Going West: True Crime - The National Forest Serial Killer // 73

Episode Date: June 17, 2020

In 2007, a string of murders were committed in national parks and forests across the Southeastern United States. After a description of the possible killer is released on national television, a man in Georgia gives the police the name of a very good suspect. This is the story of The National Forest Serial Killer and the murders of Irene & John Bryant, Cheryl Dunlap, and Meredith Emerson. PATREON BONUS EPISODES: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.floridasupremecourt.org/content/download/347749/3066975/11-898_ini.pdf http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Hilton,%20Gary%20Michael.pdf https://www.transylvaniatimes.com/story/2008/02/05/front-page/john-bryants-body-found-in-forest/3894.html https://www.blueridgenow.com/article/NC/20120327/News/606022032/HT https://www.ajc.com/news/local/tragic-end-for-unique-couple/PzAHQbeBqHLPzNjGei0nAJ/ https://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/12637726.html https://www.ajc.com/news/local/gary-michael-hilton-convicted-florida-murder-case/XKsSX7AUKwXqvpQCg2QyBN/ https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?n=meredith-emerson&pid=100978180&fhid=3592 http://www.nbcnews.com/id/23769881/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/killer-says-female-hiker-fought-him-end/#.XufH7i2ZPow http://charleyproject.org/case/rossana-miliani https://www.news-journalonline.com/article/LK/20071223/NEWS/180117745/DN https://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20180119/police-daytona-woman-who-killed-dismembered-boyfriend-is-linked-to-similar-cold-case Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans, I'm your host Tee and I'm your other host Daphne and you're listening to Going West. We're so glad to have Daphne back. She just had her wisdom teeth taken out this past week. Yeah, wisdom tooth pain is no joke folks. I'm gonna do my best today, but I still can't fully open my mouth. So just a fair warning.

But anyways, this week we are gonna focus on a series of murders that happened in the outdoors. And as you guys probably know, me and Daphne are big outdoor people. We love nature. We love hiking and camping. So if you're that type of person, you might be interested in this episode. And if you're not into the outdoors, you'll still like this case because it's crazy. And we just did two outdoorsy kind of like camping, hiking, murder cases on our Patreon. That was last month. And we're gonna have a couple more this month. So if you guys want bonus episodes, head on over to patreon.com slash going west podcast.

Oh yeah, this next case that we're doing for our bonus episode series is really, really insane, and it includes some very terrifying 911 calls. So if you want to help out the show, head over to patreon.com slash going west podcast and subscribe. It's such a creepy one, and that'll be out next week. So also the link for our Patreon is in the description of this episode if anyone's interested. Alright guys, without further ado, let's not waste any more time.

This is episode 73 of Going West, so let's get into it. New pictures of a missing hiker, search crews are looking for her right now on Blood Mountain. Friends of Meredith Emerson sent this picture to us showing Emerson and her dog, they hope it will help authorities find her. The search for Emerson is taking place on Blood Mountain in Union County right now. We've just gotten new information. Channel 2's Ashley Hayes is live for us this afternoon with the latest Ashley. Amanda Meredith Emerson has been missing now for two bitterly cold nights. We just received information from authorities that they have named a person of interest in our disappearance. Let me go ahead and give you that description. We just received.

Authorities are looking for a 50 to 6-year-old white man about 160 pounds. They say he may have some missing teeth. He had a dark reddish retriever who he was calling Danny and was wearing a yellow jacket and backpack. They are looking for him. He was seen on Monday when Meredith disappeared. Still friends and family are out here looking. They are hoping that they will be able to find Emerson alive.

Hi, I have the person of interest in that missing woman case. Is that this Chevron gas station on the street Dunlady? Chevron gas station at F for Dunlady? Yeah. You get the man is there. The man is here. The dog is here. The red dog. And I saw the man's face and I've been watching the news. And I know, we can't mind't, I know we can't. Gary Hilton was born on November 26, 1946 in Atlanta, Georgia to parents Cleo and William Hilton.

But William wasn't in Gary's life at all, and in fact, he was married to another woman. So Gary lived with his mother Cleo, and it was just the two of them, until he was about eight years old. And that's when his mother Cleo married Nilo DeBag, who was an Argentinian man that worked with race horses. Gary's home life wasn't very stable because they moved every few months thanks to Nilo's job,

because he had to travel with the horses for racing. Gary went to numerous different schools, so making friends wasn't easy, and he was pretty shy to begin with, so that didn't help. A few years later, in 1958, when Gary was 12 years old, the three of them moved to Haya-Lia, Florida, which is a residential suburb just outside of Miami. But it's still a pretty big city itself because its population in the late 50s was around 224,000 people. And that was where they were hoping to stay. Just a year after the move, Gary shot his stepfather, and this was supposedly in an attempt to protect his mother. Gary and Nilo didn't have a really good relationship because his whole life up until recently,

his mom was his, you know, she didn't, she wasn't dating anyone, she wasn't married. So he was kind of jealous of this new stepfather. Exactly. And you know, now she's married to this guy and Gary's feeling like Nilo is taking his mom away from him. It's also been stated by Gary and others that Nilo was emotionally and mentally abusive, because he was a perfectionist who grew up in a very strict household himself. But it's also believed his mother, Gary's mother, Cleo, may have sexually abused him as well. She was very cold in general to him, and he has also stated that he doesn't think she

ever hugged him. And this was witnessed by other family members as well. She just wasn't motherly or loving at all. At any rate, Gary shot and wounded his stepfather. Nilo didn't die from this and he didn't even press charges. Instead, he felt Gary needed help. So Gary was sent to a mental hospital in the area for a short time. So after Gary was sent to this mental hospital that same year he was able to

get out and he then began attending Miami Springs Junior High. At first his mom Clio wouldn't let him back into the house because she was understandably still pretty upset about him shooting her husband and his stepfather. But since he was going back to school, he was allowed to live in the house. During Gary's teen years, his mother Cleo and her husband Nilo split up, and Nilo wasn't happy about it. In fact, when he came by the house angry and begging for Cleo back, Gary shot him again. And with that, he was kicked out of his mother's house, and then he was able to go stay with another family called the Jeffers. Meanwhile, Cleo and Nilo got back together.

Gary lived with the Jeffers while he attended high school, and he seemed to come out of his shell a bit more. Gary was known to be a pretty funny and outgoing kid. He always had a book in his hand, and he particularly loved studying history. Gary didn't complete his high school education, though, despite the fact that he was actually quite intelligent and had a very high IQ of about 120. At age 18, he joined the army and he was able to get his GED while he was in Germany in the military. And while he was in Germany, he also met a woman who he would go on to marry, and her

name was Ursula. He spent about three years in the military before he was discharged in 1967 at the age of 21 when it was determined that he had anti-social personality disorder as well as schizoaffective disorder. So then he and Ursula moved to the United States, but this was a very short-lived marriage. Ursula was apparently addicted to narcotics and would use a lot while Gary was working on becoming a pilot. Within two years, he and Ursula were divorced and he was then married to a woman named Sue.

While living together in Miami, Gary gave up his dream of becoming a pilot and worked odd jobs until he would find his new passion. During this marriage, he worked as a chauffeur, but just like his relationship with Ursula, he ensued divorce two years later as well. Gary then moved back to Georgia, this time to a town just outside of Atlanta called Stone Mountain. It was there that he met and married his third wife, Dina Baah, in 1977, when Gary was 30 years old. A year later, they were divorced. And a year after this,

he married his fourth wife, Betty Sue Galaway. This would be his shortest marriage yet, because they were only married for seven months. During one of Gary's marriages, he and his wife were running a donation scam where they would collect money from people acting like they were going to give it to charity, but then they just kept it all for themselves. This same wife later stated that during their short marriage, a nine-year-old girl had reported Gary Hilton

for touching her sexually. When the wife asked him about this accusation, he admitted to doing it. He also reportedly asked her young son to touch him sexually at one point. And another ex-wife also claimed that she had discovered he was molesting children. Amongst sexually assaulting children, he was also committing a slew of other crimes around this time. And in 1982, when he was the age of 35, he was arrested for arson. And over the next few years, he was charged with a couple counts of theft, possession for marijuana, and carrying a weapon without a license.

He was also charged with 21 counts of solicitation for that donation scammy had, and this charge was brought to him in 1994, so over 10 years after it happened. He was given 10 years probation for this and had to pay a monthly fee of 50 bucks. Since he wasn't married at this time, he was just renting rooms around Georgia. And somebody that he rented a room from, a guy named Chris, later stated that he thought Gary was very strange and was a weird character. And Gary paid for these rooms by scamming more people. Even after he was charged with solicitation, he started stealing books and selling them at the flea market. He was arrested for this though.

About a year and a half after this arrest, he landed a job for an insulated wall company and he helped them with marketing for about 10 years. But during these 10 years, he was caught stealing from the company. So at some point, he was put on a four-month suspension from work. But he then continued to work there because he and his boss, John Taber, were close and John even gave Gary a place to live. But in 2007, Gary Hilton threatened to kill John Taber if he didn't give him $10,000. So John reported this to the police and Gary was on his way and he left the company.

Just a month after this, Gary began causing even more trouble than before. John and Irene Bryant were a very adventurous and active couple and in 2007, they were in their early 80s. So they like to get out there and get around as in they like to move around. Yeah, I mean, to be in your early 80s and still be interested in hiking

and getting outdoors and traveling to tropical and exotic countries is pretty good. Yeah, and also pretty cool. Yeah, good for them. And John had actually previously completed hiking the Appalachian Trail, which we talked about in one of our Patreon episodes. And this trail is 2,200 miles long. And it passes through 14 states, starting in Georgia and ending in Maine.

On October 21st, 2007, John and Irene were hiking the Piscat National Forest in North Carolina. And this area is gorgeous in the summer, but they were there in October when it was equally as, if not more, breathtaking, since all the leaves were orange and there was tons of foliage. Yeah, it was so pretty I was looking at photos and it's just like an orange land of just trees. Obviously it's usually green in the summer, but when it's fall it's like just beautiful, beautiful autumn scenery. It's amazing. And I really, really love summer, but there's also just something about fall.

I agree. It's amazing. So for those of you who aren't familiar with US geography, North Carolina is just two states away from Georgia. And at this time, Gary Hilton was without a job, so he was kind of just drifting and mostly living in his white Chevrolet Astro van. So yes, that stereotype about creepy white vans is relevant in this story. Gary Hilton was making his way through the Pizganational Forest that October day, just like the Briens were.

And when he encountered them on the trail, Gary thought he would use this as an opportunity to steal their money. To do this, he killed Irene by blunt force trauma to her head, and it's believed that he used his gun to do this. It appears that the Brians were either just beginning or just ending their hike, because Irene's body was later found very close to their car. Instead of killing John right away, Gary, who by the way was 60 years old at this time, so 20 years younger than John was,

he took John's bank card and forced him into giving up his pen number so that he could take his money out of an ATM and rob him. But before he did this, Gary Hilton took John Bryant out to the Nanta Hale and National Forest, which is over an hour and a half away from the Pizgan National Forest where Gary killed Irene Bryant.

There, he shot John Bryant in the head with a 22 magnum firearm. And the following day, on October 22, 2007, at around 7.30 pm, Gary Hilton used the Bryant's ATM card and withdrew $300. And he did this in Ducktown, Tennessee, which is about an hour away from where he killed John Bryant. And there is security footage of this transaction, but it's very, very bad quality. All you can really see is that a person in a yellow raincoat approaches the ATM and withdraws money, but the height and physique of this person, from what you can tell, apparently matches Gary Hilton, and it apparently does not match John Bryant.

And we'll post this photo on our Instagram and our Twitter and Facebook so that you guys can check that out. At this time, no real red flags were raised, but their family did report them missing after not hearing from them. And the Bryant's children, friends, and even neighbors banded together and searched for them, but nothing came up. It wasn't until three weeks later that their car was found, and in turn Irene Bryant's body was found just 50 paces away, covered by some leaves and branches.

But they still had no idea where John Bryant was. And they were incredibly suspicious of the fact that his ATM card was used in Tennessee. But it wasn't until about four months later, and February of 2008, when a local hunter came along his remains and the Nanta Halea National Forest. Nearly two months before his body was found, on December 1, 2007, a woman named Cheryl Dunlap was abducted in Tallahassee, Florida. Cheryl Hodges Dunlap was born on November 18, 1961 in Tallahassee, Florida.

She attended Tallahassee Community College where she studied in the nursing program before heading over to Florida State University to become a registered nurse. She was a very active member in her church, and she even taught at their Sunday school, so she was very faithful and helped a lot of people within her church community. And her faith didn't stop there because she also participated in mission trips with a ministry school that she was in, and they went to Mexico, China, and Haiti to volunteer.

So it's really easy to say that she was an incredibly thoughtful and caring woman who just wanted to help people in every aspect of her life. And even when Hurricane Ivan struck in 2004, she volunteered to help her fellow Floridians then too. In December 2007, she was 46 years old and she had two sons, one of which was in the army, and even two granddaughters. On the morning of Saturday, December 1, 2007, Cheryl Dunlap spoke to her friend Kiana about having dinner together that night. During the day, she went to a park area in the Appalachia Cologne National Forest, which is just outside of Tallahassee, Florida.

It was there that Gary Hilton abducted her with the same motive that he had for John and Irene Bryant to use her bank card and withdraw money from her account. As we mentioned, Gary Hilton was living out of his car in these days. He didn't have a job, and he frequented various national parks in the southeast United States, so he acted like a survivalist and a woodsman, because he basically did live in the woods. And instead of going out and getting another job after he was basically fired from his last one after threatening to kill his boss, he took to robbery and murder. fired from his last one after threatening to kill his boss, he took to robbery and murder. So when he set his sights on Cheryl Dunlap, it was the same deal.

That night, she didn't show up to dinner with her friend Kiana. The day after Cheryl's disappearance, her debit card was used at an ATM in Tallahassee. It being a Sunday, she didn't show up for church, which obviously this was very unlike her. Because like we said, she was very devoted to her church and she even taught Sunday school so why would she not show up? Her fellow church-going friend, Tanya, noticed that she wasn't there, and decided to stop by her house to check on her.

When she arrived, she noticed that her dog was home, but her car was gone. Tanya then called the police to report her missing. The next day, Cheryl's bank card was used at another local ATM, and that was also the day that they found Cheryl's car at the Appalachia Cologne National Forest, and she had a flat tire. It wasn't a natural flat tire, though. Her tire had been punctured and slashed. Then the next day, December 4th, her card was used at another Tallahassee ATM.

The total money withdrawn from her account over those three days was $700. And it was pretty bold to use her card three days in a row, and especially on the day that her card was found and the day after. I mean, this guy is clearly a dumbass. Does he think that they're not going to check her bank statements and see if her ATM card was used? I just think if he's going to do it, like use the card right away, don't use it days later. That's just really suspicious. And even though they're going to check the footage anyway, so you can cover your appearance, maybe there would have been an alert on the machine or I mean, who knows, you know.

Well, also, he's using this card at local ATMs. So there it seems to me that like they're all within the same area. So that's really not smart either because let's say he uses the card in one town and then he uses the card in a different state. That's a lot harder to track. Well exactly just like he did with the Brian's card He went to Tennessee to use it and even though it was an hour away with this He killed this woman in Tallahassee and went to three different ATMs in Tallahassee. Exactly. About two weeks after she Disappeared a hunter found Cheryl Dunlap's body in the same area she had disappeared from, the Apollet Shakola National Forest.

Her body had been dismembered and she was decapitated. So it was very difficult to verify the remains were hers since her head and hands were initially missing, but they eventually were able to confirm it was her using other DNA evidence. But later, a human hand and skull were found at a campsite in the area in the fire pit. In the fire pit was also a hand-rolled cigarette, a zipper, and some other fabric. They took the cigarette in for DNA, but could only get a partial profile, so that didn't

really help them at this time. Since the search in the Appalachia Cola National Forest had been going on for a couple weeks after they found her car there, it's unknown if Gary Hilton had kept her with him for a few days or even weeks, or if he had dropped her there before her car was found. What we do know is that the Appollet-Shakola National Forest is the largest forest in the whole state of Florida. So either situation is possible. Unfortunately, at the time they found her body,

there was no DNA evidence whatsoever connecting Gary or anyone else for that matter to this murder. So the police had no leads. To make matters even more strange in Cheryl Dunlap's case, police were able to collect security footage from those ATM machines in Tallahassee, and the findings were really horrifying. A person wearing a blue and white striped button down, a black beanie and khaki pants is seen withdrawing the money. But you can't see his face, because he has some kind of white homemade tape mask covering his entire face.

And these photos are so creepy and unsettling, because you can see his features, like you can see his eyes, his nose, his mouth, but tape is covering all parts of his skin and it's so terrifying. We've posted photos on our social media accounts by the way like we have in every case with every photo, but just heads up, Twitter is at going west pod, Instagram is at going WestPodcast, or Facebook just search going WestTrueCrim. So if you're not driving, go check this photo out right now so you can have a visual because it's so freaky to see. Yeah, I'm not I'm really not sure why he didn't wear like a ski mask like why tape? It's so scary to look at. I

feel I I think I when I was researching this case this photo I feel like I've seen before and let probably some creepy reddit thread or something. It's super unsettling. I don't know why he didn't just use a balaclava. I mean, I guess he is living out of his car so maybe he's just using items that are within his van. Like maybe he had a roll of tape in his van. I'm sure that's what it was. It's freaky. It's very creepy and actually I wouldn't be surprised if he had a roll of tape in his van. I'm sure that's what it was. It's freaky. It's very creepy. And actually, I wouldn't be surprised

if he had a role of tape in his van because he kidnaps and abducts people. So that kind of makes sense. So on January 1, 2008, one month after Cheryl Dunlap was abducted, a young woman named Meredith Emerson disappeared. Meredith Hope Emerson was born on June 20, 1983 in Charleston, South Carolina to parents David Lloyd and Susan Hope Emerson. She also had a brother named Mark, and she

spent most of her upbringing in Holly Springs, North Carolina and Longmont, Colorado, which I know exactly where that's at. But after high school, she moved to Georgia to attend the University of Georgia, where she graduated with honors in French. She chose to study French because she was incredibly passionate about traveling, and she even got to study in France during her time in college. She was also very big on self-defense, and at some point had taken up martial arts. At the time of her disappearance, she was a blue belt in a keto which is basically intermediate. It's like the second belt that you

can receive during training. She also had a black Labrador named Ella and she absolutely loved taking this dog hiking. And she was even training Ella to be a physical therapy dog. On Tuesday, January 1, 2008, so New Year's Day, Meredith Emerson, who was 24 years old, headed out for a hike on Blood Mountain in Northern Georgia. And this wasn't unusual for her, she always went on hikes with her dog, it was one of her biggest hobbies. So that day, witnesses saw her walking with an older man on the trail, and they later stated to police that they seemed to be really friendly with each other, and they kind of just assumed that this guy was probably her father or her grandfather.

Right, it didn't raise any red flags. Exactly. The following day, her friends really started to worry because she hadn't come home or been heard from since before she went on that hike one day earlier. Then she didn't show up for work, which was not like her at all. And that's when she was reported missing. Three days after she disappeared, her dog Ella was found in Cumming, Georgia, which is about 60 miles or 94 kilometers away from where she was hiking that day.

Wow, that dog actually went that far. Yeah, I don't know if the dog walked that far or ran that far or if Gary had dropped her off randomly in the road, but it's crazy. I mean, that's, that's some distance. I'm kind of impressed, actually. At this point, Meredith Emerson's photo was on the local news. So everyone in the area knew that she was missing. And it was just a really good thing in general that she was on the news because multiple witnesses came forward explaining that they had seen Meredith with an older man.

And they were able to come up with a pretty good description. Remember how Gary Hilton was fired from his job after he threatened his boss, John Taber? Well, John happened to see the news, and he felt strongly that the man that they were talking about was Gary Hilton. And not just because of the description, but John really believed that Gary could be a killer. I mean, obviously, he threatened this guy that he was going to kill him. Exactly, and he knew him for 10 years, so if anybody knows, it's going to be John Taber. Exactly. So just before they met, Gary Hilton produced a horror movie called Deadly Run.

And this film is about women being murdered, and thanks to Gary's addition, raped in the woods. Weirdly enough, one of the scenes in the film was shot in the same National Forest where Meredith disappeared from. So he called the police and told them this, and they were thrilled to have that lead. Investigators obtained a photo of Gary and presented it to the witnesses who saw Meredith the day that she disappeared, and they all confirmed that it was Gary Hilton next to her on the trail. After John turned Gary into police and while

police were actively looking for him, Gary Hilton called John Taver and said he was out of money and that he needed a job. Like, can you believe this? He probably realized that killing wasn't working out. Well, what a piece of shit. I mean, you threatened to kill your ex-boss and blackmail him for $10,000. And you have the audacity. Exactly. The audacity to come back and say, well, amount of money, do you think I could have a job with you again?

I'd be like, get the fuck out of here, guy. Well, we're about to get into this, but he wasn't able to get money from Meredith, and so it's just crazy to think about that he's been trying to get money from people and then killing them in the end and he's been able to get a few hundred bucks, but now he's not able to get it from Meredith and so he's like, okay, this whole killing, robbing thing isn't working out. I need to just go back and get a job and he's trying to go back to where he was before. So it's just weird.

Yeah, that's a really weird way to like make a circle back to having a job It's like instead of killing people and stealing their money. Why don't you just go get another job, dude Yeah, like who'd have thought that'd be a good idea and that's just it's the strangest thing to me is What's weird about this is he must enjoy killing obviously because he's not just killing people to get their money I mean he could rob people to get their wallets and their money, but he goes the extra mile to actually murder these people. So he definitely takes some joy in killing people. Exactly, because he could easily put on a ski mask and just go up to people at gunpoint and take their wallets,

and he's not doing that. Instead, he's holding them hostage, he's killing them, he's dismembering them. It's not just about the money. But also another thought just came to my mind. It's also possible that he was killing people to silence them so they wouldn't be able to identify him as their robber. Well, exactly, but then why didn't he just wear a mask and hold them at gunpoint, you know?

He didn't have to show them his face. Well, I get it, but there's also subtle details that could have come up like, oh, he's wearing this type of shoe, and obviously Gary's, you know, doesn't have a whole lot of money, so it's not like, you know, he's really, he probably doesn't have a whole lot of pairs of shoes. I mean, yeah, he definitely could have gotten caught, but you can also get caught for murder

and he does. So he should have just worn his tape mask. Yeah, I guess so, huh? Creepy. That's tape mask. And I wonder how John felt about this having just turned Gary into the police and Gary doesn't know that John was the one who did that. And now he's trying to resume life as normal.

John was probably like, who's shit? Oh God, that must be so terrifying because he's trying to resume life as normal. John was probably like, oh shit. Oh god, that must be so Terrifying because he's probably thinking that Gary is like knows something Because I mean this is right after he turns Gary into the police and then he gets this call all the sudden from Gary You would automatically think that he would think oh shit Gary probably knows that I turned him in and now he's after me or something like that, right? And at this point, like as soon as they found out that it was Gary, his face and photo was all over the news so that people were able to actively look for him. On the same day that Ella was found, the dog, so three days after Meredith disappeared,

a man at a chevron gas station in Atlanta about an hour and a half from the hiking trail called the police and said The man you're looking for is cleaning out his van Police knew that Gary Hilton owned a white van so they jumped on this immediately They got to the scene right away and were able to find Gary Hilton there Attempting to cover the inside of his van with bleach, which is just not something you do on a normal day. You know, that's a red flag. Yeah, that's kind of weird. So they got to him just in time before any of this bleach was used. So luckily, the DNA evidence was preserved. After they arrested Gary for suspicion of murder, his van was searched from top to bottom, and they found blood evidence that matched with Meredith's DNA.

They also found her bloody clothes in a nearby dumpster and I believe it was the dumpster to this chevron gas station. So he was cleaning out his car. You know, he got rid of her bloody clothes. He's now trying to clean his car with bleach and so he doesn't, you know, get caught and here he is in the midst of it, and he gets caught. And at this point, he was charged with her murder. And we've talked about this before with other serial killers. We talked about this with Glenn Rogers. How when these guys end up traveling between different states, it's so hard to capture them

because they're in different jurisdictions, evidence is left and scattered through multiple different states, and so it is very hard, but thank God for this person who just happened to see Gary clean it, cleaning out his van, and they were like, oh, that's the guy. And so soon, this guy probably just saw the news and was like, holy shit, there he is. Like, that was fast. Exactly. After this, Gary loyered up right away, which made it very difficult for police to get

any information on Meredith's whereabouts. At that point, the investigators offered to give Gary a deal if he would just tell them where her body was so that her family could have some closure. This seemed to strike a cordon Gary and he admitted to killing Maritith Emerson. And they were so shocked when he said this because obviously as an investigator you could only hope that you offer someone a deal and then they just spill the beans and he did. They were like, oh, I'm pretty sure that he knew he wasn't going to get get away with it. So yeah, that's true. So he told the story of how on January 1, 2008, days earlier, he came across

Meredith on the trail, and then he attacked her. But since she was a martial arts student, she began to fight back, and was even able to get his knife and police baton out of his hands. But after the two kept fighting, Meredith eventually tired and wasn't able to fight him off anymore. So, he overcame her. He took her off the main path and tied her to a tree until he was able to take her ATM cards and obtain her pin number. But little did he know, she gave him an incorrect pin number.

So instead of letting her go, Gary set up camp in the woods and held her and her dog Ella captive. Instead of letting her go, Gary set up camp in the woods and held her and her dog Ella captive. And during the short time that he held her captive, he promised that he would let her go and that he only wanted her money. A few days later, he went to go try her card at an ATM. But beforehand, he killed her, which was something that he was planning to do all along. He never had any intention of letting her go,

and he really only told her that to calm her down. He bludgeoned Meredith to death with his baton before cutting her head off and pouring bleach on her entire body to hide any evidence that he committed the crime. And he ended up letting her dog Ella go because he didn't have the heart to kill a dog. He also told police that killing Meredith was very hard because they spent four good days

together. Oh my god, this guy is seriously fucked up. Like what the hell? You can't, you don't have the heart to kill the dog yet you decapitate this poor 24-year-old girl who did nothing to deserve that? We see a lot of guys do this too. They try to like, they try to make it seem like they're less guilty when in all actuality

they're just monsters. But then on top of that, to also say that it was hard killing Meredith because they spent four good days together, like okay then maybe why don't you not do that? Yeah, exactly. And like, just stop trying to cover it up. Like, you're a shitty person. You kill people. You don't have a good heart.

Anyway, investigators were aware of the other national forest murders that occurred in the Southeast United States. And they questioned Gary Hilton about these. Initially, he denied having any involvement, but years later, he admitted to killing Irene and John Bryant as well as Cheryl Dunlap. On January 7th, 2008, so nearly one week after Meredith went missing,

her body was found after Gary gave investigators a general description of the area that he left her in, which by the way, was a heavily wooded area in Dawson Forest about an hour away from Blood Mountain where she was originally hiking. And remember, John Bryan's body wasn't found until a month after Meredith's body was found, so after that it was believed even more that Gary Hilton was involved. In June 2008, Gary Hilton was extra-dited to Florida for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap, but this trial wouldn't take place for a few years.

So in the meantime, in February 2010, he stood on trial for Meredith Emerson's murder to which he pleaded guilty to. And within nine days, he was found guilty of the first degree murder and kidnapping of Meredith. For this, he received life in prison. Exactly one year later, he was found guilty of the murder, kidnapping, and robbery of Cheryl Dunlap. And for this, the jury sought the death penalty, which he received.

As of April 22, 2011, Gary Hilton has been on death row in the Florida state prison. Although there wasn't any DNA evidence to factually connect Gary Hilton to the murder of Cheryl Dunlap, he confessed to killing her and a witness later placed him at the Appalachia Colin National Forest on December 7th, 8th, and 9th in 2007, so right after she went missing. And it was actually multiple people who came forward telling different stories about Gary being in that area. One said he asked for help jumpstarting his car, which the man declined doing because Gary seemed really weird to him. Someone saw him with a small shovel and a bayonet knife.

And another person actually came forward stating that he was also asked by Gary to jumpstart his van and this man helped him. Once it was jumpstarted, Gary offered to give him a small camping stove as a thank you. The man said that Gary seemed agitated but overall was pretty polite. Someone even saw him driving by the search party in the Appalachia Colin National Forest on December 10th. There were countless sightings of him around this time in the area. On top of that, the cigarette that was found in the fire pit where Cheryl's

hand and skull were found contained a partial DNA profile that matched Gary's. So even though it wasn't a dead-on 100% match, it was enough to believe that the cigarette was indeed Gary Hilton's. By the way, it was also verified that she was dismembered after death. Likely to stop the police from finding her identity for whatever reason. And it was likely done using his bayonet, because they also confirmed that the slash and Cheryl's tire was done by his bayonet as well. Which is really creepy because then you have to wonder why did he slash her tire?

You know, maybe he saw her getting out of her car and he slashed her tire so that she wouldn't be able to drive away and he could attack her or something like that. That seems like the most likely scenario to me. Honestly, he's trying to prevent her from leaving the area. So just two months after Gary Hilton was put on death row, he was charged with Irene and John Bryant's murders, to which he originally pled not guilty to. But he did end up confessing to these murders, but no others. It's widely believed that Gary Hilton murdered more people during his years as a vagrant. One possible victim is Rosanna Millioni, who disappeared at the age of 26 in Cherokee, North Carolina on December 7, 2005, so about exactly two years before Cheryl Dunlap was murdered. Rosanna was vacationing in North Carolina from Weirdly Enough, Miami, at the

time of her disappearance, and she was last seen around noon at the Ramada in Hotel, which is where she was staying. She had told her father earlier that morning that she was planning on hiking the Appalachian Trail. About two years after she went missing, a store clerk came forward after reading about Rosanna's disappearance in the paper, and she recognized her. She believes that she sold Rosanna and an unknown man who appeared to be about 60 years old, a backpack around that time. She remembers the man mentioning that he was a traveling preacher and that Rosanna seemed

nervous while buying the backpack. A composite of this man has been released and it's also on our social media along with photos of Rosanna. In case she's still out there alive, here's her description. She's Caucasian and Polynesian and stands at 5 feet 7 inches tall and at the time of her disappearance weighed 220 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes and has a tattoo on her back of a lotus flower with Chinese letters.

She also has a small birthmark on her chin and was last seen wearing diamond earrings. She suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, so her family is really worried about her being out there and missing and not having her medication. So we know that at some point between 1997 and 2007, Gary Hilton was suspended from work for about four months after he was caught stealing from his boss John Taber. It's not been released which months these were, but it's definitely possible that that was during the end of 2005 when Rosanna went missing. Or maybe he was traveling then anyway since we know that he was familiar with North Carolina. But Gary denied having anything to do with her disappearance. Her bank account wasn't touched after her disappearance,

which if Gary was involved, could just mean that she didn't give her proper pen just like Meredith did. But there's no other real evidence connecting these two. It just seems like something Gary would do. And another possible victim of Gary's was 27-year-old Michael Scott Lewis. He was a Florida native and was loved for his great sense of humor and sweet disposition. His body was found dismembered in December of 2007 in Orman Beach, which is about three and a half hours away from Tallahassee, where we know Gary Hilton was in early December. His body was found dismembered and put into two different plastic garbage bags in the Tomoka State Park.

Since Gary was in the state at the time and murdering other people, it's heavily believed that he was involved. Something I read that I thought was really sweet was that during his memorial, which was at a park, his close friends released 27 balloons in his honor and his friend group had all called themselves D dirties and they had for quite some time. So after they released the balloons,

all the friends said together, dirties never die. And it was just kind of a sweet and sad thing to read that this guy was so loved and obviously like so many others in the world doesn't have justice since his case is unsolved. But in 2018, a woman named Nelsie Tetley was arrested for the murder and dismemberment of her boyfriend in Florida, and she allegedly used to date Michael Scott Lewis. So it's also possible that she killed

him and that Gary Hilton didn't, but it's still worth mentioning. And by the way, I didn't find any information regarding whether or not his bank account was touched after he died, so we can assume it probably wasn't. Gary Hilton, known as the National Forest Serial Killer, for his consistent murders in National Forests and Parks, is currently 73 years old and remains on death row, where he will be until he dies naturally or is executed by the state.

And who knows how many other people out there could have fallen victim to this monster. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you so much everybody and next week we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into. And it's time for the shout outs. Thank you so much this week for the 5 Star Review, 2 Gillian in Ohio. Thank you to Kelly and Zayn'sville and thank you Brent and Bardstown, Kentucky. And thank you to Christine and Berwick Main, Myra and Gainesville, Texas, and Steph and Winsfield, Kansas.

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