Page 134 - Meredith News Today

>> the man is there? >> the van is here. the dog is here, the road dog. and i saw the mans face. ive been watching the news and i know its him. i know its him. hes emptying the stuff out of his van, looking around like hes guilty as sin. i can go take him down if you want. >> no, sir. stay right there. >> here comes the cops. yes. yes. >> police are there? >> theyve it got him now. two cruisers pulled up on him. >> gary hilton was under arrest. detectives swarmed over the filthy astro van and in...

Police were convinced the missing hiker meredith emerson was under the control of gary hilton somewhere in north georgia. the more they learned about the survivalist odds ball who was the person of interest in two murders in national forests elsewhere, the more they feared for her. a friend of merediths family appealed directly to hilton. >> i hope that if he realized that this would be helpful, that his heart would be softened and turned to come forward with information. so, please, please have...

>> reliable meredith wasnt where she was supposed to be. she called the sheriffs office and then she and other meredith friends assembled a search party. maybe she got hurt. do you know where eye im going hiking" would be? >> we had a few ideas. we had books she had, places she highlighted and kind of just started driving. >> the friends split up, looking for merediths car at trailhea s shed marked in her hiking guides. >> there were four of us in the car, trying to call park rangers, anybody th...

Water bottle, baton, found together tell you a story at all, or suggest something ominous? >> yes. we found those items in an area where the ground had appeared to have been disturbed. we became concerned that possibly a struggle took place there. >> merediths water bottles, ellas leash, and signs of a struggle. nothing about the scene looked good to the veteran lawman, especially that expandible police baton that was found. he called in help. >> we eventually partnered with over 18 or 19 police...

>> yes. >> for what reason? >> i dont know. >> hilton had confessed to killing meredith emerson. but what about those other cases in the national forest? a woman in florida, the elderly couple in north carolina. >> he would not talk about anybody to us other than meredith. >> because you have to wonder when the switch was thrown in this man. >> i know. how many decades does this maybe go back? >> i dont know. do people just wake up when theyre 61 and start to do these kinds of crimes the way he ...

>> so theb youve got to be saying to your team of vectors, what do we have here? >> thats right. >> now were wondering who we really have here and where is he? and, more importantly, wheres meredith? do we have a killer running around loose in the national forest? >> concerned for meredith deepens, but her friends know something that man on the mountain couldnt. >> a blue belt in akeyed dough and a blue belt in judo. if anyone could survive, it was meredith. >> when "dateline" continues. to ev...

Time. >> but the search in the national forest had become something more ominous than a lost hiker incident. meredith had been last seen in the company of an unsavory looking stranger, and law enforcement was about to identify him. the tip came from john tabor, an atlanta businessman. he was watching the continuing news coverage of missing meredith during his morning workout. >> when they started giving the description of the person of interest, my ears really perked up. i think i just turned wh...

That he ambushed meredith and her dog ella as she came down the trail. it was a struggle and meredith with her martial artsz skills, as hilton tells it, nearly got the best of his. she disarmed him, taking away his knife and the police baton. >> i lost control of both the bat and the knife. she was real quick with her hands and had no hesitation about grabbing weapons and everything. not only that, she was hard to subdue. fought like hell, man. >> hilton said they scrapped so hard they tumbled o...

$800. >> youre staking out the location? >> he didnt show. >> no-show. >> were still look gt and woeshing, where could this guy be? now we have this guy 50 miles from blood mountain. >> the veteran detective was talking constantly with merediths parents, her father dave amor son. >> 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...

>> surprised to see any dog running loose in the parking lot. then to find out its the one that meredith was -- it was her dog, you know, was a pretty big surprise and shock. >> 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 ...