saturday morning, five days after meredith emerson vanished on blood mountain, gary hilton was charged with a crime against her, kidnapping with bodily injury. hilton was in custody but he was uncooperative, zipped up, giving his interrogators nothing on meredith s whereabouts or what he had done with her. meredith s middle name is hope and that s exactly what the lord gives us for her. so we are hoping that we re talking of meredith in the present tense and that we will be finding her and that she will safely come home to us. the searchers in the field, meanwhile, shifted their focus from blood mountain to these woods called dawson forest about 30 miles to the south. it was from around here that hilton had made those phone calls to his ex-boss. remember, by then, meredith s bloody clothing had been retrieved from a dumpster, not a good sign at all. but as long as there was the most remote chance she was still alive, the search was going to continue. but lead agent john kegel knew
the government alleges the serial killer murdered the elderly couple in october of 2007, shortly before killing sheryl dunlap and meredith emerson. hilton pleaded not guilty. the forensic team from florida that had helped convict him there is expected to testify. hilton faces another death sentence in the federal trial. law enforcement officials from across the southeast have now met with hilton multiple times in an attempt to find out how many more of his victims there it might be out there. they re talking the bryant case as a given. you believe there are four deaths connected hire. at least. you think there are others? i think there s certainly the potential to be others. i don t know we ll ever know for sure unless he tells us. so far hilton is sticking to his story, that he started hunting as he describes it in october of 2007, that there were no murders before that. the pain and suffering of the families of hilton s victims and suspected victims dulls but never ends. he
and bludgeoned meredith emerson to death. in an attempt to thwart investigators, he decapitated and poured bleach over the body. this is gruesome beyond belief. yes. for what reason? i don t know. hilton had confessed to killing meredith emerson. but what about those other cases in the national forest? a woman in florida, the elderly couple in north carolina. he would not talk about anybody to us other than meredith. because you have to wonder when the switch was thrown in this man. i know. how many decades does this maybe go back? i don t know. do people just wake up when they re 61 and start to do these kinds of crimes the way he did them? you know, i would think not. meredith emerson went missing new year s day. less than a month later, gary michael hilton appeared in a georgia courtroom and pleaded guilty to her murder. meredith s parents were there. her mother susan addressed hilton.
we put out that information through the media in atlanta and actually got a call from somebody who said, i think i know who this is. this mysterious stranger would prove to be stranger than anyone expected. i just turned white at one point. i felt the blood leave my face. meredith emerson had not been the only one missing in the forest. if she s still alive and someone has her, she s afraid. when mystery on blood mountain continues. is the best in town. [ soft piano music playing ] mm, uh, what do you do for fun? -not this. -oh, what am i into? mostly progressive s name your price tool. helps people find coverage options based on their budget. flo has it, i want it, it s a whole thing, and she s right there. -yeah, she s my ride. this date s lame. he has pics of you on his phone. -they re very tasteful.
but i have to forgive gary hilton. i have to. tabby, in the family it was a death case and the jury recommended the death penalty and that was the sentence. does it matter to you? we were pleased with the outcome, yes. like laura said, he s off the streets. he s not able to hurt anyone again. yes, i think it matters. and there are regrets on the part of the officers who investigated the hilton cases. could there have been one tip line that had come in sooner? could there have been one fragment of information we could have put together more quickly and spared her? there hasn t been a day go by since then i haven t thought about meredith emerson and what we could have or should have done differently. but, see, she really is the hero. she did the best could in hopes we could catch up. it was through her efforts we were able to catch her killer but also the killer that was responsible for the killing of sheryl dunlap. in georgia, for meredith emerson s closest friends, it s time