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Warning: The following article mentions explicit themes and murder. Please read with caution.
In the late 2010s, horror stories unfolded in national forests and state parks across several southern U.S. states. At that time, Gary Hilton, a survivalist living alone in the woods, brutally murdered visitors at scenic spots in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida — here’s an update on where Hilton is now.
In 2008, 24-year-old Meredith Emerson left to hike alone with her dog in Georgia’s Vogel State Park and never returned. Experienced outdoors, Emerson was there to ascend Blood Mountain, Georgia’s highest peak on the Appalachian Trail.
While investigating Emerson’s disappearance, local police learned of similar unsolved cases in that region. In North Carolina and Florida, hikers had also entered wilderness areas and were later found dead, according to ABC News. Could one man be responsible?
A person of interest
Working with authorities in several states, investigators searching for Meredith Emerson interviewed witnesses who saw her the day she disappeared or who were at Vogel State Park around that same time. Based on descriptions of a man they saw, Gary Hilton was identified and arrested just a few days after Emerson disappeared.
Hilton admitted he killed and decapitated Meredith Emerson after keeping her captive for days in the wilderness. He was also linked to the 2007 murder and decapitation of Cheryl Dunlap in Florida’s Apalachicola National Forest and the murders of John and Irene Bryant, an elderly married couple who vanished and were later found dead in North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest that same year.
Investigators concluded Hilton could be responsible for other missing persons or unsolved murder cases under similar circumstances. Living alone in the woods, Hilton said he killed and specifically targeted women for money, according to People.
Hilton is on death row in Florida
Once in custody for Meredith Emerson’s disappearance, Gary Hilton agreed to lead authorities to her remains to save his own life. He told the police Emerson fought him valiantly until the end. After pleading guilty to Emerson’s murder, he was sent to prison for life. For the murders of John and Irene Bryant in North Carolina, he received additional life sentences with no chance for parole. And in Florida, he was sentenced to die for killing Cheryl Dunlap.
After a failed 2018 appeal of his death sentence, Hilton remains behind bars at Union Correctional Institute in Florida. To this day, authorities believe Hilton likely killed others. The complete Gary Hilton true crime story is told in Wild Crime: Blood Mountain on Hulu.