On October 11, investigators ended their game of cat and mouse with Willis. They had the evidence they needed to hold him on a federal detainer, charging him with credit card fraud.

In an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in New York, prosecutors could only guess at the horror that was still unfolding, alleging that Willis “has been using credit cards of an individual named Samuel Thomas….who is missing and presumed dead.”

Earlier the day Willis was arrested, a pair of fishermen hoping to get one last trout before the fall frosts made a gruesome discovery.

Washed up on the shore of Boone Lake at Winged Deer Park on the outskirts of Johnson City, they found a human head.

It was the head of a young man. On the right cheek, there was a small surgical scar. It looked as if a small growth or a cyst had been removed. On the right temple, there was another small cyst and on his left cheek, a small bump where a BB remained imbedded.

Police boat search at Boone Lake (WJHL- TV with permission)

Police arrived quickly and fanned out along the perimeter of the sprawling manmade lake. By the following morning they had found a human hand, and then another.

The young man had been shot execution-style and then hacked to pieces. What investigators lacked, however, was a name. They had no idea who he was or why he had been killed.

The first clue to the dead boy’s identity would come soon enough, and it would come as a result of a mother’s hunch.

It had been three days since Adam Chrismer’s mother had last heard from him. That wasn’t like the boy, she thought. Yes, Adam wanted his independence, but like most boys his age, he also liked the idea that somebody was looking out for him and so he always called home, if not every day, then every other day.

Sheriff Fred Phillips with Willis’ mugshot

On October 13, Chrismer’s frantic mother called the Walker County Sheriff’s Department in Georgia and filed a missing person’s report.

On October 14,  medical examiner Dr. Gretel Harlan declared that the head and hands found at Boone Lake were probably the remains of Adam Chrismer.

But what had happened to Samantha?

Authorities would soon find out.