement.
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