person. then she vanished. i called the police. something is wrong. and something was. days passed, then months, no leads, no clues, no progress. we ve got to get going. we ve got to get moving on this. enter the a-team. a band of tough guy privatize. yes something to hide. a brief encounter with the mysterious stranger. on the train coming home, she had met this woman. did that hold the answer? she s talking about how someone is trying to assume her identity. a chilling case of a daughter in danger. somebody was after her. welcome to dateline. i m lester holt. she was beautiful, talented, trusting, and sometimes troubled. a young woman from a prominent family finally grabbing the promise and life right up to the day she vanished. when the police seemed unable to find her, her family had to plan, and the usual strategy to solve the mystery. here is keith morrison. it began on the bright morning in may. slipped from its platform in washington stat
georgia, with her dog, ella. her roommate, julia karrenbauer, from college days had slept in that morning. julia karrenbauer: she had left me a note, just a little note on a chalkboard. took ella, went hiking. not where, not when, not when i m going to be back. so it wasn t really anything out of the ordinary. dennis murphy (voiceover): meredith, like roomie julia, was a dog person. she doted on ella, her black lab mix, since finding her at a rescue shelter. julia karrenbauer: she had two dogs growing up, and she wanted one of her own. and so 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. and it really was the light of her life. dennis murphy (voiceover): julia, the roommate, didn t know that 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 m
we received a request from a local agency to help with a missing hiker. dennis murphy (voiceover): the case of the hiker missing for two days didn t look good to the seasoned detective because of some disturbing items that had been recovered on the trail. dennis murphy: what were the things that were found out in that trail area that you thought were alarming? john cagle: a couple of water bottles, a dog leash, and a police expandable baton. this is a piece of professional gear. it is. it s just a metal pipe that is expandable. 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. and we became concerned that possibly a struggle took place there. dennis murphy (voiceover): meredith s water bottles, ella s leash, and signs of a struggle nothing about
places that she highlighted and kind of just started driving. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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 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. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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, just that sinking feeling when you first see it. dennis murphy (voiceover): 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 sheriff s office. john cagle, just shy of re
shingles. some describe it as an intense burning sensation, or an unbearable itch. this painful, blistering rash can disrupt your life for weeks and could make it hard to be there for your loved ones. shingles could also lead to serious complications that can last for years. if you re over 50, the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside you. and as you age, your risk of developing shingles increases. don t wait. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingles today. ask your doctor or pharmacist meredith emerson and her lab, ella, were two days missing on georgia s 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 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 could have been meredith easily.