missing hiker - body found

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Thank you. I just read the story and I think it articulates what many of us feel. I've always had some reluctance to walk or hike alone in certain areas and tried to tell myself that I was just being silly and letting my imagination run wild. I think a scary part of this, is that the worst I've imagined has now happened.
 
This doesn't seem to end - from recent msnbc report

"The North Carolina Bureau of Investigation is also looking into whether Hilton could be linked to the disappearance of Rossana Miliani, 26, who was last seen Dec. 7, 2005, and had told her family she was going hiking.

A store clerk said Miliani came into her store with a white man in his 60s and seemed nervous when they bought a backpack, said private investigator Steve Siske."
 
carole said:
This doesn't seem to end...
Au contraire! The resolution of open, sometimes cold, cases that can actually be linked to a given suspect is great news. To go even further, that a single individual is responsible for multiple instances of such horrific criminality means that there are fewer such people as a segment of the whole.

It just doesn't say good things about our society's ability to screen for such individuals before they're able to perpetrate their crimes.

I hope that subsequent leads turn out to be substantiated and not just a tease for the families.
 
Skennenden said:
Thanks for the link. This story is still constantly on my mind.
We are not alone. I read that thousands of women are flocking to take self defense courses.
Another article which I cannot find, discussed why so many women feel very fearful and cannot stop thinking and talking about it. It has to do with where it happened, (not a likely crime scene), and the fact that Meredith did nothing to precipitate this attack. Therefore the message is "if it can happen to her, it can happen any one of us, anytime, anywhere".
The good news was that this is very rare and the passing of time would help. Encouragement was given to try to keep it in perspective.
Here is the link to the other article.
http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=109533
"If a stranger gets within 20ft of you, you should feel uncomfortable."
I take that to mean even after 20" when you start thinking you just found a "new best friend". I never kept quite that distance but I surely will now.
When I took my RAD course, the police told us that women who have taken both martial arts and a RAD course communicated to them that they found the RAD classes to be much more specific and helpful to fending off an attacker. I have never done martial arts so I really cannot compare the two.I will take them at their word.
Tom and Atticus are going to climb Bondcliff for Meredith. I hope it's a bluebird day with a beautiful sunset.
JUST FOUND IT! http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=109300
 
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CBS/AP (EXCERPT)

Gary Michael Hilton was sentenced today to life in prison without parole after pleading guilty to murder in the beating-death of a young woman hiker in the north Georgia mountains.

During a hearing in Dawson County Superior Court, District Attorney Lee Darragh said the plea agreement was signed earlier in the day.

The plea spared Hilton from the death penalty, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/31/national/main3775421.shtml

Tim
 
What has gone so wrong in our society?

What went wrong in this person's life to turn him into the monster he bacame, and how did he fall through all of the cracks and the safety nets?

Why does admitting to the crime allow you to live on for 20 or more years in a place where you are fed 3 meals a day, have a place to sleep, have a job provided for you, TV, a Gym etc... and the therapy that could have saved HOW many peoples lives?

A lot of things we as Americans do right, unfortunately, we do a lot wrong also...

May all the familys and loved ones involved find some peace and some strength.
 
chinooktrail said:
A lot of things we as Americans do right, unfortunately, we do a lot wrong also...
What do you mean "we" in connection with this incident? Life seems to have shortchanged a lot of people, very few of whom commit murder.
 
Her Father

This has hit me in a big way too - I guess because I can see myself in the same situation. I feel like I am humane, but I think her father raised an interesting concept:

"I only pray that he suffers immensely for his heinous acts and that even his fellow inmates recognize his evil and malevolence for mankind and treat him with appropriate measures.”

Just like Jeffery Dahmer....

I wouldn't be sorry.
 
Dittos Abster.

If you scan down this site and click ME Poem by Candas Jones, you will see a beautiful poem written by a hiker for Meredith and her loved ones by a hiker.
Each day that I hike in the woods I think of her and always seem to say..."this is for you Meredith".
I might have mentioned this before but when Tom and Atti hike Bondcliff for the second time this winter, it is dedicated to her.
http://www.ronjones.org/CurrentComments/MeredithEmersonHike.html
 
Stan,

Don't get me wrong, I would want nothing LESS than the death penalty for this monster. (Which he has snuck out of by confessing I believe.) I would rather have it over quickly than pay to have him living for another 20 or so years. He is apparently a serial killer, and I don't imagine there is any remorse or any way of making him a 'model' citizen.

I too hope some sort of justice is found with his 'peers' in prison.

What I was wondering is where did this all go so wrong? What can turn someone into thinking about taking someones life away?

I can not imagine Meredith's family and loved ones grief over such a senseless act, as well as all the other families were are finding out about.
 
What we are looking at is a case in which Meredith Emerson, the victim, went missing, and in less than a month her murderer had been identified, tracked down taken into custody, confessed his crime, revealed the location of Meredith’s remains, was taken to court, entered a plea of “guilty,” and sentenced to spend the remainder of his life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Less than a month.

That is astonishingly swift disposition of such a case.

For those who feel the life without parole sentence is inadequate, consider this.

Had prosecutors decided to pursue the death penalty for Gary Hilton, the trial of Meredith’s murderer still would be months from even getting started. The trial itself would be a protracted affair. Gary Hilton probably would have been convicted, and may well have been sentenced to death (but that is not certain).

Given a death sentence, the likelihood of Hilton actually being executed by the state, in the end, would be relatively small. (That's what death sentence v actual executions statistics tell us.) Hilton’s case automatically would go through an exhaustive appeals process spanning years, and years, and perhaps a decade or more. At each step of the process Meredith's family and friends would have to relive the horror of what happened to her and the suspense of wondering if her murderer ever would be brought finally to justice.

But as it has happened, the Meredith Emerson case has been concluded in less than a month.

Gary Hilton will die in prison. Prison is not a pleasant place, and Hilton’s is not a pleasant fate, by any means. But it has been determined. Decisively. He is permanently out of the picture now, in effect, for Meredith’s family and friends.

Meredith’s family and friends now are free to grieve, and heal, and concentrate on living their own lives, thereby putting the pain of their loss at rest and finding a measure of peace about it, as is so necessary for those left behind.

That is as good an outcome as anyone can wish for in cases like this. And that it has happened swiftly is something to appreciate and celebrate rather than bemoan.

G.
 
chinooktrail said:
Don't get me wrong, I would want nothing LESS than the death penalty for this monster.

What I was wondering is where did this all go so wrong? What can turn someone into thinking about taking someones life away?

I heard a while back on one of the news stations that before they negotiate the death penalty away, the victim's family is asked for their input. The Emerson's really wanted Meredith located and brought home for her memorial service.
Also, if Hilton is eventually charged and convivted of the other hiker murders, for which he seems to be the prime suspect, he would be eligible for the death penalty once again.
Either way, his life is over.
I can't even put in print what I think of him.

"Where did it all go wrong?" I think that's the million dollar question. The experts study serial killers and maybe, just maybe, one day they will find a way to stop them before they have a chance to commit such horrific crimes. Not in my lifetime for sure.
I guess the only thing we can do is to remain alert, report things that we think are suspicious, and try to keep ourselves as safe as is humanly possible, without becoming so paranoid that we cannot leave the house.
 
More Hilton news

Sorry about reviving this old thread, this scum doesn't deserve a second thought, but he's in the news again if anyone's interested:

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/2825458/

I have been following this with interest because I am convinced Judy and I ran into him in Vermont last fall. I reported what happened to the Vermont State Police. I would not be surprised to someday find out he was responsible for the unexplained death of Louise Chaput on the Glen Boulder Trail.

KDT
 
Kevin said:
Sorry about reviving this old thread, this scum doesn't deserve a second thought, but he's in the news again if anyone's interested:

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/2825458/

I have been following this with interest because I am convinced Judy and I ran into him in Vermont last fall. I reported what happened to the Vermont State Police. I would not be surprised to someday find out he was responsible for the unexplained death of Louise Chaput on the Glen Boulder Trail.

KDT
I am so relieved to hear that you reported this to the VT State Police. I followed this very closely reading transcripts, his detaiiled tape confession, etc through a GA news station. I read that they were investigating him for other murders in the US. It appears that he was big into knives and the only guns he had when he kidnapped Meredith were BB guns. He did lead her to believe that he had a real gun.
Louis Chaput was stabbed and there was no real motive for that killing. I would not be at all surprised in light of the probable siting you had of him that he did in fact murder Chaput. The strange behavior that you described when you encountered him was also described by others who had the run across him at various times on GA hiking trails.
In 95 he was involved in helping a friend of his make a movie on this same subject. This is the link.
http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=112422
It hard to comprehend how anyone can be this twisted.
I just want to remind everyone that Tom and Atti will be hiking Boncliff for Meredith at some time in the not too distant future. It should be posted on his web site when his plans are firmed up.
 
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