Reported by: Jon ShirekReported by: Julie Wolfe
1/4/2008
A fourth, frigid night has fallen on the north Georgia mountains with no sign of the missing hiker from Gwinnett County, Meredith Emerson, or of the "person of interest" who the GBI said was seen on the trail with the 24-year-old University of Georgia graduate. On Friday, the search expanded.
Search and rescue teams expanded their search area, far beyond Blood Mountain, where Emerson and her dog were last seen Tuesday afternoon hiking, and talking on the trail with what authorities described as a "person of interest," a man they said was Gary Michael Hilton, 60, of DeKalb County.
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The search now encompasses 400 square miles of rugged, north Georgia terrain. Fifteen teams of search and rescue experts rappelled into ravines and caves all day Friday -- places that the volunteer searchers can not reach -- while helicopters with infrared sensors continued to scan from above for body heat below, for some sign of Emerson and her dog Ella.
"These are the guys that know these woods, and they know what they're looking for," said Emerson's roommate, Julia Karrenbauer. "It does comfort us, the fact that the best of the best are up there today, working for her."The best of the best includes the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Rapid Response Team and their canines that Major Carl Sims commands. They spent the entire night in a grid search of Blood Mountain and beyond."
"As you can imagine, time is of the essence, to get as much as we can get done as quick as we can get done, especially with the temperatures as brutal as they were up there," said Sims.
Search and rescue teams spent a frigid Thursday night on Blood Mountain scouring trails, ravines, and caves for any sign of a missing University of Georgia graduate. "We have nothing right now," Union County investigator Kimberly Verdone admitted Friday on the third day of the search for Meredith Emerson.
Emerson, an avid hiker, was last seen on New Year's Day, talking to a weathered and toothless man who has been identified as Hilton. He is being sought for questioning by authorities."All we have is that they were seen on the trail together. He was the last person that was with her along with her dog," Verdone said at a Friday morning news conference. "DeKalb County is looking for this subject."
As many as 60 searchers from area police and sheriff's departments, some with K-9 units, worked through the night as temperatures dipped to 9 degrees. By daybreak Friday, 15 search teams made up of law enforcement, fire and EMS personnel were working to cover an area of nearly 254,000 acres. A Georgia State Patrol helicopter with infrared took to the air for another day.Volunteers picked up armloads of fliers to post throughout north Georgia and western North Carolina.
Volunteers who wanted to help were asked to call Union County authorities first to be placed on a list. They were not being allowed on the trails, but were asked to post fliers in the area instead. Her friends have started a Web site where they post updates, http://www.helpfindmeredith.com/ Emerson left a note for her roommate to indicate she went hiking on Tuesday. When she failed to return home, friends reported her missing and, on Wednesday, found her car in a parking lot near a Blood Mountain trail.
"I'm still in shock every now and then. I get a free moment and I think about it and I expect to wake up and go , 'This isn't happening,'" roommate Julia Karrenbaum said.
While the fate of Emerson is not known, her godmother, speaking again Friday, said her parents remain hopeful. She also pleaded for Hilton to come forward and talk to authorities."I hope that if he realized that this would be helpful, that his heart would be softened and turned to coming forward with information for Meredith, for those of us that love her. We need him to come forward," said Peggy Bailey."Please, please if you could and I speak to him and anyone who can contact him, if you’ve been hesitant, please don’t be hesitant...have the courage to come forward. We need you and Dave and Susan [Emerson's parents] need you.
"Emerson's parents are grateful that so many strangers have joined family and friends to find her."Susan and Dave have said that, more than anything else, has been hugely comforting to them and supportive. And it's what keeps it together for them," said Meredith Emerson's godmother, Peggy Bailey. "That means that people are caring and they know that Meredith will be found, with that kind of support -- and that's huge."
Hilton was identified as a person of interest after someone wrote down the license tag of his white van. Investigator Verdone did not know what prompted that person to become suspicious enough to take notes on his van."That is something that we’re checking into," she said. "It’s not that he is a suspect...we just want to know when was the last time he saw her." A GBI official added later Friday, "We have confirmed that he was there."
GBI agents said they now have evidence -- proof -- that the person of interest, Hilton, is definitely the man hikers saw with a dog, talking with Emerson as she hiked the trail with her dog Tuesday. Investigators said they believe it was a chance encounter, and that Emerson did not know Hilton.
Authorities said Hilton had a large, reddish-colored dog with him that answered to the name of "Dandy." Hilton owns two vehicles, both registered in DeKalb County: a white 1996 Chevrolet Astro Van with plate number 76APZ, and a white 2001 Chevrolet Astro Van with license plate number AFQ1310.Hilton was wearing a large yellow backpack. For now, officials said they are holding out hope that Emerson is on the mountain, holed up in a cave where she is staying warm with her dog.
"We are still in search and rescue mode. We are holding that she’s out there and that she’s hidden somewhere where she’s staying warm and that Ella is with her.
"Verdone said the search includes the help of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Natural Resources, the Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office, the Union County Sheriff's Office, the Union County Fire Department, the Union County Emergency Management Agency, along with scours of volunteers and a K-9 search team from North Carolina, and the GSP helicopter.
The search will continue through Friday night, with canines who do their work well in the dark. Anyone with information on Hilton is asked to call the Union County Sheriff's Office at 706-439-6038.
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