The family of homicide victim Anthony Hamlin calls Justin Messervy their "angel."

If not for the 33-year-old area resident, they may have never known who fatally beat Hamlin, a father of five and member of the Eastern Pequot tribe, before leaving his body in a Ledyard field on Jan. 28, 2006.

For more than a decade, every lead that detectives followed ended nowhere.

Messervy called state police in September 2016 and said his cousin, Timothy Johnson, and Johnson's friend, Christopher Vincenti, had killed Hamlin.

Johnson and Vincenti, friends from East Lyme High school who were 21 years old when Hamlin died, had never been identified as suspects and may have gotten away with murder if not for Messervy.

"We call him our angel," said the victim's sister, Cassandra Rookwood. "We owe it all to him. Without him, we'd still be sitting here waiting and wondering."

Confronted by state police, Johnson and Vincenti confessed they killed Hamlin for drug money after befriending him in downtown New London. They were arrested and pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter. Vincenti and Johnson were sentenced last month in New London Superior Court.

On Sept. 20, the day after the second sentencing hearing, Hamlin's mother, Darlene Hamlin, and Rookwood, who had flown to Connecticut from Virginia for the court dates, met Messervy.

Darlene Hamlin was nervous as they waited for him in the parking lot of the Crystal Mall in Waterford. But her daughter, who had been communicating with Messervy by phone and Facebook for more than a year, told her, "We're fine. He's fine."

They recognized one another as soon as he pulled up.

"He got out of the car. I got out of the car," Rookwood said. "We just hugged. It was like we'd known each other and hadn't seen each other for years."

Then drove to a Dunkin Donuts, where they talked and laughed for 2 1/2 hours. They took selfies together, and Rookwood posted them on the Facebook page she had created in memory of her brother.

"I had a chance to meet "Our Angel," she wrote. "He exposed the ones who took Ant's life. We are forever grateful."

Hamlin and Rookwood described Messervy as a sweet man who drives a limo for a living and likes to talk.

"He's a very humble gentleman," said Darlene Hamlin. "He went through a lot, because his whole family disowned him. We're praying now that healing will take place."

Messervy said in a brief phone conversation and via text message that he's happy for the Hamlin family and that Anthony Hamlin can now rest in peace. He said he was uncomfortable talking about the case in detail.

"This tragic, incredible situation has caused a lot of turmoil in my life," Messervy said. "I don't regret the decision I made, because I know, and so does everyone, it was the right thing to do. Not motivated by money. I'm moving forward with my life and family and I want to do it peacefully."

Messervy is one of two people applying for the $50,000 reward that was offered by the Governor's office for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Hamlin's killers. The issuance of rewards is at the discretion of the trial judge, Hillary B. Strackbein, who has scheduled a hearing on the matter for Friday.

The second applicant has not been identified, and as far as the Hamlins are concerned, Messervy is the only person who deserves the reward.

Rookwood and Messervy have been communicating since September 2016, when Messervy left her a message saying he had information about Hamlin's murder and wanted to speak with her mother. Rookwood thought it was a joke. She called back and left a message for Messervy indicating that she would speak to him, not her mother.

Rookwood said she paced and waited for the return call, which came a couple hours later.

"My phone rang and it was Justin," she remembered. "He was nervous. He said he was going to watch what he said and how he said things. He said he knew what happened, that he had gone to state police and detective (Luther) Ryan. He said, 'I just wanted you to know there is going to be an arrest.' He was very respectful in the way he was talking to me. He said, 'I feel your family should know because it's been so long.' "

Rookwood said Messervy told her that ten years ago, he thought it odd when Johnson and Vincenti left the state abruptly, especially since one of them left behind a new car that they had really wanted. Messervy said when the men returned to Connecticut after a couple of years, nobody said anything.

Messervy told Rookwood he went fishing one day with his brother, who hung out often with Johnson, and the brother told him what had happened.

"That's how Justin found out," Rookwood said. "He said, 'Cassandra, it was weighing on me and weighing on me. He said after he found out, he did do a little research (on the case). He said, "It was breaking my heart and I had to say something.' ''

On the night he was killed, Anthony Hamlin was supposed to be catching a train Rookwood's home in the Hampton, Va., area, where he had lined up a new job with a surveying company.

"Anthony was here (in Virginia) for a week," Rookwood said. "He went back to Connecticut and was supposed to come back. We were going to a barbecue, going to a basketball game. We had all these plans." 

Family members can easily imagine Hamlin meeting Johnson and Vincenti in front of a Bank Street bar and deciding to hang out and party with them.

"I can see him now," Rookwood said. "He was probably laughing and joking with those guys."

Johnson and Vincenti told police they were all heading to a strip bar in Groton, but got lost. They stopped in a field on Shewville Road in Ledyard to urinate, then hatched a plan to rob Hamlin and use the money to buy drugs.

Rookwood said that as she flew back to Virginia after the sentencing hearings and meeting with Messervy, a feeling came over her

"It was like I was leaving my brother, like it was OK to leave him."

She said other members of the Hamlin family would like to meet Messervy, and he would be invited to a family gathering.

"The way I love my family is the way I love Justin now," she said. "He could call me and talk anytime. It's a forever friendship."