meredith on blood mountain. the man hunt was on. we put the face out. it s plastered all over the atlanta area. yes. the apb went well past 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 had seen him just about the time they learned of the sad case of another woman who had gone missing. sheryl dunlap, a nurse and mother. 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 ladd. 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 s just not like her.
everyone who 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 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. tonya said she didn t show up for work, i knew there was a problem. after the missing person s report was filed, the friends heard about a car that looked like sheryl s spotted on the side of the highway leading into tallahassee. they headed up there. it was sheryl s car and immediately they sent a deputy up there and just took over from that point. a