Morbid - Episode 228: Gary Michael Hilton AKA The National Parks Serial Killer

Episode Date: April 26, 2021

Gary Michael Hilton is a serial killer who was convicted for the murders of four people, although many assume he has killed more. His M.O was to hunt down his victims while they were hiking or spending time on the trails, incapacitate them and keep them held hostage while he used their credit or debit cards. In this episode we will go over the murders of Cheryl Dunlap, Meredith Emerson and John and Irene Bryant. Great book on the case: Those Days In January by John Cagle Tragic End for Unique Couple by Mike Williams As always, thank you to our sponsors: HelloFresh: Go to HelloFresh.com/morbid12 and use code morbid12. Skylight Frame: Now, as a special holiday offer, you can get $10 off your purchase of a Skylight Frame when you go SkylightFrame.com and enter code Morbid. Shudder: To try Shudder free for 30 days, and to catch the all new season of Creepshow, go to shudder.com and use promo code morbid Upstart: Find out how Upstart can lower your monthly payments today when you go to UPSTART.com/morbid BetterHelp: This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp and Morbid: A True Crime Podcast listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/Morbid See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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That's W-O-N-D-E-R-Y-P-O-D. Audible.com slash wondery pod or text wondery pod to 500-500 to try audible for free for 30 days. Angie has made it easier than ever to connect with skilled professionals to get all your home projects done well. Whether it's routine maintenance and emergency repair or a dream project, Angie lets you browse home on her reviews, compare quotes from multiple local pros, and even book a service instantly. So the next time you have a home project, just Angie that and start getting the most out

of your home. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's ANGI.com. Hey weirdos, I'm Elena and I am Osh. And this is morbid. I love the little like, it was like on the go. Yeah, I don't know why I went there. It's like, it's like, everybody goes places. Yeah, I mean, it's been a crazy weekend. I think if you follow me on Twitter, you saw that one of my twins did like a spin kick in my bedroom

during right before bath time. Somehow sliced to their foot wide open. Yep. I'm not really shown like a dresser, like the corner of the dresser, which isn't even sharp. But your toes can, it's so thin. Yeah. And you're, you know, as we learned to your feet and your hands, they have so many, like, you know, they have so much blood flow to them that they bleed a lot. So it was a horrifying experience because I'm sitting there on the floor holding her feet, which when I first looked at her, she was like, my toe! And I just watched blood guyser out of her foot. And for a minute, I was like, oh, she lost a toe. Like that's how much blood there was.

I was like, I don't know how, but she lost a toe in my room. Like I'm gonna have to figure this out. I gotta find this toe. But luckily, you know it. That's toe. That meds toe. And luckily, she just sliced it open,

which was not awesome, but I was literally holding her hand in my hands, and I'm just covered in gushing blood being like and I'm having to be like okay, calm. It's fine. Everything's fine. Everything's fine so I'm like okay, uh, John just go get a towel. We're okay. We're fine. And like he's totally fine.

John's making jokes about like amputation. Oh my god. Because you have to just like, just like, just, yeah, you got to. And of course it turned into like jokes about like, did you really want Because you have to just like, dad joke. Yeah, you gotta. And of course, it turned into jokes about like, did you really wanna get out of bath time that bad? You could have just told us. Oh my god. You could have just washed up.

It's cool. I love it. But she's fine. You know, we went, we got it taken care of, but like, man, let me tell ya. Yeah, it was not exactly how I thought the weekend would start. It also really put my life into perspective for myself

Because you texted me while I was watching RuPaul's Drag Race the finale and I was like, so do you need me? And you're like, no, no, but I was like, okay, good because like I really didn't want to leave this finale So like I'm definitely not ready to have kids yet It's amazing, but luckily everything was fine and she's a freaking trooper. Yeah, I walk in today and she's just like running around. That's like nothing else. How's your foot, bro?

And she's like, it's fine. Yeah, she's like, it's cool. I love it. Totally fine. We're bad ass. But man, I feel like anybody who like takes care of kids or you know, parent or anything or anything knows that seeing your kid bleed is one of the worst things ever.

You just never wanna see the blood. No, because you're like, I created that. I don't wanna see it. It's a really weird way to think about that. But it is, you're like, that makes sense. My baby, I made that. I don't wanna see it empty itself of blood. It's just not how, it's not how I saw it going in the beginning.

You know, you just never want to see it. She's like, is there a photo, but then you're like, don't empty yourself a full-life sweet child. It's put that blood back in there. I made that. Put that photo back in there. I made that.

It's spilled that blood. I made it. I gave you that. Weird as fuck, dude. But she's a badass, which is awesome. And you know, that's just how my weekend went. And carrying her, she's half my size, even though they're five. She's huge.

She's very tall. Yeah, that's what I meant by you. She's just like my husband. She's taking after him, for sure. Obviously, you all know that. But yeah, so she's like half my size. So I had to carry her into the hospital. And I grabbed her. I'm holding like snacks and a juice

and just any supplies I thought we needed in one arm. And I hoisted her up with the other arm. Hoisted. And as I did it, I was like, oh, I definitely messed up something in my back. And man, I'm paying for it now. This story is like showing your age. Oh, it is.

Like you are a mom who doesn't want the kid to spell the blood. No, I don't. And you got a hoistum and then you three old ass backouts. Yeah, let me tell you, that's not awesome. Cause last night I was in like momentous amounts of pain and today I'm still in momentous momentous. It's like a pinch nerve. It was like a worse.

Some leaning over the microphone life right now being like, I know, I offered switching chairs, but you wanted to. I love you for that. I love you. But I had to go to work today too, so I probably fucked it up even more. Put the bone so.

You know, I'll put on a heat pack and we'll be in business. All right. I'm here for you guys still. Hey, because you're what's important. I'll be. Love you so much. So what are we talking about today? So today, now that I've enthralled you

with my weekend antics, today we are going to be talking about Gary Michael Hilton, aka the National Forest serial killer. That was a sorry, sorry, the perfect. I was just gonna say, I don't know if you guys heard that, but as soon as I said it, it was like, woohoo, yeah, it was like, woohoo! Yeah, that was really good.

So Gary Michael Hilton is terrible. Great. The worst. Luckily, you don't have to worry about it because he's in prison, so he can't get anybody anymore. So we love that. We love that.

I figured I'd give you that right off the bat, so you know, you have something good to look forward to at the end. Thank you. Because it's bleak. So for this one, I figured I'd give you that right off the bat, so you know, you have something good to look forward to at the end. Thank you. Because it's bleak. So for this one, you know, luckily, I always love when I can find the courts transcripts on the minds.

So there are always like a gold mine. But I also found a book called Those Days in January, and it's by John Kagle. And John Kagle was actually one of the lead investigators on this case. Oh, so you know that's a gas book. It's a very quick read. It's like 90-something pages.

And he says it in the beginning of the book. He's like, I'm not going to give all the nitty gritty of like exactly what happened to these people because he mainly worked on the Meredith Emerson case, which we'll talk about. She's one of the victims. But he was like, I don't want to go into like the gruesome details of what happened. Like, you will know what happened. So he's like, this is a quick read. I just want to give you like, what happened? And it is. It's a quick read, but there's so many good, there's good information in there. All right. So I highly recommend you go read that because you can do it in like 30 minutes. So Gary Michael Hilton is known as the National Forest Serial Killer because his victims were found dumped in national parks

We have three main instances in three different places in three different states. Wow. Yeah, and so he He was also known for his MO which was to be head his victims. Oh shit Yeah, so and whenever some that's just like we've talked about it before, that's next level. Yeah, that's a lot. That's kind of pathology just always really takes me to another place. Cause I wanna know why.

It's, I mean, he tries to tell you why. Which make any sense. Like as a, you know, I'll say it now, he later says that he was very smart, which is unfortunate like IQ-wise. I feel like that happens a lot. He did well in school and all that good stuff, but he clearly didn't use it properly, but he did try to use it in covering up some of his crimes.

So when he tells investigators later, is he removed heads to aid in messing up with the forensics, basically. So he did do it just to be like, I wanted to take out anything that could I deem. Jesus. Which is just so callous. That's very, yeah. So he was born November 26th, 1946.

I don't know what zodiac sign that makes him. I could see ashes eyes. A scorpio. He's a scorpio. Okay, there you go, guys. That's what we're all about here. So he was born to William E. Hilton and Cleo M. Reynolds. I have Cleo's my favorite name.

They were not great. That's not good. They weren't, yeah. He didn't have a great childhood. He didn't have anything, he didn't have a terribly abusive childhood or anything like that. He just didn't have a great childhood, not a great house. Also, I was wrong, he's not a Scorpio, he's a Sagittarius.

Oh, okay, there you go. And I actually like Sagittarius. Well, there you go, you don't like him though. No, you won't. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and he stayed in Georgia for most of his life. Okay. But he did move around a later,

and that's when he became troublesome. Yay! Now, court documents state that he did suffer from a frontal lobe injury when he was younger. You don't say. We all know that frontal lobe, it's an important one. Yeah, don't mess that up. Don't mess it up.

Don't mess it up. The way your kids mess theirs up. Keep an eye on that lobe. Don't spill that lobe. Throw the whole kid away if they mess up their frontal lobe. Sorry. So try again next time. We will.

Sources claim that it was from a Murphy bed following on him as a child. You don't know what a Murphy bed is. But I have it. I have it. It's OK. It's a weird thing. Is it one of those beds that comes from the wall

in like studio apartment? Yeah, you know. Yeah, I made an inference. You got it. Hey. You got it. So his parents actually divorced when he was around eight years old. That's when his mom moved him to Florida, and that's where she married his stepfather.

I believe he was around nine years old when they got married. Oh, that's tough. So she remarried pretty quick. Yeah. He did not get along with his stepfather. Me either. There's no real, like, there's no, like, specific instance of why he doesn't like his stepfather, but there are sources that say that he didn't like him because he mistreated his mother. Okay, which is sad and very fair Very fair and very sad. Yeah, so he was like I said a very smart kid

He had a very high IQ. He was putting advanced classes. He got good grades. Wow, you know despite what was going on around him That's good grades. Wow. You know, despite what was going on around him. What makes a person a murderer? Are they born to kill? Or are they made to kill? I'm Candace DeLong, and on my podcast, Killer Psychie Daily, which you can find exclusively on Amazon Music.

I share a quick 10-minute rundown every weekday on the motivations and behaviors of the criminal masterminds you read about in the news. I have decades of experience as a psychiatric nurse, FBI agent, and a criminal profiler. On Killer Psychie Daily, I'll give you my expert perspective on cases like the mysterious New York City drugings, breaking down Lori Vallow, aka Mommy Doomstays Motives, and what drove Caitlin Armstrong to murder? I'll also bring on expert guests who add even more insight into these criminal minds. I promise you won't regret adding these 10 minutes

to your morning routine. Hey, Prime members, listen to the Amazon Music exclusive podcast, Killer Psychie Daily, in the Amazon Music app. Download the app today. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery's podcast American scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history, presidential lies, environmental

disasters, corporate fraud. In our newest series, we look at the kids for cash scandal, a story about corruption inside America's system of juvenile justice. In Northeastern Pennsylvania, residents had begun noticing an alarming trend. Children were being sent away to jail in high numbers, and often for committing only minor offenses. The FBI began looking at two local judges, and when the full picture emerged, it made national headlines. The judges were earning a fortune, carrying out a brazen criminal scheme, one that would shatter the lives of countless children and force a heated debate about punishment

and America's criminal justice system. Follow American scandal wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wonder App. He did start getting in a little bit of trouble as he entered those teen years though and at 14 years old, he shot a shotgun at a stepfather. That is a big jump from getting good grades to doing that. Escalation station. Yeah.

It was it to help his mom. Well, that's the thing. In court documents, it is argued that he was protecting his mother from his stepfather. They said at the time of the incident, they were estranged. So Gary was trying to make him leave the house with threat of force, and he was 14. In the court documents, it said that his father held up a mattress, which I was like, it was a random, interesting, and said go ahead and shoot me. Like, was taunting him and Gary obliged and shot him. He did live. He was wounded.

Gary obviously got in trouble, but his stepfather, I guess, gave him a second chance and didn't press charges. Okay. But did want him to be committed to a psychiatric hospital. All right. Which, but did want him to be committed to a psychiatric hospital. All right, which, I mean, fair. Okay. Yeah. There, there's never been a true diagnosis for Gary, Michael Hilton. There are sources that claim to say he was schizophrenic. I have not found anything in any court document that says that that is proven.

Okay. In fact, in most court documents, I found they label the mental health issues part of it as not proven. So I don't think he's ever been completely diagnosed. So we're going to go ahead and say, not true. If we can't find it, he wasn't. At 17 years old, he enlisted in the army. He was stationed in West Germany as part of the Davey Crockett platoon. Oh, okay. Which sounds adorable. Davey Crockett platoon, I can't even say it. It's so adorable, I can't say it. I don't know anything about that platoon, so if you know about it, share with us. He volunteered to become a paratrooper at one point. He really enjoyed flying planes and the flight lessons I went along with it.

He later went to school to become a pilot and a flight instructor, but he never really finished and never went forward with it, which is strange. Yeah. So instead, he just started getting into legal trouble. Well, if you're not going to become a pilot, it's one or the other. Yeah, you got to go that way. He racked up a lot of charges on his record, things like DUI, thefts, robbery, drug offenses, some assaults.

Just, yeah. Not awesome. Really get it into that life. Yeah, but what he did love is being outdoors. He was a avid outdoorsman. It sounds like it. Friends said that he was crazy outdoorsy, almost to the point where they were like, why do you know every inch of every mountain? Like you need to chill out.

There was a reason for that. Yeah, he had a dog named Dandy who he would take doing his outdoorsy things with him. Now, he told a friend at one point, so I think he also kind of went into a place where he was being one of those people that kind of like lies for no reason. You know, those people that you're like, why the, why did you lie about that? Like lies about things that don't matter.

Yeah, like he told a friend, he told a few friends at one point that he had a MS and that he only had six years left to live. That was never proven to be true. It's a really weird thing to lie about. Very strange. And so he said he wanted to live his last year, because he was like, I'm on my last year, guys.

And he said he wanted to live his last year in the woods. That is not what I would want to spend my last year doing. Spoiler alert. He's still kicking. And he just got to have MS. So I don't know why you're right about that. He did end up getting married three different times to three different women. All three marriages were very short, quick and done. He didn't have children, luckily,

from any of those marriages, because I got to hate when they start procreating. Yeah. It's like, just don't do that. But when he was married in the 70s to one woman, she had already had two children by a previous marriage. And she did give an interview later and claimed that he sexually assaulted her children. Oh no. But nothing ever came of it. Oh.

Now, but that is something that is in court documents. I'm not gonna name her, because I don't know how far that all went. Yeah. And all that could stuff. So I'm not gonna go further into that. But in Officer John Kagel's book, those days in January, about being the lead investigator on this,

he said about Gary, quote, I and other agents interviewed Gary Hilton over the course of our investigation. During those interviews, some lasting four hours, it became clear that his behavior was similar to that of other serial killers. His lack of remorse for his killings, his psychopathic ramblings, and his views about society and himself among the many.

Most serial killers are proud of their work. Gary Hilton was no exception. Oh shit. And all quotes I've seen of his and interviews and stuff, he's an asshole. Like a complete and utter asshole. There's just no excuse for this fucker. Awesome. None. He's just a dick. So his first known victim is a woman named Cheryl Dunlap. Cheryl was born in November 18th 1961. She was born in Tallahassee, Florida. She was married. She had two grown kids.

Her kids' names are Mike and Jake. They, she would have two granddaughters by now if she was still alive, which just makes me sad. Yeah. She was a nurse and she, I mean, she was like an amazing person. She was also a Sunday school teacher. She donated her time helping with hurricane relief studies. She did missions around the world with her church.

She was just like a good person. It's always those people. Oh, why does it have to be the best people? Always. Cheryl was last seen on December 1st, 2007. Oh, amazing. Last seen alive, excuse me. I'm going to run the holiday season too.

Of course. She had spoken to a friend that day. Her friend was Keona Hill and she had spoken her in the morning and those two had decided that they were going to a friend that day. Her friend was Keona Hill, and she'd spoken her in the morning, and those two had decided that they were going to have dinner that night, so they had made plans. For that day, she was like, what can I do? So she decided to wake up, and she decided to head into the Leon Sinks area to have some relaxation time and read in the wilderness. She was just going to read a book, not even a night, just read.

Now the Leon Sinks, because I was like, what is that? Yeah. It's in the, I can never say, apolachicola. Apolachicola, I got it. Just needed a second. Apolachicola, national forest of Tallahassee. I think you mean Zomologecova. It does. Katia. So it's the apolachicola. National Forest of Tallahassee. It's apparently some kind of cool phenomenon, the Leon Sinks. It's a kind of topography called cast topography. And this is when some kind of softer rock, which is like usually like limestone or something like that, erodes over time and then water is able to flow

in and out of like different directions and through holes in eroded areas, making kind of like this beautiful sink. Yeah, that's cool. They're like water, they're like sinkholes, and I don't even know, like sinkholes and like water, waterfalls, waterfalls are like, oh fuck, what is that called?

What is that called? What is it called? I wanna say typhoon, but that's not the best. Everyone's really sitting there be like, you dummy whirlpool. Whirlpool. Whirlpools. So sadly, this particular one Leon Sinks

is now closed at least for the time being from when I looked. That's because the boardwalk overlooking it and the trail is kind of unsafe right now. It needs to be updated. I guess some of the wood is kind of aged over time. Don't want that. So if you're thinking of going to Leon Sinks, you got to wait a little while. Not today. Now when Cheryl went to the Leon Sinks, that's where she was last seen, reading her book. She was seen by a couple. Vickie and Michael Shirley at around 1.30pm that day. That's their couple name. They later, Vickie. That's why I was looking at Michael

and Vickie at the same time. They later said she was wearing a casual outfit of jeans, a sweater, and she was just carrying a book with her, not much else. Because she was just planning on sitting there to read in the wilderness. What a great place to read. Just to relax, right? Like it's beautiful out there. She did not arrive at Keona's home for dinner that evening, which is already weird. Yeah. So people already read flags are going up. No one could get a hold of her in the next morning. She didn't go to church and she didn't arrive at Sunday school to teach. Oh no. No one could get a hold of her. So her, some of her friends, one in particular named Tanya, decided to go to her home and do like a wellness check.

She found nothing astray, but did find her dog there and her car, a white Toyota camera, was gone. Yeah, so she was like, what the fuck's going on? But her dog was gone too. No, her dog was there. Oh, her dog was there, okay. So they were like, she wouldn't leave her alone for that long. No, her dog was there. Oh, her dog was there, okay. So they were like, she wouldn't leave her alone for that long.

No, so they called the police just to say this is weird. Yeah. On December 3rd, she was reported missing officially. The same day the report was filed, her car was found along the Crawfordville highway next to the woods. This was near the trail.

They searched the car and they found her person it, but no money in the purse. They searched the car and they found her personate but no money in the purse and all her cards are missing. Oh shit. Then immediately they see that the tires were starting to go flat. And when they investigated further they saw that someone had taken what they later found to be a bayonet and had intentionally pierced the tires with it. A bayonet! What the fuck? Yeah, who just strolls around town with the fucking bayonets?

Who does that? What are you doing with a bayonet? Killing people. That sounds crazy. It does. I don't know, maybe I'm overreacting to this, but that just sounds nice. No, it's a little, wow.

Yeah, I don't know. It's a little wow. It's a little wow. If it's in a Hamilton song, I feel like it's like, whoa, why do you have one now? I agree. There was a parking ticket on the windshield and the date of that parking ticket was from December 1st.

So obviously, someone went there a couple of days before and never came back. Right. She did not come back to the car. They checked her bank records immediately since the cards were gone. And they found that her Ameris bank account records showed that she had cast a check in the drive

through on December 1st at 11.17 AM. That was before she had gone out to hike. Then the card was used three times at the ATM for a total of $700 after she was already missing. Oh, no. The attempts were at Hancock Bank on West Tennessee Street on December 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. So for three days, there were also two declined withdrawals. And because they were, it was because they were trying to go over the daily limit.

Yeah. Which is strange. You know, that's probably not her. Right. They also, so they pulled the security camera footage and it showed not Cheryl at the ATM, but a person who was wearing a blue and white shirt glasses, a hat, and a mask made out of tape. What? What? A mask made out of tape.

Oh, why? Yeah. What the fuck, like covering their whole face? Is there a picture of it? Like, I could find a picture of it, but if you can, like, please do. Oh, man. Because I'm picturing it and it's really something. I'm picturing, like, the invisible man, like, with tape all around them and just glasses. Did you find it?

What the fuck? Did you find it? Yeah. Oh, that's worse than I thought. That is- that looks like he has like a foam head on. Guys, look it up. You gotta look it up. That's terrifying. Dude, what the fuck? That's truly terrifying. No, that's like, you would see that, it's one of those things where you would see that in a movie. It would be too much.

Yeah, that's a lot. He's a very scary guy. Oh, oh, oh, that is him. Yeah, that's him. Oh, no, no, no. If you're listening right now and you're one of those people who likes to look up the pictures, you're probably knowing exactly why we're like, oh my God.

He's a scary looking man. He reminds me of fucking Jigsaw. Yeah, he does. But like the real Jigsaw. But like even less friendly looking than Jigsaw. He's accurate. Yeah. What's his name, John?

I think it is. Yeah, yeah. Oh my God. How did I remember that? Oh no. But what was interesting about this this monster coming up to the ATM was everything about the situation. Was everything about him, but also that he was using the correct pin.

Oh. So that's strange. And that's concerning. He must have asked her for it. Yeah, that's concerning though. So police, because usually it's like, if he got the pin, what else does he need? So that doesn't bode well for the person that gave the pin.

Police did a stakeout at the bank on the fifth, but her card wasn't used again. No. Unfortunately, her body was discovered on December 15th, so not long after this, by a hunter named Ronnie Rents, and he found it after he saw buzzards circling in area. Oh wow. She was found in the Apalachicola National Forest, off of a forest road, and she had been partially

buried under tree branches and brush. When she was found, she was missing her hands and her head. She was later positively identified using thigh muscles samples. Did they ever find her head? That's an interesting thing. So we'll get to that in one sec. Okay, sorry. They found something they believe was her head. Now, the autopsy was done by Dr. Anthony Clark. He was the medical examiner in the area. There was a big bruise on Cheryl's back,

and it was inflicted, he said, while she was alive, and not consistent with an accidental fall. Okay. It's like somebody hit her. He estimated that she had been the woods exposed for about seven to 15 days, putting her death somewhere in the range of December 5th to the 8th. And what we found out later was that she was kept alive for a small period of time. Oh shit. Yeah. He said that. So he reported that the hands and head were removed post mortem with a sharp inched instrument. Okay. At least it was done. If you can find any kind of like solace. Yeah. He could not nail down a specific cause of death, but he did label it as violent homicide. Several people saw Gary in the area while Cheryl disappeared and was clearly

being murdered. On December 1st, the day Cheryl was last seen at Leon Sinks, a woman named Celeste Hutchins actually saw Gary at the Crawfordville highway where her car was found. She literally saw him and testified to seeing him looking through a white Toyota camera that was parked on the side of the road. Wow. So he was just like out in the open news. Right. Not with his tape mask. No. On December 10th, Loretta Mayfield spoke to Gary Hilton.

She actually, she said he was wearing the blue and white shirt that you can see in that security footage. So that's how they were connecting them. He also had a large holster with a big hunting knife on his belts. That's terrifying. She saw him at a convenience store off of the Crawfordville highway.

That was on December 10th. On December 18th, which was after they'd already found Cheryl. This was December 18th at a convenience store in Bristol, Florida. Teresa Johnson saw him, and he walked up to her and said, hey, you look like that girl, Cheryl Dunlap. What the fuck? And then he said it's too bad about that girl getting murdered. Oh, like a broached her. Dark. A broached her to talk about it.

Yeah, that's real weird. What? And later going back to what you were asking, did they ever find her head? Yeah. Investigators found what they believed to be the remains of her hands and head in a fire pit at a campsite about seven miles from where her body was found. That is brutal. Unfortunately, they were so

burned, no even mitochondrial DNA could be found to use. But they did find that it was consistent with somebody with small hands and an adult. And obviously they found a skull in hands that is pretty rare to find. And witnesses did see Gary camping on a trail near that area at the time. And he was also given tickets for being like unlawfully camping on that trail around that time. So there's like a paper trail to bring him back to it. So it most likely was? It most likely was. Now around this time, once Cheryl was found and now they're trying to figure out who did this,

around this time, Gary traveled to Georgia. Oh wow. So now he's out of Florida. And on New Year's Day, he killed someone else. Stop. Now Meredith Hope Emerson was only 24 years old. That will die, I am. She went out hiking on Blood Mountain at around 1 p.m.

Also, this mountain blood mountain is next to another mountain called slaughter mountain. Why would you ever name a mountain those things? I don't know. I found a bunch of myths and history about why they're named that. Most of them go back to Native American conflicts that were happening and some of them were like the the mountain ran blood red. So they called it that but what an ominous naming mountain and to be next to slaughter was like by and to get to it this like a slaughter path or something it's crazy. I feel like he definitely chose them. Right.

I think so. He was very familiar with this area too. She had her black lab Ella with her and she was never seen alive again after this day. So a little bit about Meredith first because she seemed like a pretty awesome person. She was born June 20th, 1983 in Charleston, South, North Carolina to Susan and Dave Emerson. She was raised in Holly Springs, North Carolina to Susan and Dave Emerson. She was raised in Holly Springs, North Carolina in Longmont, Colorado. She graduated from the University of Georgia

with a degree in French. She graduated with honors. Wow. She went abroad to France, she loved French. After school, she got a job in marketing and was doing really well in that field. She lived in apartment in Buford at the time with her friend Julia. She also had a boyfriend named Steve. She was social, she was happy, like thriving. Yeah. The night before

was New Year's Eve. She had been with all her friends and her boyfriend at a party. She had a great time. She and Steve were planning to hang out with each other on New Year's Day. She was also a highly experienced outdoorsman herself. She was always smart about it, she was always safe about it, she knew these trails, she always brought her dog with her, she always let people know that she was going hiking. So she did everything she needed to do. She was also a blue belt in martial arts, I think it was like judo or something. Good for her.

Yeah. She, everyone who spoke about her and knew her said she was super fiery, very endearing personality because she was like, just super, she had like tons of spunk. Yeah. And was super strong. I like that. Strong in like body, mind, everything. Like she was just an awesome person.

Good for her. And she had adopted her dog Ella and just like loved her. I love Black Lives. And there's, yeah. And there's a photo of her and Ella and it's her holding up like Ella's certificate. Like what she just got there. Yeah, it was just very sweet. Now Meredith spoke to Steve, her boyfriend the day she went missing

around 11 a.m. on the phone. Okay. She told him she was gonna be taking Ella for a hike. She didn't say exactly where. She just said a hike and that they would meet up later. Now he later said he was in kind of a bad mood that day. Oh, no. And he said he was very short with her on the phone and like was just kind of like giving her a little bit of attitude. So they didn't end on the best of note because she was kind of like, like, you know, like, we're all in there. Oh, yeah. And it's like easy

to say now, like, never hang up the phone mad. But it's like, how, like, you know, like, why are you acting like that? We've all been there. Oh, yeah. And it's like easy to say now, like, never hang up the phone mad, but it's like, how many freaking times do you, like, you know, yeah, she's like, she's annoyed. She did leave a note for her roommate as well. She just said she was going hiking with Ella, didn't say exactly where. Okay. She went out around 1110 AM to take the hike into Blood Mountain.

Nothing would have ever told her this was a dangerous day at all because it was actually bright, sunny, beautiful snow had fallen, but it was like 55 degrees. Ooh, pretty. Like, they said it was like an unusually beautiful day to hike for January. Oh, man.

Now, a man named Bill Klassen saw Meredith on the trail going up the mountain and said she was wearing a lavender zip up and black yoga pants At one point he saw a man walking with Meredith and just kind of like took note of this because They had both arrived in the parking lot at the same time and he saw that she was alone Right. So it was like oh, that's interesting that just a random guy is with her now this guy that she sees with her is carrying a baton and a couple of other things like dog treats and such. On the way down he saw the same man again without Meredith. Oh no. He was staring at Bill and he said that he looked like he was trying

to hide. So at first Bill was like is he like peeing in the way and he's like trying to like hide so he was like that's weird. Now another man named Seth Blankenship, found, he was coming down the trail at this time too. He had found some things on the trail and was bringing them to the trail office because they looked like abandoned things. Yeah. He said they were dog treats, a police baton

that was like collapsible, a silver hair clip, sunglasses, a couple of water bottles. And I think that, I think that was it. But Bill said he saw this guy walking down with all that stuff, and he was like, oh, well, the guy that was walking with her had a baton. Like that. And he was like, that's weird. I'm just going to bring it to the trail office.

Now Steve called Meredith around this time at 1 p.m. her boyfriend, and he wanted to apologize because he was like I realized I was in a bad mood, I shouldn't have hung up that way. He didn't get an answer. Oh no. I hate that that was the last interaction for him. I know that like really bumps me out for him, but and I guess it went straight to voicemail. So he was thinking, you know, she's probably just annoyed at me because I was kind of like, terse with her earlier. So now as the day is going, it's getting colder. It's getting much colder and it's starting to snow. So he starts kind of panicking.

But again, he's thinking like maybe it was just me being poopy. Right. Now her roommate, Julia, noticed that she wasn't home in the morning. And she was like, this is weird, but she's like, maybe she went to Steve's house. So I'll call him. So she calls Steve, she couldn't home in the morning. And she was like, this is weird, but she's like, maybe she went to Steve's house, so I'll call him. So she calls Steve, she couldn't get Steve.

Then Meredith's work called and said she never showed up. Oh, no. So Julia's like, nope. That's a long time. Definitely not okay. So she called her parents immediately. She called Meredith's parents. And it was that same afternoon

that a family friend named Peggy Bailey actually reported her missing. Okay. This a family friend named Peggy Bailey actually reported her missing. Okay. This, that family friend Peggy Bailey, I guess, like really took on like a lot of the... The barbs. ...to like trying to take care of help like her parents out and everything like that. So like, good on Peggy. I love that.

They immediately gathered like a million of her friends and family to like immediately people went out to search the mountain. But it took them a while to figure out what mountain she was on. Because she was over the nail. She was hiking, but not where. And later we'll see like her roommate and her friends, as they came together to form this like safety thing for hikers in her name. Wow.

And one of the things was they were like, if we knew where she was was we could have gone straight there But we had to spend some time searching for the mountain she was on so we want to like teach people to be more specific when they leave a note Or like that like not that it was her fault or anything. It's just Educating people on that. Yeah, this is what taking her experience and trying to turn it into something good Yeah, to try to help someone so they, they finally figured out where her car was, they found it, they start searching the mountain. They're searching for hours and finally call on forcemen in

because she's already been reported missing, but now they're like, we know where she was. The US Forest Service Rangers actually were on the scene too. And the following morning is when like the real search began because it got so cold in such bad weather that they were like, this is actually not, it's not even gonna help. So the next morning, they all went out. And that's when they discovered that the items

found on the trail that were turned in were meridates. This was concerning obviously because there was some important items in there. Officer John Cagle was the supervising agent for the case. They helped get the word out about witnesses seeing a man with Meredith on the trail. All of these witnesses had seen a tan dog with him too, which ended up being his dog, Dandy. Right. They opened a tip line and they received a call from a random guy who said he thought he knew who the

man was that they were saying was walking with Meredith based on the descriptions from all the witnesses. The guy's name was John Taber, who called and he said he once worked with a man and was actually the boss of a guy named Gary Michael Hilton. And boy was he right. And he said he knew him for over a decade. Oh, so he was like this description sounds just like I know him. And he said he also has a tan dog named Dandy who he hiked with.

He said he drove a 2001 Chevy Astro van and he said he even knew the license plate. Wow. He would give it to them. He said he that he was like Gary is a avid outdoorsman. He knew blood mountain like the back of his hand. He said he also carried weapons for protection on his hikes and one of them was a collapsible baton. He gave him all of Gary's information because he was his employer. Right. So he had it.

The rangers at the site said they had also run into Gary Michael Hilton on that on that mountain several times. They said he was often confrontational. And people would report like he's weird, like he's following me and shit. Oh my God, I hate that. This is when they got a recent photo of Gary and they put it out to all the media outlets

because now they want to at least bring him in. Yeah. Now people are seeing all of this and the investigators from Tennessee came to talk to the lead investigators and said that they were investigating the murder of a hiker in Florida named Cheryl Dunlap. And they said there's a lot of things that are seeming to match up here. And then they said there was also investigators that were calling from North Carolina who were saying, well, we're investigating the disappearance

of two other hikers. Oh my goodness. So they're like, whoa, whoa, what? There were like, something's going on here. So the people from, they were like, because now they know about Cheryl Dunlap because that was all over the news, too. Right.

But now they're like, who are these other people? Right. So they're like, well, actually, we're investigating the murder and disappearance of a couple. Oh, man. A couple couple as in as like together. Yeah. Now this was in the Pizga National Forest in North Carolina.

This one will break your damn heart. Oh, great. This is the victims here are John and Irene Bryant. Irene was 80 years old. Stalker. Or excuse me, she was Irene was 80 years old. Stop. Or excuse me, Irene was 84 years old, and John was 80 years old.

Stop. Yeah. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ On October 21, 2007, they had gone for a hike together in Pizgus National Forest. They were avid hikers. Yeah, outdoorsmen. 2007 they had gone for a hike together in Pizgus National Forest. They were avid hikers, now dorsmen. At 80 and 84 years old.

Oh yeah. It's like wow. Wait until you hear how fucking amazing these two are, I could not stop looking up shit about these people. Yeah. I hate that they were taken out of this world. Once you hear how awesome they were, you're like, what the fuck? Right.

Like a hate Gary Michael Heltzer. It's like what we were saying. It's always the best people. It is. John had actually hiked the entire Appalachian Trail. Wow. Now, I know that there's a debate on whether it's Appalachian or Appalachian and Massachusetts.

I think it's Appalachian. I think it's Appalachian. That's how I've always heard it my whole life. So I think maybe all our listeners down south might be like, it's Appalachian, but I don't know. Before we were doing this, she was like, how do you say that? Is it Appalachian or Appalachian?

And I was like, what the hell is Appalachian? I was like, thank you. I was like, I've never heard of that. At least I think it's like up here we say Appalachian. Yeah, it's like widely debated. That's how I've always heard it. Now, John and Irene had been happily married for 58 years. Oh my God.

Irene was a badass. She was a trailblazing veterinarian. Yes. She opened her own practice after she graduated from Washington State College and specialized in large animals, she was one of the first women vets in Montana history. Yes, I read.

Yeah. She gave up her practice when they had their four kids, but while she did that, she was like, well, I want to keep learning. So she just kept taking classes and going to school just to expand her mind. Wow. And her daughter, Holly, said of her, quote,

she was a scientist at heart. She had an extensive insect collection and she loved gardening. She was a very interesting character. My father said she wasn't cut out of a cookie cutter. She was unique. Oh, oh. Like, I just love them so much.

Yeah. I hate my heart breaks for their kids. Yeah. Bricks, because like, what cool fucking parents? And just to lead it to... And you get to your 80s and some... That's what happens. And your like, this takes you out of this world

when you've lived nothing, because also as we'll get to, they were amazing people. Like, like, they did everything that they could do to just be like, amazing people in this earth. It's just sad. It's not really sad. And they seemed like they didn't take life for granted ever. Like they were doing everything they could to squeeze every ounce out of this life. And that's sad. I love it. Yeah. Now, John was an engineer, but then got his law degree from Cornell.

So insanely smart. Yeah. Just okay. They both hiked very frequently. In fact, they hiked every single week together. They were always outside. They were an amazing shape, clearly, for their age. And they traveled to exotic locations overseas together still. Like, they did it their whole relationship. They brought their kids overseas with them, like, experience everything. Wow. Like the coolest coolest couple and they loved nature so much that neighbors said that Irene in particular asked them to call her whenever they saw a deer in the area. So she could just come out and look at it. Oh my god. Yeah, she was like, I love her. Call me if you see a deer. I just want to look at it. Oh my god.

That'd be a great bumper sticker. Call me just call me a deer. Those same neighbors said about them quote, they were the best neighbors you could ever want. They said they were self-effacing and gracious. They liked the theater and music. And if they had tickets to a show they couldn't afford, they'd call and offer them to us. Oh, like, stop.

Like what? Oh, excuse me. I said afford a tent to what I meant. I was a little confused, but I am reading like my own shit That doesn't make sense But yeah, if they had a ticket tickets to a show they couldn't attend they'd call and offer them to us. Oh my god It's just cool people. Yeah, those are great neighbors now according to a really great article by Mike Williams for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, it said in the article, quote, I'll source the article in our show notes. Source it. It said, friends and family described the couple as remarkably generous, adventurous, engaging,

and unpretentious. Jack Bryant had a moral compass so strong he consistently underbilled his small upstate New York village for his work as town attorney. Oh, even after colleagues told him he should raise the rates. He was like, no, I need to underbilled them. It's insane. Somebody said quote, he said all these other people volunteer as firefighters and in other ways. And then he said, this is my donation. Wow. Like what? Wow. What a, like a deeply good person. I can't. And then, um, Holly, their daughter,

also said, quote, my parents were unique people in that they considered what they wanted out of life and then pursued it. Everyone thinks they do this, but few actually do. Little things that are in reality, unimportant, tend to get in the way. My parents lived a full life and were a delight to know. They will be missed by so many. Okay, you're really gotten me over here. I know. I just, there's this, to really understand what a piece of shit Gary Michael Hilton is. Oh, yeah. It's just awful. So what they found out was that a 911 call was attempted by the Brian cell phone,

but the signal was bad and it failed. Oh, come on. Irene's sister couldn't get a hold of her because she would often call during the hikes just to make sure she had like updates. Yeah. And their son, one of their sons actually came from Austin, Texas

because he was so worried. He said their home was undisturbed when he got there, but their hiking packs were gone, so he knew something about it happened. He called the police because he knew it was way too long for contact. The next day their car was found parked at the trail. They went into the bank records because this seems to be helping them along with all the other ones. And they found that their card was used to withdraw $300 on October 22nd at 735 at the

People's Bank in Tennessee. Oh, man. Someone who wasn't them was seen in the security footage with a mask on. I don't think it was the same tape mask. It was a mask. No matter what, he was trying to hide his face at the time. Clear. Unfortunately, on November 9th, Irene's body was found covered in leaves off the trail.

She had been murdered using blunt force to the back of her head, thought to be from a botan of some kind. John was not found at this time. Ever? Not at this time. Ever? Not at this time. But her phone showed she had tried to call 911 on October 20th. Now they're connecting them all.

And I know, Ash just looked up a picture of them and they are the sweetest, just the sweetest. They just look like people that you would run into on the trail and be like, hey, what's up? How's your day? I feel like so cool that you guys hike at 80 something or so long. They don't also, they do not look like they are in the 80s at all. They look great.

No, it's absolutely horrific in a tragedy. They have the sweetest faces to just like all of the victims. Wow. I know they all just seemed like people you just want to know. Now, as this is all being relayed, because they're telling them now, okay, this is what happened. You know, Irene was found. Right.

And we are still looking for John. Right. We don't know what happened. Investigators then found out that Meredith Emerson, the one that we are currently looking into in Georgia, heard debit card was now being used. Oh, crap. On January 1st at 7.05pm, that's the day she went missing. Someone had attempted to use it at the Appalachian Community Bank

in Blair'sville, Georgia, with the wrong pin. Ah, so that's different. Right. He's using the wrong pin. Then, seven more attempts were made to get money. This was a couple of hours after at Bank of America in Gainesville, Georgia, nearly 60 miles away. Right. Then another failed attempt was made at Regions Bank in Canton, Georgia, 80 miles away.

All of these were wrong pins. So clearly, so investigators realized, and now know, that because Meredith was so fucking smart She was giving him the wrong pin because once she knew as soon as I give him that pin right He's got no use for me anymore, right? And also she was going well the police are gonna have to find me if I keep giving him the wrong pin He's gonna travel 80 miles to a bank somewhere trying to use me which he would leave her tied to a tree while he would do this But she's she's knowing he's got to go far away. Yeah, so try to use it. She's trying to use it. She would leave her tied to a tree while he would do this. But she's knowing he's got to go far away. So just try to use time.

So just use time. It's going to give me time to try to escape one and also for the police to find me. Yeah. And the investigator said that when they figured out that's what she was doing, it hurt them even more later because they were like, she was doing this to give us time and we didn't get there in time. Oh, no. Like that's got to be like, yeah, that will stay with you.

Like she was doing everything she can to make sure that somebody was going to find her. She did everything she needed to. They found out that he had kept her alive for four days. Oh my God. And he's terrifying. Yeah. Well, he was trying to get her pin number, basically, but she kept him going for that long.

And he later said that he actually, like, enjoyed talking to her. Like she was a very enjoyable person and it just shows you how terrible. It's like if she was an enjoyable person, which I'm sure she was, why did you feel the need to kill her? Like what the fuck? Like that didn't humanize her. Do you mean in any way shape or form? That just goes to show how terrifying he is.

He's horrifying. So the next thing that happened was a woman found Ella alive. Oh wow. She had walked into a grocery store. Oh! In coming Georgia, like 70 miles away from the trail. Wow! Gary and they found a, be a microchip that it was her. Gary now was starting to call people by the way that

he knew and he was asking for money. Because he's not getting money out of merit, this merit, it's account. So now he's asking people he needs money. And these people are relaying this to investigators. because Gary clearly does not have any like true friends in the world. Yeah. And so he's calling them and they're like, hey, so I know you guys are looking for this guy. He's calling me for money. So some things weird. They were able to trace his last call to someone for cash, to a pay phone that was across the street from the grocery store that Ella walked into. Oh wow. So the people who worked at the gas station where the payphone was, confirmed that they saw him and described him,

and then they saw him throwing shit from his astro van into the dumpster next to the gas station. Hello. So an APB went out for the van. And at 8 p.m. they got a call from someone, matching his, from someone saying that a car matching that description and the guy was matching Carie's description was at a car wash washing his van. The guy who called said, do you want me to grab him?

Yeah, and hold him so the guy grabbed him and held him for police. Stop, yes. And then meanwhile, at the dumpster site, now police are here and they're looking in the dumpster because are you serious about that stupid? They found a bag in there with a woman's black leather wallet with Meredith Emerson's ID.

Oh crap. A ton of documents with her name on it. They found a lavender fleece jacket covered in dirt and hair and what was later confirmed to be blood. Another sweatshirt that was not her sweatshirt that was soaked in blood. A discarded parking ticket with Gary Michael Hilton's name on it in the bag.

Wow. Chains and nylon rope that had blood in it. Wow. So he just threw away his kill kit. Yeah, like in a dumpster. That's what people are seeing him in broad daylight. For someone so smart. So Meredith was not in the van when they got there.

Because they were really hoping they were gonna show up and find Meredith alive in the van. He was taken into custody and apparently he read him, he read them his own Miranda rights, which like what an asshole. He was just like, I have the right to hurry. So he's basically like, oh, I've done this before and it's like, oh, you're so cool.

Yeah, like what? You're so fucking cool. Anybody who's taken a Christmas criminal justice class can recite those. So fuck off. Right. And it's like it just makes you, like do you think that makes you look cool? Like it just makes you look like a little bit of fuck off. Right. And it's like, it just makes you, like, do you think that makes you look cool?

Like it just makes you look like you're at a link with. Yeah. So he didn't do a good cleaning job of the van because they did find giant blood stains on the sliding door and on the floor mats in the back. And there was also a mark on the back seat that indicated that like hair and blood had been leaning against it. Now because this was involving three different crimes in three different states,

it was cool because they were all starting to cooperate with each other, which doesn't always happen. And whenever we see that, we're like, hell yeah. Yeah, like it's awesome that they're all like, let's share our, what we know, let's have to. Cause they really did interconnect with each other and help each other a big time. That's great.

Because they knew they were after the same guy. We had to do this. Okay. But it doesn't, as we know, that doesn't always happen now. Even when it's clear, you're like, help each other. You can figure it out. Because people want to be the one that now. Ego. Yeah.

So after he was taken into custody, the United States Attorney's Office in North Carolina and investigators from Leon County Sheriff's Office in Tallahassee and the behavioral science unit of the FBI from Quantico. Oh, just them. Just them. We're all going to be attending a meeting at the Georgia office so they could come together with all their information. Wow. Badass.

Wow. They told him, so they came together, they decided that they were going to tell him that the death penalty was off the table in Georgia so that if he told them where Meredith was. Okay, so they were like we have to give to get. Yeah. Yeah. So he did end up confessing. Mm-hmm. And he admitted that, like I said, he had kept her alive for four days and that's all I will say. So during an interview, four days and that's all I will say. So during an interview, he told them that she would be found deceased in the Dawson forest. That's where they could find her. Now in the interview, it says, and I just want to read it like how, because it shows how like cold. Yeah, how cold he is. So he said under just a pile of leaves and brush, not buried. And the investigator said, okay, is it wrapped in anything?

Is she wrapped in anything? And he says, no, it isn't. So he's calling her it. Yeah, that's too. Terrific. And the investigator says, is she closed? Closed? And he said, no, she, no, it isn't.

And he says, is she intact? And he says, no, it isn't. Which is, I'm like, wow. Yeah, like wow. So that's when he explained her head will be missing because that is his M O. And he said, the only reason by the way, the head was removed for forensically.

And so the investigator said, yeah, right. That's exactly what that's the only reason. And he said, in other words, in the That's exactly what that's the only reason. And he said, in other words, in the hair are fibers, and that's the only reason. Okay. And the investigator was like, okay, where will it be? Right.

Like, tell me where it is. And he said, quote, I should mention there's clothing there too. If you put a dog on it, you will come up with it like that. I apologize to both of you guys. It's been trying for you. I'm sure these cases are emotionally wrenching, but that's your damn job.

And then he left. What the fuck? He's just not here with us. No, he's on planet, something else. Scary. So they went on immediately to where they said, where he said they would find Meredith, and they found her.

She was decapitated like the others. She was found under some leaves. They said the scene smelled like bleach and they also saw that a tree nearby had blood on it, so they were piecing the things together. They did also, he did have to come out and lead them to where he had put her head. This was only about a week after she went missing, that they were able to find her. The autopsy showed that she had died of blunt force trauma to the head. She was also to capitated post-mortem, like Cheryl. And in January 2008, he actually pleaded guilty to the murder of Meredith Emerson. Okay. He had done that deal to take the death penalty off the table.

And at his indictment, Susan Emmerson spoke and said, that was Meredith's mother, and said, quote, I'm not sorry that the death penalty was taken off the table. That would have been an easy way out. Let him stay alive and slowly rot. God may choose to forgive him, however, he is not worth the time and energy it would take me to do so. My focus will remain on all the good merits stood for and still does. What a statement to say. That's amazing. And good for her to be like, it's not worth my time or energy to forgive him.

Right. Which is not. Yeah, it's not. He's a monster. You're fine. Her father, Dave Emerson, said, quote, my daughter was a shining light in our lives and now we are left with a hole in our hearts that will never heal. I feel no punishment is too severe for Mr. Hilton. Only pray that he suffers immensely for his heinous acts, and that his fellow inmates recognize his evil and malevolence for mankind and treat him with the appropriate measures.

Good. To which I say, here, here. Yeah, absolutely. Cheers to that. Yeah which I say, here, here. Yeah, absolutely. Cheers to that. Yeah. I feel so awful for them. No, I just, I can't imagine ever. Yeah.

No, it's awful. So he was sentenced to life in prison and the judge said, let there be no mistake, the court is not intending mercy on you due to your age because he was in his 60s. Yeah, he was, he was a shoulder. But rather recognizes in the national, natural course of things, you will likely die of natural causes before any sentence of death the state might obtain could be carried out. So essentially, you are old as fuck and would die before we could kill your ass anyways.

So rot, you aged human tumor. Boom. And I'm not saying 60s is old, but it's old for him. For him. Yeah, exactly. It's old for him because he's, because he's an old 60. Boom. And I'm not saying 60s is old, but it's old for him. For him. Yeah, exactly. It's old for him because he's because he's an old 60. Yeah. So he was later linked to the murders of the Bryant's when they took DNA from their children and matched it with the blood in the van. So the blood in the van matched John's. Oh gosh. February 5th of that year skeletal remains were

found in making county North Carolina by a hunter. They were identified via DNA as John Brian's remains. I'm glad that they were able to find him. I'm so glad they had to find him. That would have bothered me a lot. Yeah. He then took... So what had happened was they talked to Gary Michael Hilton and found out what had happened because everybody was like, so what happened with John?

Like, why was he so far away? What had happened was he had killed Irene pretty quickly. And then he had taken John into the van and brought him to the Nantahala National Forest where he shot him in the head. What are horrific beasts to separate them as well? Exactly. Later that night, he had withdrawn the $300 from their bank account and footage showed him

at a bank a hundred miles away, actually trying to take out money from their account. And what they said was that he had used intimidation on John and hurt him to get the pin numbers. Yeah. So he's a fucking terrible person. And is money his motive? Is that what that's what it seems to steal money? Because he goes back and forth saying he has no remorse. He doesn't give a shit. He hates everybody. And then he'll say, I didn't like killing people. I just had to do it. And it's like, no, you don't. No, you clearly liked it. I mean, to behead someone, let's be right.

Exactly. Now, while they found the blood in the van matched John Bryant's blood, they were also able to find a match that a bayonet that they found on Blood Mountain that belonged to Gary Michael Hilton matched the Cheryl Dunlap case, the bayonet that had pierced the tires. They also found that blood on his shoe laces in his boots had matched DNA from Cheryl's toothbrush. Wow. That is so, is it crazy? That's interesting. It's weird to

me because they were able to identify Cheryl from like, you know, thigh tissue and stuff. It's just really interesting. Right. Now, he was indicted for Cheryl Dunlap's murder on February 28th. When he was driven from Georgia to Florida to be indicted, he was recorded. It was like five hours.

And one of the things he said, this will just show you like, what's going on in his brain. And the people in like the officers in the car were like, it was wild sitting there listening to him. Oh man, I can't imagine. He said quote, I'm not all bad. I mean, you got to understand. I mean, I'm sure you can see. I mean, I'm a fucking genius, man.

I'm not a, I'm not all bad. I just, you know, lost my mind for a little bit. Lost a grip on myself, man. What can I tell you? FBI and everybody else is trying to scratch their head. Hey guys, don't get started doing my shit at 61 years old. It just don't happen, you know? So he's now being like, I didn't just start this shit at 61.

Yeah. Which is, I was gonna ask you that, actually. Like, there's a retired FBI named Cliff Van, Clifford Van Zant that keeps getting himself in the news talking about me. And he said, this guy didn't just fall off the turn up truck, he said, you know, in other words, he's been doing this. But like I told you before, you know, when I saw you before, I said, remember, I said, I give you one for free.

Nothing before September, okay? I mean, I'm not joking, okay? I just, I got old and sick and couldn't make a living and just lost flat lost my fucking mind for a while man I couldn't get a grip on it. He sounds wild and you're like man, you know, I mean Are you okay? No? What like it's what he at first he's like I didn't just start doing this shit at 61 then he's like I don't know

I just went crazy maybe I did maybe I don't I think he It's like no you know you people. Oh, that's it's well thought in this case that there are many others Absolutely, and there's a few others that they have not tied him completely, but have the similar mo Yeah, so well, I'm gonna keep an eye on it because if they those start coming out. Thank you I'll help you connect it to him So at um at Cheryl Dunlap's trial, Dr. Anthony Falsetti, a forensic anthropologist, said he looked at those bones they found in that burn pile, and he said there were seven cut marks on the vertebrae that were found, and they indicated a violent, sharp force injury, which would

be indicative of the decapitation post-mortem. Yeah. So, and again, they weren't able to fully. Yeah. But they were like, we can say pretty much that it was her. In 2011, he was sentenced to death for Dunlap's murder. Oh, good, good, good, good.

He was overheard in jail after this by an officer saying he only regretted getting caught. He didn't regret anything else. I believe that. And he said if he could do it again, he would do it right this time. And then he mentioned that he had spent a couple of days with Cheryl alive. Yeah. In June 2011, he was indicted for kidnapping robbery and the murder of John Brian and Irene Brian.

He admitted to murdering Irene Brian. I think later he did say obviously that he had killed John. In 2012 he pleaded guilty to the murders of the Bryant's and this was what was said in court about the case. Quote, during the month of October 2007, Hilton was living in his Chevrolet Asterovan in the Pizga National Forest. On October 21, 2007, John and Irene Bryant encountered Hilton while hiking in the forest. Irene was attacked and killed. Her body was later discovered near where they parked their car. John was kidnapped by Hilton and was forced to provide his bank ATM pin number. I hate when people say pin number because pin is personal identification number. I just want to put that out there.

I always be. It's like a number number. Yep. Yep. It annoys me, but that's okay. Hilton then took John to his van and the not I can't say this and I'm so sorry guys. The nantahala. I think it's nantahala. That's good. I'm gonna go with it. It sounds like that. I've never been there. So I'm sorry. nantahala national forest and shot him in the head with a 22 magnum firearm. On October 22nd, 2007, at about 737 pm, Hilton used the Brian's ATM card and ducted in Tennessee to withdraw $300. Photo from the bank's security camera show a slender person wearing a yellow raincoat covering his face. Ugh. Ugh.

Ugh. Now, during the sentencing, their children, Holly, and Bob actually spoke. Holly said, quote, he will spend the rest of his life in Dianicage, or at the hands of a Florida executioner. But the main thing, he will never get out to harm anyone again. For him to laughingly say he's sorry is a slap in the face. He beat my mother in the head. He beat my mother in the head. He shot my father in the head. Sorry is not enough. And Bob, their child said, quote, I wanted a

bullet in his head and I think they should have done it five years ago. To which I say, I get it. I got that. Absolutely. He was sentenced to four life sentences without the possibility of parole in North Carolina. So he's getting all these fun sentences in all different states. That was on April 25th, 2013. He winked as he was led away. What an asshole. It is now thought that he definitely killed more people than what they were

charging him with. He is still on death row. A judge did delay his appeal because he did have some appeals from the other ones. It was from the US Supreme Court decision in January 2016 that declared Florida's death penalty law unconstitutional. But another little crazy fact that I found while just looking around was his lawyer at one point. He was like initially repping Gary was named Samuel Ryle and he had actually known Gary for a long time and had represented him in some of his smaller things like thefts and all that.

And he said in 1995, Ryle was an amateur filmmaker and Gary was like, Oh, I can help you consult on that film. And the film was like a horror film and Gary's idea for the, he was like, let me tell you what I see. And he said it would be cool to have a beautiful woman running in a forest and someone hunting or down like an animal.

Yeah, because you've seen that before. And it's like, and probably. That would normally be like, wow, that's a crazy, like that's the most dangerous game kind of thing. Like very, like, all right, that'd be a scary horror movie. But when you put it in the context of this, you're like, it's 10 times scarier. That's scary.

Now, John Kagle, who wrote that book, after retiring two years after retiring, actually, he was contacted, that's someone, a man named Fred Rossin, was trying to contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for photos of Meredith's crime scene. And they quickly found out that this guy was a reporter for Hustler magazine. What? Hustler magazine was trying to get crime scene photos. Why?

Yup. So Kagle was like, no, don't do that. He was like, don't release them. Now, there wasn't a law for crime scene photos. And George, at this time, like to be released. But there was a law preventing the distribution of autopsy photos. So they're hoping they could like bank on this permanent.

A whole kind of thing. Well, Kagle immediately got in contact with David Ralston, who was the speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives at the time, and literally got a new law moving immediately. Wow. And luckily the Emerson family's lawyer got a judge to stop the GBI from releasing the photos, which the GBI was like we don't want to release the photo. No, but there was like an open records act of sort of that reason. They needed like a reason not to. Someone give us a reason. Now in March 29th, 2010, the Meredith Emerson Memorial Privacy Act was signed into law. Amazing. And it makes sure certain types of crime scene photos cannot be obtained via an

open records request without a judge has written permission. Good. A trail has also been named in Meredith's honor and Meredith's friends, including her roommate Julia. I was telling you how they made that like they want to help educate hikers. It's called the right to hike. Oh. And it says that money raised has actually was used to install seven emergency mobile phone units on trails and parks and Georgia National Park. That is awesome. So people can call 911 if they need to,

since a lot of these had to do with no cell service. Yeah. Now at least 15 GPS units have also been distributed on the hiking outposts in North Georgia so that they can help get signals. Vicar, that's awesome. There's also a scholarship in Meredith's name for students at the University of Georgia where she was graduating. This scholarship is so that students can travel abroad to France. Amazing because that's she loves France. She actually said that she wanted to move like she wanted

to go to French and like teach English to students there. Wow. That was one of her goals. They also sponsored a run, like this cool like festival and run called Ella's Run. Oh my gosh. It was every October. There was like a festival, a 5K run, a 1 mile walk. There was like games and food and entertainment, like all this fun stuff.

It ended in 2017 after 10 years, consistently going and it raised a ton of money for good causes. So at least something good came out of that. That's the thing. You always want to look for that stuff. He's still on death row. I hope he's starting.

He's starting to tell every morning. I hope he's just rotting slowly. It looks like it. I mean, he looked like it in the beginning, so. He is scary. His evil comes out. Yeah, like, is like, boosting out of him.

Yeah. It is oozing out of him. Wow. But that is Gary Michael Hilton, the National Park Serial Killer. Wow. Alright. That was a doozy.

Yeah. But we love you guys. We hope you keep listening. And we hope you keep it weird Just not Gary Michael Hilton weird. Oh god. No Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to Morvid, Early, and Add Free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen Add Free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts.

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