>> like it had been purposely flattened. >> if someone had her, she's afraid. >> we're had a killer running around loose. >> could that movie hold the key to this new mystery? >> he is sending women out into the woods. is that the template for what he does? >> if anyone can survive it, it was her. if anyone could fight, it was maria. >> our national forests are of refuge for folk who is want to get away from the city and have a sense of peace. but you have to be aware of your surroundings all the time. because you just never know. >> reporter: the splendors of america's national parks and forestlands are poems just waiting to be written by each new visitor. from the cathedrals of the rockies -- to the quiet glades and old growth of the appalachians. it's here in the parks we have the promise of stepping out of the hubbub of our chattering daily routines that was the kind of serenity meredith emerson sought on a crisp new years day in the north georgia mountains -- not more than foothills really for a young woman who loved to trail climb her native rockies. it was 2008 as the young sales assistant set out from buford, georgia, with her dog, ella. her roomie, julia karrenbauer, from college days, had slept in that morning. >> she had left me a note. just a little note on a chalkboard and it said, "took ella. went hiking." not where. not when. not when i'm gonna be back. and so, it wasn't really anything to -- you know, out of the ordinary. >> reporter: meredith, like roomie julia, was a dog person. she'd doted on ella, her black lab mix, since finding her at a rescue shelter. >> she had two dogs growing up. and -- she wanted one of her own. and so, she just kind talked about it and researched what she wanted and definitely wanted to rescue a dog. and finally found one. went out, loved her, brought her home. and it really was the light of her life. >> reporter: julia, the roommate, didn't know that meredith and ella, the black lab, were heading 40-miles north to blood mountain in the chatahoochie national forest. despite the creepy teen-slasher-movie name, blood mountain is one of the most popular places to hike in the southeast. the famous appalachian trail to maine takes off from just south of here. back in buford the roommate spent her new year's day with friends and didn't notice that meredith hadn't come home till the next morning, a back to work day. >> she would leave ella in my room and i would take care of her in the morning. and i'm like, "oh, ella's not here." it's -- that was a little strange to me. and i called her cell phone and it went straight to voicemail. and thought maybe she was at work. >> when did you become anxious, julia? >> when i got to work, she worked with a good friend of ours. the friend called me and said, "meredith didn't show up for work." and meredith was always at work. she was the first one at work. >> reporter: reliable meredith wasn't where she was supposed to be. julia called the sheriff's office. then, she and some of meredith's other friends assembled a search party. maybe she'd twisted her ankle hiking and taken a tumble. they started with that note on the chalkboard. >> do you know where "i'm going hiking" would naturally be? >> we had a few ideas. we took some books that she had and some places that she highlighted and kinda just started driving. >> reporter: the friends split up looking for meredith's car at trailheads she'd marked in her hiking guides. >> there was four of us in the car, we were trying to you know, call park rangers and anybody that may have seen her or her car. and then -- a friend of hers found her car, called us, and said, "i found it, and there was snow on it." >> reporter: the car was in a parking area at the base of blood mountain. >> and we drove as fast as we could there, and just knew, you know, it was just that sinking feeling when you first see it. >> reporter: the friends raced up the blood mountain feeder path to the appalachian trail -- but no trace of meredith or ella. so, by nightfall the search became all the more urgent as a cold front moved in and temperatures on blood mountain plunged below zero. at daybreak, thursday now, the friends were joined by deputies from the local sheriffs office. john cagel, just shy of retirement, was the agent in charge for the georgia bureau of investigation, the state's top cops. >> we received a request from a local agency to help a missing hiker. >> reporter: the case of the hiker missing for two days didn't look good to the seasoned detective because of some suspicious items that had been found out on the trail. >> what were the things that were found out in that trail area that you thought were alarming? >> a couple of water bottles, a dog leash, and a police expandable baton. >> this is a piece of professional gear? >> yes. it's just a metal pipe that is expandable. every officer in the country pretty much carries one. >> did those artifacts, the water bottle, the baton, found together tell you - - suggest something ominous? >> yes. we found those items in an area where the ground had appeared to have been disturbed. then, we became concerned that possibly a struggle took place there. >> reporter: meredith's water bottles, ella's leash, and signs of a struggle. nothing about the scene looked good to the veteran lawman, especially that expandable police baton. he called in help. >> we eventually partnered with over 18 or 19 police agencies to help for the search for meredith. >> reporter: her friends were naturally beside themselves. >> you know, your heart just broke. 'cause you think something happened. somebody had a weapon. and her stuff was there. >> so, you're thinking at the very least she's been abducted? >> yup. it was so hard because it wasn't something that we could talk about until we could actually prove that. >> reporter: cops commandeered a park building as headquarters. >> we began getting information pretty quickly. >> from people who had hiked the trails that day? >> right. >> remembered her? >> remembered her. and we began to get disturbing news of a strange lookin' individual with meredith who also had a dog. >> thumbnail description. this other person, what were you hearing? >> strange lookin'. just a wiry kind of guy. >> older guy? >> older guy. >> we even developed a vehicle description, a white van. >> reporter: the lead on the van came from this photo taken by a hiker in the blood mountain parking lot the night before meredith emerson went missing. a be-on-the-lookout-for went out for the guy driving a white van accompanied by his reddish dog. >> it is going to a white male between the ages of 50 and 60 years old, approximately 160 pounds. it is described as he had bad dental. he had a dark reddish retriever. >> we put out that information through the media in atlanta and actually got a call from someone who said, "i think i know who this is."3 c3 alguien que lo conocía. >> i just turned white. i felt the blood leave my face. >> reporter: meredith emerson had not been the only one missing in the forest. >> if she's still alive and someone has her, she's afraid! if it's fresh brewed, it's breakfast. have breakfast for breakfast. the fresh-made, from our kitchen. the egg white delight. only from mcdonald's. so what are you having for breakfast? ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] get $37 entire house installation, plus free pad upgrade when you buy stainmaster carpet and pad at lowe's. plus free pad upgrade to you, they're more than just a pet. so, protect them with k9 advantix® ii. its broad-spectrum protection kills fleas, ticks & mosquitoes too. right now, save up to $10 on select k9 advantix® ii flea & tick products. at petsmart®. baand frustrating. e tough. but now, there's a better way. introducing the first-ever raid defense system. it attacks the bugs you see. controls the bugs you don't see... and prevents... by keeping bugs out. the raid defense system... get the answers. beat the bugs. raid. kills bugs dead. scjohnson. a family company. and a tablet when i'm an illustrator. 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[ male announcer ] colgate total® advanced whitening. so what ya got on deck? skyfall. lean in, then some pinterest, you? twitter. minecraft and then some hunger games. boom. wow, you guys are all set, huh? oh yeah, new amazon fire phone. it comes with amazon prime - tons of cool stuff for no extra charge. really? it comes with amazon prime? yeah, there's so much to watch. i've been on this earth nine years, i've never seen anything like it. the new amazon fire phone, with a full year of prime included. exclusively on at&t. >> reporter: meredith emerson and her lab, ella, were two days missing on georgia's blood mountain early in a freezing january of 2008. her friends had alerted the authorities and people from all over greater atlanta were scouring the hiking trails. so many volunteered, they couldn't use all of them. >> people just showed up and just said, "i have a daughter who likes to hike. i have a sister who, i think, could have been meredith. any -- you know, easily." and they just volunteer their time. >> reporter: but the search in the national forest had become something more ominous than a lost hiker incident. meredith had been last seen in the company of an unsavory looking stranger and law enforcement was about to identify him. the tip came from john tabor, an atlanta businessman. he was watching the continuing news coverage of missing meredith during his morning workout. >> when they started giving the description of the person of interest, my ears really perked up. i think i just turned white at -- at one point. i felt the blood leave my face. >> this has got to be gary hilton. hilton was a guy who'd worked for tabor on and off for years, first as a telemarketer then as an independent contractor for tabor's siding business. he'd even lived for a while in this building tabor owned. >> what was the thought that was taking shape as you're listening to this? >> the first thing that -- that really got my attention is -- is where the event happened, where she went missing, blood mountain. i knew that was a place he liked to hang out up in north georgia mountains. that he had a dog with him. and most importantly, was -- was the evidence that they had found at the scene. i knew hilton always had an expandable police baton with him. the tip and a name quickly led to a georgia driver's license for 61-year old gary michael hilton. >> reporter: investigators showed the photo to hikers who id'd him as the scruffy mystery man seen with meredith on blood mountain. the manhunt was on. >> we put that name and face out. >> and that's plastered all over the metro atlanta area. >> it is. >> reporter: the apb went well beyond metro georgia. hiltons name and picture were all over the regional news. light bulbs began going off to the south around tallahassee, florida's capitol, 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 saw him about the time they learned of the sad case of another woman who'd gone missing. cheryl dunlap a nurse and mother. when cheryl didn't turn up for church one december sunday in 2007 and then missed her sunday school class, red flags went up. >> sunday morning, at church, i turned around and looked at her usual spot and she wasn't there. >> and she didn't teach her class? >> she didn't. >> and immediately, we knew something was wrong because that's just not like her. >> reporter: everyone who knew her agreed. 46-year-old cheryl 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 coworker. when monday morning rolled around and tanya still hadn't been able to reach cheryl she walked next door. >> i went back down to her house and saw that the dog was at the house. but the car was gone. i called her office and they hadn't seen her. >> reporter: cheryl's daughter-in-law, tabitha, called the sheriff's office to report her missing. >> when tanya said she didn't show up for work, i knew that there was a problem. >> reporter: after that missing persons report was filed, the friends heard about a car that looked like cheryl's spotted on the side of the highway leading into tallahassee. they headed up there. >> it was cheryl's car. and immediately, they -- they sent a deputy up there and just took over from that point. >> are you apprehensive? >> yeah, i was very uneasy. i knew that there was something wrong. >> reporter: cheryl's car was parked well off the highway. florida department of law enforcement agent, annie white. >> it was pretty clear from the beginning that that's not some place that she would've parked it as well as the tire looked like it had been purposely flattened on the vehicle. >> reporter: an abandoned car, a slashed tire. searchers, law enforcement, volunteers began fanning out into the adjacent 57,000 acre apalacacola national forest -- all of them with dread in their hearts. >> i would be devastated if something like this happened to my family and so that's why i want to be out here and try to help as much as i can. >> there were massive searches in town. thousands of people showed up to comb the woods looking for her. it was clear very early on that this was unusual for her she would not have gotten into the car with someone. she was just not the kind of person who would have disappeared. >> reporter: tallahassee democrat senior writer, jennifer portman, covered the story. >> we're talking about north florida, in the panhandle area. people are bound by their schools, by their family, by their churches. >> and sunday school teachers with children and a grandchild don't go missing. >> that's exactly right. >> reporter: her friends and family were as baffled as the police by cheryl's disappearance. law enforcement was trying to put the pieces together. when they looked into cheryl's background, nothing jumped out at them -- two sons, a long-settled divorce. no boyfriends. then on tuesday, four days after she was last seen, the cops got her bank records. something was up. >> we found where some atm activity had occurred in leon county. >> so that's a big break? >> yes, sir. and then upon viewing that video in leon county, it was clear it was not her. this was a male subject using her card. he was disguising his face. so we knew at that point definitely that it was probably not gonna be a good outcome for miss dunlap. >> reporter: the disguised man made three separate withdrawals of $700. the atm he tapped was in downtown tallahassee near the campus of the state u, miles from where cheryl's car was found. >> so you and the team stake out the atm machine. >> we stayed there several days, day and night, you know, watching the atm. and -- he never came back to that one. >> reporter: the search for cheryl stretched on for weeks. >> we went out, a lot of us went out, on our own a lot of us went out and searched the woods and went to places we thought, you know, she could possibly be. >> the more time goes on, inevitably the fear sinks in. >> yeah. just sleepless nights. just because i'm thinkin', "if she's still alive and someone has her, she's afraid." >> reporter: mid-december, two weeks after cheryl disappeared, some hunters out training their dogs in the national forest noticed a vulture circling in the sky above them. and one went to check it out and discovered the body. a female body missing its head and hands, a grisly fact not released at the time. >> you think that this is someone trying to conceal the identity? >> very much. >> reporter: it took a dna sample from her toothbrush to identify the remains as those of cheryl dunlap. >> someone called and said, "laura, they found a body." we pulled over on the side of the road and just -- you know, just -- >> that was it, huh? the awareness was there. >> it was surreal. you know, the thing you hear about in movies just that it was so close to home that in our small community that something like this could happen. now with cops in florida looking hard at gary hilton in the dunlap murder, and georgia convinced he had taken meredith emerson authorities started hearing about yet another national forest homicide. this one in north carolina. >> so, then you've gotta be saying, all your team of investigators, "what do we have here?" >> that's right. and so now, we're really wondering who we have here, and -- and where -- where is he? and -- and more importantly, where's meredith? >> do we have a killer running around loose in the national forest? >> reporter: concern for meredith deepens. but her friends know something that man on the mountain couldn't. >> a blue belt in aikido. and a blue belt in judo. if anybody could survive it, it was meredith. sam was exactly what i needed, ya know? 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could she still be alive somewhere out there in georgia's chatahoochie national forest? and did the 24-year-old hiker have a prayer, if she were in the clutches of mystery man gary hilton? the search on blood mountain went into a third day. >> we had to hope. i mean, we were there from sunup to sundown, plus, i mean, we were there through the night and the cold and all the searchers. but if anybody could survive it, it was meredith. and if anybody could fight somebody like that, it was meredith. >> reporter: meredith's parents had flown in from colorado and joined the searchers. peggy bailey, a family friend, was their spokeswoman. >> let me tell you something. meredith emerson could do anything. she is feisty she is strong she is tiny and petite 120 pounds, but let me tell -- i have every hope. she can run those mountains. she is a strong person. if anybody can survive this, she can. >> reporter: the missing woman was deceptively strong -- not just an experienced hiker but an accomplished martial arts enthusiast as well. >> a blue belt in aikido, and a blue belt in judo. >> so, take her on at your peril. >> absolutely. i mean, she would fight you. and she would actually come home and tell me, you know, "i threw this 220 pound man. i -- i beat him up today in class." >> reporter: by now, with half of georgia looking for this gary hilton, authorities outside tallahassee, florida were wondering about his connections with a missing woman there. it was then that the detectives got solid information about another killing in a national forest. >> we were in our command post, and -- and a detective walked in and said that they had a case took place in north carolina involving a -- a husband and wife. that the -- the wife had been murdered in the pisgah national forest. >> reporter: that detective was working an unsolved case that had cops in north carolina bewildered. david mahoney is sheriff of transylvania county, a beautiful place with an ominous name that has nothing to do with fangs dripping blood. >> we have some wonderful attractions here. all those things along with the slower -- slower pace of life is what brings folks and keeps folks here. >> reporter: folks like john and irene bryant who, after raising a family, retired here far from the brutal winters of upstate new york and close to the hiking trails they loved. holly bryant is the youngest of their four children. >> they loved the outdoors. when they were first married, they used to go out hiking in the mountains. they would take us hiking. and as they got older, they'd take the grandchildren out hiking, too. >> reporter: the bryants had a lifetime of outdoors experience, had hiked all over the world. >> my father completed the appalachian trail, which is 2,000 miles from georgia to maine. they traveled extensively to new zealand and all through europe, all through america, especially in southwestern and northwestern united states. >> reporter: in late october, two-months before meredith emerson disappeared, the couple set off on a day hike in the 500-thousand acre pisgah national forest. no one heard from them for two weeks. >> they always let us know if they were going on one of their many trips. so, it was totally unlike them to just disappear. >> reporter: their son bob flew in from texas. >> the newspapers were around the doorstep. he broke into the home and -- and found their breakfast was still out on the table, but obviously many days old. and he knew something was terribly wrong. >> my brother searched. went up and down every little back road throughout the park. >> reporter: he found their car at a trailhead in the national forest. now, sheriff mahoney's office was involved. >> the rescue squad began a search assuming that there had been some medical problem or illness that had fallen upon them. >> in my heart i -- i knew that wasn't the case. there -- there was just no way they would both be -- both be hurt like that. they were very, very experienced. >> unfortunately, it was not very long after we began that search that we discovered the body of mrs. bryant. >> it was a sense of finality. i knew she was gone already, but that little glimmer, particle of hope was extinguished when they found her body. >> reporter: irene bryant's remains were located 30-yards from where her son had come upon the car. she had been bludgeoned to death. but where was the husband? >> we began an even more extensive search for mr. bryant. that search really involved the entire area of the pisgah national forest. >> reporter: within hours of discovering irene bryant's body detectives learned $300 had been withdrawn from the bryant's accounts using an atm card in duckstown, tennessee. they had a picture from the machine. >> a man that had concealed his -- his head and face. that was able to successfully use the bryants' atm. >> reporter: whoever was making the withdrawal it wasn't 79-year-old john bryant. but time and geography were working against the lawmen. >> we spent weeks everywhere in that entire area. we did everything from vehicle patrol, atv patrolling, horseback, on foot, everywhere. >> reporter: 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 similarities that we saw between the two cases. both of these incidents occurred on forest service land, and we really felt like that the two were probably connected. >> we may go years without a homicide. this was very, very different. do we have a killer running around loose in a national forest? >> reporter: in georgia, the searchers looking for meredith emerson and her dog ella on blood mountain were hoping and praying that they were not dealing with a homicide. >> do everything we can do. that if she's up there we get her out of there -- out of there safely, and if she's not up there, to do everything we can do to eliminate that as a possibility and continue the investigation from there. >> reporter: georgia authorities were compositing a profile of gary hilton who was starting to look like a person of interest not only the meredith emerson disappearance case but in at least two unsolved murders in national forest. their findings were deeply troubling. coming up -- might a movie hold the key to this case? >> the premise of the movie is we're gonna take some women into the woods and then poof. they're gonna be hunted down. >> reporter: maybe once investigators learn who was behind it. >> is gary involved in this? >> gary is helping me throughout. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] get $37 entire house installation, plus free pad upgrade when you buy stainmaster carpet and pad at lowe's. my dentist suggested that i switch my toothpaste. my dentist recommended that i use sensodyne. sensodyne is helping me with my sensitivity but also it's toothpaste that is going to clean and protect your mouth. that is going to clean in the locker room, we are all the same. win, or lose. we get what we need to come back... for more. gatorade recover. 20 grams of pro-caliber protein, from the locker rooms of the pros, now in yours. ♪ [ female announcer ] aveeno® introduces new positively radiant targeted tone corrector. it helps reduce the look of stubborn brown spots in just two weeks. what are you waiting for? 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[ male announcer ] enjoy authentic italian at home. bertolli, italy is served. and also try bertolli meals for one. bertolli, italy is served. instigante para conseguir peleas i decided to go and see what was going on. it was a bizarre scene. he showed he was missing several teeth and he explained he taken a pair of pliers and removed some of his teeth and he said enjoyed doing that because it frightened people. >> he seemed to enjoy showing himself in that manner? >> he was acting animate and very talkative. >> he fired hilton and turned around and claimed tabor owed him money. in 2007, the siding guy said he feared for his safety. >> he took the threats seriously. >> i armed myself with a glock nine millimeter and assault rifle. i started driving around so he wouldn't know what vehicle i was in. it was a terrifying ordeal not to know what would happen. to have someone jump out of the bushes and maybe an assassinati assassination. >> when are he went to the police, it seemed to do the trick. >> within a day or two, he packed up his belongings. >> put all the stuff in and he was gone? >> he was relieved to see john hilton in his rear view mirror. he was none the less puzzled. >> when you around someone for ten yes, nothing that happens to suggests a demonic violent personality that materialized somehow. he had part of the picture. the defense lawyer added more. sam defended hilton years back on a minor offense. >> we're get a jury trial and a direct case possession. he was accused of a misdemeanor and he wasn't a charity. he raised money to help the little children. of course he pocketed it. >> did he have a job to speak of? >> his job was scanning. >> he was a little tall. >> when are he got tripped up, he could call on you? >> he did. >> he wears two hats. he is a movie producer. more of the release. his low budget titles are seen more often in stalls than the local multiplex. this is his latest release. >> i can't do that. >> don't do it. >> try not to make it gory, but at the end of the day, a little blood, a little sex, a little violence can't hurt. >> as it turned out, they were particularly interested in his first movie. he made it back in 1985 and the assistant of his scam artist client, gary hilton. >> it was a movie that we would take women into the woods. we're gonna befriend those women. and then poof they're gonna be hunted down and killed. >> is gary involved in this in the sense of a scriptwriter? >> gary is helping me throughout and then helping the star figure out how to be a serial killer. >> these are ideas you guys are knocking around? >> gary has a dark side sometimes here and there. he wants to get involved in the movie but he wants to make it darker and -- and more horrible. each time he'd like to have more blood, more gore have rape -- have -- more killings things like that. we -- we -- i thought we toned it down and made a better movie. >> he suggested that we do it up in the woods. he helped me find some of the locations. we found the cabin. >> reporter: that cabin used in the movie happened to be in the chatahoochie national forest just north of where meredith emerson went missing. >> he's around the table as you guys collaborate on this film. how is he behaving around your -- your group of movie people? >> when the movie was being made he's animated but interesting. >> so, he's not a loner? >> no. he's a loner. he's a psychopath. he's a sociopath. he's always trying to get with being one step ahead of the law. he's always doing something a little bit wrong. but all my clients they do that too. >> but, you know, it sounds like you're talking about kind of a charming guy in a group of people. >> he was charming. he was personable. he was a fellow that you'd wanna meet. >> which are all skills you need to be a successful conman. you're gonna keep an edge. but the lawyer and movie producer had a falling out with hilton over, of all things, a dog. >> dogs seem to be important to him. >> dogs were very important to him. he wound up with my dog, but -- >> what do you mean? >> well -- i had a dog -- nice little golden retriever. we had him in the backyard. all of a sudden i come back one day, the dog is gone. and course i'm very upset about it. and then i find out that, gary took the dog. >> he stole the dog? >> yeah. >> reporter: as their profile of clearer and became more troubling, investigatiors looking for him and meredith were desperate for any lead on his whereabouts. and they were about to get one. >> i answered my cell phone. and i heard his voice. and i couldn't believe it. a trap is set to lure gary hilton from his hiding spot. >> i was trying to play it cool. >> reporter: and -- a dramatic new lead! could it lead police to meredith? >> she could be alive and we just can't let up. maggie. smile! woah, this takes really good pictures! maggie wants some hands-on experience. hands-on experience... with samsung. but she's been going about it all the wrong way. i have? yeah, you have. luckily for maggie, there is a place for her to touch, try and play with all of the devices she's been dying to get her hands on. the samsung experience shop, only at best buy. trade in any working smartphone and get $50 towards the purchase of select samsung galaxy smartphones. to you, they're more than just a pet. so, protect them with k9 advantix® ii. its broad-spectrum protection kills fleas, ticks & mosquitoes too. right now, save up to $10 on select k9 advantix® ii flea & tick products. at petsmart®. ♪ [ male announcer ] get $37 entire house installation, plus free pad upgrade when you buy stainmaster carpet and pad at lowe's. k sparber, you're up. alright, let's do it! 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[cheering] the fastest in-home wifi for your entire family. only from xfinity. survivalist odd ball, the more they feared for her. >> i hope that if he realized that this would be helpful that his heart would be softened and turned. we need him to come forward with information. so, please, please have the courage to come forward. we need you. >> reporter: the cops 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. and i couldn't believe it. he pretended and acted as though nothing was wrong. >> so, he didn't let on to you that he was the subject of a manhunt? >> absolutely not. he acted as though he knew nothing about it, which apparently was the case he apparently had no idea. he apologized at length for his past behavior and on the terms of which he left. he said that he was ill. and that now he felt better. and he realized the errs of his ways and he was ready to get back to work. >> reporter: startled but thinking fast, tabor tried to lure hilton to an agreed upon location with a promise of money. >> i was trying to play it cool, as though i didn't know anything about what was going on. i told him that i would give him a check for $800. and we discussed a place to leave the check. >> were you baiting that -- that place that he knew to come and show up and? >> well, it certainly was my objective to -- to get him to a place where authorities could apprehend him. >> reporter: the trap was set at a building of tabor's where hilton had lived for a time. the swat team was dispatched. would hilton fall for the pick up some money ruse? and what about the missing woman? >> in your gut, did you think meredith was still alive? >> you know, meredith's name was meredith hope emerson. and we all hoped that she was alive. but, you know, the longer these things carry on, as time passes, you continue to hope but it diminishes after time. >> reporter: as the manhunt continued, there was a glimmer of hope. friday morning, four days after meredith vanished, the u.s. marshall's service traced activity on meredith's bank cards. >> the card was used at a local bank, 15 miles from the abduction site. and then again 50 miles south of the abduction site, and then the next day, 80 miles. these were attempts where no money was taken. >> which suggests what? >> suggested that meredith wouldn't give 'em the right pin. >> which also suggests maybe she's still alive. >> that's right. >> reporter: investigators meanwhile had been able to trace the phone gary hilton used earlier to call his old boss john tabor who'd set the trap for him. that call was made from a restaurant about 50 miles from blood mountain. hilton was moving south, toward atlanta. metro pd swat concealed themselves in and near tabor's building. that was the drop point where his old boss had promised hilton he'd leave him $800. >> you stake out the location, you're surveilling it, and? >> he didn't show. >> no show? >> no show. we're still looking and -- and wondering where could this guy be? now, we have him 50 miles from blood mountain. >> reporter: the veteran agent working his last gbi case before retirement was talking constantly meanwhile with meredith's parents. her father dave emerson -- >> i appeal to everyone to search their hearts and memories for anything that you remember and do to help us find meredith. >> after i met the emersons, i knew that i had to tell 'em everything. i couldn't hold back any information from these two people. they were terrified. >> why did you take it personally? >> this case, it was a little bit different, because not only me, but the other investigators recognized early on that we just -- we -- we have to embrace this family, and -- and -- and tell 'em everything, even though what we were telling them was not good news. >> reporter: hilton. meredith. her lab ella. the tipline kept ringing with leads good and bad. then, four days in, a friday afternoon, a shopper called to say that she'd found a black lab mix wandering around a supermarket parking lot. >> i was surprised to see any dog running around that parking lot and then to find out it was the one with mereidth was a surprise and a shock. >> reporter: she took the dog to an animal clinic where the vet was able to read an identity chip implanted in her. sure enough -- it was ella. but where was her owner meredith? now, events were moving quickly. right away came another tip. >> we get a call from a female acquaintance of hilton stating that she had just hung up the phone. he had called her and wanted money, and she commented that she said, "don't you know the world's lookin' for you?" and he hung up. >> reporter: hilton had called from a payphone at a convenience store near where meredith's dog had turned up. >> you have a living pet, a missing owner, and a phone which is somewhere in the vicinity of this -- >> yes. >> -- guy you believe is her abductor. >> while the -- the agents are searching in an area of the convenience store, they look in a dumpster in the parkin' lot. and it was in the dumpster we found meredith's identification, her purse, bags of bloody clothing and at that point, we felt like this was not going to turn out as we had hoped. >> reporter: the purse, three bloody fleece tops. agent cagel and his boss gave meredith's parents the grim update. then, around eight that night, still friday, not far from where tabor had set the trap for hilton, more than one eagle-eyed citizen noticed a man emptying a white van. >> at the gas station up here, there's a white van and a red dog wandering around. >> reporter: calls lit up 911. this one lasted for 12 minutes. >> dekalb 911. what's the exact location? >> i -- i have the, uh -- the person of interest in that missing woman case is at this chevron gas station on ashford dunwoody. >> the van is there? >> the van is here, the dog is her -- the red dog. and i saw the man's face. and i've been watching the news and i know it's him. i know it's him. and he's emptying all the stuff out of his van. he's looking around like he is as guilty as sin. i can go take him down if you want. >> no, sir. stay right there. >> here comes the cops. yes. yes. >> the police are there? >> oh, they got him now. two cruisers pulled up on him. two of dekalb's finest. >> reporter: gary hilton was under arrest. detectives swarmed over the filthy astrovan and inventoried his possessions looking for any clue to meredith's fate. a gbi spokeman updated the media. >> it is a missing persons investigation right now and that's how we're pursuing it. an important key might be any knowledge that mr. hilton has. >> take me inside your situation room when you get the news that atlanta's got him. >> we're very pleased with the fact that now we have this man. but we can't lose sight of the fact we don't have meredith yet. and -- and the possibility that she -- she could be alive, and we just can't let up. and so, we attempt to interview him. he refuses. >> no statements. i'm waiving no rights. i want an attorney appointed to represent me. i want to speak with that attorney and i want that attorney present during questioning. >> reporter: cops had their man. but not meredith. could they crack him? get from him the story of what had happened in the national forest? >> in your decades of law enforcement, agent, have you ever had a session of interviews like this one? >> no. no, he was very straightforward. and was very nonchalant about the whole thing. a toshiba touch laptop just $349. that sounds good! 8-sharpie permanent markers, only $3.97. that sounds good! $99 for a 10-inch tablet with a built-in keyboard? that sounds good! get a smarter start to school. save $25 when you open a new walmart credit card account and spend $75 today at walmart. paid as a statement credit. offer valid through 12/31/14. apply today. save money. live better. walmart. walked in to a mcdonald's and discovereden an extraordinary burger with heaps of jalapeños... ...for only two dollars. within minutes, they had also discovered the phenomenon of "economnomnomics" nomnom... nom? nom nom the jalapeño double, try it now for just $2 on mcdonald's dollar menu and more. it's economnomnomcial. ♪ nom...nom...nom... and this is its wingman.friend. you can't have one without the other. bonnie and clyde. they go together. if you don't have a clean bum, what do you have? 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>> the body will be approximately 40 yards, or 120 feet, covered by leaves and, uh, brush. the head will be missing. >> where is the head? >> the only reason, by the way, the head was removed was forensically. >> yeah, right. >> reporter: a clearly shaken agent cagel told atlanta about the tragic outcome. >> at aprox 7:30 this evening, the body of meredith emerson was discovered in a wooded area. the specific information given as to the location of the body was given to me by gary hilton. >> reporter: the kidnapping charge was anted up. >> mr. hilton is being charged with one count of murder of meredith emerson. he has been taken into custody and taken to our detention center where he is being housed. >> in your decades of law enforcement agent, have you ever had a session of interviews like this one? >> no. no, he was very straightforward. and was very nonchalant about the whole thing. >> so you get down to the point where, well, with like meredith, i had $40 and several days' food. so i had to kill somebody in that -- in that period of time. >> reporter: after his initial confession, gary hilton, the man of stony silence, became a chatterbox, spilling out a story that sickened detectives who thought they'd heard everything. he started at the beginning with meredith's abduction right here on a trail on blood mountain. hilton said he ambushed meredith as she and her dog ella were coming down the path. there'd been a struggle and meredith with her martial arts skills, as hilton tells it, very nearly got the better of him. she disarmed hilton twice -- taking his knife and then his baton. >> i lost control of both weapons, both the knife and the bat. she's really quick with her hands and had no hesitation about grabbing weapons and everything. and not only that, she was hard to subdue. and she fought like hell, man. >> reporter: hilton said they scrapped so hard that they tumbled off the trail a few yards away now from the police baton, meredith's water bottles and ella's leash -- objects soon to be recovered. meredith, meanwhile, kept right on hilton. >> she started fighting again and i had to fight her again for several minutes and her doing that is what got me caught. cause if i'd been back to the crime scene just a few minutes sooner, just several minutes sooner, i would have beat those people that found the bat and i would have picked it up. >> he talks about fighting with meredith. that she almost took him. >> i don't really believe everything that he says but that part i believe. there's no doubt that she fought. and, you know, maybe it's a little bit that kinda gives you a little smirk. to know that, you know, she almost -- she almost got him. she gave him a run for his money. and i'm sure that he may have thought, "i shoulda maybe chosen somebody else." >> reporter: hilton eventually wore meredith down. by then, they were way off the main trail. hilton tied his captive to a tree and doubled back to where he been stripped of his weapons. his bayonet was gone lost somewhere on the forest floor and the police baton had already been picked up by a hiker. hilton returned to meredith. the recovery of that expandable3 el bastón de metal. >> it didn't work? >> none of it worked. she's still telling me it's, it'll, it's gonna work. it's gonna work. must be a wrong bank. >> reporter: hilton next tried to use meredith's cards at a bank 50 miles south in gainsville georgia. again, no dice. he made camp that night with his captive in a remote spot in the forest. the next morning hilton attempted to use meredith's bank cards 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. what nature of man is gary hilton? well, listen to the confession tapes about what he says about meredith's dog, ella. hilton says he knew the pet had that identifying chip when he let the dog go in the supermarket parking lot. >> if i wanted to ensure that, uh, no one would associate the dog with her, i would have killed the dog. there is no way i could do that. >> reporter: he was too much of a softie to kill the dog, as he explained it, but poor meredith, ella's owner, never had a chance. >> you asked whether she was doomed from the beginning. >> right. >> yes, she was. >> why? >> once you've done it, you're either gonna kill her or get caught. there's no other solution. if that sounds cold and cruel, yeah. it was. >> reporter: in his unbelievably cold recollection of the crime, hilton said he told meredith he was going to let her go after four days of captivity. >> we're packing up and telling her, i'm taking her. i'm gonna release her. >> reporter: instead, hilton went to the van, came back with a tire iron and bludgeoned meredith emerson her 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? >> you know, i don't know. >> reporter: hilton had confessed to killing meredith emerson but what about those other cases in the national forests? a woman in florida. the elderly couple in north carolina. >> he would not talk about anybody to us other than meredith. >> 'cause you have to wonder when the switch was thrown in this man. >> i know. >> how many decades maybe does this go back. >> i don't know. do people just wake up when they're 61 and start to do th -- these kinds of crimes the way he did them? and, you know, i would think not. how a terrifying movie fantasy -- morphed into real-life. >> do you think that's the template for what he does decades later? >> that's what's so chilling. while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. celebrex can be taken with or without food. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, like celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions, or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. don't take celebrex if you have bleeding in the stomach or intestine, or had an asthma attack, hives, other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history. and find an arthritis treatment for you. visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. but do you know what's the in your skincare? visit celebrex.com and ask your doctor about celebrex. neutrogena naturals. a line of naturally derived skincare with carefully chosen, clinically proven ingredients and no harsh chemicals. healthy skin-starts from within. neutrogena naturals. as parents we hold our kids' hands when crossing the street so think of the internet as the world's busiest street. teach your kids to surf and post responsibly. they'll be safer with a dedicated crossing guard... the more you know. >> reporter: 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. her mother susan addressed hilton. >> i believe he is nothing more hilton admitted nothing beyond the emerson murder. >> is this the first time you ever done anything like that before? >> i'll let my attorney answer. >> reporter: now, investigators from a half-dozen southeastern states as well as fbi profilers were rummaging through hilton's past. by the time he was captured he wasn't much more than a vagrant in a van but his past was more complex. as an army veteran, hilton had earned an associates college degree, gotten a private pilots license on the gi bill and been married three times before the wheels apparently came off. true-crime author fred rosen has written 25 books. his latest is "trails of death" about hilton. >> to underestimate him is foolish. this is a very dangerous person. >> reporter: according to rosen, he was shaped by a number of factors. hilton, who never knew his biological father, was raised by his mother and a stepfather, a horse trainer from argentina. >> do juvenile authorities run into young gary hilton along the way? >> when gary is 14 years old, he takes a gun and he shoots his stepfather. he doesn't kill him. but he wounds him very severely. and he's institutionalized. they put him in a -- in a mental hospital out in miami. >> reporter: hilton went to high school in hialeah, florida, played in a rock band and eventually joined the army. a cocky hilton made sure that the cops who arrested him knew of his 1960s army service in a unit armed with tactical nuclear weapons. >> i've handled atomic bombs. okay? i was in special weapons, and i've handled atomic bombs that [ bleep ] big that weigh seventy-nine pounds. >> reporter: and hilton bragged to the officers about his con man criminal past. >> i've never worked full-time anyway, in my life, except for the u.s. army. i was a criminal, okay? i was a career criminal, unlawful charity from '73 to '93. okay? for twenty years. he's collecting money for charities. >> he's a scam artist, huh? >> he's a scam artist, exactly. >> reporter: and what about that hilton's dip into the movies with that semi-slasher flick "deadly run" he helped make in the 1980s? >> this film where he's setting women out in the woods and killing 'em, hunting 'em, do you think that's the template for what he does in fact later on, decades later? >> yes, i do. that's what's so chilling to me about the whole thing, because in the millennium, he'll make -- he'll make art into reality. >> you can hear the echoes of this? >> you're already beginning to see the -- the -- the lack of conscience. >> reporter: in his interview with the georgia bureau of investigation, hilton put forth a grandiose sense of himself, a renaissance man of many hats. >> i'm a philosopher. i'm a soldier. i'm a psychic, and i'm an artist. >> what do you mean by artist? >> my art is my life, and my art is weird. >> he's kind of a philosopher/king, isn't he? "i'm an artist and you poor, dumb cops don't have the luxury of being able to think the big cosmic thoughts that i do." >> he almost feels sorry for them that they can't keep up with him when he starts going about this, that and the other thing. >> reporter: hoping for crumbs of clues in those other open cases -- murders in the national forests -- the agents wanted to keep hilton talking. >> where all have you hiked? where all have you been all over the united states as far as -- >> oh, i know what you're getting at, the unsolved murders. >> gary hilton thinks he's smart. is he? >> gary has an iq of 120. and that's considered to be way above average. >> the reason i'm so seemingly intelligent is that i alone amongst almost anyone, including you dudes, have time to actually stop and think about things. >> he'll rattle on as long as someone'll listen to him. >> yes. >> on any topic under the sun, virtually, huh? >> yes. pick a topic, any topic. how about vulcanology? >> hey, don't you know the super volcano under yellowstone is over 70 volcanoes? when it erupts, it basically blankets the, you know, in a cone. the whole eastern seaboard and there is several feet of ash. >> reporter: the fast talking flim-flam man was on display in some of hilton's home videos found in his van. here's hilton giving a cop that stopped him some lip. >> you're the lawman. you are the law. i'm gonna check it out and if it ain't the law and you're wrong -- >> you come talk to me. >> i'm not talking to nobody, im filing and im suing because you're interrupting my work. >> you hear gary bragging about how smart he is, how well he does his job. but at the same time what you hear is -- is an incredible narcissistic personality, which is typical of serial killers. he sets up the camera. and there's gary going, "hundred and 171 pounds" and he starts pumping up his biceps like he's arnold schwarzenegger. i mean, he's you know, very narcissistic. >> reporter: so, why were detectives enduring hilton's self-centered ramblings? clearly, they were hoping he'd blurt out something about his involvement in those other unsolved national forest cases. but hilton was admitting to nothing. >> basically on our timeline, you basically are telling me that you committed no crimes. >> none. >> not between '97 or '95. >> '95. >> reporter: he'd escaped the death penalty in georgia, but despite his denials, hilton remained the prime suspect in the murder of the irene and john bryant. mr. bryant's remains had been found in january in the north carolina forest. >> as a result of the investigation in georgia, i was absolutely convinced at that point that gary hilton was our suspect. >> reporter: but there was another open homicide case that seemed to fit gary hilton like a custom-made suit. down in florida, the body of cheryl dunlap had been found in a national forest. her atm card stolen, the remains decapitated. detectives thought that fit hilton's mo to a tee. and gary hilton -- still playing the smartest kid in the class -- defied florida to come after him, all that time, all that money. >> if they want to spend a million dollars, two million to convict me, and then -- and then another two million to get death, and then another eight million to defend the death penalty and get around -- and get around to executing me seventeen years from now when i'm 78-years-old and i'm decrepit and anything, hey, they can do it. >> reporter: two tough florida prosecutors, it turned out, would be the match of his defiant taunt. >> my belief is, is this is an evil, bad person and there ought to be a consequence in life to evil acts. justice for cheryl. the hunt for evidence begins. >> she took the floors up, the seats out. she dismantled that van. rheumatologist about a biologic... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. humira works by targeting and helping to block a 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meredith emerson went missing. hilton was defying the authorites in florida to make the charges stick. >> if they want to spend a million dollars, two million to convict me and then -- and then another two million to get death -- hey, they can do it. >> reporter: leon county states attorney, willie meigs, had heard enough and indicted hilton for the murder of cheryl dunlap. >> willie, he's gone away for life. he's gonna be leaving georgia corrections in a pine box. why does florida even need to go to the expense of a capital murder trial? >> my belief is, is this is an evil, bad person and there ought to be a consequence in life to evil acts. i don't think murders ought to be cheaper the more you do. >> reporter: with the dunlap case looking like a carbon copy of the meredith emerson murder, you might think the case would be a gimme for the prosecutors. far from it. they wouldn't be allowed to introduce hilton's conviction in the emerson murder despite its similarity to cheryl's, not his connection with that horror movie "deadly run, nor the fact that he was the prime suspect in the murders of two elderly hikers in north carolina. florida department of law enforcement -- fdle -- special agent annie white was part of the team charged with making the case. months earlier the cops had developed a partial chronology for cheryl dunlap on the saturday she vanished. >> we started receiving calls, people saying, "you know, we saw her at wal- mart. we saw her here." so we started backtracking those just trying to get the timeline. >> reporter: the investigators knew that cheryl's morning had included some shopping in tallahassee, cashing a check at the bank and using a library computer to send some email to her son in the army. they even had a last sighting. witnesses identified cheryl as the woman peacefully reading a book here at a popular spot called leon sinks in the national forest. >> the couple that i interviewed that saw her that at the sink holes was very adamant that that was her. >> reporter: but the trail had gone cold at the tallahassee atm where a disguised man had withdrawn money using dunlap's bank cards. a month after cheryl went missing the "be on the lookout" for gary hilton during the meredith emerson investigation had the phones lighting up again. >> when he started hitting the news media, our citizens here started seeing him and immediately recognized him and started calling. >> reporter: and that tipline kept ringing. one caller remembered an odd guy with a handsome red dog. that sighting led investigators down another national forest path and to another discovery, more remains. >> he was positive it was mr. hilton, described the dog, the van. and so that was one of the camps where the bones were found. >> reporter: deep in the national forest, five miles from where cheryl dunlap's torso had been found, investigators came upon a charred pieces of a skull and the bony fragments of a human hand in the ashes of a campfire. >> they were badly burned. >> little camp fire pit kind of thing? >> yes, sir. and he had actually done a pretty good job of covering it up as well. he covered it up with straw and took measures to hide his tracks. >> reporter: the fire had done so thorough it was impossible to extract dna from the bones. whoever killed cheryl dunlap had gone to extraordinary lengths to eliminate any physical evidence. >> so you think that this is someone trying to conceal the identity? >> very much. >> chills must have gone up your spine when you heard the details of what had happened to meredith and how closely it matched cheryl. >> yes, sir. >> both taken in the woods, abducted, both decapitated. >> it was just, you know, eerily similar. >> reporter: there was one thing about tracking the odd guy with the red dog they had going for them. state's assistant prosecutor, georgia cappleman. >> fortunately for the investigation, if somebody saw gary michael hilton, they remembered him. he's got that kind of a face or presence that you don't forget, once we had the description we had tons of witnesses coming forward. >> reporter: while doing the legwork that was turning up more witnesses putting hilton in the area, agent white screened "deadly run", the horror- thriller about tracking down and killing women in the forest that gary hilton had worked on years earlier. >> are there scenes that you see in the movie that were reenacted in his actual spree of crimes? >> not in every detail. but there's definitely a lot of similarities. >> reporter: and investigators had those home movies of hilton to screen as well. >> watching the videos just was very educational. because i saw him by himself. i saw him with other people. >> reporter: people like this restaurant manager suffering a rant from hilton about his delivery drivers. >> you tell these guys to stop terror driving. has he received any driver safety education? >> i saw him with law enforcement. he had many different sides. >> i'm leaving im getting out of here. god almighty. >> and he thought he was the smartest bear in the woods? >> definitely. >> smarter than the officers apprehending him? >> definitely, definitely. >> reporter: they now had numerous hilton sightings around where cheryl dunlap vanished but despite all the investigative work by multiple sheriff's offices and the fdle. no witness came forward to put him together with cheryl dunlap. the nurse's remains were in such poor condition they told investigators nothing about how she died. but there were thousands of other pieces in the puzzle investigators were trying to solve. hilton's van, jammed to the roof with hundreds of items, was trucked to the florida department of law enforcement crime lab. >> our crime scene analyst spent day and night, literally weeks. >> that van was a mess, right? >> to process, she -- she lived in that van for weeks. she dismantled that van. every item that was in, it was taken out. and then the van, itself, was dismantled. she took the floors up, the headliner out, the seats out. every scrap of paper, every piece of hair. >> reporter: all that evidence from the van was added to items recovered from the dumpster outside atlanta where hilton had been captured. a georgia cop on blood mountain with a metal detector had found the bayonet meredith emerson had wrestled away from gary hilton. now investigators in florida had a theory. >> what was interesting about that knife is before we knew of mr. hilton, before he had killed miss emerson and been caught, our analyst in our lab showed us "this is the style. this is what the knife's gonna look at." >> reporter: cameras and memory cards were found in the van. the techie-detectives in the fdle computer lab were working overtime trying to unscramble deleted material from the evidence. and deep in their dna lab more than 700 samples were being analyzed in an attempt to find some link between gary hilton and the late cheryl dunlap. had gary hilton managed to outsmart them all? would florida be able to make the case against him? four years after cheryl's death it was finally going to trial. >> your palms are sweaty and your heart's beating. >> reporter: the dramatic case begins. how would it end? >> you could just see the jurors. i'm j-a-n-e and i have copd. i'm d-a-v-e and i have copd. i'm k-a-t-e and i have copd, but i don't want my breathing problems to get in the way my volunteering. that's why i asked my doctor about b-r-e-o. once-daily breo ellipta helps increase airflow from the lungs for a full 24 hours. and breo helps reduce symptom flare-ups that last several days and require oral steroids, antibiotics, or hospital stay. breo is not for asthma. breo contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. it is not known if this risk is increased in copd. breo won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden copd symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. breo may increase your risk of pneumonia, thrush, osteoporosis, 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back. happy connecting. >> reporter: gary hilton's trial for the florida murder of cheryl dunlap began in february 2011, a little more than four-years after he'd pleaded and skated the death penalty in georgia. but there was no chance of a plea deal in this tallahassee courtroom. he might be doing life in georgia but this was a capital murder case. if convicted, hilton could die by lethal injection. >> remember, lead prosecutor, georgia cappleman, couldn't tell the jury about hilton's conviction in the meredith emerson murder, mention he was the prime suspect in that north carolina double homicide, nor tell the jury anything about that slasher-in-the forest movie "deadly run" that he'd helped make. >> reporter: ms. dunlap found herself in a situation and ultimately came to an end that is something that we only think about in nightmares. she spent two days with mr. hilton before he decided it was time to murder her in cold blood, chop off her head and hands, and dump her body. after her open, the state built the brick and masonry of its story on the timeline investigators had so painstakingly assembled. an attorney hiking with her husband in the national forest at leon sinks that saturday morning remembered seeing cheryl. >> i looked at her, and i said, "it's peaceful." she nodded and smiled and she exited the board walk. >> reporter: then a parade of witnesses testified to seeing hilton out and about the national forest. there was the motorist who noticed a man near cheryl's car with the flat tire. >> how confident are you that mr. hilton was the man that you saw at that vehicle? >> very confident. >> reporter: others remembered dandy, the man's good looking reddish retriever mix. >> let me show you what i've marked, 37. does this look like the dog you saw? >> yes. >> reporter: a picture of hilton's dog dandy, exhibit 37, was looking to be the state's star piece of evidence. >> i'm quite sure that's the dog. >> reporter: another witness recounted a creepy conversation with hilton at a country store. >> and then he said, "isn't it bad about that girl that was murdered?" and i said, "yes it is." he said, "well, you look like her." and i said, "well, i don't think so." >> reporter: another testified about being flagged down by hilton on one of the forest roads. hilton was looking for a jump start for his van. >> i'm an old southern boy, he looked like a little yankee man to me. >> reporter: and hunters, too, identified the old guy with the nice dog. >> he acting real weird. flagging us down like it was an emergency or something. >> reporter: what the prosecution couldn't tell the jury was exactly how cheryl had died. a county medical examiner had to work with severed remains that had been exposed to the elements, he thought, for at least a week or more. >> are you able to tell the jury how this woman died? >> no ma'am. >> reporter: not a cause of death, but what the prosecution did have was forensics evidence galore, hundreds of items recovered from his van and from hilton's suspected campsites deep in the woods. >> there's two items. duct tape with hair and there's another piece of duct, or masking tape with hair. >> reporter: one of the items crime scene techs recovered was hilton's video camera. he'd tried to delete it. >> i'm able to see the entire device and see those previously deleted files. >> reporter: florida department of law enforcement lab experts had been able to salvage the audio hilton did not want the world to hear, and with good reason. this is gary hilton two-days after cheryl dunlap's disappearance singing into the camera microphone and gassing with his dog dandy. >> my dan, dan, dandy we're going it boy. >> it sounded like he was confessing to the dog. >> i killed em with it. >> reporter: a hushed courtroom listened to hilton's monologue. >> i killed those [ bleep ]. we're going to the park but first i gotta go hide it somewhere else. >> reporter: the state's forensic people introduced evidence about cheryl's slashed tire. a tool-mark expert said the bayonet recovered on blood mountain up in georgia was an exact match for the sharp object that caused the puncture in florida. but the state's, "say goodnight" evidence was without question the dna work. genetic expert jo ellen brown spent two-years testing more that 750 pieces of evidence in the case. brown told the jury she was able to match cheryl dunlap's dna to blood on two of hilton's sleeping bags and on the shoelaces of his hiking boots. >> the major donor does match cheryl dunlap. the frequency of occurrence of this major a contributor dna profile is 1 in 29 quadrillion caucasians. >> that's a 29 with how many zeroes? >> fifteen zeroes. >> reporter: jennifer portman, a senior writer on the tallahassee democrat, was in court every day. >> so how good or bad is the forensic evidence against gary hilton? >> when georgia cappleman, the prosecutor, presented the dna evidence and the sleeping bag with cheryl dunlap's blood on it, and gary michael hilton's blood on it, you could just see the jurors -- for them, you saw it in their eyes. they knew. >> reporter: and with that, after six-days of testimony, the prosecution rested. now, the defense, holding a very poor hand, would have to fight for gary hilton's life. its case was brief. lead attorney inez suber called only one witness, an expert on tool mark identification who testified by videotape, arguing that the bayonet in evidence could not, in her opinion, be determined to be what had been used to slash the victim's tire. >> it's subjective, it's based on the individual examiners training and experince. >> reporter: the defense was trying to impeach the testimony of the state's expert who said hilton's bayonet had cut cheryl dunlap's tire. and that was it. gary hilton declined to take the stand. >> do you want to testify? >> no. >> reporter: in her closing argument the prosecutor reminded the jurors of those big number dna matches. >> what are the odds that somebody else's dna is on that bag other than cheryl dunlap? one in eleven trillion caucasians. >> reporter: inez suber's close for the defense was far more vigorous than her limited witness list would have suggested. >> we have absolutely no evidence, no direct evidence that mr. hilton committed murder. >> reporter: jurors returned to the jury room to begin deliberations. cappleman and her boss waited for them to return their verdict. >> you've done a lot of trials. is this just another day at the office? >> no. >> oh, no. it's never. when you're waiting for a verdict, your palms are sweaty and your heart's beatin', and you're very nervous. >> and i can tell you, i been doing it 35 years now and it's never gone away for me, either. it's just, oh, you'd really like to throw up while you're waiting on them to do. till you hear it read, it's-- it is tense. what would they decide? >> the jury finds as follows. >> the verdict. do that. oh, and remind me to get roses when i'm near any flower shop. sure thing. remind you when you get to flower shop. i can't do that either. cortana, it's gonna be a great night. [ beep ] oh wow! thanks for the traffic alert. i better get going. now that is a smart phone. ♪ oh, wait ♪ it's 'cause you make me smile ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] get $37 entire house installation, plus free pad upgrade when you buy stainmaster carpet and pad at lowe's. plus free pad upgrade oh, cheez-it grooves. it's a cheez-it, but it's light and crispy like a chip, kinda the best of both worlds. there's more than one world? they're among us? you're one of them. help! he's got a probe! it's a pen. we take the time for our cheese to mature in our cheez-it grooves. >> reporter: the trial of gary hilton for the murder of cheryl dunlap had taken seven days. the six-man, six-woman jury needed less than three and a half hours to reach its verdict on multiple counts. >> the jury finds as follows -- as to count one of the indictment, the defendant gary hilton is guilty of first degree murder. as to count two, defendant gary hilton is guilty of kidnapping. >> reporter: gary hilton was found guilty of the first degree murder of cheryl dunlap, guilty on all counts except car theft. the same jurors would soon reconvene to decide if hilton would die by lethal injection. he had dodged death in georgia and now it was time to see if he could do it again. you might think that capital punishment with florida's active death row would have been a given for gary hilton but not so says tallahassee democrat senior writer, jennifer portman. >> in leon county, we had not even sent anyone to death row in 20 years. >> so it's not a foregone conclusion that this was gonna be a hang-him jury. >> absolutely not. we've had our share of horrendous crimes. don't get me wrong. but, the jurors here are just very uneasy about sending people to death row. >> reporter: assistant states attorney georgia cappleman got the initial conviction of hilton. >> what are the words you would use to describe this guy? >> he's a psychopath. and there's crazy sick and there's crazy mean. he's just crazy mean. he's intelligent. he's a college graduate. he was a member of our armed forces. he's probably smarter than everybody sitting in this room. >> reporter: there were different rules in this the penalty phase. unlike in the trial prosecutors were now able to disclose to jurors that hilton murdered meredith emerson on blood mountain. and state's attorney willie meigs did just that, calling to the stand georgia bureau of investigation agents who worked the emerson case. >> you indicated that miss emerson's body was nude. did gary michael hilton tell you why it was nude? >> he did. he did he basically said he removed the head and stripped the clothing for forensic purposes. meigs was able to introduce portions of those chilling interviews hilton gave to the gbi. >> once you've taken someone, you either going to kill them or you get caught, it's as simple as that. >> penalty phase was one of the more interesting parts of the trial. that's where you started getting this information about emerson >> that's the first time the georgia information was allowed into the florida case? >> correct. so that is when you really start seeing the jurors taking in the enormity then you really see the impact of all this coming through. >> reporter: robert friedman was the defense's lead attorney in the penalty phase. his strategy was to present hilton as so mentally damaged as to be incapable of responsibility for his actions. friedman began with a pet scan expert who testified about traumatic brain damage hilton had suffered as a 10-year-old when a murphy bed accidentally fell on him and nearly scalped him. >> he was taken to st.joseph's hospital in tampa and given 200 stitches and this is an example of a murphy bed. >> reporter: and jurors, that's not all the defenses expert continued. hilton was abused as a child and he lashed out as a teenager. the doctor testified that hilton was so deluded that he believed he had worked on a movie about killing women in the forest. that, of course, was a slip-up. hilton had done just that and the defense error opened the door for the prosecution to tell the jury about the movie "deadly run." >> would it be delusional if it was the truth? >> no. >> reporter: a defense neuropsycologist tested hilton who, it turns out, is as bright as he thinks he is. >> on the weshler adult intelligence scale, he scored and overall verbal 120 which puts him in upper ten percent or so of the population. >> reporter: another psychiatrist diagnosed him with schizoaffective and anti- social personality disorder compounded by an old-fashioned oedipal complex. >> we call it an unresolved oedipal complex and a child can grow up with this emptiness inside them of them. >> reporter: to top it off, the defense continued, hilton was self medicating with prescription drugs. >> ritalin and effexor will basically push you over that line. >> reporter: the defense then treated jurors to gary hilton -- this is your life. a saga of abuse, neglect and injury. it included an audiotape of hilton's late mother talking about how as a teenage hilton wounded his stepfather. >> he said, "shoot me. shoot me. go ahead shoot me. i dare you to shoot me." so gary shot him. >> in the legs or in the -- >> the stomach, the lower part of the stomach. >> reporter: a junior high girlfriend testified that gary wasn't a bad guy, back in the day. >> he was funny and outgoing and smart. >> the defense rests. >> reporter: once the defense rested, willie meigs called his rebuttal witness, a clinical psychologist, to revisit the essential issues. >> did mr gary hilton, did he know right from wrong? >> my opinion is that yes, he clearly knew right from wrong and clearly he knew the criminal nature of his conduct. my opinion is he is a psychopath and that's what generated the murders and nothing else. >> reporter: the attorneys made their final appeal to the jurors. >> i'm gonna ask every one of you individually to go back in that jury room and vote to recommend that gary hilton be put to death. >> on behalf of mr hilton i am asking all of you, collectively and individually, to recommend a life sentence in this case. >> reporter: with that the jurors retired to deliberate nothing less that whether gary hilton should live or die. another haunting question. were there more victims out in the forest? >> i personally believe there are. >> reporter: and -- a legacy that lasts. >> she's the hero. it was through her efforts that we were able to catch her killer. >> reporter: remembering meredith hope emerson. an. it has to be a great one, and i don't compromise. ok, how about 10 gigs of data to share, unlimited talk and text, and for a family of four, its $160 a month. wow, sounds like a great deal. so i'm getting exactly what i want, then? 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>> i personally believe there. he has been too many places and it makes me think there is probably more. we will continue to look at every case we can and compare profiles and evidence. >> the pain and suffering of the families of hilton's victims and suspected victims dulls, but never ends. >> he has taken so much from me and my family, what can you say to someone who would murder two wonderful people for $300 and meredith emerson, a beautiful young lady. and cheryl dunlop and possibly many more. the man is not even what i think of as human. he is something else. a true psychopath. he needs to be put where he can never harm anyone. >> hilton's conviction provoked conflicting feelings. >> i think, believe it or not that cheryl would want us to forgive. when i went into the courtroom and i actually saw him, my thought was not that they put him to death or this or that, i was glad he was off the street, but i have to forgive gary hilton. i have to. >> this was a death penalty case and that was the sentence. >> we were pleased with the out come, yes. he's off the streets and he's not able to hurt anyone again. yes, i think it matters. >> and there regrets on the part of the officers who investigated the hilton cases. >> could there have been one tip line that came in soorn sooner? >> what we could have or should have done differently. she is really the hero. she did the best she could in hopes that we can catch him. it was through her efforts that we were able to catch her killer and also the killer that was responsible for the killing of cheryl dunlop. >> for meredith's closest friends, it's time to forget about gary hilton and remember her. >> he took her friend. a daughter, a sister. but he can't take our memory and the things we love about her away. >> there is important work to be done. >> we started an organization in her memory. >> julia, meredith emerson's roommate advocated right to hike. >> we're don't want anyone to go through it again. it makes you think about going hiking by yourself. take a friend to be safer. part organization founded by meredith emerson's friends sponsored events with a huge turn out of people and dogs. meredith's dog ella went to live with her parents. >> in the event that we see people come and say i never met meredith, but i feel like i know her and i want to support her. that was the biggest thing. the community outreach. >> the right to hike has aided humane societies and put cell towers on trail heads. >> one of the things we realize side that our cell phones didn't work. she had her cell phone with her and that didn't help her. >> if you ever hiked, you might notice a sticker there as you head out. remember me. meredith emerson. she would like you to enjoy your day in the outdoors. >> she enjoyed being out in nature and watching ella run and play with other dogs. i think it was a peaceful place for her to be. >> people go to these places to relax and get away from everyday and they should continue to do that. these are the safest places that are together. >> until the monster shows up. >> yeah. >> gary hilton has been on death row since april 2011. his appeals .ontinue. male announcer: in the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. in new york city, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the special victims unit. these are their stories. [crowd chatter] - get that out of there. [laughs] [announcer under crowd] oh, my god, you cannot make that call. - at the end of the game. they like to let the players, you know, figure it out on the court. - i'm kinda surprised, uh... [crowd noise] - cedric, there you are. i've been looking everywhere for you. coach becker. - i wasn't expecting to see you, sir. - well, you're going to have to get used to that, 'cause if you play football here,