surroundings, you just never know. it started with a frightening horror movie from the 80s. this movie is we re gonna take some women into the wood and they will be hunted down. decades later something truly frightening it was happening for real. a strange vanishing in the forest. immediately, we knew something was wrong. then your heart just broke. surely, then meredith, two women missing and desperate efforts to find them. she could be alive and we just can t let up. could this old movie hold the key to these new cases? a little blood, sex, violence. a film fantasy turn chilling reality. if someone has her, she is afraid. who could be behind this and how with this real life story and? she was a blue belt in judo. if anybody could survive it was there it is. our national forests are places of refuge for folks who want to get away from the city and have a sense of peace, commune with nature but you have to be aware of your surroundings all th
day, not for a young woman who love to trail climb 30 native rockies. it was 2008 as the young sales assistant sailed out from georgia with her dog, ella. her roommate julia from college days had slept in that morning. she left me a note on a chalkboard, took hella went hiking. not when am i going to be back. so it wasn t really anything out of the ordinary. meredith, was a dog person she doted on ella, black lab mix shuns finding her at a rescue. she had two dogs growing up and she wanted one of her own and she talked about it and researched what she wanted and definitely wanted to rescue a dog, finally found one, loved her and brought her home it was the love of her life. julia, the roommate, didn t know that meredith and a lot we re headed 40 miles north to blood mountain in the national forest.
blairsville, georgia. he told detectives meredith had given him her pin numbers, did mare this expected would be all over for her if she gave him the correct numbers? in any case, she had given him bad information. and it didn t work? none of it worked. she s still telling me it s going to work. it s going to work. must be a wrong bank. hilton next tried to use meridith s card at a bank 50 miles south in gainesville, georgia, again, no dice. he made a camp that night with his captive in a remote spot in the forest. the next morning, hilton attempted to use meredith s bank card still again at an atm in canton, georgia, nothing. they returned to his hidden campsite. he held meredith altogether in the woods for four days. and what nature of man s gary hilton? well, listen to the confession tape to what he says about meredith s dog, ella. hilton says he knew the pet had
ella s leash and signs of a struggle, nothing about the scene looked good to the veteran law man especially that expandable police baton that was found. he called in help. we partnered with over 18 or 19 police agencies to help with the search. her friends were naturally beside themselves. you know your heart just broke because you think something happened somebody had a weapon and her stuff was there. you re thinking at the very least he has been abducted? yes, it was hard because it wasn t something that we could talk about until we could actually prove that. the cops commandeered a park building as headquarters. we began getting information quickly from people who had hike the trails that day? right. remembered her? remembered her, and we began to get disturbing news of strange looking individual with meredith who also had a dog. thumbnail description, what were you hearing? strange looking, just a lowery kind of guy
themselves in and near tapers building, it was the drop point that you stake out the location you re surveilling and? no-show. he didn t show? no-show, we re looking and wondering where could this guy be, we have him 50 miles from blood mountain. the veteran agents working as lack last case before retirement was talking constantly with meredith s parent. her father, dave emmerson. i appealed to everyone to search their hearts and memories for anything they can remember and do to help us find meridith. after i met the emerson s i knew that i had to tell them everything, i couldn t hold back any information from these two people, they were terrified. why did you take it personally? this case was different because not only me but the other investigators recognize the fact early on that we have to embrace this family and tell them everything even though what we were telling them was not good news. hilton, meredith, her lab