Page 116 - Meredith News Today

Dave emerson. >> i appeal to everyone to search their hearts and memories for anything they can remember and do to help us find meredith. >> after i met the emersons, i knew that i had to tell them everything. i couldnt hold back any information from these two people. they were terrified. >> why did you take it personally? >> this case was a little bit different because not only me but the other investigators recognized the fact early on that we have to embrace this family and tell them everythi...

Returning to our story, here again is dennis murphy. meredith emerson and her lab ella were two days missing on georgias blood mountain early in a freezing january of 2007. her friends had alerted the authorities and people from all over the greater atlanta area were scouring the hiking trails. so many volunteers they couldnt use all of them. >> people just showed up and just said, i have a daughter who likes to hike, i have a sister who could have been meredith easily. and they just volunteer...

>> gary hilton was under arrest. detectives swarmed over the filthy astro van and inventoried his possessions looking for any clue to merediths fate. a gbi spokesman updated the media. >> its a missing persons investigation right now and thats how were pursuing it. an important key might be any knowledge that mr. hilton has. >> take me inside your situation room when you get the news atlantas got him. >> were very pleased that now we have this man, but we cant lose sight of the fact we dont have...

For merediths car at trailheads shed marked in her hiking guides. >> there were four of us in the car. we were trying to call park rangers, anybody that may have seen her car. then a friend of hers called her -- called us and said i found it. there was know on it. >> the car was in a parking area at the base of blood mountain. >> we just drove as fast as we could. we knew, just that sinking feeling when we first saw it. >> the friends raced up the blood mountain feeder path to the appalachian tr...

Welcome back to "dateline extra." returning to our story, here again is dennis murphy. where was meredith hope emerson? could she still be alive somewhere out there in georgias chattahoochee national forest? and did the 24-year-old hiker have a prayer if she were indeed in the clutches of mystery man gary hilton? the search on blood mountain went into a third day. >> we had the hope. i mean, we were there from sunup to sundown, plus. we were there through the night in the cold and all the sear...

Back in beaufort, the roommate spent her new years day with friends and didnt notice that meredith hadnt come home until the next morning, a back-to-work day. >> she would leave ella in my room and i would take care of her in the morning. i thought, ella isnt here. that was strange to me. i called her cell phone, it went straight to voice mail. i thought maybe she was at work. >> when did you become anxious? >> when i got to work, she worked with a good friend of ours. and the friend called me a...

Meredith on blood mountain. the man hunt was on. >> we put the face out. >> its plastered all over the atlanta area. >> yes. the apb went well past the georgia border. hiltons name and picture were all over the regional news. light bulbs began going off to the south around tallahassee, floridas capital, when people there saw his photo on tv. the search for gary hilton was about to widen. the mystery man person of interest in the meredith emerson case looked familiar to people who thought they ha...

Ella. her roommate julia from her college days had slept in that morning. >> she had left me a little note on the chalk board, took ella, went hiking. not where, not when, not when ill be back. it wasnt really anything out of the ordinary. >> meredith, like roomy julia, was a dog person. she doted on ella, her black lab mix since finding her at a rescue shelter. >> she had two dogs growing up and she wanted one of her own. so we talked about it and she researched what she wanted and definitely w...

>> she took the dog to an animal clinic where the vet was able to read an identity chip implanted in her. sure enough, it was ella. but where was her owner, meredith? now events were moving quickly. right away came another tip. >> we get a call from a female acquaintance of hilton stating she had just hung up the phone. he had called her and wanted money. she commented that she -- she said, dont you know the worlds looking for you? and he hung up. >> hilton called from a pay phone at a convenien...

About what was going on. i told him that i would give him a check for $800. we discussed a place to leave the check. >> were you baiting that place he knew to come and show up? >> it was certainly my objective to get him to a place where authorities could apprehend him. >> the trap was set at a building owned by tabor where hilton had lived for a while. the s.w.a.t. team was dispatched. would hilton fall for the "pick up some money" ruse? and what about the missing woman? in your gut, did you th...