impose the death penalty on gary michael hilton. hilton sat expressionless as the results were read. two weeks later, an equally emotionless hilton listened as the judge pronounced his sentence. it is ordered and adjudged that you gary michael hilton be sentenced to death for the murder of sheryl dunlap. may god have mercy on your soul. in april, gary michael hilton was sent to florida s death row for the murder of dunlap. last month he was shackled and sent to north carolina and indicted in federal court there for the murders of john and irene bryant. the government alleges the serial killer murdered the elderly couple in october of 2007, shortly before killing sheryl dunlap and meredith emerson.
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 to forget about gary hilton and remember her. he took our friend. he took a daughter, a sister. but he can t take her memory. he can t take the things that we love about her away. there is, they say, important
police were convinced the missing hiker meredith emerson was under the control of gary hilton somewhere in north georgia. the more they learned about the survivalist odds ball who was the person of interest in two murders in national forests elsewhere, the more they feared for her. a friend of meredith s family appealed directly to hilton. i hope that if he realized that this would be helpful, that his heart would be softened and turned to come forward with information. so, please, please have the courage to come forward. we need you. their next lead, the big one, came from an unlikely source, the suspect himself. three days into meredith s disappearance, gary hilton called his old boss tabor. i answered my cell phone, and i heard his voice. couldn t believe it. he pretended acted as if nothing was wrong. he didn t let on that he was the subject of a man hunt? absolutely not. he apparently had no idea. he apologized at length for his past behavior and on the terms of which
on blood mountain, there was still no trace of meredith emerson. her friend julia and the other searchers found no news to be good news. i think it might be a good thing, that she might be somewhere warm with her dog, you know, and somebody might just have her. or something like that. kind of makes me feel a little better knowing that we haven t found anything here yet. while hundreds of volunteers and deputies scoured the forest for clues, detectives were trying to get it a handle on gary are hilton, the suspect in her disappearance and who was by now a person of interest in at least two murders. john tabor, hilton ses former boss, gave investigators what information he had on his eccentric loner employee. tabor had known him for nearly a decade. the only interests he had in life seemed to be his dog and going out camping for extended periods of time in the wildernesses with his dog. he seemed to like that type of isolation. hilton s dog dandy had been at his side since he sta
he basically stated that he had removed the head and stripped the clothing for forensic purposes. megz was able to introduce portions of those chilling interviews that hilton gave the authorities in georgia. once you ve taken someone, you re either going to kill them or you re going to get caught. it s as simple as that. that s where you started getting the information about emerson that s the first time the georgia information was allowed in. correct. that s when you really start megz was able to introduce portions of those chilling interviews that hilton gave the authorities in georgia. once you ve taken someone, you re either going to kill them or you re going to get caught. it s as simple as that. that s where you started getting the information about emerson that s the first time the georgia information was allowed in. correct. that s when you really start seeing the jurors taking in the enormity. then you really see the impact of all of this coming through