Gary Hilton, a survivalist living alone in the woods, committed a series of brutal murders in national forests and state parks across several southern U.S. states in the late 2010s. His crimes came to public attention in 2008 when 24-year-old Meredith Emerson disappeared while hiking alone with her dog in Georgia’s Vogel State Park.
As investigators looked into Emerson’s disappearance, they discovered similar unsolved cases in the region. Hilton emerged as a person of interest and was arrested a few days after Emerson went missing. Hilton admitted to killing and decapitating 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 in North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest in the same year.
Hilton, who admitted to targeting women for money, was sentenced to life in prison for Meredith Emerson’s murder and received additional life sentences for the Bryant murders. In Florida, he was sentenced to death for Cheryl Dunlap’s killing. Hilton is currently on death row at Union Correctional Institute in Florida. Authorities believe he may be responsible for additional unsolved cases, and Hilton’s true crime story is detailed in the documentary “Wild Crime: Blood Mountain” on Hulu.
