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Slain hiker to be buried in Longmont
Emerson's dog also will return to Colorado
By Heath Urie Camera Staff Writer
Thursday, January 10, 2008

"The remains of a former Longmont woman who was found slain Monday in the mountains of northern Georgia will be brought back to Boulder County to be laid to rest, a spokesman for Meredith Emerson's family said Wednesday.

Family friend Doug Bailey said from his home in Athens, Ga., that a memorial service for Emerson is scheduled to take place there Friday, and the 24-year-old woman's remains will be flown to Longmont for a second service and burial sometime in the coming days."

"Bailey said Emerson's parents also will bring back to their home in Longmont her 1-year-old black Labrador mix. Emerson adopted the dog, Ella, from an animal-rescue center in Georgia."

"Emerson's parents are asking supporters to make a donation to the Longmont Humane Society rather than send flowers to her services, Bailey said, in memory of Emerson's deep love for animals."
 
http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=109301&provider=top

More information is emerging about how close the GBI may have been last week to capturing Gary Hilton and rescuing Meredith Emerson.

Hilton moved about openly, and the GBI was soon able to track him.

GBI agents were hot on Gary Hilton's trail by the end of the three-days last week when Hilton held Emerson alive. It's just that Hilton was a step ahead of them.

One place Gary Hilton drove last week while holding Emerson prisoner was a Huddle House restaurant on Highway 53, west of Dawsonville, in Pickens County.

Late Thursday afternoon, Hilton came inside, saying he needed to make a phone call, but couldn't find a pay phone. So he used the restaurant's phone.

"Called somebody, sat in one of our booths, talked for quite a long time," said restaurant owner Jim Barkley. "He would get agitated, and calmed down, and get agitated, and calmed down."

Barkley said the man he now knows was Gary Hilton spoke so long on the phone, the server finally asked Hilton to hang up and leave, and watched Hilton walk outside to his van and drive away -- possibly, according to the GBI, with Meredith Emerson inside of it, alive and tied up.

"This is very sad to think that Thursday afternoon she was alive and in our parking lot," said Barkley.

Barkley said one of his servers was just getting off of work at 5:00 p.m., and she was leaving at the same time Hilton was walking out.

She is 18 years old, and, as they both walked outside to their vehicles, Barkley said she began to feel uneasy.

"She was very nervous" because of the way she said the man who turned out to be Hilton looked at her. "She didn't know why, at the time, but she just was nervous about it, because he was watching her."

One hour later, authorities released Hilton's name and photo, asking the public's help in finding him. Before Jim Barkley could call the GBI about Hilton having just been in the restaurant, the GBI showed up. Agents took his restaurant's surveillance tape.

But Gary Hilton, with Meredith Emerson, was already long gone.
 
MEREDITH HOPE EMERSON 1983-2008

Emerson remembered as loving, feisty, thoughtful

By GRACIE BONDS STAPLES
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 01/11/08

The day before she set out for her fateful hike, Meredith Emerson added another trifle to her Amazon.com wish list. This electronic keyhole to modern life gives hints of the 24-year-old's myriad interests. A "Harry Potter" book translated into French. A set of "Sex and the City" videos. A treatise on the power of Christianity. The ideas offered to those shopping for her came with this thoughtful tip: "If you want to buy me a book and can find a used one in good condition, more power to you! Save the money and the tree."


more at link below...

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/01/10/emerson0111.html
 
Suspect eyed in string of slayings
Well-known profiler fears that Gary Michael Hilton is 'way out there on the 'Silence of the Lambs' scale.''

By Rhonda Cook, Jeffry Scott
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 01/12/08

Five days after Gary Michael Hilton led investigators into the north Georgia woods to the body of a missing Buford hiker, law enforcement officers in two other states named the vagabond a suspect in three other unsolved deaths.

Hilton, who has been charged with murder and kidnapping in the death of Meredith Emerson, 24, of Buford, is being held in the Dawson County jail. But late Friday, more charges appear to be on the way. Hilton is being investigated in five cases —- two in Georgia, one in North Carolina and two in Florida. Victims in three of the cases were decapitated.


much more at link below

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/01/12/missing0112.html?cxntlid=inform
 
Duluth Police Encountered Hilton

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. -- WSB-TV has learned there are three videotapes of an encounter with Duluth police received by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Friday morning. The encounter happened in July 2006, which gives investigators one more point in their timeline in tracking Gary Hilton’s whereabouts.

“To be that close to someone who is that deadly, it is frightening,” said Bill Taylor. Taylor doesn’t remember seeing Hilton walk past his house or hand out flyers, but knowing Hilton was on his street is bad enough.

more at link:
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/15032826/detail.html
 
North Carolina investigators looking into Gary Michael Hilton involvement in 2005 hiker disappearance of Rossana Miliani
by Jon Ostendorff
published January 15, 2008 12:15 am

Bryson City – State investigators are looking into whether Georgia drifter Gary Michael Hilton may have been involved in a woman’s disappearance two years ago in Swain County, authorities said Monday.

Rossana Miliani was last seen on Dec. 7, 2005, in Bryson City. The 26-year-old had told her family she was going hiking.

~snip~

Private investigator Steve Siske said the clerk told him Miliani came into her store that day with a white man she thought was about 60 years old. They bought a backpack, and Miliani seemed nervous, Siske said the clerk told him on Dec. 13.

~snip~

He said the clerk remembers the man bought a used suit and said something that also appears connected to the allegations against Hilton.

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/NEWS01/80114093
 
http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20080116/BREAKING/663504457

Published Wednesday, January 16, 2008

'Positive link' established between Hilton, Bryant caseTimes-News Online

- Last modified: January 16. 2008 3:50PM

BREVARD — Transylvania County authorities say they have established a "positive link" between suspected serial killer Gary Michael Hilton and the death of Horse Shoe resident Irene Bryant, but have not yet charged Hilton.

...................more at link.......................
 

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