It has been barely a month since 24-year-old Meredith Emerson left her home on New Year’s Day with her faithful dog, Ella, a black Labrador. With Ella following closely alongside her, Meredith set out on a day-long hike in the rugged mountains of the Chattahoochee National Forest located some 90 miles north of Atlanta. An experienced hiker who’d had training in martial arts, Meredith was familiar with the area and the fact that it connected with the Appalachian Trail that extends from Georgia to Maine. Previously a resident of Longmont, Colorado, Meredith had recently relocated to Buford, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, and had been to the forest area on prior occasions where she had jogged with a friend. However, when she failed to return home on Tuesday evening, January 1, 2008, Meredith’s friends and relatives became worried and reported her missing. They provided a description and a photo of the young woman to police, as well as a description of her 1995 Cavalier. Although the ensuing search effort conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation had at first focused on Vogel State Park, located near the base of Blood Mountain in the national forest where authorities determined that she had last been seen on New Year’s Day, it was quickly narrowed to a more manageable 5-square-mile area of rugged terrain deeper inside the forest after her car, a dog leash, and a water bottle were found on the first day of the search. However, despite everyone’s best efforts, including nearly 100 friends and relatives who posted informational flyers bearing her photo, there was no sign of Meredith. Meredith Emerson was a native of South Carolina, but her family had moved around a bit. At one point they moved to North Carolina, but eventually landed in Colorado where Meredith attended high school. Meredith loved the South, however, and returned there after graduation from high school where she attended and graduated from the University of Georgia. She loved to write, particularly poetry, and she loved to go hiking—she spent as much time outdoors as possible. She also enjoyed listening to classical music, and was an avid animal lover who took her faithful dog, Ella, with her nearly everywhere she went. Employed as a sales trainee at a manufacturing plant at the time of her disappearance, Meredith was well-liked and respected by her employer and co-workers. Although she had started in the company’s factory, Meredith had quickly caught on to the company’s operations and was rapidly promoted as she advanced to other positions. As the days passed, little was learned about Meredith’s mysterious and untimely disappearance despite extensive news coverage by the national media. Search efforts comprised of fifteen search and rescue teams, including canine teams and helicopters, failed to find the missing woman despite combing a nearly 400-square-mile area. In fact, it wasn’t until Friday, January 4, 2008 that anything significant surfaced. It turned out that police had picked up a toothless, unshaven 61-year-old man named Gary Michael Hilton at a convenience store outside Atlanta where he had reportedly stopped to use a pay phone, and were questioning him as a “person of interest” in Meredith’s disappearance because Hilton had reportedly been seen with the young woman several times on New Year’s Day. Hilton, described by the media as a wiry and grizzled drifter, was seen frequently in the area where Meredith disappeared, often with his dog. He was known to carry a baton similar to that used by police. When the police began circulating descriptions and photos of Hilton, numerous people who believed that they had seen him with Meredith came forward with their information.
|
advertisement
|
