Have you seen this D?
NoGA Native:
I think kidnapping, rape, torture, murder, mutilation, and decapitation, etc. confirmed in 4 states over several weeks qualifies as a depraved serial killer, as several separate victims are confirmed. That’s not glorifying this guy, that’s the facts.
I saw this guy in the Chattahoochee National Forest in October ‘07, and later took the GBI to a campsite (Lumpkin/Dawson County line, USFS FS road 28-1, Nimblewill Gap Road, camp confirmed by the GBI) on the same day of the recovery of Ms. Emerson’s body. I’ve met many others who say or dealt with him in Georgia before his capture.
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I believe the speculation that Hilton took Ga Hwy 53 west to Dawson Forest from the turn-around in the snow above Dahlonega on Hwy 129 is wrong. He turned off Hwy 129 at Turner’s Corner and drove in to national forest off Hwy 60 past Wimpy Field, the US Army’s Camp Merrill, on to FS 28-2, past Camp Wahsega, and later, on to Ga Hwy 52 then south to Ga Hwy. From Hwy 52. Bailey Waters road connects to Afton Bridge Rd, and Amicalola House and on to Lindsey Ford/6 mile camping area, site of the recent double-murder in Dawson Forest, and on to the north end of Dawson Forest off Hwy 53 to High Shoals Road, where Ms. Emerson was later killed. Passing along the area Wolfscratch writes about. The Huddle House and Ace Hardware are west on Hwy 53.
Not only did the GBI fail to act on the direct tips from the Huddle House (not just the late admission by the complicit Tabor about the Hilton call from Marble Hill) that may have saved Ms. Emerson if the GBI had not bottle-necked tips and contacted county LEO in Pickens/Dawson/Lumpkin, but the GBI failed to act with smarts or dispatch to tips of sightings of Hilton in the Nimblewill area while he had Ms. Emerson. Instead of contacting local LEOs, including DNR rangers who know the area, and Amicalola State Park LEO/staff, GBI officers were sent to check the state park registry. Had they told the local services, and local media, the area would have been swarmed, instead of everyone wasting time on Blood Mountain.
Why was the GSP and DNR helicopter not on Blood Mtn? SAR team was told high winds, yet WSBTV heli was all over the mountian, landing at Vogel State Park. Was the governor, who got his helicopter license last year, and has had to make restitution to the state for heli-taxi trips, out for a flight? Check that out.
I have lots more on all this. I’ve waited the 2 years to start writing about it, and my focus will be on what the 4 states LEO contacts by federal FS, state officers, and county officers let slide, and most especially, how the old-school approach of the GBI worked against a good outcome. Had White County GA court filed the bench warrant for the abandonment of the other Astro van in the national forest above Unicoi State Park (2005), also near the AT, and also not far from Rabun County’s unsolved 2006 murder of a women found in the woods, this felon could have been arrested any of the many times he was pulled over or run off by the many officers who interacted with him. At least PC for a search would have lead to all the stolen goods he chose to retain from the car break-ins at trailheads, and cabin break-ins. Who were his fences? Who were his buddies?
In today’s communication-driven era, the British approach to crime solving–especially abductions and murders–of getting as much information out to the public as quickly as possible–usually results in a better outcome and quicker arrest or rescue. The GBI did not want even the info about the baton in the news, and Ms. Emerson’s roommate and others acting to get that out on WSB-TV/AJC led to witnesses immediately coming forth who were on Blood Mtn who ID’d Hilton. He was known to Vogle park, USFS LEOs Tipton and Arrowood had run him out of Rock Creek in August, NC LEO had run him out of Rock Gap AT shelter earlier, and a NC conservation officer sent him on for camping in a wildlife clearing off Wayah Bald Road, NC, and both of these are near where John Bryant’s body was recovered, and the FL women was last seen (Bryson City). FL also reports multiple agencies with LEO contacts in more than the forest where Ms. Dunlap’s body was recovered. The shotgun shell parts at the John Bryant body recovery scene, along with the death by gunshot weren’t explained, yet USFS and ATF burned 400 acres of the Pisgah’s Pink Beds area last year after finding a felon’s camp with gunpowder and bullet-making gear near–a precaution we’re told. A buddy? This guy was a drifter, too, and also a felon.
Much more to share, later, but the focus isn’t on how smart this guy and his deceit of being an ‘MS-stricken, Vietnam Vet on perpetual maneuvers’ odd-ball, but rather on how the multiple counties, states, and local, state, and federal agencies are not equipped to track such a person. Walmart does a better job of tracking shoplifters than our agncy databases. Isn’t that something we can affors to fix? LEO lives are on the line, too.
My call and email to Transylvania county the morning of Jan 3 strongly encouraging them to contact and follow what’s going on in Union Co Ga was ignored, as was my call and email of Saturday night, Jan 6 to Leon County detectives that they also check out the then-arrested Hilton. In both cases, in a few days, they went from publicly telling the press ‘No Connection’ to ‘prime suspect’ as the van full of evidence told the story. That the GBI chose to completely ignore so much evidence at the site I showed them the following Tuesday, with no admitted knowledge of either the Bryant or Dunlap cases, was very unsettling. Their reason was ‘not in the time frame’ meaning they only were concerned with the soon-to-be-closed Emerson case, making no effort in the field to look at the weathered material on the ground in front of them. (Some of the clothes and pillow cases, etc. are still there.) We may have been looking at Ms. Dunlap’s or Mr. Bryant’s clothing–articles that NC LEO might need to tie Hilton to that yet-to-be-indicted double murder we know he did.
I, for one, resent the new American politics of starving government, and my Republican Governor has reduced funding for the GBI, closing some of the offices that worked this case, and reduced the DNR game ranger (LEO) staff that works these woods. The Tuesday discovery of a dead, lost 84-year old Alzheimer’s sufferer in the Cohutta National forest, stuck in the forest service road, is another case of what happens when the safety net goes away. Same with the Saturday morning double-murder at the boat launch on the Amicalola River in Dawson Forest a few weeks ago. The Guv did get a new $18 million jet last year, and was at the Dubai Air Show last month. Meanwhile, the DNR goes wanting. And the federals, well the 6 officers and 2 ATVs for all of the 800,000+ acres of the Chattahoochee NF, is also close to having no coverage. Their budgets were stripped for off-shore wars, yet security in our public lands seems to be of a low priority. Subsidising airline security should be paid for by the flying public, protecting the commons should be a shared responsibility.
And Florida national forests are worse, but at least USFS LEOs can carry shouldered AR-15s when they are driving out squatters and meth heads from our public lands. REade about squatters in the Ocala NF, and meth labs.
And as to how many victims this guy got away with, who knows. The Troup county murder of December 07, unidentified burned decapitated women in bags with a Chamblee Dominos pizza coupon–that’s Hilton territory and on the path to Florida, but this nameless victim had a short news cycle. And the several missing women on the other side (west) of the Talladega NF in Alabama–Albertville and Sylacauga come to mind–any of those agencies even know of this guy Hilton? Or the unsolved murder of the 48 year old in Damascus VA, an AT town, fall of ‘07–just a few hours north of the Pisgah? If not Hilton, then it sure makes the case for a big relational database-that could even have public and LEO partitions for data. Can that be the good that could be made to come of these crimes? Not if our political will doesn’t demand it–and it starts with a healthy questioning or even a stern criticism of how the GBI and others chose to treat this case.
And, the last Hilton camp with the bagged trophies found in the Chattahoochee–that wouldn’t have even been looked at by federals if we weren’t still concerned about the most recent unsolved abduction in Union County…vote for resources and demand competent LEOs.
