Missing Georgia hiker--Meredith Emerson, 24 #3

[schultzan31]

did it say if the bryant's had a dog w/them??

They did not. At least there were no reports that they did.

I think that his victims having a dog was a way of him getting finding an excuse to get near them and for them to somewhat trust him.

However, I don't think that he only harms those with dogs...
If you think about it, why would a 24 year old woman start talking to 61 year old Hilton unless they had some common ground? I am in my early 20's and if an older man alone in the woods approached me I'd brush him off right away, if he had a dog I'd just think "oh he's got a dog, I have a dog, he just wants them to play together."
I don't think that now though!

The Bryants may have been much easier for him to get near, especially since they were older (like him) and I have read that they were friendly..I could see Hilton approaching them to talk about the woods or something. With a younger woman that may have been more difficult, hence using the dogs as a conversation starter.

 

[MeoW333]

I agree we're seeing his stocking cap not his hair. I feel the body mutilation is part of his rage.
To meredith's family- You are in all our prayers. We discuss crimes on this site. At times the details of these crimes are depraved. We care about your daughter and all other victims of senseless crimes. I am a Christian and know that Meredith's soul had already departed and she is with God now. She had already departed when many of these events occured.
Find the strength to go on and know that there are many who care about you. Hug Ella from us.
I do hope someone will adopt Dandy so there won't be another victim of this heinous man. If we can help the shelter take care of him please forward an address. I would hate if Dandy to be put down!!!!
Go with God.

Does anyone in GA know of any good Dog Rescue/Foster/Adoption groups that would be willing to bail out Dandy from the pound? If cost is an issue, i would take care of that. Unfortunately i am too far away to get Dandy myself. ALso having more pictures of Dandy would be very helpful for witnesses to identify Hilton.

 

[schultzan31]

Also, if Hilton did kill the Bryant's and Levi, we can probably assume that his crimes were not sexually motivated and that Meredith was not sexually assaulted.
I think that if it comes out that Meredith was, then we may need reevaluate his potential victims, unless he just randomly killed people and had no pattern, which would be unlikely.

 

[ipswitch]

I'm still working on the list, but this one really stuck out:

http://www.gbi.georgia.gov/00/case_detail/0,2695,67862954_74030338_89910097,00.html

Date Found: May 07, 1988 Race: White
Location: Bartow County
Weight: 180 to 210
Height: 6'1" to 6'3"
Sex: Male
Birth Range: 30 to 40
Contact:
Bartow County Sheriff's Office at 706/382-5050 or the GBI TIP line at 1/800-597-TIPS. Narrative: Found by: Couple looking for plants
Conditions: Victim had been killed in another location two to three days before. Head and hands of victim had been removed and were never located. The body was left in plain view with no attempt to conceal it.

 

[jennyjwv]

I wonder if hilton will confess to anything now that he knows he is finished .... some killers are weird and would get off on bragging about it and how they couldn't catch him - i wonder if they have dna evidence from these other murders they can try to match to hilton???

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Does anyone in GA know of any good Dog Rescue/Foster/Adoption groups that would be willing to bail out Dandy from the pound? If cost is an issue, i would take care of that. Unfortunately i am too far away to get Dandy myself. ALso having more pictures of Dandy would be very helpful for witnesses to identify Hilton.

Dandy is essentially a witness in a murder case. That dog isn't going anywhere! They will hold her in "custody", imo. They need to collect hairs and samples from the dog to compare in other cases etc.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

I wonder if hilton will confess to anything now that he knows he is finished .... some killers are weird and would get off on bragging about it and how they couldn't catch him - i wonder if they have dna evidence from these other murders they can try to match to hilton???

We can only hope he will brag to LE. I am sure they did collect as much DNA evidence as possible on other cases and will be comparing them.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

I'm still working on the list, but this one really stuck out:

http://www.gbi.georgia.gov/00/case_detail/0,2695,67862954_74030338_89910097,00.html

Date Found: May 07, 1988 Race: White
Location: Bartow County
Weight: 180 to 210
Height: 6'1" to 6'3"
Sex: Male
Birth Range: 30 to 40
Contact:
Bartow County Sheriff's Office at 706/382-5050 or the GBI TIP line at 1/800-597-TIPS. Narrative: Found by: Couple looking for plants
Conditions: Victim had been killed in another location two to three days before. Head and hands of victim had been removed and were never located. The body was left in plain view with no attempt to conceal it.

Possible, but so far they have not mentioned anything about her hands. Other serial killers, drug lords, etc. have used this tactic to try to avoid identification of bodies. I don't think he did this to her for that specific reason at all.

 

[MeoW333]

Dandy is essentially a witness in a murder case. That dog isn't going anywhere! They will hold her in "custody", imo. They need to collect hairs and samples from the dog to compare in other cases etc.

Okay, good, i hope they will take pictures of Dandy to release for the public. You never know when it may jog someone's memory.. Hilton's been sighted as far north as Pa, Lord knows where all he's been to..

 

[georgiagirl]

The video is from October: :waitasec:


In October, Hilton drew attention from a Cherokee County sheriff's deputy answering a trespassing call. Hunters had called authorities to report that a man, identified as Hilton, was camping on private property used for hunting off Upper Sweetwater Trail, sheriff's Sgt. Jay Baker said.

The deputy videotaped the exchange, speaking for 20 minutes to Hilton, who admitted having a baton with him. The deputy told Hilton to leave the property after confirming he didn't have any outstanding warrants.



http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/01/08/emerson_0109.html

Video is smarmy – he is just so persecuted :boohoo:

I shudder to think he was here in Cherokee so close to my neighborhood and tried to use Meredith's ATM card just two blocks from my office in Canton.

 

[SuziQ]

The charge in 1995 that resulted in the younger mug shot we now see of Hilton was for beating up a roomate.

 

[cwiz24]

Possible, but so far they have not mentioned anything about her hands. Other serial killers, drug lords, etc. have used this tactic to try to avoid identification of bodies. I don't think he did this to her for that specific reason at all.

Also, most of the potential victims have been female.

However, I have read message board discussions that claim that Cheryl Dunlap's remains were left in the manner described in the GBI report above.

 

[concernedperson]

did anyone else notice on Nancy Grace that when she was ever so eloquently discussing the motive for decapitation, that she never once mentioned that perhaps he did this so she couldn't be identified quickly?

I mean, obviously decapitation is a horrendous thing to do, whether a person is alive or dead, but the fact that he did it to her when she was dead suggests that either Nancy was right and he gets some sick pleasure out of that, or that he was trying to conceal her identity. Either way its still horrible, but I think she missed a valid point.

Not that it matters exactly WHY he did it, but it could be a clue as to what type of murders we are looking for.

It indicates rage to me and the fact that he took her bloody clothes further exposing her. I am assuming her head was near the body and if it wasn't then we can look at concealing identity. The case of Cheryl Dunlap was different in so far as both the head and hands were gone. No verification from LE put that is the word from people around the area. Although this happened around a State Park there was no dog but she had had a flat tire so another crime of opportunity and he did try and use her ATM card.

 

[SuziQ]

Here is a post I made this morning in thread 2. Me and JennyWV were discussing the dashcam video. She thinks that Hilton may have dumped John Bryant there. Also we've only seen a snippet of the dashcam video. The entire thing is actually 20 minutes long. :

Hilton was in Cherokee County less than 4 days, 10-26, after someone used the Bryant's ATM.

From the below link:

Oct. 21, 4 p.m.: Someone uses Irene Bryant’s cell phone to call 911. The signal is lost, and the call never reaches an emergency call center. The provider is unable to lock onto a position using GPS. Irene Bryant was killed that day, authorities later say.
Oct. 22, 7:35 p.m.: Bryants’ bank card used to withdraw $300 from a machine at a Ducktown, Tenn., bank.

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pb...D=200771114122

 

[Reannan]

Cross-posted from something I just posted over at Steve's site:

I am not sure how well these are going to link, but here is the image from the Dunlap ATM close-up that SuziQ thought might have a white van in the background. It looks more like the back of a bus, and the front of a pickup truck. I took the image and copied it to MS Word, then copied it to Paint where I then inverted the colors. The second picture is the same inverted color picture, but I have labelled where I think I see a bus and a truck. Sometimes, it is amazing what a picture looks like with inverted colors.

Picture No. 1:
http://tinyurl.com/34jsrz

Picture No. 2:
http://tinyurl.com/2n42me


I hope it works, so you guys can see it also.

 

[chicoliving]

Maj. Mike Wood of the Leon County Sheriff's Office has told the Tallahassee Democrat that Gary Michael Hilton is the prime suspect in the slaying of Cheryl Dunlap. Hilton has been charged with murder in the death of Georgia hiker Meredith Emerson.

"We have identified that he was in our county, and he is the prime suspect in a murder in Georgia where an ATM card was used," Wood said. "That makes him the focus of our investigation right now."

http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=109292

 

[Reannan]

Good, they can try him for the death penalty in the Dunlap case.

 

[schultzan31]

It indicates rage to me and the fact that he took her bloody clothes further exposing her. I am assuming her head was near the body and if it wasn't then we can look at concealing identity. The case of Cheryl Dunlap was different in so far as both the head and hands were gone. No verification from LE put that is the word from people around the area. Although this happened around a State Park there was no dog but she had had a flat tire so another crime of opportunity and he did try and use her ATM card.

He may have been in too much of a rush to cut Meredith's hands off. As gruesome as it sounds, I would imagine that it is not an easy process and if he knew authorities were looking for him he may have done it quickly.

 

[SuziQ]

A commenter at Huffs posted, IIRC, that when Carey Stayner was asked why he decapitated the body. He said because it was the worst thing he could think of to do.

God I hate what I'm about to type. They may not have found all of Emerson. But they at least found her head, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to determine blunt force trauma of the head as the COD.

 

[angelwngs]

Hey, wasn't the head missing from the body found in Franklin County Georgia in August or so of this year? They never did find the skull did they???? Franklin is not far from this area..:doh: