All language subtitles for Wild.Crime.S03E03.720p.WEB.H264-EDITH.Sdh

[dramatic music]

♪♪ ♪♪

VERNON: Three different
national forests,

three different cases,
and they're all hikers.

- Investigators are looking
for Gary Michael Hilton.

- We knew how dangerous he was.

- This witness felt
so uneasy that they

decided to just take a picture
in case something happened.

OPERATOR: Emergency, 911.

- We found metal chains.

- Everything I collected had
some kind of blood on it.

JOHN: Hilton was not
expecting Meredith

to fight back.

- I knew I was making
a deal with the devil,

but it was a deal that
needed to be done.

[elk calls]

NARRATOR: Secrets in the wild,

beautiful yet
treacherous places.

These are the stories
of the investigators

who solve crimes
in the wilderness.

♪♪ ♪♪

SEARCHERS: Meredith!

Meredith! Meredith!

REPORTER: It's been
four days since Meredith

has been missing, and
police have found now...

KIMBERLY: The area that
we are searching right now

is going to be 401 square miles.

If you put that down, that's
going to be 253,496 acres.

That's a lot of area for us
to be covering right now.

PERSON: Because people are
still strongly looking,

we're still hopeful.

DAVE: We are thankful
that Ella has been found,

but Meredith is still out there.

REPORTER: This person of
interest, Gary Michael Hilton.

REPORTER: Gary Michael Hilton.

REPORTER: 61-year-old
Gary Hilton...

REPORTER: This is the picture
that we have for Mr. Hilton

at this time.

♪♪ ♪♪

PERSON: Same place,
just another day.

OFFICER: What you
doing out here?

GARY: Hunting.

PERSON: Life has been sweet.

[radio chatter]

- When we put out his
name and his photo,

we knew that everybody
was looking for him.

REPORTER: The police announced
that they were looking

for a person of interest.

REPORTER: 61-year-old
Gary Michael Hilton.

PERSON: Your
instincts tell you,

get away from this person.

PERSON: We need him
to come forward.

CLAY: I was at the command
post on Blood Mountain.

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

to go into the DeKalb
County 911 center.

OPERATOR: Emergency, 911.

What's the exact location
of the emergency?

- Gary Hilton, he was seen
at a Chevron gas station

off Ashford Dunwoody Road
in North metro Atlanta.

OPERATOR: Please stay
on the line, sir.

JOHN: The caller described
seeing Gary Hilton

cleaning out his van.

[police siren wailing]

CLAY: It's literally
probably within two minutes

that DeKalb County
officers arrive

and take him into custody.

OFFICER: Police,
show me your hands.

Get on the ground right now.

CLAY: Gary Hilton surrendered

as soon as they approached him.

♪♪ ♪♪

VERNON: I was with John
Cagle when the DeKalb County

Police Department called.

We got your white van.

We got Gary Hilton.

[radio chatter]

But there's no
Meredith Emerson here.

- No sign of a victim.

REPORTER: The search
for Gary Michael Hilton

ended at this Chevron
station at the corner

of Ashford Dunwoody
and Johnson Ferry Road.

- We're hopeful that there
might be a break in this case

that might lead us to the
whereabouts of Miss Emerson,

but we don't know at this point.

REPORTER: They finally have
in custody Gary Michael Hilton

of DeKalb County, who
was named as a person

of interest in the disappearance

of 24-year-old Meredith Emerson.

- And any question
that he can answer,

I mean, would be a positive
step in the right direction.

REPORTER: But police
will not confirm what

Hilton was doing, only
that missing hiker

Emerson was not with him.

- So now we had Hilton.

REPORTER: Hilton
was hauled off

to GBI headquarters
for questioning.

JOHN: We're making
progress, we felt like,

but we just hadn't
found Meredith.

And there had been
opportunities.

- We restarted that search
this morning at 8:00.

I think that broke
a lot of our hearts,

that she was not in the van.

At this time, Miss Peggy Bailey

from the family, who was
the family's spokesperson,

would like to make a
statement from the family.

- Good evening.

Once again, thank you for...

JOHN: Peggy and Doug Bailey

were very close friends
of the Emersons.

- Dave is still actively
searching the trails.

Susan's hoping that
word comes soon.

JOHN: I don't think
Peggy or the Emersons

ever gave up hope.

- Hope is pretty much what
her family was holding to.

- Meredith's middle
name is Hope,

and that's exactly what
the Lord gives us for her.

So we are hoping that
we're talking of Meredith

in the present tense.

♪♪ ♪♪

REPORTER: Cheryl Dunlap,
a 46-year-old nurse

and Sunday school teacher,
disappeared 7 miles from home,

her car found with a flat tire.

- Once we knew there was a Gary
Michael Hilton in existence

as a result of Blood
Mountain, we ran his license,

and he had been issued a
citation by a forestry officer

right in the heart of the
Apalachicola National Forest,

and the date was
completely consistent

with Cheryl's disappearance.

We had an onslaught
of tips and sightings.

One of the sightings was a
campsite off Joe Thomas Road,

which is out off Highway 20.

One of our crime
scene detectives

saw some pine straw that had
covered what looked like there

maybe had been a
fire or something,

and so he moved the
straw, and he started

to find hard fragments.

And those fragments
were 100% identified

as skull fragments.

- There were burned finger
bones and skull bones.

There were also a plastic
bead and an earring,

some burned clothing.

MIKE: Cheryl Dunlap's
remains, couldn't get DNA

from them because they
had been so, so burned

at high temperatures.

I mean, he burned her
hands and her head

and beat it into pulp,
so as to hide the things

that he was trying to hide.

AMY: As soon as I saw
the bead at the fire pit,

I thought that they were
very similar to the ones

that were in her vehicle.

Any time you come in
contact with something,

you'll leave something behind,

and then you'll
take something away.

It's like a triangle.

We're linking a
victim, a suspect,

and a scene together.

And I found a clump of hair.

It was the same exact color of
the pine straw that was there.

And in Cheryl Dunlap's
car, I found a long hair,

and it was from a
golden retriever.

MIKE: We really felt
like we had our suspect.

We felt like Gary was our guy.

♪♪ ♪♪

HAROLD: After Hilton
was arrested in Georgia,

several individuals advised they

saw Hilton in North Carolina.

We still don't know
where John Bryant is.

The Sheriff's Department
heard from an individual

that happened to be in
one of the National Forest

picnic areas at Sycamore
Flats in Brevard,

and that individual
saw Gary Michael Hilton

in his white van with
his dog unloading

the van at the picnic area.

This witness felt so uneasy
that they decided to just take

a picture of it in case
something happened,

and that picture places
him without a doubt

in the area of the crime
scene a couple of weeks

before the murder
of Irene Bryant.

- We felt confident that
he was our prime suspect,

but we had not yet developed a
sufficient amount of evidence

to pursue it in court.

- Had that photo come sooner,
we would have definitely

done something different.

He lived off the grid.

So he wasn't in the system.

DAVID: How do we go
from proving he was here

at the right time to proving

he was specifically at that
scene with the Bryants?

We shared these
photographs with Georgia

so that we could really
begin that relationship

to work this together.

[dramatic music]

♪♪ ♪♪

JOHN: While Hilton
was being transferred

to GBI headquarters,
I had two teams

scouring for evidence that might

help us find the location
of Meredith Emerson.

REPORTER: Investigators
searched Gary Hilton's

white Astro van well
into early Saturday

morning at this Chevron.

It's also where they
found Hilton and his dog,

Dandy, Friday night.

- When I first opened the
van, my impression was wow.

There's a lot of crap in here.

It was full of garbage
bags and tote containers

and just all kinds of stuff.

Hilton was making trips
from the van to the dumpster

at the Chevron.

There were a lot of things
on the ground around the van.

He was in the process
of cleaning it out.

So we started in the dumpster.

There were some critical
pieces of evidence in there...

sleeping bags, a
couple of duffel bags,

some pornography,
camping gear, bedrolls.

Gary was trying to get
rid of anything in the van

that he could see
had visible blood,

because everything I collected
had visible blood on it.

We tagged almost 700
pieces of evidence.

CLAY: Directly behind
the driver's seat

and the passenger
seat was a space

all the way across the van,

but everything from there
on back was just packed.

JEFF: Then we go to
the van and start

looking at the interior for
hairs, fibers, blood stains.

What's going to tell us
something that we don't know?

What's going to help us
find where Meredith is?

I found a yellow rain jacket
with a fluorescent stripe.

CLAY: There was some blood
found on some paper towels.

There was some blood found
on the driver's side seat.

JEFF: There was a transfer
pattern on the back

of the driver's seat.

It looked like a hair pattern
where blood had gotten

in contact with the hair.

I assumed it would be
Meredith's or Gary's.

The scene at the Chevron
probably took us four or five

hours to get processed.

We had the van towed.

I left there, and I went to
GBI headquarters in Atlanta.

JOHN: Mitchell Posey had
found some disturbing evidence

in a dumpster at the
QuikTrip gas station.

So I drove down
from Blood Mountain

to look at everything myself.

MITCHELL: When
John Cagle arrived

at the crime scene lab, he
asked me for a briefing.

He asked me to tell him what
we had and what it meant.

We found metal chains with
nylon rope attached to it.

That told me that Meredith
had probably been tied up.

I told him about the black
zip ties that had been cut.

We found bloody clothes.

We found hiking pants that
had blood spatter on them,

and we found boots that had
blood spatter on it as well.

JOHN: There was a fleece
that had blood on it.

MITCHELL: The neckline
was saturated in blood.

JOHN: This was heavy blood
that you could wring out.

- My thoughts were
battling each other.

I said, John, I
don't think someone

would still be alive with this
much blood on the neckline.

I could tell he did
not want to hear that.

JOHN: I actually called
our medical examiner,

and I said let me
describe this to you.

Could someone survive after
losing that much blood?

But I knew that they couldn't.

I knew I had to do one
thing, and that's come talk

to the Emersons...

reminding myself I needed
to tell them the truth.

REPORTER: Georgia Bureau
of Investigation spokesman

John Bankhead was pressed
about whether there's

any proof Emerson
might still be alive.

- It does not look favorable
for that to be the case.

- So we went back to the cabin
where they were staying and had

to break the news
to her both parents

that it doesn't appear that
Meredith has survived this.

KIMBERLY: That was the
worst part of being

the public information
officer for this,

is knowing what we knew.

- I was able to report that
we had arrested Gary Hilton.

I let them know
what we had found,

and it was obviously not
what they had hoped for.

MITCHELL: They held on
to each other, cried.

KIMBERLY: That really
broke my heart...

Because I knew that that
positive part was done.

- We got the news yesterday,
and that was devastating

for them to hear it
change to recovery.

But they are holding
strong for Meredith.

CLAY: John Cagle looked at me.

He said, go and find
out where she's at.

[dramatic music]

♪♪ ♪♪

REPORTER: GBI agents
transferred Hilton

to the Union County
Jail, where he was booked

on a charge of kidnapping
with bodily injury

in connection with
the disappearance

of 24-year-old hiker
and Gwinnett County

resident Meredith Emerson.

CLAY: Before I even
introduced myself to him,

I took pictures.

He had a visible fingernail mark

in the very point of his
nose, like a defense wound.

He had a broken hand,
and it was crushed.

And it looked like he was
in a really good fight.

He was on the floor,
laying on his side.

He says that he was having
a multiple sclerosis attack,

and he said, I need my medicine.

I actually spoke
with the doctor,

and she said that he doesn't
have multiple sclerosis,

not even symptoms of it.

He would not talk to us.

I basically laid on
the floor next to him

and introduced myself.

I said, hi, Mr. Hilton.

My name is Clay Bridges,
and he cut me off.

He said, I'm making
no statements.

I'm waiving no rights.

I want to have an
attorney present with me

before any questioning.

My primary mission was
finding Meredith's body

so that we could deliver
her back to her family.

There was nothing that he
could say at that point

that I could use against
him in a court of law.

During the investigation,
I had the opportunity

to talk to Hilton's ex-wife,
Sue, who was a former

Stone Mountain police officer.

She told me about a dog
that he used to have

back in the '90s named Ranger.

He loved that dog more
than anything or anybody

in the whole world, ever.

She told me about a
shrine that he had built

for the dog in Stone Mountain.

I didn't know where
that place was,

but I told him that I did.

I said, listen, I know
where Ranger is located now.

And I said, I want you
to think about something.

I want you to think about
this girl and her family

not knowing where
she's laid to rest.

And he just stared through me.

I said, if you're not going to
talk to me, I'm going to go,

and I'm going to dig
Ranger up, and I'm going

to move him to where you'll
never know where he's at.

He looked sharply
at me and snarled

the most terrible
snarl and said,

just put the needle
in my arm, bitch.

JOHN: Once we collected the
blood in the van, of course,

we submitted it
to the crime lab.

We also submitted
the bloody clothing

we found in the dumpster
at the QuikTrip.

CLAY: Our director, Vernon
Keenan, had dedicated

a DNA analyst to
us for this case.

We worked her to death
because there was so much DNA.

We were getting DNA from
hundreds of samples of blood

from the van, hundreds
of samples of blood

from both dumpsters.

So she's pretty overwhelmed
at that point with one case.

JOHN: We determined that
Meredith Emerson's blood

was both in the van
and on the items

from the QuikTrip dumpster.

When I looked into his
eyes, he's just evil.

He's dangerous.

But he knew where Meredith was.

He was the only hope that
we could find her quickly.

I know I felt a lot of pressure.

[phone ringing]

The next morning, I get
a call that he had been

appointed a lawyer,
and I went directly

to the Union County Jail.

And I met with the lawyer,
and I said I want to know

where Meredith
Emerson is right now.

Go talk to him, and I
will wait right here.

Finally, Hilton's lawyers
came out and asked me

if I would call the
local prosecutor

and ask him if he
would consider taking

the death penalty off
the table in exchange

for the whereabouts of Meredith.

VERNON: For him to be promised
that the state would not

seek the death penalty for
Meredith Emerson's murder

combined with the
volume of evidence

that we had in the case
that was against him,

that would be the best deal
he was ever going to get.

Because in the state of Georgia,

you can convict somebody
and not have the body.

JOHN: I think the
Emersons understood

what we were trying to do.

CLAY: We wanted to provide
them with that closure,

and we were willing to
give up seeking the death

penalty in that
situation because it's

the right thing to do.

JOHN: And so the prosecutor
in Union County agreed,

told Hilton's lawyers
that we would do that.

But they wanted
him to sleep on it.

I had to keep my composure
and keep this thing going.

I knew I was making a
deal with the devil,

but it was a deal that
needed to be done.

CLAY: It would have made me
feel like I was making a deal

with the devil had I not
known that I was looking

at a certain two more
shots at the death penalty

with North Carolina and Florida.

We had two more
bites of the apple.

REPORTER: Investigators from
North Carolina's State Bureau

of Investigation
rolled into Georgia

with boxes of case
files, hoping the leads

and all of the bags of evidence

from the Meredith Emerson
case could help crack theirs.

JOHN: Early on in our
case, when we just

got organized up there
on Blood Mountain,

we didn't know anything.

- First time it really
resonated with me was actually

on the phone with you guys
prior to this meeting,

the ATM photos y'all
were sending us.

MIKE: And then the ATM thing

gave it a real criminal element,

but we struggled to identify
a suspect of any kind

because bad people do
bad things to each other.

You know, he was
living off the grid.

- Those are your
hardest criminals

to identify and capture.

They have no ties
to the community.

They're just nomads.

- I mean, this guy
lives in the forest.

You know, theft
here, theft there.

And he just seemed
somehow to survive.

We found maps of different
National Forest locations

and campgrounds, both
state and federal,

that he kept with
him, and we could

trace some of his travels.

- He wasn't smart enough
to take the evidence

out of his van as a
statement to the fact

that he was so alone.

JOHN: We knew that his van
was going to be extremely

important to the successful
prosecution of Hilton

in all of these jurisdictions.

- If you look at the timelines,
his hunger for killing

was increasing.

[phone ringing]

JOHN: On January 7th, I got
a call from the prosecutor

who said that we had a deal.

So myself, Director
Keenan, and Clay Bridges

traveled up to Union County.

As soon as we got there, they
brought him into an office.

I said, I understand
that you want

to tell us where Meredith is.

And when he said Dawson Forest,

of course I knew
exactly what that was.

[dramatic music]

♪♪ ♪♪

- My name's William Thacker.

I work for the
Georgia Department

of Natural Resources.

JOHN: William
Thacker, he was born

and raised in these mountains.

If there was ever anybody that I

would trust to find
things in Dawson Forest,

it's William Thacker.

VERNON: Dawson Forest is a
unique piece of property.

JOHN: It is thick forest,
several thousand acres.

VERNON: Very desolate,
heavily wooded,

and it had a surreal,
eerie feeling,

even if you weren't
looking for a body.

♪♪ ♪♪

JOHN: I asked Hilton
if she was buried,

and he said no,
that she was just

covered with leaves and brush.

He began to draw a map,
and he began to tell

us details where she was.

You know, you walk 120
feet down Shoal Creek Road.

CLAY: It's basically
a dirt road.

There's nothing...
nothing there.

JOHN: I asked him
if she was intact,

and he said the head
would be missing.

I asked him where
her head would be,

and he began to
tell me, giving me

more directions which sounded
like about a mile away.

We wanted to find all
the remains that night,

but I was not convinced that we
could find both crime scenes.

So we made the
decision to carry him

with us down to Dawson Forest.

Clay Bridges traveled with him
and his lawyer in a prison van

from the Sheriff's Office,
and I went ahead of them.

♪♪ ♪♪

CLAY: When we're transporting
Hilton to Dawson Forest,

I took the opportunity to have
him take me through the crime

step by step.

It is standard practice
for the GBI to record

all interviews with suspects.

He had identified Meredith
walking on the trail

that January 1st.

She was alone.

She was hiking with
a dog, which was good

because he had a
dog, she had a dog.

It was a good way to meet up.

He struck up a
conversation with her,

and they hiked along
for a little bit.

Then all of a sudden,
she just took off...

So he concealed
himself in the woods.

Hilton was very physically fit,

working out all the time.

He felt confident that he
could overpower a woman.

When he saw her coming
back down the trail,

he jumped out from
behind a tree,

and showed her the
bayonet and said,

I just want your
card and PIN number.

And then he said she
grabbed the knife

and took it away from him.

Hilton was not
expecting Meredith

to fight back like that.

I knew that Meredith
studied martial arts.

She's not scared to fight.

He said he went to the baton,

and then she took
that away from him.

She kept fighting and fighting.

Meredith almost got
the best of him.

He showed her the gun.

He said, I'll kill
you right here.

I'll put a bullet in you.

He got control of her finally
and carried her off the trail.

He tied her around
a tree and told her

that if she yelled out
or screamed or anything,

he was going to kill her dog.

He had lost his baton.

He said she had lost
several items there as well,

and when he got back
to the fight scene,

he said there was somebody there

already picking the stuff up.

He kept thinking that the
guy had found something,

was calling law enforcement,

so he had to get
her out of there.

He waited for a
little bit longer,

and then he moved
her down the trail

to the parking area,

got in her car,

and she was telling him that
her card was under the seat.

He got it, and he
told her to get

in the van with her dog
Ella, or he was going

to kill her and kill the dog.

♪♪ ♪♪

He kept Meredith chained to
the back of the driver's seat.

He drove her to the ATM...

♪♪ ♪♪

And she gave him the
wrong PIN number.

He said, she just kept giving
me the wrong PIN number

and convincing me that I
was doing something wrong,

and I believed her.

So he left there and
went to Gainesville,

because she convinced him

that he needed to
try a different PIN.

♪♪ ♪♪

The next day, he drives
her to the Canton area,

where he attempts to
utilize her ATM card again.

CLAY: He told her, look, I
just want your PIN number.

I don't want to hurt you.

Just give me your PIN number.

She still gives him
the wrong PIN number.

She's thinking that's going to
get us to her, that it's going

to help get him captured.

CLAY: He says that once
you've taken somebody,

you either kill them
or you get caught.

But she's going to go out
on her terms and not his.

Night of January the 2nd, he
drives her to Dawson Forest.

They spend the entire day on
January 3rd in Dawson Forest.

On January the 4th, they're
camping in Dawson Forest.

Well, he leaves that
campsite and is headed out,

and a DNR Ranger
meets him in the road,

and Hilton throws his
hand up and waves at him.

And he said he saw the
guy hit his brakes.

She was right there
in the van behind me.

It was that close.

And he says, they're
going to find us.

So he panics and goes
to a different location

in Dawson Forest.

He hangs out for a while
at the van to make sure

that the cops aren't coming.

You know, once he
realizes nobody's coming,

nobody's searching, he
gets her out of the van.

He says, I'm going
to let you go.

CLAY: And then he
chained her to a tree.

And she says, no, no,
no. Don't leave me.

He says, look, I'm going
to go get your stuff.

- And then he
takes her head off.

So he takes her head
to a different location

within Dawson Forest
for forensic purposes,

so that, you know, it's
harder to identify her.

And he conceals it
on top of the ground.

He says, leaving it exposed
to the elements gets rid

of it faster.

JOHN: I think that he
didn't do that to her

because of forensic concerns.

He did it because he liked it.

VERNON: They pull
up in the van.

John Cagle was already there.

He had found her body
but not her head.

Clay Bridges gets
out of the vehicle,

and I had never seen a look
of shock on somebody's face

that was on Clay Bridges'.

By now we're deep
into the forest,

walked him down a little road.

He said, OK, stop here
and walk up the bank,

and you'll find a dead
tree on the ground.

He said at one end of the
tree there would be more

clothes belonging to Meredith.

And at the other end
would be her head.

I began on my hands and
knees, spreading back

leaves and brush as I went,
and I found what looked

to be a mound of leaves.

And I began to brush
back those leaves,

and there she was.

- Just from the
look on his face,

I knew it was there.

John asked me to
secure that site

while they did a quick search
of the rest of the area.

I sat down on the log, and I did

say a prayer for her family.

But...

- I said, stay with Meredith.
We're not going to leave her.

WILLIAM: You can't forget
something like that.

I can still see her right now.

I can still see
the face right now.

That stuff don't go away.

CLAY: I walked down
there, and she's

still got leaves and brush.

That's when everything
came flooding in

because you get to
know this person almost

as good as you know anybody,

as one of your
friends or family.

Then you listen to
this guy almost brag

about how efficient
he is in capturing her

and raping her and killing her,

and I lost it.

I just... I...

I lost it.

I...

JOHN: I knew I had
to call the Emersons.

And at that time, the
Emersons were staying

with Doug and Peggy
Bailey in Athens.

And so I call Peggy,
and I ask Peggy

to let them know that we'd
found her, and hung up.

But I realized I had not told
them about the decapitation,

so I called back and
told Peggy that Meredith

had been decapitated, but we had

recovered all of her remains.

There was silence on
the phone, obviously.

And then she said she
would, and she hung up,

and I just started to cry.

♪♪ ♪♪

We began to dismantle
the command post

and the search teams...

All the support staff at Vogel,

the volunteers
from the community

that were feeding everybody.

This was a big blow for
our entire community.

- We would like to thank
the untold number of friends

and volunteers and
family who helped search

and support us all...
and support all of us

at this tragic and
troubling time.

JOHN: The family had a
memorial service for Meredith

in Athens.

Huge numbers of people that
didn't even know her came.

People were standing out
front in the parking lot.

They just wanted to be there,

even though they
couldn't get in.

♪♪ ♪♪

REPORTER: Deputies brought
Gary Michael Hilton

to the Dawson County Jail.

JOHN: Once we discovered
Meredith's body

in Dawson County, we
knew that that would be

the venue where he would
be charged with murder,

and it's a different prosecutor

and a different
judicial circuit.

- On January 4, 2008,
Gary Michael Hilton

did unlawfully and with
malice and forethought

cause the death of
another human being,

Meredith Hope Emerson,

by blunt force
trauma to the head.

JOHN: We charged
him in Dawson County

with one count of murder.

- I'm Lee Darragh.

I'm the district attorney
for the Northeastern

Judicial Circuit of Georgia.

When the body was found, it
became my case at that point.

There was a chance that his
confession might be thrown out

because it was made
under a promise

of a more lenient sentence.

And I decided that the
best course to take

was simply to tell the
defense attorney, fine,

I'll honor this case.

But he's got to accept
the life sentence

for the murder of
Meredith Emerson,

and he's got to do it quick.

I said, if you don't
close it by January 31st,

that deal made
was off the table.

- Gary Hilton was convicted
in Superior Court of murder

on January 31st.

- The father of Meredith Hope
Emerson is Mr. David Emerson.

He would like to
address the court.

JOHN: The Emersons were
given the opportunity

to make a statement during
the sentencing hearing.

- Your Honor, we stand before
you as brokenhearted parents,

having lost our beloved
daughter to the vicious murder

committed by Mr. Hilton.

Our days are filled with tears,

blank stares,

and we constantly
struggle through each day.

- Your Honor, Mrs. Susan
Emerson, the mother

of Meredith.

- Your Honor, as far as
I'm concerned, there is

no such thing as
justice in this case.

Nothing will bring
our daughter back.

I have no doubt that her
goodness and light intimidated

the hell out of him.

The truth is she is stronger
and brighter than ever

while he has been diminished.

JUDGE: Do you
have any question?

- No, Your Honor.

CLAY: This case came
and went so fast,

and that may be the reason
that it's so hard to digest.

It's almost like being
below a dam when it busts,

and you get washed away,
and then it's over with.

CLAY: We knew at that point
that he was a serial killer,

but we didn't know how
vast his range was.

VERNON: Three different cases,

three different
national forests,

and they're all hikers.

That's commonality,

and so we knew how
dangerous he was.

[dramatic music]

♪♪ ♪♪

CLAY: Did a background
interview with him,

and we were doing that for
Florida and North Carolina

to assist law enforcement
with their investigations.

You go into an interrogation,
and you have to convince

them that you feel
the same way they do.

It's not easy to do,
but it's something

you train yourself to do.

JOHN: Just like
most serial killers,

Gary Hilton likes to brag.

He likes to talk in circles,

thought he was smarter
than everybody.

- If Gary's talking and he
feels like he's in control,

then he will talk
about everything.

JOHN: The FBI profilers
were watching the interview

in an adjoining room.

MARY: My name is
Mary Ellen O'Toole.

I was in law enforcement
for 4 1/2 years

before I joined the FBI in
the behavioral analysis unit.

I specialize in psychopathy.

Psychopaths, that's the
new term for sociopath,

these are people that
have no conscience.

They have no remorse
for what they do.

So we were working with GBI
to really develop a better

understanding of Gary Hilton.

- One of the 20 traits of
psychopathy is grandiosity.

And when you are grandiose,
you have a tendency

to want to dominate
and to want to talk.

MARY: My experience has
been that the more you can

get them talking, the more
likely it is that they'll say

something that is compromising.

- I know it. You know it.

JOHN: We're kind of
hopeful that he might

slip up and mention some
of these other killings

in North Carolina and Florida.

CLAY: Periodically,
you'll see I'll leave

the room to get more coffee or
ask him if he needs anything.

I'm actually going
next door to ask them,

do you want me to ask
him anything else?

- I heard a wildlife
biologist...

MARY: We'd focus on him.

What's his history?
What are his patterns?

So your goal is
to get a timeline

and to see where he's been,

and then you compare
that to cases

where people have
been reported missing

or there have been
unidentified bodies.

- Gary Hilton talked
about his life growing up,

traveling around the
country with his mother

and stepfather.

JOHN: He didn't appreciate
the way his stepfather was

treating his mother, and
his stepfather had just

made an offhand remark, and
he said, well, just shoot me,

and so he just shot him.

Didn't kill him.

After that, he stayed a
while in some kind of home

down there in Florida.

MARY: Well, you have to be
careful because if you're

dealing with someone who is
cunning and manipulative,

somebody that's a
pathological liar,

you cannot take
everything at face value.

JOHN: He talked
about his experience

in the military overseas.

He was married several
times and divorced.

He bragged about staying
in good physical shape,

that he could run the trails.

The only emotional attachment
he had was to dogs.

MARY: I'm not questioning
that he didn't love dogs,

but they were a conduit to
strike up a conversation

with potential victims.

CLAY: He murdered Meredith,

but he wouldn't
harm Meredith's dog.

JOHN: He said he was killing
for money, that he needed gas,

he needed food.

I think that might have
been an initial motivation,

but once he took somebody,
I think it shifted.

- The way that he treated
his victims was unbelievably

violent and just a
stunning lack of empathy

for a fellow human being.

MITCHELL: I think his ultimate
goal was to take their life.

The power that he felt,
the thrill that he

felt from taking their life.

CLAY: It's extremely hard to
sit within a short distance

from him without putting
your hands around his throat.

It was about control.

That's what a
psychopath is about...

controlling somebody.

CLAY: You do not become a
psychopath at 61 years old.

You become that in your
late teens, early 20s.

JOHN: And I don't
think you just wake up

and start doing that.

Nobody believes that.

We got calls from all
over the United States

that had missing hikers
or missing people

near the National Forest,

and that's why it was so
important for us to try

to backtrack on
Hilton's movements.

- He picks his
locations carefully.

He could drive around in
his van to any location

really in the U.S.,
victimizing people,

and no one would ever know.

HAROLD: He spent
years traveling

around the Southeastern
United States.

Just how many more
victims are out there?

Where is John Bryant?

It's just a huge unknown.

♪♪ ♪♪