Autopsy: Woman found dead in Nantahala National Forest was shot, hands tied
ASHEVILLE — Almost a month after her disappearance, a 37-year-old Monroe woman was found dead on March 5 in the Nantahala National Forest with her hands tied behind her back and bruises across her body, her just-released autopsy report reveals.
Alison Thomas was last seen alive on Flint Ridge Road in northeastern Union County on Feb. 13, 2023, according to the Union County Sheriff’s Office. She had been staying at her long-time boyfriend's farm located there, when the family reported her missing because "no one could get in touch with her for several days," according to her brother, Walter Thomas III.
Deputies, detectives and crime scene detectives began investigating her disappearance on Feb. 17, the day it was reported, according to a previous news release.
Initial reporting: Missing woman found dead in Nantahala National Forest; homicide suspected
Her body was found by a family hiking at a scenic overlook along Wolf Mountain Road on March 5, according to the sheriff’s office and her autopsy. The medical examiner wrote that Thomas was found at Horseshoe Rock, a cliff in Jackson County with an elevation of 3,930 feet.
“Her body was thrown from a cliff or a high point up in the mountains,” Lt. James Maye with the Union County Sheriff’s Office told the Citizen Times Jan. 12. “There was a family up there hiking and they discovered the body when they looked over the edge.”
Thomas died from a gunshot wound to the back of the head, according to her investigation report. However, the actual time of her death is still under investigation, Maye said.
Thomas was found in the wooded area with her wrists restrained behind her back by “white plastic-type cuffs/ties," according to her death investigation report. Two pieces of black tape were also found adhered together in Thomas’s hair.
Along with a bandage on her left hand, Thomas had three contusions on her back, numerous contusions on her upper extremities and multiple contusions on her left thigh.
Her body was found decomposed and still clothed, but with no shoes listed in the autopsy.
Loose within the bag sent to the medical examiner and pathologist were “three fingernails which were submitted to the investigating agency.” Several of her fingernails were absent or falling from her fingernail beds, but it’s not clear from the report if this happened before her death or was due to decomposition.
“Whether that’s because of decomp or whether it was animals, I really can’t say,” Maye said regarding the missing fingernails. “Right now, there is no indication that they were removed as a form of torture or anything like that.”
A sexual assault kit was requested by law enforcement, collected and submitted to the investigating agency. Those results were not detailed in the death investigation report.
A mother of 2, and 'life of the party'
Thomas lived in the Monroe area most of her life and was a mother of two girls, a freshman in high school and a freshman in college, her brother said.
"She was just the type of person that would make you smile when she walked into a room," Thomas told the Citizen Times. "She was always the life of the party trying to make everybody laugh and always trying to live life to the fullest."
Thomas said his sister worked two jobs, one at shoe company and another on a chicken farm, doing "pretty much anything that she could to make money for her family and her girls."
More people charged: 2 more charged in homicide case where body was found in Nantahala National Forest
Previous reporting: Arrests made in connection to Union County woman found dead in Nantahala National Forest
"We definitely miss her a lot, especially coming up on the anniversary of her death. And really nothing has been updated on the cases ... they're just waiting trial," Thomas said.
"It stinks because there's no real closure until that happens. But we just try to honor her and remember her as much as we can. And praise God for the time that we had with her."
Thomas said the family still doesn't have a reason for why his sister was taken but guesses it might be jealousy or that "they wanted her out of the picture."
‘Long-time friends’: Thomas knew her alleged killers?
A total of five people were arrested in connection to Thomas’s death, most of whom Thomas knew before she died, according to Maye.
“They were all known associates,” Maye said, regarding the people charged. “Some of them rode in a motorcycle group together and some of them had just been long-time friends.”
However, Thomas's brother said that she knew of the woman charged in her death ― Amanda Griffin ― because she is the ex-wife of Thomas's boyfriend, but "didn't have anything to do with" the others.
Since their arrest, most of the defendants now face additional felony charges, including conspiring to kidnap and murder Thomas. William Mulenex, 40, of Brevard, is the only person not facing additional charges.
“I talked to the investigator in that case, and based on the evidence they collected, it did not appear that Mulenex was involved from the very beginning,” Maye said. “He became involved at a later point. For one or two of the criminal offenses that occurred, he didn’t have any part in.”
Maye said the investigation is still open, while investigators follow up on leads such as the date of death.
The defendants’ updated charges are as follows:
Brandon Kisiah, 28, of Monroe, was arrested on March 20, 2023, in Union County and charged with felony conspiracy to commit murder. Since his arrest, he now faces charges of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, felony conspiracy to kidnap and concealing a death, according to an online court database.
Amanda Griffin, 43, of Monroe, was arrested in Union County on March 20, 2023, and charged with felony conspiracy to commit murder. She now faces additional charges of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, concealing a death and felony conspiracy to kidnap, according to an online court database.
Shawn Adkins, 29, of West Virginia, was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service on March 23, 2023. Adkins was charged with felony conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder. He now faces additional charges of first-degree kidnapping, concealing a death and felony conspiracy to kidnap, according to an online court database.
Michael Kasminoff, 51, of Monroe, was arrested on March 21, 2023, by the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina. He was charged with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and felony conspiracy to commit murder. Since his arrest, charges of concealing a death and felony conspiracy to kidnap were added, according to an online court database.
Mulenex was arrested on March 31, 2023, by the Union County Sheriff’s Office, the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation and the Transylvania County Sheriff’s Office. He was charged with first-degree murder and felony conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
The group of five are currently being held at the Union County Detention Facility under no bond and have a court date of Feb. 21.
The attorney for Kisiah, Aaron Lee, told the Citizen Times that they are waiting to see if the district attorney’s office is going to seek the death penalty in the cases of some or all the defendants and if the feds are going to pick up the case.
“Union County is very, very slow on homicides,” Lee said. “I could see them not having a decision or anything happening for this entire year. The discovery is so voluminous that it’s going to take most people six to nine months to even get through the discovery.”
Lee said the discovery he received was a terabyte of data, while most homicide cases are under 200 gigabytes.
According to Lee, the group of five are not likely to go to trial at the same time. The state could file a motion to do that, but most defense attorneys would file a motion in opposition, Lee said.
“If there’s varying degrees of levels of involvement in a case, you don’t want a person to get jumbled up in that anger that a jury may have towards one defendant,” Lee said.
The Citizen Times reached out to the office of Union County District Attorney Trey Robison but did not receive a response before press time.
"She's greatly missed, and we hope we get justice for her soon," Thomas said. "We're really grateful for the detectives that put in the hard work and busted their tail to figure out the missing pieces of all this."
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Ryley Ober is the Public Safety Reporter for Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at rober@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @ryleyober
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Woman found in Nantahala National Forest was shot hands tied
