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Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks
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for listening. I'm your host, Nick, and with me as always is a man that, much like Johnny Depp, has a $30,000 a month
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wine habit. He is the captain. >> Yeah. Uh, not only do I have a wine habit, but I have a scarf collection
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that I have to have a whole separate house for. >> And lots of purple blazers, too.
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>> It's good to be seen and it's good to see you. Cheers, everybody. Today, we are drinking creme brulee by
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Southern Tier Brewing Company. Garage grade five out of five bottle caps. You know, Captain, it sounds crazy, but this
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is like a fancy dessert in a glass. >> You sound crazy. >> Be very careful, my friend, because this
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beer is 10% ABV, but it tastes so good that you could easily and very quickly have too many or too much. And pitching
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in on this week's beer run is Elizabeth from Newport Beach, California. Elizabeth, you have no idea how jealous
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I am. Newport Beach sounds fantastic. It's about 30° outside of this garage >> and it's gray. Next, we have Laplada
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from Laplada, Maryland, who says, "As soon as I'm alone in my office, I turn on your show. My office mates would
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think I'm a psycho if I listened while they were here. I think Lapla needs to work very hard, get a promotion, and get
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your own office very soon." >> Fact of the matter is, we don't think you're a psycho.
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>> True Crime Garage is not only your guilty pleasure, but it's your safe space as well. Next, we go to
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Germantown, Wisconsin, and say hi, and a big thank you to Paul. Paul says, "I really enjoyed the Facebook video of the
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captain showing us how he puts together the music for the show." Paul recommends
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that we cover Ed Edwards and the Sweetheart murders. >> And you know, full disclosure here,
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Paul, we attempted to cover Ed Edwards. This would have been back in season two,
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but it worked out that there was just way too much to talk about that we couldn't cram it all into an hour and 15
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show. Uh, we aren't doing, you know, we weren't doing two-parters back then, but
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now we're doing a lot of them. So, you might see Ed Edwards back on our calendar very soon. And next, we make it
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to our favorite stop in parts unknown today, Population 1. And we say hi to David, who says, "Keep up the great
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work." Well, thank you, David. Next, a big big thank you to Mike in New York. Mike says, "Buy a fine IPA. This round
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is on him." Yes, we may talk a little more about Mike one day. He sent me a lead a while back on a case that we
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covered. So, Mike, I know it looks like a dead end at the moment, but there is still some legs on this thing, and I'll
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have an update for everybody as soon as it's available and appropriate. So, thank you, Mike, and cheers to you.
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Next, we have Bucky and Kayla from Toronto. You know, Captain, I have never been to Toronto. I've always wanted to
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go, and I know that they have Canadian football up there, but I have always thought that Toronto should have an NFL
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team. As a matter of fact, let's start a fundraising campaign and we could have a
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football franchise in Toronto. Captain, >> 20 years, >> captain. You could be like the crazy
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Jerry Jones of Canada and I would be more like the Al Davis. >> I want to be the Gronowski of Toronto.
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>> Just win, baby. Just win. Let's stay in Canada and say hi and thank you to Amanda in Ontario. And last, but
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certainly not least, a huge thank you to Acid Cherry, who says, "I apologize for
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the atrocious PayPal name, but I set this up 12 years ago, and I can't figure out how to change my name." So, Acid
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Cherry, I should put you in contact with the captain because not only is he the sound engineer here of the garage, but
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he is also head of the IT department. So, thank you to all for pitching in for the beer for this week. And if you want
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to buy us around for next week's show, go to true crimegar.com and click on the donate button.
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>> All right, let's get right into it. >> That's enough of the business. Everybody
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gather around, grab a chair, grab a beer, and let's talk some true crime. [Music]
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Miracles are shining light in our lives. And now we are left with a hole in our hearts that will not heal.
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In our civilized society, we protect and nourish such heinous criminals as Mr. Hilton by providing three hot meals a
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day and a warm place to sleep under the protective, watchful eye of penal officials.
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Therefore, I feel that no punishment is too severe for Mr. Hilton. I only pray that he suffers immensely for his
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heinous acts and that even his fellow inmates recognize his evil and malevolence for mankind and treat him
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with appropriate measures. And how do you plead to the charge of the murder in Dawson County, Georgia on
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the 4th day of January, 2008 with malice of forethought causing the death of Meredith Pope Emerson?
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>> Guilty. >> It is therefore the judgment of this court upon your plea of guilty
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to murder that you are guilty of the crime charge. I'm informing you, Mr. Hilton, that I'm
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about to pronounce your sentence. And after I've pronounced the sentence, you will not be permitted to withdraw
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your plea of guilty. Is there anything you would like to say? >> No, you're not.
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I sentence you to spend the remainder of your natural life in prison in the custody of the Georgia Department of
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Correction. It is the intention of the court that you never receive parole. Gary Michael Hilton was arrested for the
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disappearance abduction of Meredith Emerson after they found her ID, her purse, and bloodstained clothing in a
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dumpster. And they also found some other items of of that in his van as well. And
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as you heard there, he was convicted after confessing to her murder. He led the law enforcement to her body. Uh he
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did this so he could get avoid the death penalty is basically the situation here.
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>> Yeah. >> And he ends up getting life in a life sentence in the state of Georgia. And
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what you heard in that clip there is her father who is of course upset of the situation and rightfully so calling for
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a little bit of what sounds like prison justice there because he's never going to get to see his daughter again. And
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this jerk gets to go off to prison and he's going to get three meals a day and he's going to live in a in a warm cell
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and he's going to live out the rest of his days and this guy has lost his daughter to this animal. And because he
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he confessed to it, he's not going to get the death pen penalty. Right >> now, what happens here is shortly after
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his sentence, we start seeing a situation where we have law enforcement agencies from other states meeting with
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the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who headed up the search for Meredith Emerson. They're meeting with them
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because they want to discuss this Hilton guy. They want to know, they have similar crimes in their states, and they
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want to know, is he responsible for these crimes? Because we're talking about a guy that you can't really nail
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down here, right? You can't really put a picture of where he was living when because he was a bit of a drifter. He
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was somebody that would go and stay in parks and national forest for days or weeks at a time and drive around the
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country. You for the last at least year or so of his life, you can't really pin him down. Now, this is actually
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something that he's done for most of his adult life. And when hearing interviews
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with him, he almost brags about having not worked a full-time job ever in his life.
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>> Well, no, it's not kind of brags. He definitely brags. I mean, again, like we've said uh in the last episode, this
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guy thinks he is a genius. Yes, he he's I he's labeled with like 120 IQ, I believe, which is of course is above
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average, but uh uh you know, he's he's definitely not genius level, but but when you hear him speak, you know, he he
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always thinks he's the smartest guy in the room, 100%. >> Yeah. And so, not only do we have
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similarities in other cases, we have evidence collected by law enforcement and the Meredith case that possibly
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could link him through DNA or or whatever. >> Yeah. And these these are items that
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were collected in his van and items that he was disposing of while he was he knew
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he was on the run for Meredith Emerson's case, right? >> And while they were trying to collect
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him and pick him up, they collected evidence that he was disposing of. Now, one of those cases in particular is that
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of a woman named Cheryl Dunlap. And I'll take you real quickly through her case.
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Uh, this takes us back to December 1st of 2007. 46-year-old Cheryl Dunlap misses church. Uh, and after church,
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she's actually uh so involved with the church that she is teaching Sunday school as well. Um, she misses Sunday
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school, which both of these things are very out of character for Cheryl. >> Yeah. My at my church when I was a kid,
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Sunday school was during the service. I think that's a smart way to do it so that the kids are not in church
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disrupting the adults. >> Um, >> so what happens here is when she's not present at church and she misses the
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Sunday school, her neighbor decides to go, you know, walk over to Cheryl's place and check on Cheryl. This would be
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on Monday morning >> cuz yeah, it would wouldn't be a huge red flag if she just missed the service,
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but the fact that she is the Sunday school teacher and she didn't call or no no call no show is a little odd.
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>> Yeah. So, she goes over to check on the home and check on Cheryl and what she
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discovers there is that the dog Cheryl's dog is present. Now, Cheryl is is a divorced woman. She lived alone and her
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dog is there. However, Cheryl >> there's nothing wrong with that. >> Cheryl's not there and her vehicle is
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not there as well. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And this kind of alerts the neighbor. So the the neighbor decides to notify
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Cheryl's family that she's concerned that she hasn't seen her all day at church on Sunday. And here again on
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Monday, Cheryl is nowhere to be seen. What happens here is she's then reported missing. Um and quickly after that, the
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police find her vehicle off of the highway. And of course, Cheryl is not to be found with the with the vehicle, but
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police noticed that one of the tires on her vehicle has been slashed. Yeah, >> Cheryl has been missing now for about 4
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days when the police obtained Cheryl's bank records. Her bank card has been used several times at ATM machines.
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Police obtain video footage from the ATMs. And this is immediately clear, right? The person using Cheryl's card,
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>> it I mean, it's definitely not Cheryl 100%. It's actually It's actually some pretty creepy images here.
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>> It's very creepy. I I will post this uh on Instagram for anybody that wants to
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check it out. Uh it's really hard to We kind of debated back and forth on this yesterday. Um you know, privately,
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right? Or is >> you know, it looks like a mask that is made out of tape. >> Yeah.
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>> But there is some speculation that maybe he took parts of a Mike Meyers mask and
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uh created like a tape plus latex max. I mean, either way, when you see the image, it's very uh very creepy.
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>> Yeah. What it looks like to me is general description of this image is you see it's it's very obviously a man's
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body, not a woman's body. To me, it it looks very mananish. And um you see a man wearing a button-up shirt, but he's
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got every button buttoned up, you know, all the way from the collar down. >> Yeah.
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>> Um and >> kind of a hipster look. >> Yeah. And the the man appears, as the captain said, to be wearing some kind of
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mask that could have been fashioned from tape, like like just like maybe even just taping up his face. Um creating
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some kind of mask of his own. And he's wearing a dark hat and glasses. Um the thing here is, you know, we we did
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debate debate about it a little bit, but there was a um Fred Rosen wrote a book about this called Trail of Death. And so
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he looked obviously looked into this case a lot more than we did. We've just been diving into this thing for the last
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week or so, but uh he says the way that he describes the mask is similar to that
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of like the the old movie The Invisible Man, you know, that Yeah. >> because you know he would wrap himself
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up like a mummy almost so you could you could see him. Um so that is very much what it looks like
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to me as well. Now, the ATM, the one of these ATMs was actually accessed more than once using Cheryl's bank card. So,
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the police decide that they are going to stake out this ATM. Unfortunately, that
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machine is never used again. And in fact, after that period, Cheryl's card is never used again.
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>> Now, what's interesting to me is, is there any evidence that she went hiking?
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>> No. I I'm a little I'm a little uncertain as to her disappearance. Uh because We found the car.
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>> Yeah. >> And then we have, you know, so it's one of those things where could >> uh Cerero be been picked up at a gas
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station or hitchhiker? I mean, >> the thought that I've heard put out there is remember the slash in the tire.
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>> Mhm. The thought was that maybe um somebody had spotted her somewhere, decided that they wanted to abduct her,
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>> and she may have been out running errands or or doing other things, and then they they cut the tire and followed
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her until it would the you know, the tire would be deflated completely. >> And then when when she's stranded, I'm
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going to pull up and >> offer assistance. Yeah. And then you abduct her. So, in mid December 2007,
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this is in the Appalachiccola National Forest. Uh, I apologize. I'm a little uncertain if it was hikers or
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persons that were actually searching for uh for Cheryl or for clues in the area for the missing woman. But the story
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goes like this that they were out in the area and they noticed a vulture circling
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above. >> Oh, I think it was hunters. >> Okay. Yeah, I think it was actually uh hunt hunters or hikers, but I I think
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they noticed the vulture and that's when they said, "Hey, we got to check this out."
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>> Yeah. And using the vulture like some kind of blood hound, they go to the area
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that the vulture is circling. And there they find a human body underneath some debris, you know, leaves and things.
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Now, but here's the thing, though. The the head and the hands are missing from the body,
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>> right? And the body itself actually appears to have been burnt very badly. I mean, burned very badly.
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>> So, so to the point that the the authorities are unable to identify this body.
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>> Okay. So, I mean, just to clear this up real quick, we don't know if she was hiking for sure, but we do have this
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body that's found in a park, >> right? It is decapitated, which is the same as uh Meredith's case.
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>> Yep. Uh we have ATM usage with this wiry figure >> um covered in tape on his face.
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>> And so these are the similarities. I just trying to follow you follow you on this.
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>> So what they end up doing is they use you know of course they've already seen
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the ATM footage by the time that they find the this unidentified body. So they're already expecting foul play in
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Cheryl Dunlap's situation. Somebody has obtained her bank card and she's missing. You assume foul play here.
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>> Right. Right. >> Uh what they end up doing is they take Cheryl's toothbrush and they collect DNA
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so that they are able to match it to the unidentified body. >> All right. So December 2007, we have
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Cheryl Dunlap's body. Uh we now have it identified. And then fast forward, we have the Meredith Emerson case. And we
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have all these similarities popping up. And now we have Cheryl Dunlap's DNA, but
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we also have all this evidence that we collected from Gary Hilton's van, the creepy, you know, white Astro van that
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he was driving around. So when they test that, surprise, surprise. Well, we have
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Cheryl Dunlap's DNA in his van. >> Yeah, we've got a match. >> So, I mean, we got a smok and gun.
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>> This is open shut case. Not so simple because they're going to take him to Florida and they're going to try him cuz
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I believe they want to try to get the death penalty in this case. >> Well, they do. And the reason being is
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that you already know that he's locked up in Georgia for life. Okay. Uh so now you're going to push the envelope.
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>> Mhm. >> You're going to say we're going to take you to Florida and we're going to put
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you on trial. I'm sure he probably tried to manipulate the situation like he did
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in Meredith Emerson's case. >> That's cuz this guy thinks he's a freaking genius,
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>> right? So, he probably said, you know, let's see if we can work out a deal and
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just get life in Florida as well. They're not going to do that in Florida. They don't need to. He's locked up
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regardless. It's time to put him on death row. And guess what? Good for everybody else. Whether you're for or
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against the death penalty, let's not argue about that because I think this situation is is a unique situation. And
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>> yeah, the the only problem that I have with it is by going after the death penalty, then you give this guy
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ample amounts of time to get his name in the paper, >> uh, constantly go back to retrial, you
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know, if you push the death penalty. >> Plus, plus in Florida, I believe that if
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you are being tried and it and sentenced to death, that they I think they pay for
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your defense, >> which is not cheap. It's millions of dollars. Yeah, I have a problem with
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that. And I also have, and we've talked about this before, and uh we try to I mean, we can't do it all the time, but
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we try to stay away from, you know, labeling the show, you know, by the killer's name,
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>> cuz we don't want to give them any, you know, press, right? >> You know, we're not praising this guy.
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We're not praising this monster, you know. >> So, he goes to Florida and we got to
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start this trial, right? Mhm. >> And this is when America is going to learn a lot about this.
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>> America or America. >> America. Both. >> Okay. Both. >> United we stand. >> America and America.
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>> Yeah. So to so >> sorry you kind of threw me off here. Um but now we're going to start learning
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about Gary Hilton and who he is. >> And the reason being >> I mean other than that he's a huge piece
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of [ __ ] Well, the reason being here is Florida's paying for his defense, and so
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they're going to make every effort to push the envelope to make sure that he does not receive the death penalty. So,
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they're going to bring up things about his childhood and his life. Uh, and what we learn during this trial is that uh,
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you know, he didn't have the the the greatest of upbringings. His his father left when he was young. His mother
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remarried, and this guy didn't sound like a real great guy. Um, and >> the story about that is interesting.
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>> Yeah. So, what happens here? And everybody wants to know, you know, what makes a serial killer? What makes a
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multiple murderer? >> And this gives us a little insight into that, right? >> Well, some of it is probably not made,
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>> right? >> Well, there's an argument for, you know, nature versus nurture, right?
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>> And and I would argue that in a lot of cases, it's a combination of both. >> Yeah. Yeah.
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>> In this situation, we have a a young man. And he's he when he's very young. One of those Murphy beds. You know the
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beds that fold up into a wall. >> Mhm. I've always wanted one. >> Well, this is a good reason not to get
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one. Th it collapsed and it had fallen on Gary Hilton when he was a boy >> and this caused a significant head
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wound. Uh yeah, he received over 200 stitches. It almost like Jesus, >> it almost like scalped him uh in a way.
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And so it's later going to be learned and determined. >> How old was he? Do you know? I
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>> I think he was a young boy, probably six or seven under 10. >> Yeah. >> So it would be later determined by his
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defense team that during this accident of the Murphy bed scalping him that he did receive some form of brain damage.
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He had damage to the frontal loes which which a lot of people will will argue that uh you know that that can create
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these monsters in a way. Um so he has this this injury from a childhood. But but another weird thing happens too.
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There's a little bit of abuse going on by the stepfather. Uh he's he's not a not a great stepfather. There's even a
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story how he >> is this physical or is it sexual or >> I don't think it was sexual. I think it
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was mainly physical and and probably more like verbal and emotional rather than physical as well. But um he when
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Gary is like 10 or 11, his his stepfather is telling him that he should be he should have a job. He should be
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out working. Um I believe that this guy is from another country. Uh and and he may not understand that in labor laws.
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>> Yeah. And in America we don't go off and >> Yeah. But back in Yeah. But back in
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Gary's day, he could have been a newspaper boy. I mean, that's what that's what I rocked. Rocked the
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newspaper route. Pretty young age. >> When Gary was 13, he shot his stepfather. >> I'm sorry.
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>> Yeah. >> But and and then on trial, like when his mother is talking about this, it's it's
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crazy. >> And this wasn't like uh like he grazed his arm or something. He shot him in his
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body. >> Yeah. He shot him in his lower stomach. and and the count was I don't know what
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happened. I think maybe it was one of the times where if there you know physical abuse he was probably getting
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beat uh which was way more common back in you know Gary's childhood days just in general around the whole country
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in in America. Um but I wonder if it's a situation where it's like I can't take this anymore. You're not going to hurt
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me anymore. I have a gun. And then this stepfather starts screaming at Gary. Shoot me. Sh. Just shoot me. So he does.
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Shoots him right in the lower stomach. >> Doesn't kill him. >> No. No. And and the strange thing here
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too is the stepfather chooses not to press charges against Gary. What ends up happening is
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>> Yeah. But I think that's either the mother protecting Gary or maybe the stepfather did have, you know, did
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actually care about him, just didn't know how to be a standup man or a stand-up parent. Uh
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>> or maybe he was abusing him and felt >> Well, yeah. >> Didn't want that to come out or felt
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guilty. >> Yeah. or he did even something worse to him that would have been uh you know cuz
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back in the day you could you could smack your kid around a little bit and they weren they weren't going to haul
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you to jail, >> right? >> But who knows how how bad it was. >> Well, what ends up happening here is
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that even though charges are not pressed against him, he is taken away. He's diagnosed with some form of of mental
00:24:11
illness. Um, and we will see this again later in Gary's life, but he spends roughly about a half of a year in uh
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receiving some form of treatment and not living with his parents. Now, when he is
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released from this, his mother will not let him move back into the house. Um, she and he's still a minor at this time,
00:24:32
obviously. >> Well, I just love how the mom takes the stepfather's side. What ends up
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happening is somebody they take Gary in and he lives with them until he's about 17 maybe 18 and then he enlists in the
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army and he actually does see some active duty. He's stationed over in Germany and he's with this unique uh
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unit, this unique platoon of of 18 or 19 guys. I believe it was 19 guys. You know, you have one officer and then you
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have all these these these other 18 uh you know, army guys. And basically they're called the Davy Crockett
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platoon. >> Yeah. >> And >> that was the platoon I was in. >> Well, this this >> I was the captain of that platoon.
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>> This is the strangest uh unit that I've ever heard of because what their what
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their whole thing is, >> that's what she said, >> is that they have these basically it's a
00:25:24
handheld nuclear weapon. And I've seen a picture of this. They call it a handheld, but if you look at a picture
00:25:32
of this, it looks almost like like the size of a a human body, like a man's size weapon. But you can hold these
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things and much like a rocket launcher, they will fire a nuclear a small nuclear
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weapon. Well, the issue here is, and I don't know how much of this that these these army guys actually knew about, but
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their their job was if they were stationed in Germany, and if they saw the Russians approaching, they were they
00:26:00
were told to fire, like fire these nuclear weapons and we're going to create a nuclear war, I guess. Great.
00:26:06
>> But the situation here is these weapons only fire so far. So, if you fire one of
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these weapons, you're it's a suicide mission, basically. You're you're going to you're going to die in the aftermath
00:26:18
of of firing this weapon. >> Great. Let's dive into Gary Hilton more right after this quick beer break. All
00:26:25
right, and we're back. Cheers everybody. So, where we left off, we have Gary Michael Hilton and he is a confessed
00:26:32
killer and now he's down in Florida and he's being tried for mur murder once again and he's facing the death penalty
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this time, right? >> We've learned that he's had a head injury when he was a child. We learned
00:26:42
that he shot his stepfather and went went off away for about 6 months for that. And he was unwelcome in his
00:26:49
parents' home when he comes back >> right >> now. He served some time in the army in
00:26:53
the US military. He's there for about 3 years and he kind of uh he he starts to lose it while he's there
00:27:02
>> and he gets an honorable discharge. Uh the army technically diagnoses him with
00:27:08
schizophrenia. >> Right. Well, I I also think what's weird is did he lose it in the army or you
00:27:16
know did it just take him years to figure out he's already lost it? >> Well, remember he had they identified
00:27:21
some mental illness when he was a child when he when he was 13 and shot his stepfather, right?
00:27:27
>> I think this is an ongoing thing. I think this is something that he's had and maybe it manifests itself more the
00:27:33
older that he's got. uh maybe the stress of being in the army and being stationed
00:27:37
overseas. >> Schizophrenia normally is a late teens, early 20s type thing. Uh but there is
00:27:43
some early onset sides of uh schizophrenia. >> Yeah. So we we I don't want to go
00:27:49
through all of his his history because we only have so much time here today, but basically his adult life after he
00:27:56
gets honorable discharge from the US military, it goes like this. He's in and out of marriages. He's married three
00:28:02
times. I think the lengthiest marriage that he's in was two years. Some of these these other two marriages
00:28:07
>> so depressing. I mean, how can how can this uh douche canoe uh trick three women?
00:28:14
>> Well, yeah. And and two of the women are only married to him for less than a year.
00:28:18
>> Well, he didn't trick him for too long, but >> but but there you are with something
00:28:21
there, Captain. He basically spends most of his adult life as a con man. >> Well, think about this. I know, look,
00:28:27
Valentine's Day is coming up, right? And you know, some you know, some people say
00:28:31
it's National Singles Day. Well, if you're sitting out there, if you're listening to the captain's voice on 10
00:28:38
105.69, >> the garage, >> the garage, smooth jams in the garage. If you're listening to me right now and
00:28:45
you're single, be happy about that cuz you're not dating some monster like Gary Michael Hilton. So, be thankful for
00:28:54
that. You know, one of the things he was doing when he was conning these people,
00:28:57
well, no, this is to tip you off on on uh what some of these women why the divorces came so abruptly and so
00:29:03
quickly. He was running fake charities. >> He's running he's getting people to donate money and he's pocketing all of
00:29:10
the money. Yeah. >> You know, the Gary Hilton Foundation or you know, I'm joking, but he was running
00:29:15
these fake charities on and off for most of his adult life. And when these when his wives would learn what he was doing,
00:29:22
of course, they don't want to be anywhere around him. Plus, he's he's a terrible guy. I mean, you even if take
00:29:27
away the murder. All right, if you listen, they have this thing on you can find it on YouTube. It's called the Gary
00:29:33
Hilton background interviews. This is where the Georgia Bureau of Investigation spent hours and hours with
00:29:39
him. They're a little troubling to listen to because they are so lengthy and he might only throw in tidbits of of
00:29:47
information in these cases from time to time. So, you kind of it's a bit of a snoozefest. Uh, but the thing is this
00:29:53
guy loves to talk and he loves to tell you how smart he is and how how intelligent he is. This guy is
00:29:59
>> sounds like somebody I know. >> Well, he's like a toy, man. You wind him up and he just he just starts going and
00:30:04
he he spends these these background interviews are hours long and the the investigators speak so little so little
00:30:11
during they will ask him a question. He will spend 20 minutes answering this question and he'll tell you everything
00:30:17
about anything. >> Mhm. >> So he's probably a horrible guy to be married to. Uh let alone the the con
00:30:24
aspect of his life, >> right? Um what ends up happening here is thankfully he he does receive the death
00:30:31
penalty in Sher Cheryl Dunlap's case. Uh and thankful I'm thankful that Florida is also a fasttrack state. It's much
00:30:38
like the state of Texas where you they actually still execute people there even you know a lot of states have the death
00:30:44
penalty never use it >> right. Their average stay on death row is I believe 12 years.
00:30:50
>> You're exactly right. But also, I mean, when you have somebody that see, you know, again, this beautiful lady and
00:30:56
beautiful mother and a friend to a bunch of people and Cheryl to actually get closure for her family and friends. I
00:31:04
think that that's the main thing that that that's great that came out of this, you know, all the other stuff with Gary.
00:31:11
I mean, doesn't really matter. It's the closure that that is really good. >> Yeah. And the one of the things too
00:31:17
that's going to tie him in as well, you know, we talked about some of the similarities of the Dunlap case and the
00:31:24
Meredith Emerson case. Um, but don't forget here, Cheryl Dunlap, she was disposed of in a national forest, right?
00:31:33
>> So, you know, there's your similarity there. Meredith, Meredith is abducted from one and we have Dunlap who is
00:31:39
disposed of in one. Now, we also have investigators from the great state of North Carolina who are comparing notes
00:31:47
with law enforcement officials in both Florida and Georgia because we have a situation that happened here in November
00:31:54
of 2007. We have a missing couple. This is John Bryant and his wife of more than
00:32:00
50 years, Irene. They're an elderly couple. John is 79 and Irene is 84. They are avid hikers. They both go missing in
00:32:09
the Pesqua National Forest. So, here's what happens here. They they they go out hiking all the time. It was It's not a
00:32:17
big deal for them to go on these day hikes. Okay. They don't come home from this. Their their family lived in other
00:32:23
states. Their their children did. >> Yeah. But they actually called family members and said, "Hey, we're going
00:32:28
hiking and this is where we're going." They were always forthcoming with everybody just in case something would
00:32:33
happen. >> Yeah. And much like Cheryl Dunlap's situation, the the mail starts to pile
00:32:39
up at the Bryant's home and a neighbor notices this and calls one of the family members. Yeah.
00:32:45
>> Their son from Texas. He flies to North Carolina and he goes looking for his parents.
00:32:51
>> Uh he doesn't have much luck. I believe that he ends up finding their vehicle.
00:32:57
Um but >> No. Well, he go back up a little bit. He does go to their house. He breaks into
00:33:02
their house. Yeah. >> Uh and then sees that their their breakfast from a couple weeks ago cuz
00:33:08
they've been missing for a couple weeks. Um by the like we said the family members live out of town. So by the time
00:33:15
he gets there it's been it some time has elapsed. >> Yeah. >> Uh there's still their breakfast from
00:33:21
you know days and days ago was still on the table. So that's definitely a sign of this there's something major wrong
00:33:28
when they they know where they went hiking. So they went and started searching. Um I think they did contact
00:33:35
the police, but they're doing their own search and they found their parents' vehicle.
00:33:39
>> Yeah. And this was a place that they had hiked often, you know, so you wouldn't
00:33:42
expect them to get lost or anything like that. But you know, as >> well, but the major concern there is cuz
00:33:48
there are >> they're elderly, >> right? So maybe that there was a heart attack or something. But chances are if
00:33:54
one of them had a heart attack that the other one would contact the whole family
00:33:58
and what's the likelihood that both of them would have had a medical emergency. >> Yeah. And the the very big concern here
00:34:04
uh which goes along with that red flag that you were talking about is they know that John has a heart condition and for
00:34:11
this he relies on a certain type of heart medication. Right. >> Uh and this is a type of medication that
00:34:16
you are not able to go very long without. Uh, so this is this is of grave concern here. Uh, investigators are
00:34:24
trying to track the Bryants to see if they can find any hint at locating the elderly couple. So they tried tracking
00:34:30
the couple's phone records. It was then learned that Irene had tried to use her cell phone on October 21st at 400 p.m.
00:34:38
to call 911, but because of a lost signal, the call never reached the emergency call center. M it was also
00:34:46
learned that on the day after the attempted 911 call, the couple's ATM card was used to withdraw $300. This
00:34:55
transaction was the first transaction made since the couple went missing. But the card had not been used since on
00:35:02
November 21st, 2007, 30 yards away from the Bryant's SUV that was already discovered. Right.
00:35:10
>> Under a pile of leaves and debris, a body is found. This body is pretty badly
00:35:14
decomposed and at first there are no signs of foul play. But as is true in most counties, a a a found body is
00:35:22
always treated as a homicide. >> Right. Right. >> So after they process the scene, the
00:35:27
body will be transferred transported for identification and to determine the cause of death.
00:35:33
>> Yeah. And what they determined was that the cause of death was a blunt force trauma to the head.
00:35:38
>> Yes. And this does end up being the body of Irene Bryant. Um, so now we have a
00:35:43
situation where the the missing couple of they've gone missing in the woods and we have uh the wife has been found dead.
00:35:52
We know that it's a homicide. The husband's still missing at this point though, right?
00:35:56
>> They haven't found him. And remember, we talked about that the uh the ATM card
00:36:01
had been used. And again, we are going to see footage from that ATM machine. This is a quite a bit different than the
00:36:09
Cheryl Dunlap case, though, because in the Cheryl Dunlap case, we get to see the criminal up close and personal. You
00:36:16
know, we talked about the tape mask. >> This situation, Captain, it it appears that the video camera is one of those
00:36:22
from like the drive-thru of a bank, and the ATM is is a lane or two over from uh
00:36:29
from the drive-thru window that's recording this footage. And what you end up seeing here is you don't see a full
00:36:36
you don't get to see the face of of the person using the ATM card, >> right? >> What you do see is you get you see that
00:36:44
it's probably a man's body. Um but you basically see a yellow rain jacket, >> right?
00:36:51
>> Now, this later would be terine would be determined to be the rain jacket of John
00:36:58
Bryant. And one thing that the officials figure out here is that the body size of
00:37:04
the man in relationship to the ATM machine, you can get an idea of the size of the person using the card even though
00:37:11
you can't see the face or see see the actual body, >> but they determine that the body size
00:37:16
and shape is different of that than John Bryant's. So immediately they know that
00:37:22
this card is being used by somebody else and we have we have a horrible situation
00:37:26
here. >> Yeah. And as law enforcement is gathering evidence, they don't have a suspect, you know, they're trying to put
00:37:33
the pieces of the puzzle together and they really just kind of sit on their hands because, well, that makes it sound
00:37:39
bad on their part, but they they don't really have any leads. And then with this Emer uh with the Meredith Emerson
00:37:45
case, now we got a guy and this seems very eerie eerily similar to our case. So now law enforcement is going to come
00:37:54
down and talk to him. >> Yeah. So what happens is Meredith Emerson she that case happens okay her
00:38:00
body is found he leads them to her body he confesses to the crime and it's shortly after that it's in February of
00:38:07
2008 that John Bryant's body is found in the Natahala National Forest North Carolina. So again, like the captain
00:38:15
said, all these similarities, but once this case goes out into the news and people start seeing his face, well then
00:38:21
it is >> see Hilton's face. >> They start realizing that that Gary Hilton, there are eyewitnesses that
00:38:28
place him at the Pisc forest uh before the abduction, you know, just days before the abduction. And this is a
00:38:36
whole state away from where he lives, you know, so so to put him there, he's he's also photographed there as well. Uh
00:38:42
what ends up happening is he goes to trial for this situation. He's going to originally plead not guilty, but he will
00:38:48
later change his plea to guilty. He will admit to killing both John and Irene Bryant. He what he ended up doing was he
00:38:56
c he kidnapped John Bryant and through force, intimidation, and violence, he used the the ATM card and got the pin
00:39:04
code from John to get the $300. And after he had robbed Jon, he had no use for him anymore. And he he shot him in
00:39:12
the head with a 22 caliber gun. >> Yeah. And in those background tapes that you were talking about, that's the
00:39:18
thing. He he mentions it multiple times. Hey, you're running low on money. Well,
00:39:22
now you got to go murder somebody. And that's a you know, you were talking about this earlier. That's such a far
00:39:28
stretch. I mean, if you are a criminal, if you're a con man, then you know, you're running low on money, you go rob
00:39:36
somebody. Or you're running low on money, then you do uh you know, one of your charity frauds. you know, you're a
00:39:41
con man, but he's more of a murderer than he is a con man. >> Well, well, let's investigate that real
00:39:47
quick because we have all these other cases. There's missing person's cases. There's other bodies out there that are
00:39:54
similar in situation to crimes committed by Gary Hilton where we're talking about
00:39:59
state parks and national forest involved here. >> Is he is he someone that's killed more
00:40:05
than four people? Because >> Yeah. So, right now we have John and Irene Bryant. We have Cheryl Dunlap and
00:40:11
we have Meredith Emerson. Those are the ones that he has confessed or was found guilty on.
00:40:18
>> Correct. So, one thing we we got to investigate here is he is of one of the rarest breeds of serial killers. Okay.
00:40:26
>> Well, is he? >> Well, that's the question. Let me get through this here. He he is one of only
00:40:32
three people in United States history that waited until his 60s to start killing and became a serial killer. So
00:40:38
that's a very rare breed of people. So mathematically, what that would tell us is it's probably not likely that he
00:40:44
waited until his 60s to start killing. >> Mathematically, he's probably more like
00:40:49
the rest of them and started killing before this timeline. So >> yeah, I mean possibly be, but I think
00:40:55
when you have multiple people diagnosing you with some form of schizophrenia, I would say that it's it's a good
00:41:03
possibility that that this statement is true and he is of the smaller percentage. So let let me go through
00:41:10
this for a while and it might take me a minute to get through it, but this has kept me up for the last three nights.
00:41:15
I've been trying to figure out >> what what is his his situation? What is his MO? Is he a guy that kills to cover
00:41:23
up robbery or is he someone that just happens to rob and then kill? And I've struggled with this for for days and
00:41:31
nights now and I've come to a conclusion. And I'm going to go back to what the captain was referring to here,
00:41:36
Gary's own words and those background interviews. And I'm going to remind you of some of those things that he said in
00:41:42
some of those background interviews. Um, first off, let's go back to when he's talking about Meredith Emerson's case.
00:41:49
He said, "Had I picked up the newspaper that morning instead of that afternoon, that girl being Meredith would still be
00:41:56
alive." He says, "When you take someone, you either kill them or you get caught."
00:42:01
I am right. It's just math. You either kill them or you get caught. You know, she saw the dog. You know, she saw my
00:42:08
van. All they have to do is put that out there and 10,000 people would be calling. Of course, I knew that I either
00:42:16
kill them or I would get caught. But if I'm already caught, then there is no use
00:42:20
in killing them. I didn't kill them for any satisfaction. It was distasteful. It
00:42:26
was dreadful. Trust me, it was. Of course, I was able to do this because of my general rage for society. Of course.
00:42:33
Of course. But of course, you get that way with people after a while. When he's he's also talking about another person
00:42:41
in his life who is he thinks is a con man. This would be John Taber, his former boss that he does not like. He
00:42:49
describes John Taber as a con man. And he also describes him as a person that is committing crimes. And he states that
00:42:56
he is not dangerous like me. I am a stud. I do crimes that studs would do. >> He's [ __ ] weirdo.
00:43:04
>> All right. Now, let's >> You're not a stud, dude. You're a weirdo. >> Yeah. But let's quickly analyze this.
00:43:10
What he's saying here is had he realized that his face was all over the news and
00:43:14
all over the newspapers, he would not have killed Meredith because it would have been easier to to be charged with
00:43:20
kidnapping and robbery than to be charged with murder after the fact because in the eyes of the public, they
00:43:26
already knew who did it. You know, they already knew who was involved here. That's why they're looking for him,
00:43:31
right? >> But because he didn't know they were looking for him, he killed her. Okay.
00:43:34
So, so where am I going with this? What? >> Yeah, I want to know. >> Well, okay. So, does he rob and then
00:43:42
kill to cover it up or is is that just part of the whole deal? Is it one deal to him?
00:43:47
>> It's just all one deal. I mean, when he says, "Hey, you're running low on money,
00:43:51
so now you got to go kill somebody." >> I mean, that that's what he said. He didn't say you got to go murder. He
00:43:56
didn't say you got to go rob somebody. >> He said you got to go kill somebody. And, you know, and then he can say
00:44:02
whatever he wants. Uh, in the Meredith case, I mean, he killed three people before her.
00:44:06
>> Mhm. You know, like look, I mean, if you know, is are there parts of him that are
00:44:12
just a con man? Yes. But he he's a killer. I mean, he's a murderer. That's it. >> Yeah. He he he says when he's talking
00:44:19
about Meredith's case that that he had $40 to his name and he only had a couple days worth of food. So, what was he
00:44:27
going to do? He knew he had to go kill somebody, right? Well, like what you and I talked about though, uh, he when he's
00:44:33
robbing these people, he's robbing for small amounts of money. You know, from the Bryants, he only took $300. What is
00:44:39
300 bucks going to get you when you're when you're a drifter? What is that going to buy you a week out on the road?
00:44:44
So, what is your whole plan? This is a man with 120 IQ and the only plan he can come up with is, you know what, I can I
00:44:51
can rob someone and kill them and get 300 B bucks and get by for a week. But then what are you going to do? What are
00:44:57
you going to do after that, Gary? you're gonna have to go again next week and kill somebody and then the following
00:45:01
week. So >> I I think he was using that as a way to uh kind of justify what he was doing.
00:45:08
>> I think you're exactly right. >> I was low on money. So then I I had to kill somebody. Just like when he says,
00:45:14
"Well, if I would have saw the paper, I you know, I I would have let her go." No, you're not going to let anybody go
00:45:21
because in that moment that even if he saw that paper even though see hindsight he's saying oh well I would have let her
00:45:28
go because you know then you just get me on kidnapping. I knew I was caught. No because in that moment even if he saw
00:45:35
the paper he'd say well I'm going to kill her. I'm going to decapitate her so they can't find out who it is and I'm
00:45:42
going to go on the run cuz I can outsmart these people. And every moment when he's faced with whether or not I
00:45:49
can outsmart somebody or not, he thinks he can. And he can't. I mean, he this guy is just he's he's a loser. And the
00:45:57
whole fact of the trial when they keep bringing up the fact that, well, he he is above intelligence. No, he's not.
00:46:04
He's a horrible person. He's a dumbass. You know, it's >> Well, here's what I came up with,
00:46:10
Captain. All right. What Who is Gary Hilton? I think he's somebody that fancies himself a survivalist. Okay.
00:46:18
He's somebody that that he's he's constantly camping. He's hiking. He refers to even his hiking clothing as
00:46:24
equipment. He doesn't refer to it as clothing. It's equipment to him. >> Mhm. >> Now, maybe this comes from being a child
00:46:31
and and having this bad stepfather move in and he doesn't feel like he has a home. He becomes a survivalist then and
00:46:37
when he when he's not allowed back into his home after. >> Yeah. There's a bunch of people that
00:46:41
like to hike and go camping that are great people. So, go ahead. >> I'm not saying that every hiker and
00:46:48
camper is a serial killer. I'm trying to go through what I what I personally think of Gary Hilton and his situation.
00:46:56
Okay. He I think he fancies himself a survivalist. And part of that being a drifter, he does need money to survive.
00:47:03
How has he figured out that he's going to get that? He's going to get that through means of robbery. and he for
00:47:10
whatever reason believes that he needs to kill to cover it up. I I had to go back and think of another serial killer
00:47:16
and his name is Joseph France. Now what Joseph Francois did was he would invite drug addicts and sex workers into his
00:47:25
home and then he would kill them. But what would take place beforehand was he would purposely leave large amounts of
00:47:32
money or valuables lying around trying to entice them into stealing from him or catching them in the act of stealing.
00:47:40
>> When they wouldn't steal from him, he would he would walk into a room, point to the money, and go iate on them and
00:47:47
accuse them of stealing even though they weren't doing anything. And he would end
00:47:50
up murdering these women. What I'm getting at here is just like Francois who needed needed something to kick off
00:47:58
that that that emotion and to kick off that anger inside of him that would erupt into murder. I think is the same
00:48:06
thing that we have here with Gary Hilton. Gary Hilton, you're exactly right, Captain. He was a killer in every
00:48:12
sense of the word. He is a serial killer. He was he was going to kill no matter what. It was the robbery. It was
00:48:18
it was the need for the survivalist in him that kicked that off, that made him rationalize to himself that it needed to
00:48:26
be done, that gave him the anger and the hostility that he needed to erupt into murdering these people.
00:48:32
>> Yeah, I think he did need some kind of accelerant to get it to the point start
00:48:37
with the robbery. Therefore, now that they know who I am, so not to get caught, I will kill them. And that what
00:48:44
that's what justifies my actions. Um, but again, I think some of some of some of him is just complete [ __ ] He's
00:48:54
very uh he's very horeshit. And I don't know if he was a survivalist or not or nomad. For parts of his life, he wasn't.
00:49:03
Towards the end, he was, you know, for a little bit. But again, then you would have to look at the mental health and
00:49:10
and what is happening with his mental health and is that deteriorating? Is that what's becoming a monster? Again, I
00:49:18
don't I don't think you believe that he's in this small percentage of people that, you know, don't start killing
00:49:23
until later in life. But he has confessed to some crimes, so why wouldn't he confess to more? Uh that
00:49:30
that that's what I struggled with and and I I thought about that for quite some time because as much as he likes to
00:49:35
talk and we've seen him admit to three of these murders already, what is holding him back? But he only admitted
00:49:42
to any of these murders after being pushed by evidence in law enforcement. I I don't know if you had evidence on
00:49:49
other cases, you might end up getting a confession from him. But one thing that you were on to here, Captain was was the
00:49:55
mental health situation. We talked about there being problems with his mental health. And uh Fred Rosen who wrote that
00:50:01
book about him, he points out that in 2007 is when when Gary starts receiving u rolin and maybe maybe high levels of
00:50:10
rolin that he's supposed to be taking per doctor's orders. And according to Fred Rosen, this must have been what set
00:50:18
him off and that he started killing in 2007. And we saw that with the with the murders that we just talked about. Well,
00:50:25
okay. So So now we have our line in the sand, right? Did he start killing in his
00:50:29
60s or did he start killing before that? And we have a lot of uh speculation out
00:50:35
there regarding all kinds of other cases in other states, many of them involving
00:50:40
national forest and state parks. >> All right. So, what are some of the cases that might be linked to Gary
00:50:45
Hilton? >> Well, we've come up with seven of them, and these are names that we've collected
00:50:50
through different websites uh that that it's not just us speculating on this. this has already been suspected of as
00:50:57
far as Gary Hilton's concerned. The first is Melissa Wit who disappeared December 1st, 1994.
00:51:04
>> And what makes authorities feel like she's connected to Gary Hilton? >> So, this is a situation where she
00:51:10
disappeared from Franklin County in Arkansas. Uh, and then more than a month later, her body was found in a rural
00:51:16
area of Franklin County. Now, this is this is police officer suspicion. They say that while the crimes are separated
00:51:24
by years and states, there are sim similarities that make it worth investigating a possible connection.
00:51:31
>> Yeah. And I think it comes down to the fact that if you think Gary was killing
00:51:35
before 2007, then this is definitely a case we want to look into. >> Uh, one that you also want to look into
00:51:41
is the uh, death of Levi Freddy. Now, Levi Freddy was a young boy. uh he was 11 years old and he was abducted while
00:51:52
riding his bike. Now the connection here is that his body was found the following
00:51:58
day um in the same area that that police would later find uh Meredith Emerson's body uh as well as another person that
00:52:07
is on our list. So, while the it breaks the MMO of the victimology here where we
00:52:13
have an 11-year-old boy, >> well, it also breaks the fact that we could assume that the 11-year-old boy is
00:52:18
not carrying a debit card. >> Yeah. There's nothing to rob from him. Uh the last time he was seen, he was
00:52:24
riding his bicycle and he was being followed or he was following a small dog. Now, we do know Gary Hilton was
00:52:32
always with with a dog, and the thought was that maybe, you know, this boy didn't have a dog, so maybe somebody had
00:52:38
used the dog to uh take the boy. Um I I didn't see a ton of similarities here other than the area where they found the
00:52:45
body. One thing that's troubling here is uh police have been very hesitant to release any information on on this body
00:52:55
and and on Levi's case. uh he was shot to death and we do know that Gary used a gun to kill John Bryant. However, they
00:53:04
they refused to uh give the caliber of gun in this situation where with the Bryant situation, it was a 22 caliber.
00:53:12
So that that could help us a bit here. >> Yeah. And the body being found in the same area as Meredith to me is, you
00:53:18
know, definitely, you know, leaves some kind of oh well, you got to look into this. And to me,
00:53:24
they they need to look on the angle of maybe not so much, you know, robbery because that doesn't make a lot of
00:53:30
sense, but what if, you know, we've we've heard a lot of times about Hilton getting in confrontations with other
00:53:37
people about dogs >> and what hap what maybe there was some accident. Maybe the kid hit the dog, you
00:53:44
know, with his bike or something and that set Gary into a rage. That that's a possibility.
00:53:49
>> That's one possibility. The o the other thing that's not entirely outside of his
00:53:53
victimology is that it's a it's a person that he believes he could easily overpower, right? You know, he's always
00:53:59
attacking women or elderly people >> and one that kind of goes off the rails a little bit. I don't know. Uh, you
00:54:06
know, I'm a big fan of the Charlie Project. And one of the people that they think maybe is connected with Hilton is
00:54:15
Jason Knap. Now, he went missing in 1998, uh, April 12th from Clemson, South Carolina. Now, it seems like he had a
00:54:25
debit card and stuff on him, but, uh, there was $20 taken out of his account the day he went missing, but other than
00:54:32
that, no more activity. Also, Jason was pretty big guy. >> Uh, so it doesn't kind of fall into the
00:54:40
whole Gary Hilton being all little and wiry, right? >> Uh, looks like Jason probably could
00:54:44
handle his own. Uh but again, if uh we we do know that Gary Hilton has used a gun in the past, but there was no signs
00:54:53
of struggle >> where where Jason went missing. So, >> something to look into, but I I don't
00:54:59
think there's a lot of connection there. >> You're right. It's it's very loose. I
00:55:02
think the one thing that they that they've talked about here as far as Gary's concerned is that the vehicle
00:55:08
that Jason Knap's vehicle was found in a state park. So, it you know that that's
00:55:13
the connection there. how you know however loose that is. Um we also have on this list we have uh Patrice Andreas.
00:55:22
Um she disappeared from her hair salon uh in 2004. This is April 15th, 2004. Um now she would have been of in Georgia as
00:55:32
well. So not a terrible distance for Gary Hilton. The strange thing here is this is definitely a robbery when you
00:55:39
look into this case. Uh they whoever whoever took her robbed the hair salon beforehand. Um she would end up being
00:55:46
found in a same in a similar area to that of Meredith Emerson and Levi Freddy. So we have we have that
00:55:54
connection plus the robbery. One thing too in the the background interviews that we've been discussing with Gary
00:55:59
Hilton is one thing that the Georgia Investigative Bureau was questioning him about was did you ever go into hair
00:56:05
salons? You know, I know it sounds like a strange place for a man to go, but did
00:56:09
you ever go into any hair salons? And he says when he was selling siding that he
00:56:12
would go into hair salons on Saturdays when he thought that that the building needed new siding. He would offer he
00:56:20
would go in on Saturdays because the owner was typically there because it would be the busiest day of the week for
00:56:24
the hair salon. And while he was there, he'd pass out business cards to uh the the women waiting in line to get their
00:56:30
haircut. Um, again, you know, the only real connection here is the robbery and where
00:56:37
the body was dumped. >> Yeah, big connection. I mean, a big connection between Meredith and Levi and
00:56:44
Patrice is that they're all found in the same county. Next person on my list is Rosanna.
00:56:50
>> Yes, we have Rosanna Melania. Now, she was from Florida, but she disappeared December 7th, 2005 from Cherokee, North
00:56:57
Carolina. M >> she flew into town and then while she's at the Ramada Inn, uh she calls a family
00:57:04
member stating that she was going to go on a hiking trip and she was going to go
00:57:08
hiking on the Appalachin Trail, which is a big connection to Gary Hilton, obviously. Um she's later then seen, and
00:57:15
this is believed to be the last time that she was seen. They were at she was at a store, but she was in the she was
00:57:21
with an older man. Uh, this is an unidentified man approximately about 60 years old with gray hair at his temples.
00:57:29
Now, the person that saw them did say that this man may have been wearing a hairpiece because if you see the sketch
00:57:36
of the person, he clearly has hair that Gary Hilton did not have, right? >> Um, >> but again, it does look very much like a
00:57:43
hairpiece. Uh, the man had said that he was a traveling preacher, which sounds similar to some of the cons that we've
00:57:50
heard Gary Hilton pull in the past. Um she did suffer uh she from mental illness. She was schizophrenic. Um might
00:57:59
not have been a great idea for her to be out, you know, states away on her own going hiking by herself. It just seems
00:58:06
like a situation where she could be, you know, she she probably looked to him as
00:58:13
somebody that that he could have taken that that he could have she's out of her element. She's out of the area. Yeah. Um
00:58:19
she doesn't know she doesn't know the state park. >> Yeah. Well, with the Bryants and with uh
00:58:26
Emerson, you know, th those are victims that happen at a park. And then Cheryl Dunlop, we don't know for sure,
00:58:33
>> right? >> So, since we don't know for sure with the in the Dunlap case that we can put
00:58:39
Rosanna into that possibility, again, we don't know if she ever made it to the park to go hiking. We don't I
00:58:47
don't believe there's any eyewitnesses of ever seeing Rosanna at a park, >> right? Other than her stating that she
00:58:53
was going to go hiking when >> But that does not, you know, disclude, you know, Hilton at all,
00:58:59
>> right? And the last time she's seen is at that store with that older man and they're purchasing a a a backpack and
00:59:05
sleeping bags, things that look like you're going on a camping trip. Now, she's never seen again and none of her
00:59:11
items that she took with her on this personal vacation were ever recovered as well. So, uh, those items would be
00:59:18
important to find. There is some strangeness in her case, though, because while she was there, she rented a
00:59:23
storage unit, which seems like >> which is a kind of a connection with Gary, cuz we know that Gary lived out of
00:59:30
a storage unit for about 5 years or so. >> Yeah, it's a connection to him, but it
00:59:34
also seems like a a entire like just a the strangest thing to do when you're on a vacation.
00:59:39
>> Yeah. >> I don't know that you need a storage unit for anything. I can't figure that
00:59:42
out. Unless unless it was, you know, a whole connection with Gary Hilton and he's conning her into running a storage
00:59:50
space that he is going to use >> or who knows. I mean, so I mean, the fact of the matter is that we do know
00:59:57
that he was involved in in the murders of four people. So, we could just suspect that it's probably more than
01:00:06
four. The big question for me is was it, you know, is he one of the rare breeds of serial killer that wait till later in
01:00:14
life to start killing? That's the big question. And I don't know, as much as Gary Hilton likes to talk, I don't know
01:00:20
if he's ever going to answer that question for us. >> Right. Next up, we have Michael Scott
01:00:26
Lewis, who went missing November 21st, 2007. And this he went missing in Florida. Um, and this this situation
01:00:35
here, he went missing from the same county as Cheryl Dunlap. And this this is what's weird here. How is he
01:00:44
connected? Listen to this. First of all, we can put Gary Hilton in that area because we know that Cheryl Dunlap was
01:00:53
abducted December 1st. Michael Scott Lewis was just abducted 10 or 11 days before that. So, it's not crazy to think
01:01:00
that he would have been in the area. Um, Michael Scott Lewis's body is found in three different garbage bags in Tacoma
01:01:08
State Park in Florida. This is December 6th, 2007. So, we're seeing a situation where uh what he did forensically to
01:01:17
some of these other victims, you know, with the decapitation or removing the hands that we're seeing a similar
01:01:24
situation where um where Scott, what Michael Scott was >> dismembered as well and we can put Gary
01:01:31
Hilton in the area. So, that one's really interesting to me. And then the the final one that we have is on
01:01:36
December 6, 2007, an unidentified woman missing hands, feet, and head was found in five black plastic garbage bags along
01:01:47
Stitcher Road in Lraange, which is west of Mon near the Alabama line. Um, there was an attempt made to burn these bags.
01:01:56
Now, so we have a we have a a situation here where we don't because she's unidentified, we don't know where she's
01:02:04
from, where she went missing from, and we also don't know if she was robbed of an ATM card that would have been used
01:02:11
because we don't know who this body belongs to, right? >> Uh but again, we're seeing a situation
01:02:16
where uh the dismemberment and the use the use of the garbage bags is similar to the Gary Hilton situation. Now, these
01:02:23
last two that we talked about would still mean that he would have been in his 60s at the time that he started
01:02:28
killing. >> Yeah. I mean, >> assuming that the woman had not been missing for very long.
01:02:33
>> Yeah. Those two two make a a lot of sense, but again, it's the unidentified body. You would like to know where it's
01:02:39
from. I mean, cuz the connection um with Michael Scott and uh Dunlop being from the same county that's you know, again,
01:02:48
but how many people are in those counties? But >> right, >> but there is a lot of similarities there
01:02:52
and hopefully um they can keep trying to link stuff and maybe even you know through DNA or whatever they can add
01:03:00
more charges to this guy and get closure for the other people. >> Yeah. Uh the most interesting case that
01:03:08
you know when you're searching and and scouring the uh information highway to try to figure out anything about Gary
01:03:16
Hilton. Uh I kept on coming coming up on Reddit post. >> Okay. >> Linking Gary Hilton to the Mara Murray
01:03:24
case. >> Oh yeah. >> Now we know that Mara Murray went missing in uh 2004. So again, this is not the time frame is
01:03:34
not too far off. The problem here is we don't you know from all accounts that we know that she wrecked her car and
01:03:43
then was never seen after that. So is that that kind of is similar to the Cheryl Dunlop where we don't know how
01:03:51
she was taken. Um but we also there is no body for Mara Murray so we don't know if she's ever been found. The big
01:03:59
problem here for me is the distance. >> This happened in New Hampshire. Uh Gary Hilton seems to be always around
01:04:08
Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas. >> Um I looked at his arrest records. There is no arrest that I have found that is
01:04:18
up north. >> Mhm. And if he was doing anything sketchy, if you're up north and you have
01:04:23
Florida license plates or Georgia license plates, normally that's kind of a red flag for cops to pull you over if
01:04:29
you're doing >> um and there's no nothing on record there. So, it's just a name that kind of
01:04:34
pops up a lot in that case. And so, I just kind of I I found that interested interesting. I'm I'm always following
01:04:40
the Mara Murray case. So, uh, I was kind of hoping that there was some, you know,
01:04:45
more of a connection to figure out, you know, it some closure in that case, but I don't think it's connected here. So,
01:04:52
it's, we're obviously in 2017 now. But, so some time has elapsed, some years have elapsed since he's been convicted
01:05:01
and sentenced to death in the state of Florida. So, Gary Hilton is scheduled to die in the state of Florida in 2023 or
01:05:08
2024. Now, what I'm hoping here, Captain, is we might see a Ted Bundy type situation where we have a guy
01:05:16
that's in custody. He's scheduled to be executed, >> right, >> that doesn't mind confessing or talking.
01:05:22
I wonder what we can learn from Gary Hilton as he gets closer to that date. Is he going to try to buy some time and
01:05:30
release some names and give some details? Who knows, maybe he is connected to some of these cases. Well,
01:05:36
I think the thing that you have to be suspect there is his con man nature, >> right?
01:05:41
>> And will he just be trying to make up stories to buy time or will he actually
01:05:46
be involved in these these murders? >> So, of course, our final thoughts here is I I think he might be connected to
01:05:53
one or two or maybe more of these. It's some of these connections are a bit loose, but some of them we don't have a
01:05:58
lot of information. So, uh, the thing here is though, Meredith Emerson, uh, she, yes, she fell victim to Gary
01:06:05
Hilton, but, but she is a hero and, and we talked about her fighting back every step, every inch of the way against Gary
01:06:14
and how her fighting back led to his being identified as the possible abductor and his arrest.
01:06:22
>> Yeah. I mean, Meredith, uh, she was a badass chick, basically. >> Yeah. And the thing too here is it it
01:06:29
led to convictions in prior cases. Yes. And think about all the people that prevented Gary Hilton from attacking and
01:06:36
killing in the future. >> Well, yeah. Yeah. Because even, you know, the the question the big question
01:06:42
of did he just start killing later in life, well, that doesn't matter because if Meredith didn't do what she did, then
01:06:50
he would have just kept going. >> And thank God he's behind bars. It's one less bad guy to worry about.
01:06:55
>> Yeah. And I mean my final thoughts on Gary Hilton is he's a wiry pile of horseshit and I I hope there is some
01:07:03
prison justice there. So uh you want to remind them of the recommended reading? >> Yes. This week we are recommending the
01:07:09
Yoseite murders. Uh this has got quite the story to it here captain because remember many months ago we recommended
01:07:16
a book called I know my first name is Steven. Mhm. >> Okay. So, we had a case that took place
01:07:22
where Steven Steiner was he was abducted and he was held for like seven or eight
01:07:27
years. It was one of the first cases of its time where he had escaped and came home and returned to to his home many
01:07:34
many years after being abducted. Well, his older brother um Carrie Steiner was a uh was part of that same family would
01:07:42
grow up to become a serial killer killing in one of the national parks on the other side of the nation. So, when
01:07:48
we started talking about Gary Hilton, it reminded me of of the Yoseimity murders.
01:07:52
And this is by Dennis McDougall. And you can pick that up by going to our website, true crimegar.com.
01:07:58
And you're going to go to the recommended page. We have we have Steven's book there. We have the
01:08:02
Yoseimity murders book there. Until next time, be good, be kind, and don't litter.
01:08:13
Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause]