Read this - Post from another hiker- details about GMH a bit..

JinxieJada

Former Member
Joined
May 8, 2006
Messages
929
Reaction score
33
This is a trailhikers blog from 2005. There is no mention of what the guy called the dog..But can we gather anything from this? Any new details? Before he was "really noticed"?

I'm going to copy and paste here in its entirety the paragraphs containing to what sounds like hilton- if that's not ok, mods, please edit, or pm me and instruct me how to correct it!


Taken from -

http://trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=214242

It rained and rained until all it would do was rain, so we had started out early that morning.
Once we got into Cooper Gap, on the right hand side as you descend, a white van (possibly a VW) was parked and camped with a wet dog tied up outside. The dog was medium-sized and reddish brown. It barked at us as we passed, but no one seemed to be home.







We stumbled into the shelter, drenched from an 8-mile hike through 5 hours of constant downpours. I remember I had just laid out everything to dry and was laughing at the idea we would have another shelter to ourselves.
That is when this older gentlemen who I would have guessed in his 60's came into the shelter. He wore a day pack and on a leash was the very same dog who had barked at us back at the Gap.
He wore running shoes and a black knit hat covered his thin white hair. A white neatly-trimmed beard covered his oval face.


The first thing he said to us was that a group of about 6 hikers were behind us and asked us about our itinerary. We told him our story as we unpacked our stove.



He told us he couldn't do anything but day-hike these days because of the pain in his knees. Said he camped in that white van down in the Gap and wondered all over the place camping for free in this area while mixing in dayhikes with his dog.
We asked about the dog.....how old it was....did he ever put a pack on it? Those kind of things.


He explained how he disliked people who take their dogs on thru-hikes because it was so mean to the dog. No one knew how painful it can be on a dog's paws. He pulled out a pair of tweezers and held them up.
"I always carry these and stop and check on her every mile or so....it's good to always check for stickers and rocks on their paws," He said.




This guy also volunteered to us how he made his living. He said he would take work on homes. Contract work, roofs or siding.....one or two a year in Florida and around the area and that would allow him to live in the woods. Told us it was the way to go.


All in all, I would say ten minutes went by and then he wished us well and turned to leave. He and his dogged disappeared into the woods and I assume headed back to the Gap.
I immediately turned to my cousin and said, "That guy was weird. He made no eye contact with either one of us, talked our head off and cared not one bit about our answers we gave him."
 
Creepy epically when he showed his cousin the picture. I'm sure this guy is responsible for a lot more crimes than we are aware of.
 
JinxieJada, I think maybe you should pass that information along to the GBI. This guy is going to be difficult for LE to track by traditional methods. He doesn't pay electric bills; probably not any taxes, has had addresses that were essentially businesses, and has lived in the woods. I bet he doesn't have a bank account of his own. He has no internet presence. He has essentially lived off of the grid. It will be helpful to LE to see information like what you just posted because they can then begin to create a timeline of where he has been and when he was in various areas. This case may be an example of one where the information that people like us find, will be very beneficial to LE. I am going to try and start working on a timeline of what we know about him, and overlay that with the list of possible other murders. Can't work on it today, however - at the job again. :cool:
 
JinxieJada, I think maybe you should pass that information along to the GBI. This guy is going to be difficult for LE to track by traditional methods. He doesn't pay electric bills; probably not any taxes, has had addresses that were essentially businesses, and has lived in the woods. I bet he doesn't have a bank account of his own. He has no internet presence. He has essentially lived off of the grid. It will be helpful to LE to see information like what you just posted because they can then begin to create a timeline of where he has been and when he was in various areas. This case may be an example of one where the information that people like us find, will be very beneficial to LE. I am going to try and start working on a timeline of what we know about him, and overlay that with the list of possible other murders. Can't work on it today, however - at the job again. :cool:


Ok, how would I do that? I haven't seen an email posted for contact info...or just go to their website and pick one out? (an email addy)
 
Ok, how would I do that? I haven't seen an email posted for contact info...or just go to their website and pick one out? (an email addy)
To make sure it gets to the right agents investigating I would call first as each agent has there own email address. 404 244 2600 is the 24 hour line. The operator could direct you to the proper person or give you the correct email address.
 
To make sure it gets to the right agents investigating I would call first as each agent has there own email address. 404 244 2600 is the 24 hour line. The operator could direct you to the proper person or give you the correct email address.


Thanks CP!
 
Where is Cooper Gap?

That is a good lead for the FBI providing they can find a way to track the people down, but it is possible there isn't unless you have to register for that site.

Great find, Jinxie!!!!
 
Wow, Jinxie!! That sounds like him all right! It is true what he said about taking dogs on through hikes as it's bad on the paws. When i went hiking and brought my dog (we couldn't go that much); rocky terrain would wear down her nails a lot quicker and the pads so i had to watch. He sounds like a conscientious dog owner, if anything he probably has taken Dandy to the vet for some reason or another, i think if anything is on the grid, it would be vet visits..
 
Great find Jinxie! I agree with Reannan, my sleuthing twin, that this is the only way for the authorites to track Hilton's whereabouts. Good job!
 
I called the number, but seemed to be on hold forever I got tranferred a couple times, and then had to stop holding to get kiddo from school. Should I try again tonight? (it was around noonish, so I'm guessing lunches/shift changes etc)


Thanks
L
 
* A thought* I believe it's been discussed before, But - Since this guy seems to be well known/remembered on the trails...Should we start looking at more hiker's blogs and their pics to see if he's in anyone's photos? If he was this chatty, it wouldn't suprise me to to find he or dandy/both would be in someone's pictures from their excursions...


Anyone else?
 
* A thought* I believe it's been discussed before, But - Since this guy seems to be well known/remembered on the trails...Should we start looking at more hiker's blogs and their pics to see if he's in anyone's photos? If he was this chatty, it wouldn't suprise me to to find he or dandy/both would be in someone's pictures from their excursions...


Anyone else?

Jinx--I suggested this back on the Meredith Emerson #1 thread and I attempted to go through the trailjournals website, but it's not organized terribly well and it became overwhelming. Plus, that was before we had a suspect and we just had a general description of a guy in a yellow jacket with a red dog.

But the more people who attack it, the easier it will be. The journals are organized by year and by trail. Anyone have any ideas how we can split it up?

http://www.trailjournals.com/journals.cfm
 
Might Hilton have had a nickname? Most AT hikers hike under a nickname they give themselves and refer to each other by these names. You'll notice this as you go through the trailjournals site.
 
From: http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=37163

"Today started like any other day. Wake up, pack up and leave camp by 7:30. It definantly didn't end in a typical way though.
I knew we would be crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway several times today before reaching our stopping point. I was feeling nervous about the crossings today for some reason, so I didn't hike too far ahead of Shepshank.

I got to the Taylor's Mountian Overlook on the BRP and decided to wait for her. Several cars would stop, look at the view, and take off again. Then a woman pulled up, got out of her car, and asked me if I was hiking alone.

That's a little weird, I thought, until she told me why she asked. She had been getting to study at a different overlook and a guy in a white van pulled up and sat there watching her. She felt uncomfortable, so decided to go to another overlook. He drove by the second one several times. So she decided to leave.

She saw me at the next overlook, the first trail crossing. She wanted to warn me about this guy. As she was telling me this story, he drove by two times. Sheepshank arrived soon after. We stood at the overlook for a half an hour and this guy drove by at least ten times, sometimes squealing his tires near by, so he could turn around again.

We all decided that the rangers needed to be informed of this bizzare behavior, so we got into her car to go look for one.

At one point, the guy in the white van pased us going the oppisite way. He saw us, swerved in our lane after he passed, went into the ditch and pulled back up on the road and back into his lane. Now the woman was getting very scared.

The guy must have turned around again, because he was soon three cars back, intent on getting people to pull off to a overlook to get right behind us. This guy tailgated everyone until they moved. There was a red truck behind us that realized that some thing was going on, and wouldn't let the van scare him off.

The van tried to get around him, but couldn't do so because of the amount of traffic. We could tell this guy was very aggitated because he coulnKt get behind us. I think the guy who was harrassing us soon realized how close we were to a vistor center and he turned off on the road going to Buchanan, Va.

We reported the incident to the Blue Ridge Parkway Rangers. After an hour and half of talking to them, we decided that any of the shelters that we could go to were too close to the Parkway for our comfort and we didn't know if there were any other hiker behind us that would make it to the shelter tonight. We decided to camp at the Peaks of Otter Campground so we would be around people.

The woman took us to the resturant at the Peaks of Otter Lodge, where she was going to wait for a friend who was going to follow her home so that she felt safe. She said that when we were finished eating she would drive us back to the campground.

Sheepshank decided that she wanted to stay at the hotel, so after a bit of discussion, we decided to do so.

I must admit that I am a little afraid of going back to the trail, knowing that we have to cross the Blue Ridge Parkway several times in the next few days. We are trying to decide if we are going to get back on at the same place or skip ahead a little bit, so that we have less of a chance of running into him again. We also have to figure out how to get the word out about this as quickly as possible so other hikers know about it.

Today's events really tired me out, and I'm feeling very stressed. I'm going to sleep now."
 
Jinx--I suggested this back on the Meredith Emerson #1 thread and I attempted to go through the trailjournals website, but it's not organized terribly well and it became overwhelming. Plus, that was before we had a suspect and we just had a general description of a guy in a yellow jacket with a red dog.

But the more people who attack it, the easier it will be. The journals are organized by year and by trail. Anyone have

any ideas how we can split it up?

http://www.trailjournals.com/journals.cfm

Cwiz - Thanks! I remembered it was talked about - but couldn't remember where or by who lol. are All of these locations so far part of the Appy Trail? If so, maybe we could start there? I've found ALOT of info on the different trailjournals, not so much pertaining to him, but the area, the people etc.

I really think if we dig deep enough of these, we're going to find a whole lot more people that know of him.
 
[SIZE=+1]skate's 2002
Appalachian Trail Journal
[/SIZE]

First Previous Next Last
Sunday, March 17, 2002
Destination: Hiawassee, GA
Starting Location: Cheese Factory Site
Today's Miles: 12.70
Trip Miles: 66.80
Wow! Actually slept last night. Had to turn my sleeping bag 180 degrees so my head was at the foot of the tent to avoid the incline. I don’t quite have the knack down for selecting the perfect tent spot yet. Rained all night, but broke long enough at 6:30 AM for us to pack up our gear. Today was a body climate control challenge – wind, rain, countered by body heat and sweat had me switching fleece hat to bandana and back, rain jacket on/off, fleece jacket on/off. Finally I gave up and settled for T-shirt drenched in sweat and damp from rain. One of the great features of a thru-hike is the “Great Unknown.” Every day is truly a new day and it is fun to see what unfolds as the day progresses. Hawkeye and I stopped briefly at Tray Mountain Shelter to enjoy the luxury of a latrine and discovered a bag of fresh oranges hanging at the shelter - Trail Magic. Also met M – a Vietnam Vet, and his black Lab, Tucker. He is quite the conversationalist. In the course of 15 minutes, he covered the crusades, life on the line at General Motors, the Vietnam War and the 101st Airborne Division, Hanoi Jane, and the Palestinians and Israel! Pickle joined us and we took off for Deep Gap. Walking, walking, walking the AT, walking the AT north, walking the AT north from Georgia to Maine… With that cadence in mind, I climbed the never, never, never ending climb up Kelly Knob. The descent led to the Blue Blaze Trail to Deep Gap Shelter. I reached the shelter first and it was already crowded – Turkey Bacon, Yankee Joe, Eric (Ohio), Tinman and Godiva, and Greg. With more hikers pouring in, it would be a sardine can tonight. I walked back to the water source and met Hawkeye and Pickle. A quick pow-wow and we decided to move on. Boy, did we move! It was 4 PM and we knew if we covered 3.5 miles we could catch a ride to Hiawassee. Hot bath, hotel – enough said. We booked up, over and down those mountains and hit Dick’s Creek Gap in 1.2 hours. I swear we were practically running those ridges. Several cars and trucks passed us at Dick’s Creek before a retired couple pulled over and took us into town (11 miles). The best Trail Angels we’ve met thus far. Hot bath, a real bed, food, glorious food…. Life is good. We’ll take a day tomorrow to do laundry, stock up on food supplies, and plan our next week on the Trail. -skate
 
From: http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=37163

"Today started like any other day. Wake up, pack up and leave camp by 7:30. It definantly didn't end in a typical way though.
I knew we would be crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway several times today before reaching our stopping point. I was feeling nervous about the crossings today for some reason, so I didn't hike too far ahead of Shepshank.

I got to the Taylor's Mountian Overlook on the BRP and decided to wait for her. Several cars would stop, look at the view, and take off again. Then a woman pulled up, got out of her car, and asked me if I was hiking alone.

That's a little weird, I thought, until she told me why she asked. She had been getting to study at a different overlook and a guy in a white van pulled up and sat there watching her. She felt uncomfortable, so decided to go to another overlook. He drove by the second one several times. So she decided to leave.

She saw me at the next overlook, the first trail crossing. She wanted to warn me about this guy. As she was telling me this story, he drove by two times. Sheepshank arrived soon after. We stood at the overlook for a half an hour and this guy drove by at least ten times, sometimes squealing his tires near by, so he could turn around again.

We all decided that the rangers needed to be informed of this bizzare behavior, so we got into her car to go look for one.

At one point, the guy in the white van pased us going the oppisite way. He saw us, swerved in our lane after he passed, went into the ditch and pulled back up on the road and back into his lane. Now the woman was getting very scared.

The guy must have turned around again, because he was soon three cars back, intent on getting people to pull off to a overlook to get right behind us. This guy tailgated everyone until they moved. There was a red truck behind us that realized that some thing was going on, and wouldn't let the van scare him off.

The van tried to get around him, but couldn't do so because of the amount of traffic. We could tell this guy was very aggitated because he coulnKt get behind us. I think the guy who was harrassing us soon realized how close we were to a vistor center and he turned off on the road going to Buchanan, Va.

We reported the incident to the Blue Ridge Parkway Rangers. After an hour and half of talking to them, we decided that any of the shelters that we could go to were too close to the Parkway for our comfort and we didn't know if there were any other hiker behind us that would make it to the shelter tonight. We decided to camp at the Peaks of Otter Campground so we would be around people.

The woman took us to the resturant at the Peaks of Otter Lodge, where she was going to wait for a friend who was going to follow her home so that she felt safe. She said that when we were finished eating she would drive us back to the campground.

Sheepshank decided that she wanted to stay at the hotel, so after a bit of discussion, we decided to do so.

I must admit that I am a little afraid of going back to the trail, knowing that we have to cross the Blue Ridge Parkway several times in the next few days. We are trying to decide if we are going to get back on at the same place or skip ahead a little bit, so that we have less of a chance of running into him again. We also have to figure out how to get the word out about this as quickly as possible so other hikers know about it.

Today's events really tired me out, and I'm feeling very stressed. I'm going to sleep now."

That sounds like it could be him. How frightening!
 
MasterJ that does sound like him.

MeoW..not sure about that post. What would be the connection to Hilton? Am I missing something?
 
Might Hilton have had a nickname? Most AT hikers hike under a nickname they give themselves and refer to each other by these names. You'll notice this as you go through the trailjournals site.
His nickname is Mac or Mack.
 
SuziQ brought this over from Huff's and posted it:
A commenter at Huff's

http://www.haloscan.com/comments/tru...1278446789725/

posted a comment from:



on pg 2: "I am sure you have all heard about the hiker who went missing on New Year's Day and the guy who is in custody for kidnapping her. Her body was found today and I am sure they will be charging him with her murder. He is also suspected in several other murders in Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia.
I wanted to tell you all about what happened to me so that you will all be aware of who you talk to and to pay attention to your "something is weird here" radar.
The day before the girl, Meredith Emerson, went missing, I was hiking on the same trail on Blood Mountain. I saw the man who is suspected of killing her and I talked to him for about 10 minutes. He asked me if I was alone and if I had a cell phone. It wasn't particularly odd that he asked me those questions, because he worked them into the conversation. My radar did go off because he is very strange. I didn't feel like I was in danger because I was with a group that I was hiking ahead of when I encountered him on the trail. I'd like to think I wouldn't have talked to him if I was alone, but I probably would
have- just to be polite. He was most likely 'shopping' me as a victim. He was walking very quickly ahead of me as we talked and I walked more quickly to be able to hear him and continue the conversation. I kept looking back to make sure I could see or hear my group. When the trail split, he went the other way than we did. My husband noticed that when we got to the bottom of the trail, the suspect, Hilton, was behind us. I don't know if he doubled back to see if I was alone or not."
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
204
Guests online
1,844
Total visitors
2,048

Forum statistics

Threads
589,170
Messages
17,914,928
Members
227,742
Latest member
Snugglebear
Back
Top