UPDATE: Gary Hilton/Hiker's Killer Indicted In Fla. Woman's Death
- From: "tiny dancer" <tinydancer357@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:38:54 -0500
Photo's at link posted below:
Hiker's Killer Indicted In Fla. Woman's Death
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The man who admitted killing 24-year-old Georgia hiker
Meredith Emerson last month was indicted Thursday in the death of Cheryl
Hodges Dunlap, whose body was found Dec. 19 in the Apalachicola National
Forest.
The Leon County grand jury indicted Gary Michael Hilton, 61, on charges of
first-degree murder, kidnapping and two counts of theft.
Investigators knew Hilton was in the area at the time 46-year-old Dunlap
disappeared Dec. 1 because he ran into a forestry agent who wrote down his
vehicle's tag number and ran it through the police database, Leon County
Sheriff's Office Maj. Mike Wood said in January.
Wood said Florida authorities had received numerous tips from citizens in
the Dunlap case, including one from a hunter who reported seeing a
"homeless-looking, disheveled man with a knife" Dec. 7 in the national
forest.
The hunter, who said he warned the man the forest was a bad place to be
during hunting season, notified police of the encounter Dec. 19, after
Dunlap's body was found.
A Florida law enforcement source said that Dunlap also was decapitated, as
was Emerson.
Leon County investigators named Hilton the prime suspect in Dunlap's slaying
in early February and recently brought two truckloads of evidence from
Georgia to Tallahassee.
"This indictment of Gary Michael Hilton is a result of excellent cooperation
and hard work between many agencies and jurisdictions," said Leon County
Sheriff Larry Campbell. "I am confident that, based on the forensic evidence
collected and the investigative efforts of all the law enforcement officers
involved, a dangerous killer will be brought to justice in Leon County."
Hilton pleaded guilty to murder in the death of Emerson in Georgia late
January and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Florida law enforcement officials said Hilton would be transferred to Leon
County at some point, although we do not yet know when.
North Carolina authorities have also named him a suspect in the deaths of
John Bryant, 80, and his wife, Irene, 84, who disappeared while hiking in
Pisgah National Forest Oct. 21.
Officials in Ormond Beach, Fla., were also investigating whether Hilton was
involved in the death of a man whose decapitated, dismembered body was found
spread among several trash bags under the Tokoma River Bridge.
http://www.news4jax.com/news/15446746/detail.html
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