03x02 - Cat and Mouse

[bunniefuu]

Meredith Emerson,

the Bryants, Cheryl Dunlap...

Hikers going missing in
national forest property.

- What was really going on?

Was Meredith's case
connected to any others?

Meredith! Meredith!

We all hoped
that we'd find Meredith,

and we'd find her alive.

I have this as
a person of interest

in the missing woman case.

He's got that mask on,

just like in a horror
movie or something.

I looked
around thinking,

good Lord, is
somebody watching me?

Just like
a cat-and-mouse game.

Here he is, and we're
trying to play catch-up.

- I immediately said,
I think we're dealing

with a serial k*ller.

Secrets in the wild,

beautiful yet
treacherous places.

These are the stories of
the investigators who solve

crimes in the wilderness.

Meredith!

Miles up the
road, the search continued

for Meredith Emerson
with small search teams

looking in ditches and ravines
along mountainous roads.

- We had JBI helicopters,
which use flare to see if they

could find a heat source.

The Air National Guard came in.

We had deputies
from metro Atlanta,

from Marietta,
from Gilmer County,

all of the surrounding area.

- She's not just some...

She
was your roommate.

Sorry.

I'm good.

She's not just some
24-year-old girl.

You know, everybody
here loves her.

- This is like everybody's
sister or family member.

One thing that
we were worried about

was that she was abducted.

I hoped she was
hunkered down in a cave,

somewhere that she could
just protect herself.

Junior Young
had contacted us

as the North Carolina case agent

for John and Irene Bryant.

He was adamant that
he felt like the case

that we were investigating
was eerily similar to the case

that he had.

- He also asked if we
knew about a Florida case,

the case of Cheryl Dunlap.

Cheryl Dunlap's case
was similar in that you have

a single female disappearing
from national forest land.

My name is Steve Ganey.

And I was connected to
this case as a responder

to the first call that came
in, referenced Cheryl Dunlap.

It was a Monday,
December 3, 2007.

I get a transfer
call from dispatch.

They say, I need to
report someone missing.

She's very reliable, and she
works at FSU nursing station.

She hasn't shown
up there for work,

and she was supposed to
teach a Sunday school class

and failed to show up at
the Sunday school class.

This really triggered
me at the beginning.

There's something wrong here.

I got a phone call,
and it was from my son.

And he told me that
Cheri was missing.

And I said, missing from what?

And he said, she's just missing.

Nobody had seen her.

- She was like a
little sister to us.

She was like our little sister.

She was just a
sweetheart to be around.

She was funny.

Cheri was a part of
an evangelical church.

They were a very close-knit
group of people, very loving

towards each other and
towards the community.

Cheri's life was a little hard.

Cheri and her husband divorced.

So she was a single
mom for a long time.

Cheri really enjoyed
her granddaughter.

She did so many things for
her family, for the kids.

She reveled in loving her
children and spoiling them.

- A friend of Cheryl's called
me later that afternoon

and told me that she
had found her car.

It was on 319 South
coming into Crawfordville,

or Wakulla County.

She said, it's on the
right-hand side of the road

just above the county line
in Leon County at Leon Sinks.

Leon Sinks is a very
peaceful sanctuary.

And a lot of people go
there to walk their dogs,

read books, just enjoy nature.

A lot of people go
there just for solitude

and to clear their head, and
enjoy the peace of the day.

I saw the car not parked
in a normal position

for a disabled vehicle.

This car was parked
almost in the wooded area.

And when I looked, I saw the
right rear tire was flat.

So I get to look in
closer, and it looks like

someone has stuck a
knife into the sidewall

to flatten the tire.

Someone drove that car there,
parked it the way it was,

then deflated the tire
and left the scene.

I opened the door.

The door wasn't locked.

I looked on the passenger side.

Her purse had been
scattered, you know,

like somebody rifled
through her purse

looking for cash.

So when I saw that, I'm like,
I believe she was abducted.

I also noticed in the floorboard

there was beads,
multicolored beads.

And I thought that was strange.

Did she have a bracelet
on, a necklace?

How did these beads
get down there?

Did they grab her?

Were they torn off of her?

And I'm like, we
have a problem here.

I made contact
immediately with the bank,

and I talked to the
supervisor there.

I explained to him, we need
a tracer on a debit card.

I said, please let us know
immediately if anybody tries

to get money on this card.

My name is Tim Baxter.

And I was the supervisor
at the time of what

we call the persons unit.

We did a grid search
around the area

where her vehicle was
found and had a big group

that went out and walked
through the woods,

trying to find any trace
of her around there.

Of course,
Leon Sinks backs up

to the Apalachicola
National Forest.

So our emphasis was in
the national forest.

- You know, the forest is...

I mean, there's hundreds
of thousands of acres.

You're in the woods
surrounded by woods...

no real eyewitnesses,
no surveillance cameras.

- The vast majority
of it is wildlands.

It's woods, trees,
bushes that sometimes

never see a footstep of man.

- You can hide a body in the
national forest pretty easily.

If you get the hell out of here,

you could get away with it.

- We looked everywhere...
nothing, nothing.

Let's call it a day.

- And that's very
frustrating for us.

- I was reading the paper,
and there was a picture

of a woman on the front
page and an article

about her being missing.

I looked back at the
picture, and I realized

it was the same woman
that my wife and I saw

at Leon Sinks, who
was now missing.

That Saturday, we hiked
clockwise around the loop.

And my wife and I stopped
and looked down in the water.

And we're looking
at fish and turtles

in the water and
just kind of talking.

A woman was sitting
about maybe 35 feet away.

She was sitting there just
quietly reading a book.

It was red in color, and I
believe it was a hardcover.

And as we began walking
in her direction,

she quietly got up,
closed her book,

and came walking back towards
us, and walked past us.

It was Cheryl Dunlap.

I felt a real sense of
surprise that she was missing

and that it was actually
somebody we had seen.

And then I felt deep concern
for a fellow human being

that may have gone missing
and may be in trouble.

I called the tip line and
said, my wife and I saw her

at Leon Sinks on Saturday.

They had
walked past her.

She was reading a book.

She seemed normal,
waved at them.

They waved back at her,
and they kept going.

We went back to Cheryl's house
after we had the information

from the two witnesses.

Upon entry into the
house, we looked around.

There was a bookshelf.

And there were
six or seven books

in a collection...
red, hardback,

almost like a burgundy color.

And they were in order
except for one perfect space

where the book was taken out.

This same description we
got from the witnesses

of her reading a red
book, and one book

is missing out of
this collection.

So it has to be the book
that they were talking about.

That was another dot
that was connected

in our investigation.

So now we're getting a
timeline of where she's been.

When's the last
time she was seen?

Who's seen her?

Dunlap,
a 46-year-old nurse

and Sunday school
teacher disappeared

7 miles from home, her car
found here with a flat tire.

- At first, you think maybe
this is just a mistake.

Maybe she's, you
know, going somewhere.

Maybe she's just taking
a little sabbatical,

so to speak.

But after just a few days,

you know that's not true.

Something has really happened.

The call from
the bank came in saying

they had someone attempt to take

money out of Cheryl's account.

So we looked at the
footage sent to us,

and there was the suspect trying

to get cash out from the ATM.

- Even though at that time I had

27 years of law enforcement
experience, it scared me.

She's been missing for
a period of time now,

and you've got somebody
using her ATM card,

and he's dressed up like that.

He's got that mask on
just like in a horror

movie or something.

You're dealing with somebody
that knows what he's doing.

He knows how to
hide his identity.

Fear ran up and down my spine.

- We did stakeouts at the bank.

We just felt like there's
a great opportunity

that he might come
back, and we couldn't

afford not to be there.

- Every so often, a
criminal does something dumb

and goes back and does
the same thing over again,

and you can catch them.

- Unfortunately,
he never came back.

But you couldn't not do it.

At the time that he was
trying to withdraw her money

from the ATM, we discovered
there was a camouflage truck

that drove through
the parking lot

just a minute or two after
he walked away from the ATM.

- And so we started putting out
BOLOs to stop and FIR anybody

in a camouflage-wrapped truck.

- I guarantee you
there were at least 50

camouflage trucks pulled over.

None of them had anything
to do with it whatsoever

that we can determine.

It is frustrating
because you're chasing

down every possible lead.

And everywhere we
turned, it's a dead end.

- While we were actively
searching, Meredith's

parents came in from Colorado.

- I appeal to everyone
to search their hearts

and memories for anything
they can remember

and do to help us find
Meredith and return her home.

They stayed in a cabin
very near our command cabin.

And I went and met them

and saw the kind of
people they are...

just good, solid people.

- They were awesome.

Her parents were so loving.

We kept them abreast of
everything that was going on.

We didn't want to hide
anything from them.

They were
just horrified.

But they were
strong, very strong.

We began to get a lot
of information coming in

through the tip line
describing a person

that had been seen with
Meredith on the trail.

They provided information
about what he looked like.

They say he may
have some missing teeth.

He had a dark reddish retriever,

who he was calling
Danny, and was wearing

a yellow jacket and backpack.

And once we put out
the information to the media,

we're looking for this
man of this description

driving a white van,

that's when we got
a very critical call

from a man named John Tabor.

John Tabor actually
broke the case

as to who we were looking for.

We knew that was going to
be extremely important.

Emerson hasn't been
seen since New Year's Day,

when she came to the
mountains to walk her dog.

Investigators
say their only clue comes

from other hikers who saw
Meredith Emerson talking

with a man around 60 years old.

Authorities and
more than a hundred volunteers

have been searching
the mountains...

- I remember exactly where
I was, what I was doing.

I was in my home
gym working out.

Her
one-year-old black lab.

- The top story was, of
course, the missing hiker,

Meredith Emerson.

Information
from authorities that they

have a person of interest
in her disappearance.

But what
really got my attention

this time was, they
provided more details,

and there were witnesses that
described an older white male

that also had a dog
that she was seen

talking to on the trail.

May have
some missing teeth.

He had a dark reddish retriever

who he was calling
Danny and was wearing...

- That's when it hit me.

I knew of this
person of interest.

It was Gary Hilton.

I first met Gary Hilton
when he replied to a help

wanted ad for telemarketers.

The telemarketing
operation was mostly

geared toward
generating business

interest leads for my
home improvement company.

He was productive.
He was reliable.

And when it comes
to telemarketers,

that's about as good as it gets.

- Gary Hilton worked on and
off for Tabor in the past.

At times, he could be very
nice, and very knowledgeable,

and articulate.

- He actually described Hilton
as being very charismatic

very likable guy.

- It's hard to describe exactly

when and how he began to change.

He became more combative
and belligerent.

It got to the point where he
just started demanding money.

Once he attached a
threat to it as well,

then I realized
that this had just

gotten way out of control.

- Tabor described Hilton toward
the end of his employment

as being very volatile
and kind of scary.

So firing Hilton was
a real good idea.

- Now I just felt
like I needed to call

the authorities at
that very moment

and tell them everything I know.

John Tabor was very
instrumental on getting

to know more about Hilton...

how he thought, how he acted.

- Tabor gave us some
identifying data, allowing us

to get a criminal
history, start doing

some background on Hilton.

Gary Hilton's criminal
history was petty crime.

He had several
misdemeanor charges.

He had some misdemeanor
marijuana charges.

Nothing that
would make any of us

think that this would happen.

- If I hadn't turned him
in, who else would have?

No one else had
this information.

No one else knew
anything about him.

- After we were able to
get the name of Gary Hilton

from John Tabor,
we get a driver's

license photograph of Hilton.

And immediately, we have
another press conference

and provide all that
information to the media

to push out that picture.

- Investigators are looking
for a Gary Michael Hilton.

This is the picture that
we have for Mr. Hilton

at this time.

- When we put out his name
and his photo, we knew

that everybody was
looking for him.

We put out as much
information on that,

and we continuously
would get just tips.

One of the
folks we talked with

was a lawyer called Samuel Rael.

He said he represented Hilton
in some cases years ago,

some of the minor cases he
had gotten involved with

in metro Atlanta.

I'm Samuel Rael.

And I'm an attorney.

And I've been one for...

what is it, close to 50 years?

Gary Hilton was my
very first client.

It was just a small, little
case in the municipal court

there in Atlanta.

How he made his money
was, he'd call everybody

and say this is some
kind of charity,

and could they not help?

And he would get
$15 here, $20 there.

Of course, it was a total con
because he pocketed the money.

That's who he was.

I always knew that.

But he could get away with
it because he was charming.

He was articulate.

He was a man who you would
feel very comfortable with.

I felt comfortable with him,

or I wouldn't have
been around him.

- And then he told
us a very bizarre

story about Gary Hilton.

He began to tell me about
a movie called "Deadly Run"

that he had helped
produce and create

in which Gary Hilton
was an advisor.

- I have done a lot of
criminal law and also got

involved in the film business.

I wanted to become a
movie producer because

that's always what I wanted.

That's my love.

I have a legal background and
was able to raise some money.

And I learnt a lot,
hired the right people,

hired the right actors.

And so I became
a movie producer.

"Deadly Run" was a film
that we decided to do

that would involve
a serial k*ller.

- What would happen
is, we would take

these women up into the woods.

- And then we would
hunt them down...

- Run, little bunny!

Might even get away!

- Ah!

- And k*ll them.

- Ah!

- It's a low-budget
movie, low tech.

- Oh, my God, Nancy!

Ahh!

- And as soon as I
mentioned serial k*ller,

Gary just couldn't
wait to be of help

and couldn't wait to do
anything and everything

that would help make the movie.

Gary seemed to know
everything about how

a serial k*ller
would act and how

a serial k*ller would work.

- Let go of me.

He was constantly
coming up with ideas.

Gary helped me with picking
out what props we should do.

He helped me with finding
the right locations.

And he helped with the
actors to get them real.

- Let go of me!

- He had suggested that we get
women who would fight back,

and that would make
it more interesting.

- It was just hard for me
to believe that they would

use Gary Hilton as an advisor.

Rael claimed to be a
very influential lawyer.

But I'm thinking, why are
you making these movies

and using people
like Gary Hilton?

- I mean, it was just
unbelievable, eye-opener.

I mean, how could this fellow
from all these years ago

that I knew him, all of a
sudden he's there in the news

and on TV?

It was bizarre for
this lawyer to be telling me,

you know, this story.

When I found out
that the movie took place

where it took place...

the cabin is actually
no more than 20 minutes

from Blood Mountain...

it was, to say the
least, disturbing.

Based on what Sam
Rael was telling me,

I believe that Gary Hilton
was acting out the movie

"Deadly Run," hunting people
in the national forest

and k*lling them.

- On the evening of
January 3rd at about 6:00,

we received another
call from John Tabor.

- I just heard from Gary Hilton.

My phone rang.

To my shock, I immediately
recognized the voice.

It was Gary Hilton.

I couldn't believe it.

He told me that he was
apologizing for what he

had done and all the threats.

I didn't believe any
of it, but I just

played the part of believing.

He said he needed some money
to get his act together.

He told me how much he wanted...

$600 or $700, whatever.

He said he couldn't
meet me right then,

but he wanted me to leave
it at the office for him

and that he would
be there to get it.

Tabor was going to
leave a check at his office,

which Gary Hilton
either had a key to

or knew how to get into.

- The agent told
me, go ahead and do

what you told him to do,

and we'll be there
waiting for him.

We notified DeKalb
County, who deployed

a SWAT team to watch that
location in case he did

show up to try and
retrieve that money.

- We felt like if this
thing actually worked,

we could grab Gary Hilton
and maybe save Meredith.

DeKalb County SWAT team
stayed out there all night.

Hilton didn't show up.

I wanted to find Meredith and
return her to her parents.

That's all we all wanted to do.

But we seemed to be just
a little bit behind.

There were two other cases
involving missing persons

from the national forest that
were very similar to what

we were looking at.

Both cases involved somebody
utilizing their banking cards.

So early on, on
January 2nd, we had

to ask the bank to let us
know in the event there

was any activity on
Meredith's ATM card.

We were told at that
point that Meredith's

ATM card had not been used.

But that changed on January 4th

when the U.S. Marshals Service
told us that someone had

tried to use her ATM card...

- Meredith's bank account
had been attempted

to be used three times.

On January 1st at a
bank in Blairsville, Georgia.

There was a second
attempt at a bank

in Gainesville, Georgia,

and another attempt on January
2nd over in Canton, Georgia.

- There was a lot of
those moments in this case

where things just
couldn't have gone worse.

And that was one.

I was needing that information
right then so that we

could try to track him down.

And to find out
that it was there

but it was not given to me,
that's as angry as I get.

I was livid.

- I was pissed,
highly pissed off,

because that's
information that we

could have used at that time
had the bank given it to us.

Once we got the
banking information,

we were very
concerned that we've

got the same guy involved
in all three of these cases.

And as I learned more
about the Cheryl Dunlap case

in Florida, alarm bells
started going off.

- My name is Ronnie Rentz.

I've lived in
Tallahassee for 55 years.

I love it. It's home.

We love to hunt and fish.

I do most of my hunting in the
Apalachicola National Forest.

It's an outdoorsman's paradise.

On the morning of December
the 15th, me and my son,

we got up like any other
day, looking for deer tracks

so we can put our dogs on it.

When we got in there,
I seen buzzards

fly up on the side of the road.

And when I stopped,
I told him...

I said, well, just sit
tight just a minute.

Let me go see what's
going on here.

I was expecting to see a deer
belly laying there and guts

or whatever, you know.

When I got up there
closer, I realized

that it was something else.

And then when I bent down,
I seen her feet sticking up.

And my knees went weak.

There was no head.

All I could see was
the torso and the legs.

It's hard to even explain it.

I thought maybe whoever had
done it was still there.

And then I looked around,
you know, scanned the woods,

thinking, good Lord, is
there somebody watching me?

I walked back up to the truck.

And my son, he asked me... he
said, what was that, Daddy?

I really didn't want
to say anything,

but I knew I had
to say something.

And I told him...
I said, well...

I said, son, that's a
dead body out there.

And he started tearing up.

He said, let's get out of here.

You know, you read about
stuff, but you never

believed it would be you.

- I get a text telling me
that some human remains have

been found in the
national forest.

I get there to the
scene, and my job

when I get there is
to start coordinating

the investigation.

Number one, we have to
start looking for things

so we can determine
who this person is

and then start building the
investigation from there.

The head was missing from
the body and both hands.

When I see a body like
this, you somewhat have

to disassociate yourself
because if you get so wrapped

up in your emotions
or your feelings,

you're not going
to do a good job.

So even if it had touched
me inside, which it did,

I have to hide my feelings
to get the job done.

Without the head and
hands being there present

with the body, you cannot get
an immediate identification

of who the body is.

Most average killings
are not like this.

They don't think of hiding the
body in the national forest.

They don't think of doing things

to keep them being identified.

So this was a very
knowledgeable person

who knew what they were doing.

- We're thinking
we're 99.9% sure we

have discovered Cheryl's body.

But you have to identify
her literally, like,

without a shadow of a doubt.

So we requested
the medical examiner

to do anything he
can to try and draw

some DNA from the body.

And then we obtain a
hairbrush and some other items

out of her house, and we
were able to get a match

identifying the deceased
as Cheryl Dunlap.

- In the absence of her
head, they were unable

to determine the cause of death.

She could have been hit
in the head multiple times

and died as a result
of a brain injury,

and there's no way to say that.

You couldn't say
what k*lled her.

In an
investigation like this,

even though you
have some leads...

the guy at the ATM,
whoever the camo driver is,

you still have other people
you have to eliminate.

We went and interviewed
family members, found out

about anybody she had possibly
dated, people she worked with.

We tried to talk
to all of those people...

friends, people that
go to church with her,

her co-workers, her family.

So we had access to a lot
of people in Cheryl's life.

We talked to everybody
that we could,

but none of these
people were nefarious,

or criminals, or bad actors.

If she had an enemy, I
didn't know about it.

I can tell you that.

The whole
county is in an uproar.

No one knows what's going on.

People are buying g*ns.

The people living there,
they were so afraid.

We have three kids.

I didn't want them
walking down the road.

I didn't want them
checking the mailbox.

I didn't want them
going out the back door

to play with the
dog unless there

was an adult there
because, again,

you don't know who did this.

You don't have
anybody in custody.

It was really
a stressful time

for the whole county.

I believe probably
almost 100% of the county

was just engulfed
in this trauma.

- I was worried sick
constantly day in and day out.

- You're starting to get
frustrated because you're

not getting anything really
that's taking you anywhere.

And, again, you're in
the national forest.

You're in the wild.

You're dealing with hundreds,
and hundreds, and hundreds

of miles of national forest.

We know of no witnesses
to how her body got there.

So there's nobody to
interview on what they saw.

It's the hardest
environment I've

ever had to work a case in.

- So we were feeling like
we were maybe butting

our head against a wall.

We were swinging and
missing at every lead.

- It was very upsetting just
to think about Cheri going

through that and what she must
have felt and how horrible

a situation it was.

- I'm not really sure
how anybody could be

so cruel to another human being.

I hated to even
entertain the thought.

But I said, I think we're
dealing with a serial k*ller.

- The case in Florida involving
Cheryl Dunlap had gone cold.

We were hopeful that our
case was not connected

to the Florida case because
the outcome they had

was not a positive one at all.

Meredith!

- We all hoped
that we'd find her

and we'd find her alive.

We had to stay focused
on what we were doing.

We had to keep looking
for Meredith Emerson.

Catch up now on
the latest in the search

for a missing Georgia woman.

Gary Michael
Hilton of suburban Atlanta

is in his 60s.

- For Gary Michael
Hilton. He's 61 years old.

Hilton was the
last person seen with missing

hiker Meredith Emerson.

The whole state was
looking for Gary Hilton.

We put out a nationwide be
on the lookout for Hilton

and certainly his van.

The media was still anxious
to get information to put out.

Her black
dog, Ella, also missing,

was playing with Hilton's
golden retriever, Dandy,

on a trail in Vogel State Park.

Meredith
had adopted a dog,

a black lab she called Ella.

In the photographs
we put out, we also

put out photographs of Ella.

We get a call to the tip
line from a lady who said,

I believe the dog you're
looking for just walked

in the Kroger grocery store.

- They had a black lab that
had been seen wandering

around the parking lot.

So we immediately got the
dog sent to a nearby vet.

Her coat was clean.

It looked like she had been fed,

looked like she
had water to drink,

had been well taken care of.

Ella had a chip.

We needed to scan the chip
to verify that the dog was,

in fact, Ella.

And it was.

Finding
Ella did give us hope.

And the hope was
that we would find

Meredith next, that if Ella was
here, then where's Meredith?

Is Meredith in a car?

Is she in the woods here, and
we just haven't seen her yet?

We thoroughly searched the
area around the grocery store.

We didn't know if Hilton or
Meredith was still there.

Right across the street
where Ella had been located

was a QuikTrip gas station.

The clerks at the
QuikTrip said that they

remembered Hilton coming there,

that he used the pay phone

and milled around outside for
a little while, and then left.

I ask her about
the surveillance camera.

Unfortunately, the cameras
only showed the inside

of the store, and he
used the pay phone

on the outside of the store.

- We didn't see
Hilton's van or Hilton.

But the clerk tells
him that he had been parked

down next to the dumpster.

- There was a dumpster
directly beside the QuikTrip.

After we have done everything
else that we knew to do...

interviews, everyone
that was there,

searched the
surveillance system,

we decided just to take a
look inside the dumpster,

just in case.

It was like, holy crap.

We see a lot.

What we noticed was different
colored garbage bags from what

the QuikTrip would use.

We looked inside the garbage
bags, and we found a wallet.

We found Meredith's
driver's license,

Meredith's University
of Georgia student

identification card.

We found bloody clothes.

It was fresh blood
and not congealed,

which told me it
was not very old.

That obviously
concerned me a lot.

That was big evidence.

That was a big find.

But I wasn't ready to admit
that Meredith wasn't alive.

- We were definitely
against the clock.

It was like a
cat-and-mouse game.

Here he is, and we're
coming behind trying

to play catch-up.

We knew
that he was close.

Our tip lines
were still very active.

DeKalb 911,
what's the exact location?

- At approximately 8:00
p.m., 911 calls began to go

into DeKalb County 911 center.

I have this as
a person of interest

in that missing woman case.

This is definitely
him. The van is there.

The dog is there.
I saw his face.

And I've been watching the
news, and I know it's him.

I know it's him.

You guys got to hurry.