georgia, with her dog, ella. her roommate, julia karrenbauer, from college days had slept in that morning. julia karrenbauer: she had left me a note, just a little note on a chalkboard. took ella, went hiking. not where, not when, not when i m going to be back. so it wasn t really anything out of the ordinary. dennis murphy (voiceover): meredith, like roomie julia, was a dog person. she doted on ella, her black lab mix, since finding her at a rescue shelter. julia karrenbauer: she had two dogs growing up, and she wanted one of her own. and so she just kind of talked about it and researched what she wanted and definitely wanted to rescue a dog. and finally found one, went out, loved her, and brought her home. and it really was the light of her life. dennis murphy (voiceover): julia, the roommate, didn t know that meredith and ella were heading 40 miles north to blood mountain in the chattahoochee national forest. despite the creepy teen slasher movie name, blood mountain is one of the m
began following that case. and immediately, there were some similarities that we saw between the two cases. both of these incidents occurred on forest service land. we really felt like that the two were probably connected. we may go years without a homicide. this was very, very different. do we have a killer running around loose in the national forest? dennis murphy (voiceover): in georgia, the searchers looking for meredith emerson and her dog ella on blood mountain were hoping and praying that they weren t dealing with a homicide. do everything we can do to make sure that if she s up there, that we get her out of there and get her out of there safely. if she s not out there, to do everything we can do to eliminate that as a possibility and then continue the investigation from there. dennis murphy (voiceover): georgia authorities were compositing a profile of gary hilton, who was starting to look like a person of interest not only in the meredith emerson disappearance case, but in at
places that she highlighted and kind of just started driving. dennis murphy (voiceover): the friends split up, looking for meredith s car at trailheads she d marked in her hiking guides. there was four of us in the car. we were trying to call park rangers and anybody that may have seen her or her car. and then a friend of hers found her car, called us and said, i found it. and there was snow on it. dennis murphy (voiceover): the car was in a parking area at the base of blood mountain. and we drove as fast as we could there and just knew, you know, just that sinking feeling when you first see it. dennis murphy (voiceover): the friends raced up the blood mountain feeder path to the appalachian trail, but no trace of meredith or ella. so by nightfall, the search became all the more urgent as a cold front moved in, and temperatures on blood mountain plunged below zero. at daybreak, thursday now, the friends were joined by deputies from the local sheriff s office. john cagle, just shy of re
shingles. some describe it as an intense burning sensation, or an unbearable itch. this painful, blistering rash can disrupt your life for weeks and could make it hard to be there for your loved ones. shingles could also lead to serious complications that can last for years. if you re over 50, the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside you. and as you age, your risk of developing shingles increases. don t wait. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingles today. ask your doctor or pharmacist 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.
i knew that was a place he liked to hang out, that he had a dog with him. and most importantly was the evidence that they had found at the scene. i knew hilton always had a extendable police baton with him. dennis murphy (voiceover): the tip and a name quickly led to a georgia driver s license for 61-year-old gary michael hilton. investigators showed the photo to hikers who id d him as the scruffy mystery man seen with meredith on blood mountain. the manhunt was on. john cagle: we put that name and face out. and it s plastered all over the metro atlanta area. it is. dennis murphy (voiceover): the apb went well beyond the georgia border. hilton s name and picture were all over the regional news. light bulbs began going off to the south around tallahassee, florida s capital, when people there saw his photo on tv. the search for gary hilton was about to widen. the mystery man person of interest in the meredith emerson case looked familiar to people who thought they d seen him just about t