The National Forest Serial Killer, Huddle House, and the Dawsonville Wildlife Management Area

61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton, a.k.a. The National Forest Serial Killer, finally got caught in 2008 after committing a grizzly series of murders.

He had killed several people in the National Forests of North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The entire scope of his murders is beyond what I'll cover in this article.

I will focus on the tragic case of Meredith Emerson, due to its proximity to North Georgia. (In no way do I mean to diminish the importance of the other lives he claimed.)

Gary Michael Hilton in 2008

The beginning:

On New Year's Day, 2008, Gary Micheal Hilton was hiking on Blood Mountain with his dog Dandy, when he saw 24-year-old Meredith Emerson hiking alone with her dog. Hilton often used his dog as a way to disarm the fearfulness of his would-be victims.

He began making small talk with Meredith until he got her alone and attempted to subdue her. She put up one hell of a fight, (She was extremely fit and had a martial arts background). Unfortunately, Gary Michael Hilton, hereinafter referred to as GMH, won the battle and coerced Meredith into his van. At her request, GMH allowed Meredith's dog Ella to travel with her. In the van, he secured her and took her ATM card.

To buy time, Meredith slowed her demise over several days by giving GMH the wrong pin to her debit card. He first attempted and failed to withdraw money from an ATM in Blairsville that evening. Two hours later, he tried again with no success at a bank in Gainesville. GMH's patience only lasted so long. Later that night, he went to a Regions Bank in Canton and entered the wrong PIN for the last time.

On January 3rd, he drove Meredith to Marble Hill, Georgia, and left her in the parking lot of the Huddle House near the IGA and Big Canoe while he went inside and called his former boss, *John Tabor, asking him for money. The waitress Amanda Peacock, saw GHM drive away at around 5 pm. Unfortunately, John Tabor waited a few hours before notifying the authorities - losing possibly the last chance the authorities would have had to find Meredith alive.

*In a surprising connection to our area, John Tabor’s wife purchased them a getaway home in the Bent Tree community of Pickens County, a little more than a decade after Meredith’s murder.

The Huddle House in Marble Hill where Hilton stopped to call his former boss while Meredith remained restrained in the van.

Locals say that for a time Hilton holed up in the old Densmore place in Afton, just outside of Big Canoe. The house has been burned down since.

Ruins of the Old Densmore place in Afton.

The next day, GMH took Meredith to the Wilife Management Area in Dawsonville, near the site of the former Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Laboratory, tied her to a tree, and beat her to death with a tire iron. He dumped her body near an off-road trail in the forest, decapitated her to remove the evidence, and left.

A map of the WMA where Emerson's body was found.

On January 4th, GMH was spotted cleaning out his white Chevy Astro Van at a Chevron gas station parking lot in Dekalb County, Georgia. A vigilant bystander who had seen the reports of missing Meredith, called 911 and they apprehended him on the spot. Hilton was trying to discard evidence in a nearby dumpster. Luckily, Meredith's dog Ella was found nearby at a Kroger grocery store.

Hilton's Chevy Astro Van where he kept Meredith hostage

In an exhaustive interview with the GBI agent John Cagle, Hilton agreed to divulge the location of Meredith in exchange for having the death penalty taken off the table.

GBI agent John Cagle

On January 31st, 2008, GMH was sentenced to life in prison, with the opportunity of parole in 30 years, for the murder of Meredith Emerson.

A memorial was erected on private property in Dawson County located near Goshen Baptist Church.

Located on private property - do not attempt to photograph

Gary Michael Hilton is still on death row at the Union Correctional Institution in Florida for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap.

GMH Florida Dept. Corrections pic

Gary Michael Hilton murdered an elderly couple in North Carolina, Cheryl Dunlap in Florida, and is suspected of killing Levi Frady in Forsyth County. Little Levi’s body was found not too far from Emerson’s.

Many criminal behavioralists and law enforcement officers who worked the Hilton case have a hard time believing that GMH woke up one day in his sixties and began killing people. Like Ted Bundy, GMH had a demonstrated history of violence, and only got caught as a desires led him into a frenzy, causing him to be sloppy in his efforts ti conceal himself.