A Georgia woman accused of murdering her so-called “cash cow” girlfriend, cutting her into 13 pieces and burning much of her remains on a quiet street corner is now facing an explosive 80-count indictment that reads like a ledger of horror.
Angel Thompson was indicted in Fulton County Superior Court last week, more than six months after her arrest in the killing of 24-year-old Nicole Alston. Nearly two decades had passed since sheriff’s deputies in Troup County stumbled upon a suspicious black bag engulfed in flames at the corner of Whitfield Road and Stitcher Road in Hogansville in 2007. Inside, investigators found Alston’s torso and other severed body parts.
“They found 13 pieces of her body,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told reporters. “But they were not able to identify her.” To this day, authorities say, Alston’s hands, feet and head have never been recovered.
The indictment lays out a staggering array of charges: malice murder, aggravated assault and battery, concealing the death of another, tampering with evidence, removal of body parts, identity theft, insurance fraud, forgery and more. Prosecutors allege Thompson killed Alston through “homicidal violence by undetermined means,” then dismembered her and attempted to erase her existence.
Alston had moved from Manhattan to Georgia to “start her life,” according to her mother, Sylvia Austin. She came with Thompson, believing she would be helped. “Nicole said, ‘She’s going to help me. I’m going to be okay,’” Austin recalled.
Instead, prosecutors describe a relationship that soured into alleged domestic violence. Alston, said to be the primary provider, confided to her mother that Thompson had become abusive. She wanted to come home but insisted she had things “under control.” That was her last phone call.
Authorities allege that less than a month after Alston was killed, Thompson began living as if nothing had happened. Detectives say she was already on dating websites, trying to meet new partners, rent out rooms and sell Alston’s car. She allegedly opened email and bank accounts in Alston’s name and communicated with government agencies to siphon off benefits.
Prosecutors claim Thompson raked in nearly $140,000 using Alston’s identity over eight years, including more than $60,000 in Social Security benefits, $17,000 in food stamps and roughly $60,000 in HUD housing assistance. The alleged fraud continued until March 2015, when the benefits finally stopped.
“It’s beyond the pale of what it took to do this,” said Troup County Investigator Clay Bryant. “It took a true sociopath.”
For years, Alston remained unidentified. The case was reopened in 2023, and DNA evidence was sent to forensic labs in Virginia and Texas. The breakthrough came after Alston’s aunt conducted an Ancestry.com search, helping authorities confirm the remains belonged to Nicole.
Willis called it one of the most gruesome cases she has seen in nearly three decades of practicing criminal law.
“This involves classic domestic violence,” she said, describing a woman allegedly unwilling to lose the person she viewed as her financial lifeline. “And it ended tragically.”
