far from it. they could not enter the evidence about the erm son murder or the movie deadly run or that he was the prime suspect in the murders of an elderly couple in north carolina. annie white was part of the team charged with making the case. months earlier, the cops had developed a partial chronology for sheryl dunlap on the saturday she vanished. we started receiving calls, we saw her at walmart, saw her here. we started backtracking those to try to get the time line. the investigators knew that sheryl s morning had included shopping in tal it hass see, cashing a check at a bank and using a library computer to send an e-mail to had her son in the army. they even had a last sighting. witnesses identified sheryl as the woman peacefully reading a book at this popular spot in the national forest. the couple i interviewed that
when sheryl didn t turn up for church one december sunday in 2007 and then missed her sunday school class, red flags went up. next door neighbor and friend tonya lad. sunday morning i turned around and looked at her usual spot and she wasn t there. she didn t teach her class? she didn t. immediately we knew something was wrong. that wasn t like her. everybody knew her agreed. 46-year-old sheryl was reliable, a woman solid in her faith and set in her habits. her fellow nurse friend and prayer partner, laura walker. she always liked to hear what we call our praise reports, like something good that p happened with a patient or a co-worker. when monday morning rolled around and tonya still hadn t been able to reach sheryl, she walked next door. i went back down to the house and saw the dog was at the house but the car was gone. i called her office several times and they hadn t seen her. sheryl s daughter-in-law tabitha called the sheriff s office to report her missing.
national forest. within hours of discovering irene bryant s body, detectives learned $300 had been withdrawn from the bryants accounts using an atm card in duckstown, tennessee. they had a picture from the machine. the man that had concealed his head and face that was able to successfully use the brients atm. whoever making the withdrawal, it it wasn t 79-year-old john bryant. but time and geography were working against the lawmen. we spent weeks everywhere in that it entire area. we did everything from vehicle patrol, atv patrolling, horseback, on foot, everywhere. john bryant had seemingly vanished from the face of the earth. the fbi posted a $10,000 reward for information, but the bryant case went cold. until meredith emerson loomed on the lawmen s radar. our lead investigator began following that case, and immediately there were some
her dog ella as she came down the trail. it was a struggle and meredith with her martial artsz skills, as hilton tells it, nearly got the best of his. she disarmed him, taking away his knife and the police baton. i lost control of both the bat and the knife. she was real quick with her hands and had no hesitation about grabbing weapons and everything. not only that, she was hard to subdue. fought like hell, man. hilton said they scrapped so hard they tumbled off the trail. separated by a few yards from the baton, the dog s leash, the water bottles, objects very importantly soon to be recovered. meredith meanwhile kept right on hilton. she started fighting again. i had to fight her again for several minutes. and her doing that is what got
he s always trying to get one step ahead of the law. he s always doing something a little bit wrong but all my clients, they do that, too. it sounds like you re talking about kind of a charming guy. he was charming. he was personable. he was a fellow that you d want to meet. which are all skills you need to be a successful con man if you re going to keep an edge. what the lawyer and movie producer had a falling out with hilton over all things but a dog. dogs seem to to be very important with him. they were. he wound up with my dog. what do you mean? i had a dog, nice little golden retreefr. had him in the backyard. all of a sudden i come back one day, the dog is gone. of course i m very upset about it. then i find out that gary took the dog. he stole your dog. yeah. as the profile of hilton became clearer and became more troubling, investigators looking for him and meredith were desperate for any lead on his whereabouts. and it they were about to get