Exposing A Serial Killer?
Gary Michael Hilton's name came to light after a woman, Meredeth Emerson, went missing from Vogel State Park, Union County, Georgia.
Authorities said Meredeth died Jan. 4, three days after Hilton was seen with her on a trail
in the mountains of northern Georgia. Hilton told Georgia investigators he abducted the physically fit woman in a plan to steal cash from her bank accounts. Authorities said Hilton tried to use Emerson's credit card after she disappeared while hiking New Year's Day. She had been decapitated.
On January 31, 2008, Hilton confessed to the brutal murder of Emerson and was sentenced to life in prison.
Now, Hilton's been charged with the murder of Cheryl Dunlap, a Sunday school teacher, and nurse, whose body was found in Apalachicola National Forest in Leon County, Florida on December 19, 2007. She also was decapitated.
Investigators in Tallahassee say the similarities between the murder of Cheryl Dunlap and the killing of Meredith Emerson are striking.
A masked person suspected in Dunlap's slaying used her ATM card on three occasions following her disappearance on Dec. 1.
Authorities placed Hilton in the area at the time of Dunlap's disappearance and was considered the prime suspect in her death. A State forestry agent had come in contact with Hilton after Dunlap disappeared, and wrote down his vehicle's tag number.
Authorities are now looking at many other suspicious deaths that seem to correlate to Hilton's MO. Here are pictures and a summary of alledged possible victims of Gary Michael Hilton... and there may be more to come.
John and Irene Bryant are an elderly couple who were hiking in the mountains in North Carolina when they disappeared last October, 2007. Irene was found dead later. John's body was found by a hunter several weeks after. A mysterious figure in a yellow slicker on an ATM surveillance video is all investigators have to go on where suspects in the Bryant case are concerned.
Another young woman who, like Meredith Emerson, had connections to the University of
Georgia has also been missing from Athens since December 29, 2007. Cayle Bywater, age 29, left the door to her residence standing open, her dog running free. Bywater's car, wallet, and cell phone were all still in her home. There is some suspicion that Gary Hilton may have had something to do with Bywater's disappearance, but Bywater's past struggles with bipolar disorder have clouded the investigation into her vanishing. Her family insists she would never leave with no contact whatsoever.
Huggins said investigators want to look into similarities in Emerson's kidnapping and the unsolved murder of Patrice Endres, who disappeared from her beauty salon north of Cumming on April 15, 2004.
Both cases involved a missing woman, and clues to their disappearance were found in Forsyth County, the spokesman said.
Now Hilton is trying to fight extradition to Florida for the Dunlap trial. Besides murder, he also faces charges in Florida of kidnapping, grand theft auto and grand theft.
In a booming voice, Hilton told Judge Tommy Wilson he wished to contest the validity of his Florida charges and demanded a court-appointed attorney to help him fight extradition, The Herald-Gazette newspaper of Barnesville reported.
Wilson gave him 20 days to file a habeas petition to challenge the Florida arrest. The judge denied the request for court-appointed counsel because habeas is a civil action and the state is not required to appoint counsel in a civil action.
Read Hiltons Confession, to police, of Meredith Emerson's murder. I caution you, though, it's not for the weak of heart. This confession was given as he road with the police and directed them to her torso and head. It gets gruesom. Click here!
Resources...
Check out this time-line of Hilton's life: http://prairiechicken.blogspot.com/2008/02/
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/northfulton/stories/2008/01/07/Forsythkidnap_0107.html
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/15442083/detail.html
http://www.truecrimeweblog.com/2008/01/who-is-gary-michael-hilton.html
http://www.wikio.com/us/crime/murder/gary_michael_hilton?wfid=51701916
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/040408/news_2008040400499.shtml
Movie Plot by Gary Michael Hilton
About 13 years ago, Hilton helped come up with a plot for a movie, "Deadly Run," that depicts a serial killer on the loose in the Georgia mountains.
Movie producer Samuel Rael says Hilton liked his idea for the movie and assisted him in outlining the plot. The script included a killer kidnapping women in the mountains, letting them go, and then hunting them down. Rael now says that he never could have imagined that Hilton would end up a convicted killer.
Resource...
http://www.zimbio.com/Gary+Michael+Hilton/articles/788/Gary+Michael+Hilton+Serial+Killer+Training No longer available
UPDATES
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07-16-09
Another Possible Victim?
The father of Rossana Miliani hasn't seen or talked to her since December 7, 2005. A new FBI sketch reveals a man who looks much like Gary Michael Hilton, seen with Rossana, purchasing a backpack in a Bryson City, N.C. general store.
“It looks like [Hilton],” said Anibal Miliani, who lives in Miami. A newly circulated sketch from an FBI-trained artist is breathing new life into suspicions that Hilton may have been involved in Rossana Miliani’s disappearance.
The store clerk who waited on Rossana said the man accompanying her was in his late 50s or early 60s and appeared to have been wearing a hairpiece. He told the clerk (who didn’t come forward until hearing about the Miliani case some two years after she was reported missing) that he was a preacher who traveled to various campgrounds across the region.
Private investigator Steve Siske, hired by the Milianis to find Rossana, said the clerk thought Rossana appeared nervous.
North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation told Siske they plan to interview Hilton, but so far that hasn’t happened.
“The NC State Bureau of Investigation is still considering a possible connection between Hilton and Miliani’s disappearance, but that is not the sole focus of our investigation,” said Noelle Talley, spokeswoman for the North Carolina bureau of investigation.
Miliani’s father doesn’t believe his daughter, who suffers from bipolar disorder but has traveled extensively, ran away or committed suicide.
Read resource details...
http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/killer-gary-hilton-may-92170.html
06-20-09
Other Possible Victims
Confessed butcher, Gary Michael Hilton, already confessed to the death and multilation of Meredeth Emerson, and is waiting to stand trial for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap. Now, he is a "person of interest" in the death of Michael Scot Louis, 27, who went missing around Thanksgiving of 2007, from Tomoka State Park, in Florida.
His decapitated body was found in December of 2007, but his head was never found.
Sgt. Jamie Gogarty of the Ormond Beach Police Department said, “All we’re doing is having our evidence compared to evidence from other crime scenes and evidence retrieved from his vehicle when he was arrested to see if there are any links.”
“The reason he’s a person of interest is the nature of his crimes,” Gogarty said. “He’s brutally attacked people and dismembered people.”
DNA evidence has been sent to a California lab for analysis, though Gogarty would not give details on the nature of the evidence.
Another Tennesee family is looking for a woman, Rossana Miliani, who disappeared in Swain county 4 years ago. She was last seen on December 7, 2005.
A sketch was put together of the man last seen with her and her father says it resembles Hilton.
The State Bureau of Investigation is looking into whether her disappearance has ties to Gary Michael Hilton.
Authorities believe Hilton might be connected to at least four other murders.
Read resource details...
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20090618/BREAKINGNEWS/90618008/Gary+Hilton
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090620/NEWS01/90620036
http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/48626362.html
01/30/09
Hilton Documents Released
Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis approved the release of discovery material in the murder case against Gary Michael Hilton, as long as details that could prejudice jurors were blacked out.
Chief Assistant State Attorney Jackie Fulford, who completed the final redaction work, said more documents in the case will become available later as prosecutors and defense attorneys share evidence with each other.
"This is just the beginning," Fulford said.
Read resource details...
http://tallahassee.com/article/20090130/NEWS01/901300336/-1/RSS06
09/13/08
Public's Right To Know vs Fair Trial
At a hearing, the defense and prosecution argued for at least partial closure to avoid more publicity of the case, which could make it harder to seat an impartial jury in Leon County.
Circuit Judge Terry Lewis said he would enter an order soon but would not rush it. He said he'd weigh the public's right to know with the defendant's right to a fair trial.
At the hearing, the defense and prosecution argued for at least partial closure to avoid more publicity of the case, which could make it harder to seat an impartial jury in Leon County.
Read full resource here...
http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080911/NEWS01/809110326/-1/RSS06
09/03/08
Charges Stick
Gary Michael Hilton, suspected serial killer, was denied having charges dropped against him for first-degree murder, kidnapping, grand theft auto and grand theft in connection with the death of Cheryl Dunlap, 46, a Florida State University nurse.
Hilton lawyers argued that the grand jurors who indicted him were biased from extensive media coverage. As an alternative measure, they asked to question the grand jurors.
They also argued that Hilton’s extradition from Georgia was done illegally because he was denied a lawyer to fight it.
Circuit Judge Terry Lewis said, Friday, it’s too late to question the grand jury, because it was disbanded June 1 at the end of its six-month term. Even if he did allow it, it would be impractical, he said.
“Given the amount of time that has passed and the continuing publicity surrounding this case, it would be practically impossible for a grand juror to accurately recall and separate what he thought prior to the grand jury convening, what evidence was presented to the grand jury, and what he has read or thought since the indictment was issued,” Lewis said in the order.
Read resource details.....
http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080902/BREAKINGNEWS/80902014/-1/RSS18
State Attorney's Office Files Death Penalty Notice
Gary Michael Hilton Update
On Wednesday the State Attorney's Office, in Florida, filed official notice to seek the death penalty against Gary Michael Hilton.
"We're required to give notice to the defendant if we intend to seek the death penalty," said State Attorney Willie Meggs.
Now, Hilton's defense attorney, Assistant Public Defender Ines Suber, is required to notify prosecutors of any mental-health issues Hilton may have, Meggs said.
Also this week, the State Attorney's Office filed a motion to bar public access to pretrial evidence in the Hilton case. Suber filed the same motion earlier.
The defense requested to question the grand jurors who heard evidence in the case that idicted Hilton, last February, on charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, grand theft auto and grand theft in connection with the death of Cheryl Dunlap, 46, a Sunday school teacher and Florida State nurse.
Prosecutors said the request to question grand jurors is untimely because the grand jury that indicted Hilton has been disbanded. The grand jury was impaneled for a term that ended June 1. According to Florida statutes, a grand jury can only be recalled during its term.
Read resource details...
http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080731/NEWS01/807310332/1001/RSS
Defense Motions
Gary Michael Hilton
Gary Michael Hilton's defense team has filed a motion for a gag order to be put on prosecutors, law enforcement and potential witnesses.
The hearing for this motion has not been scheduled.
State Attorney Willie Meggs said his office also plans to file a motion to prevent public access to pretrial evidence. If details about the evidence were made public in the media, it could make it difficult to pick an unbiased jury in Leon County, he said.
“The state and the defense want a fair trial, and we want to have the venue where we work instead of 200 miles away,” he said.
Typically, attorneys file these types of motions to make it easier to pick an unbiased jury.
Read story details.....
http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080709/BREAKINGNEWS/80709012/-1/rss18
http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/24271474.html
06/27/08
Evidence list revealed
Gary Michael Hilton update
State prosecutors this week have filed a list of evidence surrounding Cheryl Dunlap's murder, including: an FSU Key Card, Dunlap's Driver's license, audio recordings of her telephone messages, bank surveillance video, DMV records, an ATM receipt, DNA samples from Hilton's dog, a security tape from Wayside Farm General Store, a knife, and more.
The State Attorney’s Office also included a list of 384 witnesses interviewed in connection with the case.
"Florida has a very liberal discovery policy, which means when we go to trial, when we do a case, basically there are no surprises," State Attorney Willie Meggs said. "The defense knows pretty much everything we know."
A witness on the list, Samuel Rael, is a lawyer and the producer of the 1995 independent movie "Deadly Run." According to media reports, Rael said Hilton, a former legal client of his, came up with the plot of the movie, which is about a serial killer who holds women captive in the woods.
Resource details...
http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080626/NEWS01/806260322/1010
Hilton Attorney Questions Extradition
Gary Michael Hilton Extradited to Florida Friday
Gary Michael Hilton had his first court appearance on Saturday, June 7, 2008. His Assistant Public Defender, Inez Suber, said she intends to challenge the legality of the extradition.
According to Suber, Hilton had a right for a court appointed lawyer to fight his extradition, and that just didn't happen.
Suber told Circuit Judge Charles Francis, at the Leon County Jail, that Hilton didn't have access to a phone book to call a lawyer when he was incarcerated at the prison in Jackson, Ga.
"He was held without communication," Suber said. "He could not contact even legal aid or anybody. He was not told where to appeal. He was not told what to do."
Suber said Hilton did file an extradition appeal, but that the Georgia judge who ordered Hilton's extradition didn't advise him where to file the paperwork, so the paperwork was returned.
Francis said that is something Leon Circuit Judge Terry Lewis will have to deal with. Lewis has been appointed to preside over the trial.
Resource stories and video...
http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080608/NEWS01/806080324/1001/RSS
Bryant Shot/Hilton Suspect
Autopsy Reveals John Bryant Shot
Gary Michael Hilton, confessed murderer in the slaying and beheading murder of Meredeth Emerson, is also a suspect in the murders of John Bryant and his wife Irene.
John and Irene were an elderly couple who were hiking in the mountains in North Carolina when they disappeared last October, 2007. Irene was found dead soon after the disappearance. John's body was found by a hunter in February, 2008.
The site where Mr. Bryant’s body was discovered appeared to be an illegal dumping ground.
An autopsy report released this week revealed John Bryant died from a gunshot to his head after being taken from Pisgah National Forest where he had been hiking with his wife.
Medical examiners used Mr. Bryant’s pacemaker to identify his body. The autopsy reported the presence of unfired but partially opened red shotgun shells containing birdshot and a piece of wire, small fragments of paper-like material and vegetation.
Now that a firearm has come into play, the case may hold more precedence to be tried federally.
The Bryants ATM card was used the day after they disappeared, which is one of Hilton's MO's.
Hilton also has been indicted in the death of 46-year-old Cheryl Hodges Dunlap.
Read resource story details....
http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20080517/NEWS/666736887/0/OPINION02
Accused serial killer going to Florida
A judge has ruled that Gary Michael Hilton will be extradited and will be facing charges for the death and decapitation of Cheryl Hodges Dunlap. Her body was found on December 19, 2007, in the Apalachicola National Forest, not far from Tallahassee.
Hilton has 30 days to appeal the ruling by Butts County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson. Department of Corrections officials declined for security reasons to give details about Hilton's transfer to Florida.
Florida State Attorney Willie Meggs in Tallahassee told The Associated Press on Friday he will pursue the death penalty against Hilton in the Dunlap case.
Read story details...
http://www.newsherald.com/headlines/article.display.php?id=1830 No longer available
05/01/08
Suspect not Suspected
For 10 years Gary Michael Hilton had been a possible suspect in the vanishing of Jason Andrew Knapp.
Hilton is also a main suspect in the slaying of an elderly North Carolina couple, John and Irene Bryant.
Jason Knapp was last seen on Easter Sunday, 1998. He is thought to have disappeared somewhere in Table Rock State Park in Pickens, about 45 minutes from where the Bryants were abducted.
Hilton even admitted that the circumstances of his disappearance are similar to his modus operandus, but says it's only coincidence.
“As a matter of procedure in disappearances and unsolved cases such as the one with Jason, we investigate and interview any possible lead,” Stone said. “Based on our investigation, we believe that Gary Michael Hilton was not in any way connected with the disappearance of Jason Knapp.”
Smith said details of Knapp’s disappearance didn’t fit the pattern of the Emerson’s murder and others that Hilton is suspected of committing. For instance, Knapp’s ATM card wasn’t used following his disappearance.
Meredith Emerson's ATM card, as well as the Bryant's, were used directly after the murders.
Hilton, 61, is serving a life sentence in Georgia after confessing in January to the beating death and decapitation of Meredith Emerson. The 24-year-old University of Georgia graduate was kidnapped on New Year’s Day while in the north Georgia mountains.
Below is a link to a 2 page hand written statement to Captain Dewey Smith, from Hilton, about this subject...
http://www.wyff4.com/download/2008/0429/16061508.pdf
http://www.wyff4.com/news/16056619/detail.html
The Solo Fight
Judge Tommy Wilson had denied the request for court-appointed counsel for Gary Michael Hilton on April, 3, stating that habeas is a civil action and the state is not required to appoint counsel in a civil action.
Hilton turned in a two page, handwritten, petition, without counsel, written on a legal pad, in an attempt to fight extradition from Georgia to Florida, where he awaits a possible death penalty if he is convicted of the murder and kidnapping of Cheryl Dunlap, 46, a Florida State University nurse and Sunday school teacher.
Below is a link to the Habeas Petition he filed. He complains about the way he's being treated in jail, and getting no access to the phone, Internet and very little US mail. Most of the document made little sense concerning an extradition.
Butts County District Attorney Richard Milam said that Hilton, 61, has filed something, but not the correct paperwork.
“Mr. Hilton has filed two pieces of yellow notebook paper complaining about his treatment and he has said he does not want to go back to Florida,” Milam said.
Milam said that he plans a hearing for Hilton on May 2 and plans to extradite him to Florida soon after that hearing.
Petition in his own handwriting...
http://www.tallahassee.com/assets/pdf/CD106594423.PDF
http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20080423/news/585970126/1042
4/11/08
Hilton calls himself a sociopath
According to Action News 2 at wsbtv.com, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has allowed them to access Gary Michael Hiltons entire case.
The staff reviewed hours of interviews with Hilton right after his guilty plea in the Meredith Emerson case.
“I’m a sociopath man. I’m what they call an anti-social,” Hilton told GBI agents.
One tape shows how agents were trying to use Hilton to uncover information in other murders, including the three he’s already suspected of and any others that may still be unsolved.
"You could take me to the front door of this jail and say go forth and sin no more. I would literally have to turn back around and walk back in here,” said Hilton.
He refers to his behavior as a rampage and appears to admit he’s killed more than once.
"If you're already caught there's no use in killing them. I didn't kill them because, for any satisfaction,” said Hilton.
Be sure to check out their artcle in full, and listen to Hilton's tape!
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/15838537/detail.html