She could be alive and we just cant let up. Could this old movie be the key to these cases . A little blood, a little sex, a little violence. A film fantasy turns chilling reality. If someone has her, shes afraid. Who could be behind this, and how would this reallife story end . She was a blue belt in judo. If anyone could survive it was meredith. If anyone could fight, it was meredith. Our National Forests are places of refuge. There are folks that want to get away from the city and have a sense of peace, commune with nature. But you have to be aware of your surroundings all the time because you just never know. The splendors of Americas National parks and forest lands 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. Its here in the parks we have the promise of stepping out of the hubbub of our chat kreterin daily routine. That was the kind of serenity Meredith Emerson saw 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 Karenbauer from college days had slept in that morning. She had left me a little note on the chalk board, taking ella. Went hiking. Not where, not when, not when im going to be back. It wasnt really anything out of the ordinary. Meredith, like roomie julia, was a dog person. She 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. She just kind of talked about it and researched what she wanted and definitely wanted to rescue a dog. And finally found one, went out, loved her and brought her home. It really was the light of her life. Julia the roommate didnt know meredith and ella were heading 40 miles north to Blood Mountain in the Chattahoochee 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 years day with friends and didnt notice that meredith hadnt come home until 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 im like oh, ellas not here. That was a little strange to me. And i called her cell phone and it went straight to voice mail. I kind of thought maybe she was at work. When did you become anxious . When i got to work, she worked with a good friend of ours. And the friend called me and said meredith didnt show up for work. And meredith was always at work. She was the first one at work. Reliable meredith wasnt where she was supposed to be. Julia called the Sheriffs Office. Then she and some of merediths other friends assembled a search party. Maybe shed twisted her ankle hiking and taken a tumble. They started with that note on the chalkboard. Do you know where im going hiking would naturally be . We had a few ideas. We took some books she had and places shed highlighted and kind of just started driving. The friends split up, looking for merediths car at trailheads shed marked in her hiking guides. There was four of us in the car, trying to call park rangers, anybody that may have seen her or her car. Then a friend of hers found her car, called us and said i found it. There was snow on it. The car was in a parking area at the base of Blood Mountain. We just drove as fast as we could there and just knew, you know, just that sinking feeling when you first see it. 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 kegel, just shy of retirement, was the agent in charge for the Georgia Bureau of investigation, the states top cops. We received a request from a local agency to help with a missing hiker. The case of the hiker missing for two days didnt look good to the seasoned detective because of some disturbing items that had been recovered on the trail. What were the things found out on the trail area that you thought were alarming . A couple of water bottles, a dog leash and a police expandible baton. This is a piece of professional gear. It is. Its just a metal pipe that is expandible. You see almost every Uniformed Police officer in the nation carrying these things. Did those artifacts, the water bottle, the baton, found together tell you a story at all, or suggest something ominous . Yes. We found those items in an area where the ground had appeared to have been disturbed. We became concerned that possibly a struggle took place there. Merediths water bottles, ellas leash, and signs of a struggle. Nothing about the scene looked good to the veteran lawman, especially that expandable police baton that was found. He called in help. We eventually partnered with over 18 or 19 Police Agencies to help in the search for meredith. Her friends were naturally beside themselves. You know, your heart just broke because you think something happened, somebody had a weapon, and her stuff was there. So youre thinking at the very least shes been abducted. Right. And it was so hard because it wasnt something we could talk about until we could actually prove that. The 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 strangelooking individual with meredith who also had a dog. Thumbnail description of this other person. What were you hearing . Strangelooking, just a wiry kind of guy. Older guy. Older guy. We even developed a vehicle description, a white van. 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 advisory went out for the guy driving a white van accompanied by his reddish dog. It is going to be a white male between the ages of 50 and 60 years old, approximately 160 pounds. It was described as he has bad dental. He had a dark reddish colored retriever. 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. Coming up 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 shes still alive and someone has her, shes afraid. When mystery on Blood Mountain continues. Do we really need a sign to live, laugh, and love . Yes. The answer is no. I can help new homeowners not become their parents. Keeonoh. Nope. Coeenoah. No. Joaquin. No. It just takes practice. Give it a shot. [ grunts, exhales deeply ] did you hear that . Yeah. Its a constant battle. Were gonna open a pdf. Whos next . Progressive cant save you from becoming your parents, but we can save you money when you bundle home and auto with us. No fussin, no cussin, and no air wick scented oils arenceso infuseds in nature. With natural essential oils for fragrance day after day,up to 60 days air wick scented oils. Connect to nature. Businesses today are looking to tomorrsetting the course. Ating. But new ways of working demand a new type of network. One thats more than just fast. You need flexibility to work from anywhere and manage from everywhere. Advanced technology. With serious security. And reliable coverage, nationwide. Forwardthinking enterprises deserve forwardthinking solutions. And thats what we deliver. So bounce forward, with comcast business. Meredith emerson and her lab ella were two days missing on georgias Blood Mountain early in a freezing january of 2007. Her friends had alerted the authorities and people from all over the greater atlanta area were scouring the hiking trails. So many volunteers they couldnt use all of them. People just showed up and just said, i have a daughter who likes to hike, i have a sister who could have been meredith easily. And they just volunteered their time. 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 unsavorylooking 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 one point. I felt the blood leave my face. Tabor the businessman thought this has got to be gary hilton. Hilton was a guy who worked on and off for him for years. First as a telemarketer then as an independent contractor in a siding business. He even lived for a while in this little house tabor owned. What was the thought thats taking shape as youre listening to this . The first thing that got my attention is where the event happened, where she went missing, Blood Mountain. I knew that was a place he liked to hang out. That he had a dog with him. And most importantly 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 drivers license for 61yearold Gary Michael Hilton. Investigators showed the photo to hikers who i. D. d him as the scruffy mystery man seen with meredith on Blood Mountain. The manhunt was on. We put that name and face out. Its plastered all over the Metro Atlanta area. It is. The apb went well beyond the georgia border. Hiltons name and picture were all over the regional news. Light bulbs began going off to the south around tallahassee, floridas 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 theyd seen him just about the time theyd learned of the sad case of another woman whod gone missing. Sheryl dunlap, a nurse and mother. When sheryl didnt turn up for church one december sunday in 2007 and then missed her sunday school class, red flags went up. Nextdoor neighbor and friend tonya ladd. Sunday morning at church id turned around and looked at her usual spot and she wasnt there. And she didnt teach her class . She didnt. And immediately we knew something was wrong. Because thats just not like her. Everyone who knew her agreed. 46yearold 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 coworker. When monday morning rolled around and tonya still hadnt been able to reach sheryl, she walked next door. I went back down to her house and saw the dog was at the house but the car was gone. So i called her office several times and they hadnt seen her. Sheryls daughterinlaw tabitha called the Sheriffs Office to report her missing. When tonya said she didnt show up work, i knew there was a problem. After that missing persons report was filed, the friends heard about a car that looked like sheryls spotted on the side of the highway leading into tallahassee. They headed up there. It was sheryls car and immediately they sent a deputy up there and just took over from that point. Are you apprehensive . Yeah. I was very uneasy. I knew there was something wrong. Sheryls car was parked well off the highway. Florida department of Law Enforcement agent annie white. It was pretty clear from the beginning thats not some place that she would have parked it. As well as the tire looked like it had been purposely flattened on the vehicle. An abandoned car, a slashed tire. Lord, where is she . Searchers, Law Enforcement, volunteers began fanning out into the adjacent 57,000acre apalachicola National Forest. All of them with dread in their hearts. I would be devastated if Something Like this happened to my family. And so thats 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 in the car with someone. She just was not the person who would have disappeared. Tallahassee Democrat Senior writer Jennifer Portman covered the story. Were talking about north florida in the panhandle area. People are bound by their schools, by their family, their churches. And sunday School Teachers with children and a grandchild dont go missing. Thats exactly right. Her friends and family were as baffled as the police by sheryls disappearance. Law enforcement was trying to put the pieces together. When they looked into sheryls 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 occurred in leon county. So thats 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 it was probably not going to be a good outcome for miss dunlap. 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 cheryls car was found. So you and the team stake out the atm machine. We stay there several days, day and night, watching the atm. And he never came back to that one. The search for cheryl stretched on for weeks. A lot of us went out on our own and searched the woods and went to places we thought she could possibly be. But the more time goes on inevitably, the fear sinks in. I just remember sleepless nights, just because im thinking, if shes still alive and someone has her, shes afraid. Mid december 2007, 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 they 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. Youd think that this is someone trying to conceal the identity. Very much. 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 . Yeah. The awareness was there. It was surreal. You know, the thing you hear about in movies. 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 counterparts in georgia convinced that he had taken Meredith Emerson, authorities started hearing about yet another National Forest homicide, this one in North Carolina. So then youve got to be saying to your team of investigators what do we have here . Thats right. So now were really wondering who we have here and where is he. And more importantly, wheres meredith . Coming up do we have a killer running around loose in the National Forest . Concern for meredith deepens, but her friends know something that man on the mountain couldnt. A blue belt in aikido and a blue belt in judo. If anybody could survive, it was meredith. When mystery on Blood Mountain continues. Blood mountain continues. But the right pad can. Only always ultra thins have rapiddry technology and, they absorb 40 faster. The gush happens fast. Thats why always absorbs faster. Wthe Natural Light is amazing. Hardwood floors. There is a bit of a clogging problem. clog dancing at least geico makes it easy to bundle our renters and car insurance. Yeah, helping us save us even more. For bundling made easy, go to geico. Com unlike ordinary memory want supplementster . Neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. Memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. Try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. Where was meredith hope emerson . Could she still be alive somewhere out there in georgias Chattahoochee National forest . And did the 24yearold hiker have a prayer if she were indeed in the clutches of mystery man gary hilton . The search on Blood Mountain went into a third day. We had the hope. I mean, we were there from sunup to sundown, plus. We were there through the night in 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. Merediths 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 fighty. She is strong. She is tiny and petite, 120 pounds. But let me tell you, i have any hope she can run those mountains. She is a strong person. If anybody can survive this, she can. 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. To take her on at your peril. Absolutely. She would fight you. She would actually come home and tell me, you know, i threw this 220pound man, i beat him up today in class. By now, with half of georgia looking for this gary hilton, authorities outside tallahassee, florida to the south were wondering about his connections with the 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 a detective walked in and said that they had a case, took place in North Carolina, involving a husband and wife, that the wife had been murdered in the piska National Forest. That detective was working an unsolved case that had cops in North Carolina bewildered. David mahoney, a sheriff of transylvania county, a beautiful place wan ominous name that has nothing to do with fangs dripping blood. We have some wonderful attractions here, all of those things along with a slower pace of life is what brings folks and keeps folks here. 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, theyd take the grandchildren out hiking, too. 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 the southwestern and northwestern United States. In late october 2008, two months before Meredith Emerson disappeared, the couple set off on a day hike in the 500,000acre 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. Their son bob flew in from texas. The newspapers were around the doorstep. He broke into the home and found their breakfast was still out on the table, obviously many days old. And he knew something was terribly wrong. My brother searched, he went up and down every little back road throughout the park. He found their car at a trailhead in the National Forest. By then, sheriff mahoneys office was involved. The rescue squad began a search, assuming that there had been some medical problem or some illness that had fallen upon them. In my heart, i knew that wasnt the case. Theres just no way they would 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 ms. 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. Irene bryants 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. Within hours of discovering irene bryants 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 bryants atm. Whoever was making the withdrawal, it it wasnt 79yearold 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. 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 lawmens 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. 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 the National Forest . In georgia, the searchers looking for Meredith Emerson and her dog ella on Blood Mountain were hoping and praying that they werent dealing with a homicide. Do everything we can do to make sure that she if shes up there we get her out of there, get her out of there safely. If shes not up there do everything we can to eliminate that as a possibility and continue the investigation from there. Georgia authorities were compositing a profile of gary hilton who was starting to look like a person of interest not only in the Meredith Emerson disappearance case but in it at least two unsolved murders in the National Forest. Their findings were deeply troubling. Coming up might a movie hold the key to this case . The premise of the movie is were going to take some women into the woods and then, poof, theyre going to be hunted down. Maybe once investigators learn who was behind it. Is gary involved in this . Gary is helping me throughout. When mystery on Blood Mountain continues. Continues. Needles. Essential for sewing, but maybe not for people with certain inflammatory conditions. Because there are options. Like an unjection™. Xeljanz. The first and only pill of its kind that treats moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or moderate to Severe Ulcerative Colitis when other medicines have not helped enough. Xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. 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Nbc news has exclusive reporting that both the fbi and nypd warned Capitol Police about the possibility days before the attack. The fbi visited extremists and urged them not to go to the capitol. And Speaker Pelosi announced the house will attempt to pass a resolution calling on Vice President pence to invoke the 25th amendment and remove trump. They will then move forward with impeachment if pence does not fall in line. Now back to dateline. 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 havent 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, hiltons former boss, gave investigators what background 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 wilderness with his dog. He seemed to like that type of isolation. Hiltons dog dandy had been at his side since he started working for tabor. The former boss had come to regard hilton as a hairtriggered nut case. He often told stories of going to parks with his dog and he would end up in altercations with other pet owners. It was always the same story. He would reprimand the other dog owners behavior, then the other dog owner would get angry at him and verbally or physically assault him. So he was always the victim. For the first nine years hilton worked at his siding business. Tabor recalled him as a good employee. Then something seemed to snap. Things started to change quite dramatically starting in 2007. What happened then . He just wasnt doing any work. I decided to go and just see what was going on over there. It was a very bizarre scene. How so . His physical appearance was quite different. He immediately smiled to show he was missing several teeth and he went on to say that he had actually taken a pair of pliers and removed some of his teeth. And he said he enjoyed doing that because it frightened people. He seemed to enjoy showing himself in that manner, that kind of ghoulish presentation . Yes. He was very animated, very talkative. Tabor fired hilton who then turned around and claimed tabor owed him money. By midsummer 2007, the siding guy said he feared for his safety. He finally threatened to kill me. He made it very clear. Tabor took those threats seriously. I immediately armed myself with a glock 9 millimeter and an ar15 assault rifle. Started driving a rental car so he wouldnt know what vehicle i was in. He was your bogeyman. Absolutely. It was terrifying to not know what was happening, pull into the driveway and somebody jump out of the bushes and assassinate you. When the former boss went to the police with his story, it seemed to do the trick. Within a day or two, he had packed up all of his belongings and moved on. Put all of his stuff in the van and took off. Yes. John tabor was relieved to see hilton in his Rearview Mirror but he was nonetheless puzzled by the change that had come over the man. When youre around someone for nearly ten years and its uneventful, nothing ever happens that suggests a demonic violent personality that apparently materialized somehow. Tabor had part of the gary hilton picture. A veteran atlanta criminal defense lawyer added more. Sam rail had defended hilton years back on some minorish beefs. We did a jury trial on a drug case, possession. He was accused on a misdemeanor of acting like a charity and he really wasnt a charity. He would raise money to help the little children. Of course, he pocketed it. Did he have a job to speak of or anything he did professionally . His job was scamming. Thats what he did mostly. You knew him as a con man basically. Right. He was a little con. And when he got tripped up, hed go call on you. He did. Rail, the lawyer, wears two hats. Hes also a movie producer, not hollywood but more of the direct release to video school. His lowbudget titles are more often seen in asian night market stalls than your local multiplex. This is his 2004 release. I cant do that dont do it. Shoot me horror, gory . Whats the genre . Try not to make it gory, but at the end of the day a little blood, a little sex, a little violence cant hurt. As it turned out, cops on the Meredith Emerson case were particularly interested in rails first movie, deadly run. He made it back in 1985 with the assistance of his scam artist client gary hilton. The premise of the movie is were going to take some women into the woods and then were going to befriend those women and then poof, theyre going to be hunted down and killed. Is gary involved in this, as a script writer or anything that formal . Gary is helping me throughout and then helping the star figure out how to be a serial killer. These are ideas youre 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 more horrible. Hed like to have more blood, more gore, have rape, more killings, things like that. I thought we toned it down and made a better movie. [ screaming ] he suggested we do it up in the woods. He helped me find some of the locations. We found the cabin. That cabin used in the movie happened to be in the Chattahoochee National forest. Just north of where Meredith Emerson went missing. Hes around the table, as you guys collaborate on this film. How is he behaving around your group of movie people . When the movie was being made, hes animated but interesting. So hes not a loner . No. Hes a loner. Hes a psychopath. Hes a sociopath. Hes always trying to get one step ahead of the law. Hes always doing something a little bit wrong but all my clients, they do that, too. It sounds like youre talking about kind of a charming guy. He was charming. He was personable. He was a fellow that youd want to meet. Which are all skills you need to be a successful con man if youre going to keep an edge. But the lawyer and movie producer had a falling out with hilton over of all things a dog. Dogs seem to to be very important with him. They were. Dogs were very important with him. He wound up with my dog. What do you mean . I had a dog, nice little golden retriever. We had him in the back yard. All of a sudden i come back one day, the dog is gone. Of course im very upset about it. Then i find out that gary took the dog. He stole your dog . Yeah. As their profile of hilton became clearer and became more troubling, investigators 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. Couldnt believe it. Coming up a trap is set to lure gary hilton from his hiding spot. I was trying to play it cool. And a dramatic new lead. Could it lead police to meredith . She could be alive, and we just cant let up. When mystery on Blood Mountain continues. Tery on blo mountain continues. Life doesnt stop for a cold. [man] honey. [woman] honey thats why theres new dayquil severe honey. Its maximum strength cold and flu medicine with soothing honeylicious taste. Dayquil honey. The daytime coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, power through your day medicine. 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 oddball who was the person of interest in two murders in National Forests elsewhere, the more they feared for her. A friend of merediths 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 merediths disappearance, gary hilton called his old boss, tabor. I answered my cell phone, and i heard his voice. Couldnt believe it. He pretended acted as though nothing was wrong. He didnt let on that he was the subject of a manhunt . Absolutely not. He acted like he knew nothing about it. Which apparently he 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 errors of his ways and he was ready to get back to work. Startled but thinking fast, tabor tried to lure hilton to an agreedupon location with the promise of money. I was trying to play it cool, as though i didnt 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 place he knew to come and show up . It was certainly my objective to get him to a place where authorities could apprehend him. The trap was set at a building owned by tabor where hilton had lived for a while. The s. W. A. T. 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, merediths 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. As the manhunt continued, there was a glimmer of hope. Friday morning january 4th, 2008, four days after meredith vanished, the u. S. Marshals service traced activity on merediths 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 wouldnt give him the right pin. Which also suggests maybe shes still alive. Thats right. Investigators, meanwhile, had been able to trace the phone gary hilton used earlier to call his old boss john tabor, whod set that trap for him. That call was made from a restaurant about 50 miles from Blood Mountain. Hilton it seemed was moving south toward atlanta. Metro pd s. W. A. T. Concealed themselves in and near tabors building. That was the drop point where his old boss had promised hilton hed leave him 800. You stake out the location. Youre surveilling it. And . He didnt show. Noshow. Noshow. Were still looking and wondering where could this guy be. Now we have this guy 50 miles from Blood Mountain. The veteran agent working his last case before retirement was talking constantly with merediths parents, her father dave emerson. I appeal to everyone to search their hearts and memories for anything they can remember and do to help us find meredith. After i met the emersons, i knew that i had to tell them everything. I couldnt hold back any information from these two people. They were terrified. Why did you take it personally . This case was a little bit different because not only me but the other investigators recognized the fact early on that we have to embrace this family and tell them everything, even though what we were telling them was not good news. Hilton, meredith, her lab ella. The tip line kept ringing with leads good and bad. Then four days in, a friday afternoon, a shopper called to say that shed found a black lab mix wandering around a supermarket parking lot. Surprised to see any dog running loose in the parking lot. Then to find out its the one that meredith was was her dog, you know, was a pretty big surprise and shock. 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 she had just hung up the phone. He had called her and wanted money. She commented that she she said, dont you know the worlds looking for you . And he hung up. Hilton called from a pay phone at a Convenience Store near where merediths dog had turned up. You have a living pet, a missing owner and a phone somewhere in the vicinity of this guy you believe is her abductor. Yes. While the agents are searching in the area of the Convenience Store, they look in a dumpster. And it was in the dumpster we found merediths identification, her purse, bags of bloody clothing. At that point, we felt that this was not going to turn out as we had hoped. The purse, three bloody fleece tops. Agent kegel and his boss gave merediths parents the grim update. Then, around 8 00 that night, still friday, not far from where tabor had set the trap for hilton, more than one eagleeyed citizen noticed a man emptying a white van. At the gas station up here, there is a white van and a red dog wandering around. Calls lit up 911. This one lasted for 12 minutes. Dekalb, 911. Whats the exact location . I have the person of interest in that missing woman case is at this chevron gas station on asher dunwoody. The van is there . The van is here. The dog is here, the red dog. And i saw the mans face. Ive been watching the news and i know its him. I know its him. Hes emptying all the stuff out of his van, looking around like hes guilty as sin. I can go take him down if you want. No, sir. Stay right there. Here comes the cops. Yes. Yes. Police are there . Theyve got him now. Two cruisers pulled up on him. Gary hilton was under arrest. Detectives swarmed over the filthy astro van and inventoried his possessions looking for any clue to merediths fate. A gbi spokesman updated the media. Its a missing persons investigate investigation right now. Thats how were pursuing it. Important key might be any knowledge that mr. Hilton has. Take me inside your situation room when you get the news atlantas got him. Were very pleased with the fact that now we have this man. But we cant lose sight of the fact we dont have meredith yet. And the possibility that she could be alive and we just cant let up. And so we attempt to interview him. He refuses. No statements. Im 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. Cops had their man but not meredith. Could they crack him, get from him the story of what had happened in the National Forest . Coming up in your decades as a Law Enforcement agent have you ever had a session of interviews like this one . No. He was very straightforward and was very nonchalant. When mystery on Blood Mountain continues. Jessie one more. Is the reflection of an Unstoppable Community in the mirror. When youre through with powering through, its time for theraflu hot liquid medicine. Powerful relief so you can restore and recover. Theraflu hot beats cold. Begins with ingredients from the earthn. Powerful relief so you can restore and recover. To create fragrances infused with natural essential oils. Air wick scented oils. Connect to nature. 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 merediths whereabouts and what hed done with her. Merediths middle name is hope, and thats exactly what the lord gives us for her. So we are hoping that were 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 exboss. Remember, by then merediths 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 these vast woodlands very well, and he knew the odds of finding needles in haystacks. As he saw it he had only one option, repugnant as it was. And that was to cut a deal with gary hilton. Sunday morning we got him a lawyer and i went up and had a talk with the lawyer and essentially laid out our case. Hiltons lawyer then conferred with his client. The District Attorney was brought into the loop and a deal went down. Hilton would plead guilty to murder, because that is what it had been, and then he said he would lead investigators to merediths body in exchange for taking the Death Penalty off the table. Nobody in Law Enforcement likes to make deals without holding their nose. We had to do it. You know, we needed to find meredith, and given the circumstances i would do the same thing now. Im guessing, agent, the situation in your Interview Room is, gary, you told us what did to her. Now where did you put her . Yes. And he told us. A manacled hilton was loaded into a vehicle and he led lawmen down a trail in dawson forest. The body will be approximately 40 yards or 120 feet covered by leaves and brush. The head will be missing. Wheres the head . The only reason by the way the head was removed was forensically. Yeah, right. A clearly shaken agent kegel told atlanta about the tragic outcome. At approximately 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. The kidnapping charge was anted up. Mr. Hilton is charged with one count of murder of Meredith Emerson. He has been taken into custody and brought to our detention center, where hes being housed. Coming up police learn what happened to meredith in grim detail. She went quick with her hands and had no hesitation about grabbing weapons. And were there more victims . He would not talk about anybody to us other than meredith. When mystery on Blood Mountain continues. Crafting our authentic fragrances begins with ingredients from the earth. To create fragrances infused with natural essential oils. Air wick scented oils. Connect to nature. Honey honey . New nyquil severe honey is maximum strength cold and flu medicine with soothing honeylicious taste. Nyquil honey. The nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever best sleep with a cold medicine. So give your businesss more than resolutions. Give it solutions, from comcast business. Work more efficiently with fast internet and advanced wifi. Make your business safer with powerful cybersecurity solutions. And stay productive with 24 7 support. Make this years resolution better solutions. Bounce forward with comcast business. Get started with a powerful internet and voice solution for just 64. 90 a month. Plus, for a limited time, ask how to get a 500 prepaid card when you upgrade. Switch today. 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, like meredith. I had 40. Money. And several days food. I have to kill somebody in that in that period of time. After his initial confession, gary hilton, the man of stony silence, became a chatterbox, spilling out a story that sickened detectives who thought theyd heard everything. He began with merediths abduction here on a hiking trail on Blood Mountain. He said that he ambushed meredith and her dog ella as she came down the trail. It was a struggle and meredith with her martial arts skills, as hilton tells it, very nearly got the best of his. Twice she disarmed him, first taking away his wife and then his police baton. I lost control of both the knife and the bat. Shes 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 that dropped police baton and merediths water bottles, the dogs leash, objects importantly very 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 me caught. Because if i had 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 it up. He talks about fighting. Yes. With meredith. Mmhmm. That she almost took him. I dont really believe everything he says, but that part i believe. Theres no doubt that she fought. You know, maybe its a little bit that kind of gives you a little smirk to know she almost got him. She gave him a run for his money and im sure that he may have thought i maybe should have chosen somebody else. Eventually hilton wore meredith down. By then they were way off the main trail. Hilton tied his captive to a tree and doubled back to that site where he had been stripped of his weapons. The bayonet was gone, lost on the forest floor. And a hiker had already picked up the police baton. Hilton returned to meredith. I told her i had a gun and, you know, i was going to shoot her ass now. Skirting the main trail, he led meredith to his van in the trailhead parking area. There he secured her with chains in the back of his vehicle and then proceeded to steal her bank cards. Hilton drove off to an atm in blairsville, georgia. He told detectives meredith had given him her p. I. N. Numbers back on Blood Mountain. Did meredith suspect it would be all over for her if she gave him the correct numbers . In any case, she had given him bad information. And it didnt work . None of it worked. Shes still telling me, its going to work, its going to work. Must be the wrong bank. Hilton next tried to use merediths cards at a bank 50 miles south in gainesville, 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 merediths bank card still again at an atm in canton, georgia. Nothing. They returned to his hidden campsite. He held meredith all together in the woods for four days. And what nature of man is gary hilton . Well, listen to the confession tapes to what he says about merediths 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 no one would associate the dog with her i would have killed the dog. But theres no way i could do that. He was too much of a softy to kill the dog as he explained it. But poor meredith, ellas owner, never had a chance. She was dead from the beginning. Yeah, she was. Why . Because i just told you, once youve done, it youre either going to kill her or get caught. Theres no other solution. And if that sounds cold and cruel, yeah, it was. 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. Were pack up and i told her im going to release her. Instead, hilton went to the van, came back with a tire iron 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 dont know. 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. Because you have to wonder when the switch was thrown in this man. I know. How many decades does this maybe go back . I dont know. Do people just wake up when theyre 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 years day 2008. Less than a month later Gary Michael Hilton appeared in a georgia courtroom and pleaded guilty to her murder. Merediths parents were there. Her mother, susan, addressed hilton. I believe he is nothing more than a bully and a weakminded coward who preys on others. He fancies himself a survivalist. Well, anyone can see hes a scared little man on the run. The state honored the deal it made with the killer. No Death Penalty. And he was sentenced to life in prison. Hilton admitted nothing beyond the emerson murder. Is this the first time youve ever done anything like this before . Ill let my attorney answer. By now investigators from a half dozen southeastern states as well as fbi profilers were rummaging through hiltons past. By the time he was captured he wasnt 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 g. I. Bill, and been married three times before the wheels apparently came off. True crime author fred rosen has written more than 25 books including trails of death about hilton. To underestimate him is foolish. This is a very dangerous person. 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 doesnt kill him, but he wounds him very severely. And hes institutionalized. They put him in a Mental Hospital out in miami. Hilton went to high school in hialeah, florida, played in a rock band and eventually joined the army. A cocky hilton made sure the cops who arrested him knew of his army service back in the 60s with a unit armed with Tactical Nuclear weapons. Ive handled atomic bombs. I was in special weapons. And ive handled atomic bombs that damn big that weigh 79 pounds. And hilton bragged to the officers about his con man criminal past. Ive never worked full time in my life except for the u. S. Army. I was a career criminal and lawful charity from 73 to 93, okay . For 20 years. Hes collecting money for charities. Hes a scam artist. Hes a scam artist. Exactly. And what about hiltons dip into the movie business with that semislasher flick deadly run that he helped make in the 1980s . This film where hes sending women out in the woods and killing them, hunting them i hope you like your little outfit i picked out for you, barbara. I think the look is definitely you. Do you think thats the template for what he does decades later . Yes, i do. And thats whats so chilling to me about the whole thing, because in the millennium hell make art into reality. You can hear the echoes of this, huh . Youre already beginning to see the lack of conscience. In his interview with the Georgia Bureau of investigation, hilton put forth a grandiose sense of himself, a renaissance man of many hats. Im a philosopher, im a soldier, im a scientist, and im an artist. What do you mean artist . My art is my life and my art is weird. Hes kind of a philosopher king, isnt he . Im an artist. And you poor dumb cops dont have the luxury of being able to think the big cosmic thoughts i do. He almost feels sorry for them that they cant keep up with him when he starts going about this, that and the other thing. 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 . Oh, i know what youre getting at, the unsolved murders. Gary hilton thinks hes smart. Is he . Gary has an iq of 120, and thats considered to be way above average. The reason im so seemingly intelligent is that i alone amongst almost anyone, including you dudes, have time to actually stop and think about things. Hell rattle on as long as someone will listen to him. Yes. On any topic under the sun virtually, huh . Yes. Pick a topic. Any topic. How about volcanology . Dont you know the super volcano under yellowstone, there are over 70 super volcanoes . When it erupts it basically blankets in a cone the whole eastern seaboard of the u. S. Under several feet of ash and would just destroy any civilization in that area. The fasttalking flimflam man was on display in some of hiltons home videos found in his van. Here is hilton giving a cop that stopped him some lip. You tell me you are the lawman. Youre the law. Im going to check it out. If it aint the law and youre wrong come talk to me. Im not talking to nobody. Im filing and suing because youre 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 an incredible narcissistic personality, which is typical of serial killers. He sets up the camera, and theres gary going 171 pounds. He starts pumping up his biceps like hes arnold schwarzenegger. Very narcissistic. So why were detectives enduring hiltons selfcentered ramblings . Clearly they were hoping hed blurt out something about his involvement in the other unsolved cases in the National Forests. But hilton was admitting to nothing. Basically on our timeline you basically are telling me you committed no crimes none. Between 97 or 95. 95. He had escaped the Death Penalty in georgia, but despite his denials, he remained the prime suspect in the murder of that elderly couple irene and john bryant. Mr. Bryants remains were found in january 2008 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. But there was another open homicide case that seemed to fit gary hilton like a custommade 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 hiltons m. O. To a t. And gary hilton, still playing the smartest kid in the class, detide defied florida to come after him, all that time, all that money. If they want to spend a million dollars, 2 million to convict me and then another 2 million to get death and then another 8 million to defend the Death Penalty and get around to executing me 17 years from now when im 78 years old and im decrepit, hey, they can do it. Two tough florida prosecutors it turned out would be the match of his defiant taunt. My belief is this is an evil, bad person and there ought to be a consequence in life to evil acts. Coming up justice for cheryl. The hunt for evidence begins. We started receiving calls, people saying we saw her at walmart, we saw her here. We started backtracking those just trying to get the timeline. And witnesses come forward. Fortunately for the investigation if somebody saw Gary Michael Hilton they remembered him. Hes got that kind of a face or presence that you dont forget. When mystery on Blood Mountain continues. When myst mountain continues. If you printed out directions to get here today, youre in the right place. My seminars are a great tool to help young homeowners who are turning into their parents. Now, remember, theyre not programs. Theyre tv shows. You woke up early. No one cares. Yes. So, i was using something called homequote explorer from progressive to easily compare Home Insurance rates. Was i hashtagging . Progressive cant help you from becoming your parents, but we can help you compare rates on Home Insurance with homequote explorer. Guess what. The waiter doesnt need to know your name. Suspected serial killer gary hilton had already pleaded guilty to the murder of Meredith Emerson in the georgia mountains. But he cheated the executioner there with a plea deal that led police to his victims body. To the south authorities in florida were convinced he had murdered nurse and mother Cheryl Dunlap, whose partial remains had been recovered two weeks before Meredith Emerson went missing. Hilton was defying authorities in florida to make the charges stick. If they want to spend a million dollars, 2 million to convict me and then another 2 million to get death, hey, they can do it. Willie mix, then leon county, floridas states attorney had heard enough and had hilton indicted for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap. Hes gone away for life. Hell be leaving georgia corrections in a pine box. Why does florida need to go to the expense of a Death Penalty trial . My belief is this is an evil, bad person and there ought to be a consequence in life to evil acts. I dont think murderers ought to be cheaper the more you do. With the dunlap case looking like a carbon copy of the mefd ith emerson murder you might think the case would be a gimme for the prosecutors. But far from it. They would not be allowed to introduce the emerson guilty conviction despite the similarity. Or the movie deadly run or that he was the prime suspect in the murders of an elderly couple in North Carolina. Florida Law Enforcement 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 we saw her at walmart, we saw her here. We started backtracking those just trying to get the timeline. The investigators knew that cheryls morning had included some shopping in tallahassee, cashing a check at a 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 i interviewed that saw her at the sinkholes was very adamant that that was her. But the trail had gone cold at the tallahassee atm where a disguised man had withdrawn money using dunlaps bank cards. A month after cheryl went missing the be on the lookout for gary hilton during the meredith emmerson investigation had the phones in florida lighting up again. When he started hitting the news media, our citizens here started seeing him and immediately recognizing him. And started calling. And that tip line 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. Deep in the National Forest, five miles from where Cheryl Dunlaps torso had been found, investigators came upon a charred piece of 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. He had actually done a pretty good job of covering it up. He had covered it up with straw and took measures to hide his tracks. The fire had been so thorough it was impossible to extract dna from the bones. From the dons. Whoever killed Cheryl Dunlap had gone to extraordinary lengths to eliminate any physical evidence. Youd think this was 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 to the woods, abducted. Yes, sir. Both decapitated. It was just eerily similar. There was one thing about tracking the odd guy with the red dog that they had going for them. States assistant prosecutor georgia cappelman. Fortunately for the investigation, if somebody saw Gary Michael Hilton they remembered him. Hes got that kind of a face or presence that you dont forget. Once we had the description, we had tons of witnesses coming forward. While doing the leg work 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 before. Are there scenes you see in the movie that were reenacted in his actually spree of crimes . Not in every detail but theres definitely a lot of similarities. And investigators had those home videos of hilton to screen as well. Last time it was suwannee that was out here. I dont think so. Unless they followed you. Watching the videos was very educational because i saw him by himself. I saw him with other people. People like this restaurant manager suffering a rant from hilton about his delivery drivers. You tell these guys to quit terror driving. Has he received any driving Safety Education . Sure he has. I saw him with Law Enforcement. He had many different sides. Im leaving. Im getting out of here. God almighty. He thought he was the smartest bear in the woods. Definitely. Smarter than the officers apprehending him. Definitely. Definitely. They now had numerous hilton sightings around where Cheryl Dunlap vanished. But despite all the investigative work by multiple Sheriffs Offices and the fdle, no witness came forward to put him together with Cheryl Dunlap. The nurses 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. Hiltons van jammed to the roof with hundreds of items was trucked to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement crime lab. Our crime scene analysts spent day and night literally, weeks. That van was a mess, right . 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 head liner up, the seats out. Every scrap of paper. Every piece of hair. 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 knifes going to look like. Cameras and memory cards were found inside 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 Dunlaps death, it was finally going to trial. Coming up your palms are sweaty and your hearts beating. The dramatic case begins. How would it end . You could just see the jurors, you saw it in their eyes. They knew. When mystery on Blood Mountain continues. Continues. Turns out its mostly water. Continues. 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Over 3600 americans died. Now back to dateline. Gary hiltons trial for the florida murder of Cheryl Dunlap began in february 2011. A little more than four years after hed pleaded and skated the Death Penalty in ga. 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 cappeleman couldnt tell the jury about hiltons conviction in the Meredith Emerson murder or mention he was the prime suspect in the North Carolina double homicide nor tell the jury anything about that slasher in the forest movie deadly run that hed help make. Ms. Dunlap found herself in a situation and ultimately came to an end that is something 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 opening statement, 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, its peaceful out here, isnt it . And she looked at me and she nodded and she smiled and then she exited the boardwalk. Then a parade of witnesses testified to seeing hilton out and about in the National Forest. There was the motorist who noticed a man near cheryls car with a flat tire. How confident are you that mr. Hilton was the man that you saw at that vehicle . Very confident. Others remembered dandy, the mans goodlooking reddish retriever mix. Ill show what you ive marked as states exhibit 37. Thats it. That looks like the dog you saw that day . Yes. A picture of hiltons dog dandy, exhibit 37, was looking to be the states key piece of evidence. Quite sure thats the dog. Another witness recounted a creepy conversation with hilton at a country store. And then he said it was 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 dont think so. Another testified about being flagged down by hilton on one of the forest roads. Hilton was looking for a jumpstart for his van. Im an old southern boy. He looked like a little yankee man to me. And hunters, too, identified the old guy with the nice dog. He was acting real weird. He came up, flagging us down like it was an emergency or something. What the prosecution couldnt 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 this jury how this woman died . No, maam. Not a cause of death. But what the prosecution did have was forensic evidence galore. Hundreds of items recovered from his van and from hiltons suspected campsites deep in the woods. Two items here, duct tape with hair and another piece of duct tape or masking tape with hair. One of the items was hiltons video camera. Hed tried to delete the images on it. Unable to see the entire device to unable to recover those previously deleted files. 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 Dunlaps disappearance singing into the camera microphone and gaffing with his dog dandy. Dan, dan, dan, were doing it, boy it sounded as though he was confessing to the dog. I killed her. A hushed courtroom listened to hiltons monologue. This is the park. Yeah, but first ive got to go hide it somewhere else. The states forensic people introduced evidence about sheryls slashed tire, a tool mark experts said the bayonet recovered on Blood Mountain in georgia was an exact match for the sharp object that caused the puncture in florida. But the states say good night evidence was without question the dna work. Genetic expert Joellen Brown spent two years testing more than 750 pieces of evidence in the case. Brown told the jury she was able to match Cheryl Dunlaps dna to blood on two of hiltons sleeping bags and on the shoe laces of his hiking boots. The major donor does match Cheryl Dunlap. 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 capelman presented the dna evidence and the sleeping bag with Cheryl Dunlaps blood on it and Gary Michael Hiltons blood on it you could just see the jurors, for them, you saw it in their eyes, they knew. 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 hiltons life. Coming up gary hiltons defense makes its case. We have absolutely no evidence, no direct evidence that mr. Hilton committed murder. And will hilton take the stand . Do you wish to testify . Hes done a lot of trials. Is this just another day at the office . No. Oh, no. Never. When youre waiting for a vek verdict, your palms are sweaty and your hearts beating and youre very nervous. When mystery on Blood Mountain continues. Ry on Blood Mountain continues. Alone because this. Come on jessie one more. Is the reflection of an Unstoppable Community in the mirror. The prosecution had presented a strong case against gary hilton. Now it was the defenses turn. Its case was brief. Lead attorney inez super 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 victims tire. Its subjective. Its based on the individual examiners training and experience. The defense was trying to impeach the testimony of the states expert who said hiltons bayonet had slashed Cheryl Dunlaps tire, and that was it for the defense. Gary hilton declined to take the stand. Do you wish to testify . No. One in 63 million in her closing argument, the prosecutor reminded the jury of those big number dna matches. What are the odds that somebody elses dna is on that sleeping bag other than Cheryl Dunlap . 1 in 11 trillion caucasians. Inez subers close for the defense was far more vigorous than her limited witness list may have suggested. We have absolutely no evidence, no direct evidence, that mr. Hilton committed murder. The jurors began their deliberations. Capelman and her boss waited for them to return their verdict. Youve done a lot trials. Is this just another day at the office . No. Oh, no. Never. When youre waiting for a verdict, your palms are sweaty and your hearts beating and youre very nervous. I can tell you ive been doing it 35 years now. Its never gone away for me. Theres just oh, youd really like to throw up while youre waiting on them. Until you hear it read, it is tense. Coming up a vicious killer. Hes a psychopath. And theres crazy sick and theres crazy mean. Hes just crazy mean. Hes intelligent, a college graduate. He is a member of our armed forces. Hes probably smarter than everybody sitting in this room. What would the jury decide . We the jury find as follows. The verdict, when mystery on Blood Mountain continues. Ntinu. Life doesnt stop for a cold. [man] honey. [woman] honey thats why theres new dayquil severe honey. Its maximum strength cold and flu medicine with soothing honeylicious taste. Dayquil honey. The daytime coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, power through your day medicine. I guess i look pretty. Ridiculous. [ chuckles ] no one looks ridiculous, bob. Progressive is always here for you with roundtheclock service. Just so you know, next time, you can submit a claim with our mobile app. Good. Thanks again for for rushing over. Are you kidding . This is what 24 7 protection looks like. Okay. You smell like fish. Sorry. I was talking to jamie. Begins with ingredients from the earthn. Rry. To create fragrances infused with natural essential oils. Air wick scented oils. Connect to nature. The trial of gary hilton for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap had taken seven days. The sixman, sixwoman jury needed less than 3 1 2 hours to reach its verdict on multiple counts. The state of florida versus Gary Michael Hilton, we the jury find as follows as to count one of the indictment, the defendant gary hilton is guilty of firstdegree murder. Count two of the indictment gary hilton was found guilty of the firstdegree 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 on floridas 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 its not a foregone conclusion that this is going to be a hang em jury. Absolutely not. Weve had our share of horrendous crimes, dont get me wrong. But the jurors here are just very uneasy about sending people to death row. This man, mr. Hilton assistant states attorney georgia capelman had gotten the initial conviction. What are the words you use to describe this guy . Hes a psychopath. And theres crazy sick and crazy mean. Hes just crazy mean. Hes intelligent, a college graduate. He was a member of our armed forces. Hes probably smarter than everybody sitting in this room. 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 states attorney willie megs did just that, calling to the stand Georgia Bureau of investigation agents whod worked on the emerson case. You indicated that ms. Emersons body was nude. Did Gary Michael Hilton tell you why it was nude . He did. He basically stated that he had removed the head and stripped the clothing for forensic purposes. Megs was able to introduce portions of those chilling interviews that hilton gave the authorities in georgia. Once youve taken someone, youre either going to kill them or youre going to get caught. Its as simple as that. Penalty phase was one of the more interesting parts of the trial. Thats where you started getting this information about emerson because thats the first time the georgia information was allowed into the correct. So that is when you really start seeing the jurors taking in the enormity. Then you really see the impact of all of this coming through. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Robert freedman was the defenses lead attorney in the penalty phase. His strategy was to portray hilton as so mentally damaged as to be incapable of responsibility for his actions. Freedman began with a pet scan expert who testified about traumatic brain damage hilton had suffered as a 10yearold when a murphy bed accidentally fell on him and nearly scalped him. He was taken to st. Josephs hospital in tampa and given 200 stitches. And this is an example of a murphy bed. And jurors thats 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 slipup. 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 that be delusional if thats the truth . No. A defense neuropsychologist tested hilton, who it turns out is as bright as he thinks he is. On the wexler intelligence scale he scored an overall verbal iq of 120, which puts him in the upper 10 or so of the population. Another psychiatrist diagnosed him with schizoaffective and antisocial personality disorder compounded by an oldfashioned oedipal complex. We call it an unresolved oedipal complex. A child can grow up with this emptiness inside of them. To top it off, the defense continued, hilton was selfmedicating with prescription drugs. Ritalin and effexor will basically push you over the line. The defense then treated jurors to gary hilton, this is your life. A saga of abuse, neglect, and injury. It included an audiotape of hiltons late mother talking about how as a teenager hilton had wounded his stepfather. And he said, shoot me, shoot me. Go ahead, shoot me, i dare you to shoot me. Gary shot him. In the legs or the lower part of his stomach. A junior high girlfriend testified that gary wasnt a bad guy back in the day. He was funny and outgoing and smart. The defense rests. Once the defense rested, willie megs called his rebuttal witness, a clinical psychologist, to revisit the essential issues. Did mr. Gary hilton know right from wrong . My opinion is yes, he clearly knew right from wrong and clearly he knew the criminal nature of his conduct. My opinion is that hes a psychopath and thats what generated the murders, nothing else. The attorneys made their final appeal to the jurors. Im going to 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, im asking all of you collectively and individually to recommend a life sentence in this case. The jurors then retired to deliberate nothing less than whether gary hilton should live or die. Coming up another haunting question. Were there more victims out in the forest . I personally believe there are. And a legacy. Shes really the hero. It was through her efforts that we were able to catch her killer. Remembering meredith hope emerson. He took our friend. He took a daughter, a sister. But he cant take her memory. He cant take the things that we love about her away. When mystery on Blood Mountain continues. Mountain continues. Like you, my hands are everything to me. But i was diagnosed with dupuytrens contracture. And it got to the point where things i took for granted got tougher to do. Thought surgery was my only option. Turns out i was wrong. So when a hand specialist told me about nonsurgical treatments, it was a total game changer. Like you, my hands have a lot more to do. Learn more at factsonhand. Com today. The same jurors who found gary hilton guilty of murdering Cheryl Dunlap were trying to decide if they should recommend hilton spend life in prison or be put to death by lethal injection. Their life or death debate lasted an hour 20 minutes. The majority of the jury by a vote of 120 advise and recommend to the court that it 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 Cheryl Dunlap. May god have mercy on your soul. Gary Michael Hilton was sent to floridas death row was murder of Cheryl Dunlap. He was shackled and transported to western 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 Cheryl Dunlap and Meredith Emerson. We have a good case. A tremendous number of manhours spent in the investigation. But a trial wouldnt be necessary. In march 2012 hilton pleaded guilty to killing john and irene bryant and got another life sentence. Law enforcement officials from across the southeast have met with hilton multiple times in an attempt to find out how many more of his victims there might be out there. You believe that there are four deaths connected here . At least. You think there are others . I think theres certainly the potential to be others. I dont know that well 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 hiltons victims and suspected victims dulls but never ends. Hes 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 Dunlap and very possibly many more. The man is not even what i think of as human. He is something else. A true psychopath who needs to be put where he can never harm anyone else again. For Cheryl Dunlaps friends and family in florida hiltons conviction provoked conflicting feelings. And i think, believe it or not, that cheryl would want us to forgive. And 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. Tabby, in the family it was a Death Penalty 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. And like laura said, hes off the streets. Hes 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 hasnt been a day go by since then i havent thought about Meredith Emerson and what we could have or should have done differently. But see, shes really the hero. She did the best she could in hopes that 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 Cheryl Dunlap. In georgia, for Meredith Emersons closest friends, its time to forget about gary hilton and remember her. He took our friend. He took a daughter, a sister. But he cant take her memory. He cant take the things that we love about her away. There is, they say, important work to be done. We started an organization in her memory. Julia karen bauer, Meredith Emersons onetime roommate in georgia, founded along with others something called right to hike, advocating hiker safety. We dont want anybody to go through this again either, to bring awareness of what happened and how it happened and maybe make you think about going hiking by yourself. Twice. Take a friend. You know, to be a little safer. The organization founded by Meredith Emersons friends has sponsored events with a huge turnout of people and dogs. Merediths dog ella went to live with her parents in colorado. Any event that we ever have at right to hike, just seeing people come and say, i never met meredith, but i feel like i know her, and i wanted to come out and support. And that was the biggest thing, the Community Outreach after everything happened. Right to hike has aided humane societies, educated hikers on safe practices, and put cell towers on trailheads. One of the big things that we realized very quickly on these trails, that our cell phones didnt work. And meredith had her cell phone with her, and that didnt help her. And if you ever hike Blood Mountain, you just might notice a little sticker there as you head out. Remember me, m. E. , Meredith Emerson. She most of all would like you to enjoy your day in the outdoors. Just really enjoyed being out with nature and watching ella run through the forest and play with other dogs. I think it was just a really Peaceful Place for her to be. People go to these places to relax and get away from everyday life and enjoy the outdoors. And they should continue to do that. These are some of the safest places there are to go. Until the monster shows up. Yeah. In march 2012 gary hilton pleaded guilty to the 2007 murders of john and irene bryant in North Carolina. He is currently serving four consecutive life sentences. This sunday, assault on democracy. Egged on by president trump. Were going to walk down to the capitol because youll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength. Thousands of protrump rioters storm into the capitol building. Overwhelming security. Stop the steal [ crowd chanting ] members of congress cowering in the house gallery. We were just told that there has been tear gas in the rotunda, and were being instructed to, each of us, get gas masks. Five people dead, the
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