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The Hunt for Gary Hilton
That Chapter's 32-minute breakdown, the fullest single telling on file.
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What happened
Meredith Hope Emerson was a 24-year-old University of Georgia graduate living in Buford, Georgia, when she set out to hike Blood Mountain in the Chattahoochee National Forest on January 1, 2008. She brought her Labrador retriever mix, Ella. Emerson was an experienced hiker and had trained in martial arts. On the trail she encountered Gary Michael Hilton, a 61-year-old drifter who had been living out of a van in the area.
Hilton abducted Emerson and demanded the personal identification number for her bank card. Investigators later concluded that Emerson gave incorrect numbers repeatedly, delaying Hilton and prolonging the time she stayed alive. She was held for several days.
When Emerson did not return home, friends reported her missing and searches began on January 2. On January 3, authorities located her parked car near the trailhead, along with a water bottle, a dog leash, and a police-style baton. Hilton was named a person of interest. On January 4, a witness reported a man cleaning out his van at a gas station in the Atlanta area. Officers stopped Hilton before he could wash the interior, and blood recovered from the vehicle was matched to Emerson. Hilton was arrested that day. Ella was found alive in a store parking lot in Cumming, Georgia, and returned to Emerson's family.
Prosecutors offered to remove the death penalty in exchange for Hilton disclosing the location of Emerson's body. He agreed, and her remains were recovered in Dawson County, Georgia. A medical examination determined she had been killed by blunt force trauma to the head. In late January 2008, Hilton pleaded guilty to Emerson's murder and was sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole after thirty years.
Hilton was subsequently linked to other killings in national forests across the Southeast. He pleaded guilty to the 2007 murders of John and Irene Bryant in North Carolina and received additional life sentences. In 2011 he was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2007 murder of Cheryl Dunlap in Florida. Coverage of the case referred to him as the "National Forest" killer.
Emerson's case prompted state legislation in Georgia restricting the public release of crime scene and autopsy images of homicide victims, a measure informally named for her. Her family and friends have since described her composure and resistance during her captivity as central to how the case was solved.
