A sad ending
The search for Meredith Emerson—the missing hiker in my mountains—is not ending well. The “person of interest” was picked up in DeKalb County [Atlanta]. He is undergoing questioning. News reports are scanty, but there is chatter about bloody clothing, and Gary Hilton has been charged with kidnapping. (I’ll use his name now, because everyone else in the media is naming him.)
I am compelled to reiterate that this is not a “hillbilly thing”. Without rushing to judgment, Hilton is a flatlander from Atlanta. 60% of Union County is national forest; thus it can be a prime hunting area for big-city fiends who care to make the two hour drive.
Sadly, the search for Meredith has shifted from a “rescue effort” to a daylight “recovery effort”. That’s the polite way law enforcement has of saying that they’re looking for a body, not a live person. Meredith’s dog was recovered sans leash at a Kroger grocery store some distance from where she is thought to have disappeared. Like Nichole Simpson’s dog, if only they could talk, what volumes they might tell us.
Much has been made of Ms. Emerson’s prowess in martial arts. There are comments on the previous post about this. A determined male attacker with a weapon will trump a 5’4” woman every time. To believe otherwise is to believe that everything you see in the movies is true.
The weather in Georgia was brutal last week. Even if this was a case of simple “misadventure”, there are long odds that it would be ending badly. Hypothermia can set in at less-than-freezing temperatures, especially if one is injured and immobile in the forest.
There has been some chatter about other deaths along the trails in Vogel state park. I have a direct line to the Union County Sheriff’s Department, but they are playing their information close to the vest, and referring all calls to local and national news coverage. No one is commenting on the man in “the yellow jacket”, so we’ll have to see how that shakes out.
Gary Michael Hilton may be guilty of nothing more than chatting up an attractive woman. I’d like to think this is the case. Too much time in the real world, and an unwanted familiarity with serial murder leads me to think otherwise, especially when the bloodstained clothing shows up.
It ain’t over ‘til it’s over, and I’ll continue to pray for Meredith. I urge you to do the same. Greater miracles have happened.
I am compelled to reiterate that this is not a “hillbilly thing”. Without rushing to judgment, Hilton is a flatlander from Atlanta. 60% of Union County is national forest; thus it can be a prime hunting area for big-city fiends who care to make the two hour drive.
Sadly, the search for Meredith has shifted from a “rescue effort” to a daylight “recovery effort”. That’s the polite way law enforcement has of saying that they’re looking for a body, not a live person. Meredith’s dog was recovered sans leash at a Kroger grocery store some distance from where she is thought to have disappeared. Like Nichole Simpson’s dog, if only they could talk, what volumes they might tell us.
Much has been made of Ms. Emerson’s prowess in martial arts. There are comments on the previous post about this. A determined male attacker with a weapon will trump a 5’4” woman every time. To believe otherwise is to believe that everything you see in the movies is true.
The weather in Georgia was brutal last week. Even if this was a case of simple “misadventure”, there are long odds that it would be ending badly. Hypothermia can set in at less-than-freezing temperatures, especially if one is injured and immobile in the forest.
There has been some chatter about other deaths along the trails in Vogel state park. I have a direct line to the Union County Sheriff’s Department, but they are playing their information close to the vest, and referring all calls to local and national news coverage. No one is commenting on the man in “the yellow jacket”, so we’ll have to see how that shakes out.
Gary Michael Hilton may be guilty of nothing more than chatting up an attractive woman. I’d like to think this is the case. Too much time in the real world, and an unwanted familiarity with serial murder leads me to think otherwise, especially when the bloodstained clothing shows up.
It ain’t over ‘til it’s over, and I’ll continue to pray for Meredith. I urge you to do the same. Greater miracles have happened.
posted by Robert at 12:55 PM
3 Comments:
This is indeed sad. Our local paper just carried the news. Martial arts training doesn't mean didley squat against a determined rapist with a big stick except, as you say Possum, in Hollyweird movies. She should have been packing heat given the wilderness she was in. If she had, they would be carrying his body out, not hers, and this world would be a better place with one less rapist/murderer if this guy turns out to be the perp.
Sad. Such is the state of the world in which we live.
I fervently hope that justice is served eventually...
Ella, the black Lab, was found in Cumming, another part of Atlanta. Hilton was discovered "cleaning" his van, and bloody clothing belonging to Meredith was found in close proximity.
I am world-weary enough to know that evil can happen anywhere, and frequently does. However, I live here for a specific reason: evil isn't supposed to live in our back yards. The fact that there was a monster using our wilderness for some happy hunting ground is disconcerting to the max.
Before this, we had two murders in five years, and they were blunt-force traumas that you could characterize as "crimes of passion". This is a cold, calculated evil that I am sworn against. They can do this in Atlanta and other big cities to their heart's content; I turned my back on such places years ago.
Even though the likely perp is in custody, when they bring it home to my back yard, I make sure the Winchesters, rifle and shotgun, Browning .40 and Sig Sauer 9mm are loaded, and the back door is locked. My dogs keep me safe; no one walks up Scorpion Hill without setting off alarums.
Still, it's just a shock to the system. No one is supposed to do this here.
If Paul Winfield was still alive, I can picture him rehearsing a read-through of a script for "City Confidential."
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