Gary Hilton

Gary Michael Hilton (born November 22, 1946), known as The National Forest Serial Killer, is an American serial killer responsible for four known homicides between 2007 and 2008 committed in three states, all of which occurred within the premises of national forests.

Sentenced to death in Florida and to life imprisonment in Georgia and North Carolina, Hilton remains a suspect in several other killings, including that of Judy Smith.

Over the next few days, numerous tips were submitted to the police, some of which were about a strange homeless man with a dog who was driving a green 2001 Chevrolet Astro van, but this lead did not lead to an arrest.

Around this time, rumors began circulating that a serial offender was operating between Georgia and Florida.

Still, at the time, the Leon County Sheriff's Office stated that they were investigating the case as an isolated homicide.

Upon examining his van, the same 2001 Chevrolet Astro as reported earlier in tips by witnesses, authorities noticed that it was missing its rear car seat belt, which matched the one located among Emerson's personal items.

In exchange for dropping the death penalty against him, Hilton agreed to reveal where he had disposed of Emerson's remains, leading the investigators to the Dawson Forest Management Area.

She had been decapitated, but the coroner determined that it had been done post-mortem in an attempt to prevent identification.

On October 21, 2007, a retired couple of avid hikers living in Horse Shoe, North Carolina, John Davis “Jack” Bryant, 80, and Irene Woods Bryant, 84, left for a hike through the Pisgah National Forest, leaving their parked maroon Ford Escape at the Yellow Gap Road near U.S. Route 276.

After not hearing from them for two weeks, family members reported the couple as missing to the Henderson County Sheriff's Office, who promptly launched a search for the Bryants, consisting of more than thirty volunteers, cadaver dogs and a helicopter.

Through examining their phone records, it was learned that Irene had attempted to call 911 on the day of their disappearance, but the signal was lost, and the call was dropped.

On November 10, 2007, the search party located the body of a woman on the Barnett Branch trail, covered with leaves.

Suspecting that it might belong to Irene, they sent it to the state medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill to perform an autopsy.

Three days later, the body was positively identified as that of Irene, who had been bludgeoned to death with a blunt instrument.

As this was now considered a homicide perpetrated on federal land, the FBI launched an investigation with a reward of $10,000 to whoever could provide information leading to the killer.

Simultaneously, it was revealed that a bank card belonging to the Bryants had been used to withdraw $300 from an ATM in Ducktown, Tennessee, with the surveillance cameras showing an older Caucasian man wearing a yellow rainjacket whose hood was obscuring his face.

By this time, John was still considered a missing person, possibly abducted by whoever had killed his wife.

On December 3, 2007, 46-year-old Cheryl Hodges Dunlap, a resident of Crawfordville, Florida, did not appear at her church in Tallahassee, where she taught Sunday school.

Considering this behavior to be unusual, her family reported her missing on the following day, after her abandoned car, a white Toyota Camry, was located north of the county line.

Approximately five days later, a search party of around 180 people was organized to help locate her, and despite initially being unable to find anything, the members still hoped that they would locate Dunlap alive.

On December 16, 2007, Ronnie Rentz, a hunter passing through the woods in the Apalachicola National Forest with his dogs, discovered the decapitated, decomposing body of a white woman, immediately reporting the finding to the state authorities.

As they were initially unsure whether the body was Dunlap's, it was sent to the medical examiner, who confirmed that it was indeed hers via DNA profiling.

Classifying her death as a homicide, authorities announced that they were looking for a suspicious green truck seen in the area around the time Dunlap disappeared, driven by a man who had used her ATM card five times in Tallahassee, withdrawing $700 from her account.

On February 3, 2008, Mark Waldrop, a hunter, discovered a skull in Nantahala National Forest, just off the forest service road known as "The Switchbacks."

After calling the local deputy for assistance, the duo investigated the scene.

Upon closer inspection, a pelvis and spine were located about 20 yards from the skull.

Since there was no clothing or identification near the remains, the bones were sent to the medical examiner in Chapel Hill to identify the decedent.

After two days, it was positively identified as that of John Bryant.

On New Year's Day of 2008, 24-year-old sales manager Meredith Hope Emerson decided to go for a hike along the Freeman Trail on Blood Mountain, in Georgia's Vogel State Park.

She was accompanied by her dog, Ella, and according to several witnesses, they had observed a mysterious older man with his dog following her.

On January 3, 2008, authorities located her 1995 Chevrolet Cavalier, where they found various items such as her water bottle, a dog leash, and a police baton.

That day further investigation into the man seen following Emerson revealed that he was 61-year-old Hilton, a local drifter known for his strange behavior and vicious temper.

He often walked his dog, Dandy, along the trail.

Since this revelation, he was announced as a person of interest in the case, with police requesting that they officially interrogate him about the case.

A day after this announcement, Emerson's dog Ella was found wandering at a Kroger parking lot and returned to Emerson's family.

On January 5, 2008, authorities located numerous items belonging to Emerson inside a dumpster near a QuikTrip parking lot in Cumming: her bloodied clothing, wallet, driver's license, a University of Georgia ID card and a bloodstained car seat belt.

In addition to the homicides mentioned above, Hilton has been investigated and remains a suspect in the following unsolved murders:

Five hours after police found the items linked to Emerson, Hilton was arrested thanks to two anonymous phone tips, which claimed that he was vacuuming his van at a local establishment.

He was transferred to the county jail, where he was subsequently charged with kidnapping based on the material evidence connecting him to the case.

While he was being held at a federal prison in Atlanta, the search for Emerson's body continued in a 90-square mile area of the Chattahoochee National Forest.