here again -- meredith emerson and her lab ella were two days missing on georgia's blood mountain early in a freezing january of 2007. her friends had alerted the authorities and people from all over the greater atlanta area were scouring the hiking trails. so many volunteers they couldn't use all of them. >> people just showed up and just said, i have a daughter who likes to hike, i have a sister who could have been meredith easily. and they just volunteer their time. >> but the search in the national forest had become something more ominous than a lost hiker incident. meredith had been last seen in the company of an unsavory looking stranger, and law enforcement was about to identify him. the tip came from john tabor, an atlanta businessman. he was watching the continuing news coverage of missing meredith during his morning workout. >> when they started giving the description of the person of interest, my ears really perked up. i think i just turned white at one point. i felt the blood leave my face. >> tabor, the businessman