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Episode 17 - Gary Hilton - National Forest Serial Killer
18 Plays2 months ago
In a change for the norm (can anything in the cottage be considered normal?) we are just covering one story for this episode. Nylene tells us about the horrific murders inflicted by Gary Hilton, the National Forest Serial Killer.
Enter the Nightmare for show notes, transcripts, sources, and more!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Nim and Nyleen's Nightmare Cottage'
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome to Nim and Nyleen's Nightmare Cottage, where we discuss dark locations, sinister media, and other tales of the macabre. I'm Nim. And I'm Nyleen. Let the nightmare begin.
Nyleen and Ace's Playful Antics
00:00:49
Speaker
into the nightmare if you dare that's how he scares me whenever i am like being obnoxious you know what i mean like mean so like constantly okay like you know when you go around and just like poke them or prod them or you know pinch your nipples or stick your finger in their belly button. You know, things that people don't like being done to them, I like to do because I'm annoying.
00:01:13
Speaker
But only Ace. But yeah. So he'll just open his mouth really big at me. He also did that to Sushi once and it was like when we had first gotten her.
Nyleen's Gardening Adventures
00:01:22
Speaker
And he like basically put her entire head in his mouth and i was like please stop i will die if you put any more of her head in your mouth okay don't eat the kitty exactly jesus christ so now that i've uh said all of that how's things what have you been up to oh you know this garden season i mean it's always garden season but it's
00:01:50
Speaker
You know, there's lots, there's lots to be done. so i discovered last night, i was, i was sitting outside, look, staring out at the various garden beds and whatnot. And i have this spotlight that points at my Graham Reaper statue. um You've posted that on some of the show notes, I think in the Gargoyles episodes that people want to see.
00:02:10
Speaker
Anyway, so I have ah like ah just a solar spotlight just pointed at it. But in front of it directly, so it passes through it, is ah a random yarrow plant that's in this raised bed.
00:02:22
Speaker
All of the yarrow is growing and feathering and being cute wherever it is. But that particular one, yeah the one that's directly in front of that light is like fucking budding. And stalk is really thick. And it's like it's just... It's like three times the sun.
00:02:38
Speaker
It's like... It's like super photosynthesis. It is. It's completely eclipsing all the other plants around it. So now I'm like all these spots I have to to you know light up my Halloween displays. Yeah.
00:02:52
Speaker
are probably going to start pointing directly at plants in my super shady garden. Oh my gosh. So I feel like this is very boring information for me but I was so excited about it because when you have a super shady garden, any little bit of extra light helps. And I didn't even think about that. I wouldn't have thought that those damn solar lights would have done anything. Yeah. I wouldn't think so either. But I mean, I guess it does make,
00:03:12
Speaker
sense depending on the light right but i guess i don't know but the proof is right there it's clearly doing something and it's but that's my exciting um old lady gardening story for the week but so um yeah how are you good ish i mean i had you know the past week off which was nice for my anniversary and it was great you know we we spent a lot of time together but i also had a lot of time to like You know, do things that need to be done, like taxes.
Nyleen's Lego Sets and Gaming Fun
00:03:44
Speaker
Sounds like a great vacation. Taxes. And I actually finished all my Lego boxes, so I need more Lego boxes. Nice. Yes. I like putting together the plant Legos. Like, those are my favorite, like, all because they have so many different kinds. Yeah.
00:04:00
Speaker
they're just really fun and cute, and I love them. That's awesome. Yeah, there was something else. Oh, I started playing Monster Hunter. Yes! Yes. And I think I might be ready for you guys this weekend because I realized that I just needed time to, like, remember the controls and time to, like, remember how to how to not aim at nothing. Yeah, I mean, there's like with any video game, there's and and Monster Hunter, for anybody who doesn't know, it's a it's a video game where you hunt giant fucking monsters. And once you beat them, you carve them and then you make armor and weapons out of their parts, which is kind of sad, though, because like sometimes like it just looks a little too I don't know. It's not like it looks realistic at all. But it's just sad because I'm like, oh, he's cute. I don't want to beat him to death with this sword.
00:04:45
Speaker
I get it. i really get it I do. But anyway, it's a super fun game. Yeah. Super game. Yeah. Super great game. If any of you are interested.
00:04:57
Speaker
and This is a game that Monkey and I have been playing together since we got together. Like it was like in the anybody who knows video games, it's ah that back in the PlayStation Portable days. And when I first moved in with him, that's a game we played together like for hours. And it was definitely bonding time. was great. so And then you guys dragged Ace into I don't know if you guys dragged him into it or if he was already playing, but eventually he became part of your your Monster Hunter posse. Being that he has been a close part of the circle for years and years and years, i am fairly confident that Monkey brought him into it.
00:05:29
Speaker
ah Like he does. Yes. so yeah, I know you guys used to play WoW together and then you used to play the Monster Hunter. The Monster Hunter. The Monster Hunter. Yeah, and then he got me into it. So i was like, what is this?
00:05:40
Speaker
This looks dumb. Give me the controller. Yeah, not it's not the easiest game in the world, but it's so much fun. And I'm so excited that you're about ready to play. for But like with most many other video games, as I was mentioning before, there's so many menus, right? And like until you get used to the menus and how to use them like on the fly when you do like if you need to heal or whatever, like everything's a menu.
00:06:02
Speaker
And until I'm used to menus, I don't like to play a game with anybody either. And see, for me, it's that like, I know, especially Monkey being Monkey, he gets so ahead and like,
00:06:13
Speaker
gets and actually ace is kind of the same way like well they'll both just like get the greatest and best of everything and i'm over here like i just want to like level up naturally and like but it's like if you fight with them it's like you get two hits in so i'm instead i will say a couple things about that one on this game and i mean i feel like this conversation isn't for our audience it doesn't matter we can talk about whatever we want to But with that game, I feel like I don't like to play games with monkeys sometimes for that same reason, because he'll just try to like run me through the beginning and I need i need to like saturate myself in the beginning so I can go through the training. And I want to pick up everything.
00:06:52
Speaker
Exactly. I to through all rocks. Yes. But now I will say that once you are to that point where you understand how things are working. Yeah. Then it's a little easier. Yeah. This is one of the few games where being that far apart in like, mean, levels don't actually mean anything about your armor. not like Diablo. Right, right. Not like Diablo. So it really does not matter where you are at in the game.
00:07:16
Speaker
Even those lower level monsters with my big ass highly in-game sword, take minutes. It's not like we go in and hit it twice and it's dead. They did a pretty good job with that balancing, but then also it's just a lot easier to jump into games with each other now the way i have
Format Change for Nyleen's Extended Story
00:07:30
Speaker
set up. So anyways, it's super cool and not not really our our usual flavor for the Nightmare Cottage, but it's definitely fun. was going to say, welcome to the Nightmare Cottage where we talk about video games, apparently. Sorry about that. And fight monsters.
00:07:44
Speaker
Oh, bla game last game, last game, last one or the one before we talked about board games too, so. That was the zombie episode. Yeah. Also, I'm really sorry if you hear a lot of squeaking. i have like the squeakiest chair. Oh, of course, now it's not doing anything. But like, I barely move and it's like, you want to hear that noise again?
00:08:04
Speaker
Oh, that snorted.
00:08:08
Speaker
Oh my God. Sorry. I just woke up the nightmare puppy. I didn't mean to. Anyways. Yes, we do have a nightmare puppy and a nightmare kitty today. so the original plan, of course, was to record our normal episode where, you know, we each have a part, but I decided to go and ruin all of that.
00:08:25
Speaker
by having a story that was entirely too long to include along with one of NIMS. So today we're going to do something a little different and I'm just going to tell my really, really long story and hopefully it's not too boring.
Introduction to True Crime Story - 'Wild Crime'
00:08:39
Speaker
It's the Nyleen show. The Nyleen show. I don't know. It doesn't sound like good song. I'm going to clip that and use that. Please don't. I sing very off tune. Off tune? Off key?
00:08:51
Speaker
Nyleen, Nyleen, we're gonna watch the Nyleen show. No, I don't like that one I might slow that down and put it over some spooky music. I was thinking, okay, I was thinking more like making it sound like a kid, but you know.
00:09:05
Speaker
Oh, I thought you were gonna do like the, you know when you slow things down and it's like... You're right. Slowing it down would do that, so I'd have to speed it up. I don't know. um I do have a really deep voice too, so if I'm like...
00:09:20
Speaker
Sorry, guys. I don't know what's happening anymore, apparently. All right.
00:09:31
Speaker
Tell me about murder. Well, okay. Is it about murder? I don't even know. Yes. Okay. So what had happened was, i I'm just going to tell you guys where I got this, all this from. And then like, I also use other sources, but my main source.
00:09:44
Speaker
So was watching the show called Wild Crime, which is great. I love it. But I started on episode one of season three. because I had watched the other rest of it at some point and forgot about it so anyways I had started watching this episode and i was like oh this this is actually a very interesting crime I'll start writing about it and you know I'm like 20 minutes into the episode and writing and like oh it's a good 45 minute episode and I'll just look up whatever else I need yeah well so we got to the end of episode one and it was a very severe cliffhanger and then episode two started and I was like oh fuck
00:10:20
Speaker
So apparently it's like a four part episode. And I was just not about that. It was supposed to be very simple. And then it was not simple. So I had to keep going.
00:10:31
Speaker
Anyways, this is murder. um Because, you know, as I do murder, not personally murder. and don't personally murder. Murder happens and I read about it and then I talk.
00:10:43
Speaker
it does have a lot to do like with like national parks and state parks. So, I mean, have you ever been to a national park, state park, anything like that? Do you enjoy hiking or walking?
00:10:53
Speaker
um do you like walking? mean, it's a fair question. i i haven't been to a state park for a while. on. I just need to let our listeners know that she specifically put on her glasses for this conversation. She wanted to make sure she could see everything.
00:11:11
Speaker
I tried to put my glasses on a second ago, but they were blurry. So then I wiped them off and they were just already in time for me to start talking. Okay, I'm just letting you know. Anyways. So I haven't been to a national or state park in a little while. and In a little while? Which one have you been to?
00:11:27
Speaker
It's been long enough, I don't recall. Okay. um I've been to some in like the South Texas area and it was before adulthood. So it's been a while. As far as hiking...
00:11:40
Speaker
If it is very nice and cool out and a short, easy hike in a pretty area, I'm all about it. I am not an all-day hike kind of person. I'm an indoor kid.
00:11:51
Speaker
i like I'm over it a couple of hours, really, honestly. but So you won't catch me hiking the Appalachian Trail, but... you You could potentially find me in the woods at some point. I don't know. See, and that's me. Like, I like being, like, in the woods. Yeah.
00:12:07
Speaker
I don't care if it's hot as long as there's not direct sunlight. Me and direct sunlight are not friends. Oh, me and direct sunlight are complete total foes. But even dappled, like, I can't, I can't handle heat anymore. I'm just over it.
00:12:20
Speaker
No. Yeah, no. It's, yeah I don't know what it is about direct sunlight. It literally feels like it's burrowing into my skull and trying to kill me. Well, and then after, I'm so exhausted. Like, sun beating down on me if it's more than just a few minutes. Like, it takes a toll on me. Like, when I go inside, I feel like I've been doing shit all day, even if I've been doing it for a few minutes. Oh, yeah. Like, when we go to, like, the Renaissance Fair or something like that. Exactly. It's exhausting.
00:12:47
Speaker
Yeah, I've always wanted to go to a state park, like ah just, you know, like a national park. I don't know which one. I just like i I do go like walking on the trails around here, but it's very different because we are very much in a city. So we're not in Manhattan, but we are in a suburban area near urban areas. And it's not like, yes, we have some wooded areas and stuff, but it's definitely not like.
00:13:10
Speaker
old forested areas. That's fair. Exactly. So like i enjoy walking on all those, but I am very much like a also afraid of what could be in the woods, whether it be person or animal.
00:13:23
Speaker
I used to run up this trail that went through the woods and I would always think to like a certain like Law and Order or whatever episode of something like where it starts with a lady running like jogging yeah through a thing and then she's like she's fucking murdered. And there was like this one part that kind of had like a little offshoot stuff like to like an area where you could sit but it it looks very deeply wooded.
00:13:43
Speaker
That's always where I'd get nervous. I'm like that's where they'd find my body. but See, yeah, and I'm always like afraid there's someone around the corner. But I mean, i don't know. I'm sure after this, we will enjoy going out in the woods.
00:13:56
Speaker
So away we go. So our story begins on October 21st, 2007.
The Disappearance of John and Irene Bryant
00:14:02
Speaker
John Bryant, age 80, and Irene Bryant, age 84, went for a hike through the Piscot National Forest in Transylvania County.
00:14:10
Speaker
Transylvania County? Yeah, in North Carolina. So I guess it's not south, is it? Is that it's considered the South? It's like right, right there. I'm doing, I'm doing hand signals in the shape of where North Carolina is.
00:14:21
Speaker
Anyways. So they were experienced hikers um and it was peak tourist season. So, you know, them being older, like they weren't really that concerned about being out. So North Carolina, that would be ah Appalachia, right? Yes. Nice. Okay.
00:14:33
Speaker
Yes. So after about two weeks of no contact, their son who lives in Texas is starting to kind of get worried about them. So their neighbors are also noticing that their newspapers or mail is just kind of piling up on their doorstep.
00:14:47
Speaker
So Robert decided, Robert, their son, decided to make the trip to North Carolina and ask the neighbors if like they might have an emergency key or something to get into their parents' house. Which they didn't. So they decided that the best move was to break into the house.
00:15:02
Speaker
So they break into the house. um Once inside, they find nothing. It seems like the Bryants just have not been there the entire two weeks. The food is is in the fridge and and the fruit that's out on the counter. It's like it's all spoiled. Like everything's like there's obviously that no one has been there in a minute.
00:15:19
Speaker
But it wasn't uncommon for them to go on hikes on the nearby trails. So like, they weren't that concerned about where they were. They were just concerned if they were okay, right? So they decided to focus their search on those trails that they usually frequented, the area from the Fish Hatchery Trail through the Yellow Gap Road, ending at the Hendersonville Trail. i don't know if any of you know what this is, but it is relevant and in some areas.
00:15:42
Speaker
So So the b Brian's son, ah Robert, found their parked car at the Yellow Gap Road near US Route 276. The car had a really thick layer of dirt on it, noting that it likely hadn't been moved in a really long time.
00:15:57
Speaker
So the car was locked. It hadn't been broken into. The local sheriff's office ah launched a search effort with more than 30 volunteers, cadaver dogs, a helicopter, but they found nothing. Mm-hmm.
00:16:09
Speaker
And one of the lead investigators went hardcore CSI and towed the car to a dealership so they could run diagnostics on the car. And they were able to tell that the last time the car was running was on October 21st, 2007 at 1.59pm because there is a computer in the car and it records things like that I would have never considered that. Right. I was like, that's kind of cool. But that is definitely something you would see on like CSI be like, sure, sure, sure, sure. Right. You know, enhance.
00:16:37
Speaker
Yeah. Enhance. But yeah. So having this gave them a timeline of when the couple had last been in the car, which will be relevant later. um There's a lot that will be relevant later. Got it Yeah.
00:16:48
Speaker
On October, I'm sorry, November 2007. It's few weeks later. about a few weeks later ah One of the search parties actually ended up finding Irene's body buried in a shallow grave about 150 feet from where the car had originally been found.
Irene Bryant's Murder and Search for John
00:17:03
Speaker
She was surrounded by thick brush and she was very decomposed. Just skeletal remains and clothing at this point. It was determined that her cause of death was that she had been beaten over the head to death with a cylindrical instrument.
00:17:18
Speaker
Her time of death was confirmed to be around 2 p.m. so remember yeah like right then yeah right after the car had stopped like i wouldn't say like it was like they can't get down in a second but you know what i mean close how old was she again um she was in her eighty s yeah john was 80 and irene was 84 so she was yeah she was i mean i'm surprised but they were apparently avid hikers so they that's that's how you last that long that's how you that's how you lived 80 yeah we probably won't because we don't hike um so her time of death was determined to be like right after the car had been turned off so it wasn't too far off john bryant still hadn't been found so they decided to track his phone records and atm cards to see if like maybe john or whoever had killed irene had used either because right like they're not ruling him out at this point well yeah because you know he's he's just waiting for her to die and she won't so he's got to take matters into his own hands oh my gosh
00:18:15
Speaker
Sorry, I'm just, you know, I've imbibed some true crime. and oh That's such a familiar story. Anyways, investigators found that around 4pm the day that they went missing, there was a call to 911 from John Bryant's phone that was triangulated to be about 20 to 30 minutes away from where Irene's body was found.
Clues from John's Phone Records
00:18:36
Speaker
So the call just hit the towers, but it couldn't connect to the police. So it seems he did try to call 911. um nine one one Investigators also found that on October 22nd, around 7 p.m., the day after they went missing, John's ATM card had been used to withdraw $300 at an ATM in Dovetown, Tennessee, which is about a three-hour drive west from where Irene's body was found.
00:18:59
Speaker
So it seems like someone is on the move with John and or John's phone and his credit card and stuff like that. So the police did look into like the video footage for the ATM and they could see that the person who was using the ATM card had disguised themselves so that the cameras couldn't see who they were.
00:19:16
Speaker
But they were wearing a yellow raincoat with duct tape across the front of it, which if you're trying to like not be suspicious, why are you wearing wearing bright yellow with reflective tape on it?
00:19:28
Speaker
Yeah, definitely not the sneakiest way to go about things. No, not at all. Might as well have just worn like the glasses and nose mustache disguise. I feel like that actually would have been a good disguise. Like AI would have been so confused.
00:19:39
Speaker
And hands. um
00:19:43
Speaker
So while they can't identify who it is, they can tell it is not John Bryant from the height and build of the person on the camera. And something I forgot to actually put in this, but later they find out that the jacket that this guy is wearing is actually John's jacket.
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah. So he did take John's jacket and decided to go nuts in it. So with the car never having been moved after Irene's murder and the phantom phone call, investigators were starting to wonder if this was a murder abduction case.
00:20:12
Speaker
um They asked for the public to help in providing any information they thought might be relevant for the case. So a few people did report that there was a man hanging around. This is my worst fear right here. There was a man hanging around the trails that day that was like weirding everyone out.
00:20:26
Speaker
He was older. He had a dog. It's not the older part or a dog. Sorry. Let me just, he was older He had a dog, a white van, and he would randomly bring up to people that he had a police baton and he knew how to use it to protect himself.
00:20:41
Speaker
Yeah, so it's just being real weird. The coroner did state that Irene was beaten to death with a cylindrical shaped weapon, which would match a police baton. But investigators didn't have much else to go on.
00:20:52
Speaker
So this case did go cold until about December of 2007, just a little over a month later. Keep in mind, there are multiple murders in this story.
Cheryl Dunlap's Disappearance
00:21:02
Speaker
And they are not linked to each other until after most of them have happened and been discovered.
00:21:11
Speaker
The next one on December 3rd, Cheryl Dunlap, age 46. She was reported missing. She hadn't shown up for work. She was a nurse at a nearby hospital and she had missed her usual session to teach her Sunday school class.
00:21:23
Speaker
A friend had found her car on the edge of the Appalachia Cola National Forest on 319 South, just above the county line in Leon County at Leon Sinks. But yeah, she just liked to go there to like, you know, chill and be on her own.
00:21:37
Speaker
Investigators noticed that the car was parked in a really odd position, almost like off into the wooded area. it was just not normal, especially when there's a parking lot right there. And they also noticed that it had a deflated tire.
00:21:49
Speaker
From the way that the car had been positioned, it was obvious that the tire had been slashed after the car was stopped. Okay. Just like it had never been driven with the tire being flat. It was placed there and then flattened after the fact.
00:22:02
Speaker
So the car was unlocked. Her purse had been emptied into the passenger seat and things were just thrown everywhere all over the car. There were also multicolored beads scattered all over the car. Come to find later, they were from a bracelet her grandchildren had made for her.
00:22:18
Speaker
Investigators did a full grid search of the area, but they came up with nothing again. So police put out an alert on her as a missing person. And a couple of people came forward. um They said they had seen Cheryl in the area.
00:22:30
Speaker
She was just sitting, reading a book. And at one point she got up, walked past them, waved, kept going, very friendly. They noticed she had a red hardcovered book in her hand, which matched a set of books they found when they searched her house and it was missing a volume.
00:22:45
Speaker
So with that information, they were sure that she went missing directly from the forest on December 1st and never made it back home. When they traced the debit card, they found that it had been used.
00:22:55
Speaker
The user, again, had disguised his face with a mask or like tape or something like that. I'll post a picture. It's super creepy and just I hate it. But they did notice that leaving the scene, there was a camo truck.
00:23:08
Speaker
that left the ATM area. And so they started pulling over all the camo trucks in the area. But I mean, yeah, the irony. It's like asking to find a white car. Yeah. There's just so many.
00:23:22
Speaker
Yeah. But yeah, they came up with, and you know, no leads on that. So this is where things kind of start to get a little gruesome. Warning, please, to everyone that things are going to get really weird and sad and horrible.
00:23:36
Speaker
So on December 15th, a hunter and his son were out deer hunting in the Appalachia Cola National Forest near Leon Sinks. They saw buzzards on the side of the road and decided to go towards it to see what it was.
00:23:48
Speaker
There they found the body of a woman with her legs sticking up in the air. This is why you don't go see what the buzzards are doing. You really probably don't want to know. She was naked. She was missing her head and her arms.
00:24:01
Speaker
um And they quickly got out of there and called the police because they were afraid that, you know, whoever did this might be watching or might still be in the area. Investigators weren't sure that this was Cheryl, but they they figured it might be.
00:24:13
Speaker
So they use DNA to match to the hair from Cheryl's hairbrush. And it was a positive match. So they now know who this is, but they can't determine the cause of death at this time because they're missing the body parts.
00:24:25
Speaker
Yeah. and With the teeth and with the fingerprints. Yeah. yeah And there's a lot of ah decomposition of the body. So they can tell it Cheryl, but they don't know how she died yet. So the head and the hands were missing. Yeah.
00:24:36
Speaker
Were they cut or were they? Okay. Yeah. Okay. So it was definitely intentional. Yes. A hundred percent. Okay. So on January 2nd, 2008, Julia Karen Bauer reports her roommate, Meredith Emerson, age 24, missing.
Meredith Emerson's Mysterious Vanishing
00:24:52
Speaker
She said her roommate had left a note on the fridge on January 1st, stating that she had taken her dog for a hike and would be back later. This wasn't abnormal for her to do it alone again, so the roommate wasn't alarmed about it, but did grow concerned when she noticed that she hadn't come back the next morning.
00:25:07
Speaker
put the Keep in mind, this isn't just a hike at the local city park. This is Blood Mountain in... Yeah, the irony. In the Chattahoochee...
00:25:19
Speaker
a canine I'm sorry, guys. National Forest in Georgia, which contains ah tiny portion of the Appalachian Mountains. It's like right on the edge of it. It is a very, very remote area, but it is a heavily used trail for the area.
00:25:32
Speaker
So the roommate reports her missing and apparently her boyfriend found her car in the parking lot of the Byron Herbert Reese Connector Trail. He's placed a sticky note on her car saying to stay there just in case she comes back to the car.
00:25:46
Speaker
The police initially thought that maybe she just got lost on the trail or maybe she was just injured on the trail. Once police get to the trailhead, they find, you know, that Meredith's roommate has already formed a search party. They see the little sticky note in the car and they're just like, Hey, everyone just be careful. Don't touch anything you find. Just report it because, you know, they were worried about not being able to find evidence. But again, it's a really busy trail already. So anything would have been disturbed already. So they aren't able to find anything.
00:26:14
Speaker
as seems to be a pattern here. And then on January 3rd, the GBI, which is the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, they join in to help the local police. So they start questioning the boyfriend friends.
00:26:27
Speaker
They find that she is an avid hiker and not someone who is likely to get lost on the trail. The boyfriend seems suspicious to them because he doesn't show very much emotion in police interviews and the TV interviews.
00:26:39
Speaker
on one of the interviews I saw, he said something like was really creepy. And it was the way he said it too. He said, quote, she's alone wherever she is. And it's probably very silent there.
00:26:52
Speaker
It's probably very cold there. End quote. Like, I know you're concerned for your girlfriend, but that makes it sound like, like, you know where she is and you put her there. Yeah.
00:27:03
Speaker
I mean, i can, I know people react to grief differently. Well, I also know people that their patterns of communication can be really misunderstood based on tone. Are you looking at me? No, I'm not. no I'm actually thinking about somebody work with specifically. but Like the guy's always, no matter what he says, it's almost like he's angry, but like he really isn't. And occasionally you'll when you catch him smiling, you're like, oh shit, never mind.
00:27:29
Speaker
I can see that being somebody just super in their head. Filled with dread and fearing that that's what she's going through. And that's just how it comes out because he's like dead inside. So that's my benefit of the doubt.
00:27:41
Speaker
Just in case he's not the murderer. Continue. I love that. That was deep. Police like were kind of, you know, thinking he might be involved. um Like I said, he said something really creepy. And he happened to know exactly where her car was, which was kind of weird.
00:27:56
Speaker
But they were able to prove through phone records and friends that he was in Atlanta and he couldn't have been involved at the time. So he's just being creepy. So at this time, the cops are now asking anyone for leads on a missing hiker um and asking anyone who finds evidence not to touch it, just report it.
00:28:12
Speaker
Another hiker comes forward and says that he remembers seeing someone who matches Barrett's description on the trail on January 1st. She seemed really comfortable, relaxed. She had her dog with her.
00:28:23
Speaker
The only reason he noticed her was that his dogs kind of went nuts on her dog and they got all tangled up. It was like a whole 101 Dalmatians meet cute kind situation, you know? Yeah, cute. Yeah.
00:28:34
Speaker
But yeah, she went on her way. Shortly after passing her, he saw an older man wearing a yellow raincoat coming down the trail and he was walking really fast with a dog.
00:28:45
Speaker
The man completely avoided them and went into the higher trail next to them instead of just bypassing them on the trail. Which, yes, it sounds like a really weird thing, but, like, at the same time, my nightmare puppy, Dojo, he's an asshole. He'll bark at anyone and anything, and you know that.
00:29:02
Speaker
And, like, he makes this sound like he's being strangled to death or, like, ripped apart when you're, like, holding him back or, like, holding him to your chest. And I promise you, it's not that he's dying. He's just anxious inside.
00:29:15
Speaker
So I can see why someone would be like, I'm just gonna go ahead and just go around this whole situation and a avoid it But I mean, obviously, that wasn't the case here.
00:29:26
Speaker
I digress. So there was another hiker. Are we and not gonna note on that yellow raincoat? We'll get there. Okay. So there was another hiker who reported the same man.
00:29:37
Speaker
He stated that he had expensive hunting gear, a police baton, a bayonet knife, and ah in his belt and deck tape on his shoes. He said he didn't think anything of it at the time, but on his way back down the trail, he did see two water bottles, a leash dog treats and an expandable police baton by the side of the trail.
00:29:57
Speaker
And an area of disturbed earth that looked like someone had fallen down onto a lower trail, which obviously was alarming. And apparently this was a really popular trail that day because there were multiple people that reported there was an odd man that was crouched next to a tree or behind rocks on the higher trails.
00:30:15
Speaker
And they couldn't really tell what he was doing. But like he had a dog and he was just like hiding behind trees and rocks being real weird. That's my worst fear right there. Yeah.
00:30:27
Speaker
I'm very concerned about the dog in this situation. We'll get there. Okay. You'll know. Okay. We'll talk about the dog. Okay. Additionally, there was a woman who came forward and stated that on December 31st, which is the day before Meredith went missing, she was on a walking trail with her husband, father, stepmother, a friend.
00:30:47
Speaker
So she was walking a little bit faster than the rest of the group. And she'd gotten a bit ahead of everyone. And she heard this guy approaching her on the trail with his dog. She stepped to the side to let him pass.
00:30:59
Speaker
And she commented on how cute his dog was. was a little reddish brown golden retriever. He said his dog's name was Dandy, like the dresser. I don't know what a Dandy dresser is. Like a Dandy, like a usually a stylishly dressed male.
00:31:15
Speaker
And is this old lady lingo or? Oh my God. Okay. It is definitely old lingo. It's not lingo I use, but I'm familiar with it. Like a dandy. like someone who dresses. i was thinking like like a dresser. like Right. Like what you put clothes in.
00:31:33
Speaker
Right. No, it's that you put clothes on. So yeah, he said his dog's name was Dandy, but the guy was giving her the creeps and he quickly went into how he hates that people come up here to these trails and They're not prepared and how how they could get hurt or lost.
00:31:48
Speaker
And she's like, yeah, man, that's crazy. And he's like, do you have a cell phone on you? ah And she said she didn't because, right sure, yeah, that makes sense. You never watch a horror movie. To which he replied, oh, no, are you alone today?
00:32:04
Speaker
ah And at that moment, her dad appeared on the trail and she said to him, it's nice chatting with you and runs off to her dad. Like, holy crap. Like you could have, I would have been shitting myself. I've been like, this is, this is literally how I die.
00:32:19
Speaker
And by the way, for anyone listening, you always say yes. When someone asks if you have a cell phone on you and no, you don't want to lend it to them and no, you're not alone.
00:32:30
Speaker
And yes, people know where you are. Like don't out yourself as being alone and vulnerable. Well, and also very specifically, you'd say, you know, oh, yeah, they're waiting for me right now. Yeah.
00:32:41
Speaker
So they will definitely I will be missed, bitch, if you take me. Exactly. and But apparently all these reports lead to the same general area of the trail. So they're they kind of know where to focus. And there was another group that also reported that they were one of the last people leaving the park around dark.
00:33:00
Speaker
And they noticed only two cars were in the parking lot when they were leaving. They stated one car matched the missing girls and the other car was a white van. It's always white van. It's always white van.
00:33:12
Speaker
So another person submitted a bunch of pictures they had taken on the trail that day. And in the parking lot that day in the background is a white van with the back door open and a guy wearing a yellow raincoat with reflective tape on the back. But they can't see his face.
00:33:28
Speaker
So at least they're able, they're like getting closer to like tying everything together. Right. But yeah, at this point, they're pretty sure like Meredith has been abducted and is not just like on the trail injured or something like that.
00:33:39
Speaker
So lucky or unlucky them investigators get a call and they say, they think that the person they're looking for is the same person of interest in their case of the two missing elderly people.
00:33:50
Speaker
in another national park a few months prior, the Bryants. They still don't know about Cheryl's case, but now the Bryants and Emerson cases are tied together.
00:34:01
Speaker
um They know that they're looking for a 60-year-old white man, 160 pounds, with a large reddish dog um named Dandy, and that he would be driving a white van. We still haven't found Mr. Bryant.
00:34:14
Speaker
Is that correct? Correct. Yeah, he still hasn't been found. So now it's... Yeah, Mr. Bryant and Meredith, they're missing. Yes. All of this, um now that the cases are tied together besides Cheryl, this leads them to look into Meredith's cell phone and bank activity.
00:34:28
Speaker
Her phone had been turned off, which I'm guessing the abductor learned something from the previous abduction. And investigators asked her bank to let them know if anyone had tried to use the card. But the bank didn't get back to them until January 4th, which was way too late.
00:34:44
Speaker
And investigators were informed that Meredith had her ATM card used three times in January 1st at different banks and cities surrounding the area. Oh, my God. But the information had come too late, so they weren't able to catch the guy.
00:34:55
Speaker
So, again, the cops pulled out all alerts on their suspects and requested anyone who might have more information come forward. So this is where things start to get a little weird.
Suspicions Toward Gary Hilton
00:35:05
Speaker
Okay.
00:35:06
Speaker
So there's this gentleman by the name of John Tabor. He comes forward and he states that he's almost certain that the person they're looking for is Gary Hilton, age 61. So John had hired Gary for a position as a telemarketer for his company a while back.
00:35:20
Speaker
Gary was initially described as a hard worker, a charmer and a pleasant person to be around. But after a while, Gary started getting combative, belligerent with his boss, John, and he was demanding more money, threatening John if he didn't pay up.
00:35:32
Speaker
So John fired him. Right. But he was sure that Gary Hilton fit the description of the person they were looking for, um as well as, you know, the van and and just a lot of other things, the dog, all of it.
00:35:43
Speaker
So when police looked into Gary Hilton's background, they found that Hilton had been arrested multiple times for petty crimes like theft and fraud. Nothing escalating to anything violent or harassing others.
00:35:55
Speaker
But police put out a bolo for Gary and blasted his face all over the place, standing he was wanted for questioning. By the way, I just found out what bolo meant. like I was going to ask. Literally the other day.
00:36:07
Speaker
Be on lookout. Be on lookout. Right? Right. Not boo only live once. Be only lying. Be only living. I'm done.
00:36:21
Speaker
No, no, no. I can do this. Bitch only likes oatmeal. Bitch only likes oatmeal. and So I'm going to start saying, I'm going to wait until that one moment where you and I are here breakfast together and they're like, what would you like, man? I'm like, bitch only likes oatmeal.
00:36:39
Speaker
And then I'm going to die. Yeah, it'd be great. we should do it in front of the husbands oh my gosh no i think ace would die of laughter and yours would just be like what sigh at us you yeah sighing sighing sounds it's the sighing uh-huh and rubbing his face he he does this face rub when i talk that is very specific it's just for you my dad used to do it to me too so i know they both have the same the same like It's the patients where they're like, I'm not going to tell you you're a complete idiot, but also what the fuck did you just say to me?
00:37:15
Speaker
That is a really great way to describe that expression. That's great. yeah Anyways, Bolo. So ah be on the lookout. They put that out. They were flooded with tips, including one from an attorney named Samuel Reyes.
00:37:30
Speaker
Apparently Reyes was Hilton's attorney a long time ago in Atlanta, Georgia for some fraud cases where Hilton had been collecting money for fake charities. He stated that Gary was very charming and he seemed to get away with a lot because of it.
00:37:46
Speaker
Samuel also brought up that he was an executive producer for a movie called deadly run, which Gary was also an advisor for. Is that real? Yes. So there's a lot to unpack with this. Like, why are we having our clients advise on movies that we're producing?
00:38:02
Speaker
Why is this lawyer producing movies? Why is he telling us all about his client's business? Why did he, what was he advising on? We're going to talk about that. Cool. Yeah. So it's a good thing that he said it, but it's still really weird. Anyway, so the movie was about a serial killer that would take women up to the woods, hunt them and kill them.
00:38:23
Speaker
It was a really low budget movie, but Gary really wanted to be involved in the movie once he learned it was about a serial killer. He would give them notes on how a serial killer would act, what they would do next, how they would extensively stalk their prey, get close to them, kill them, cover things up.
00:38:39
Speaker
He would help with props, locations, help coordinate the struggle scenes. Nobody can see it, but I have spicious face on. Yes, and Samuel didn't seem to think it was picious. He didn't think anything of it at the time.
00:38:50
Speaker
And now these murders are being reported and they were seeming a lot like to match the descriptions of some of the movies and things like that. And the person of interest matches Gary.
00:39:02
Speaker
And to make matters worse, the cabin in the woods where they filmed the movie was about 20 minutes away from the area of Blood Mountain where Meredith went missing. Oh. Yeah. What was the name of the movie? Did they say? Yes. It's called Deadly Run.
00:39:17
Speaker
Deadly Run. Yes. And did it actually come out? Yeah. I think it was on VHS. Old woman. You said it was 2007. Is that my my timing? I have no concept of time. When did we stop VHSing?
00:39:28
Speaker
don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. But I know it came out. Deadly Run. Okay. I'll check into that. So... On January 3rd, around 6 p.m., John Tabor called the police and reported that Gary Hilton called him again and was apologizing for their tumultuous past and was asking if he could give him some money, like $600 just so he could get back up on his feet.
00:39:49
Speaker
John Tabor plays it cool, says he'll lend him the money, give him a check. Gary asks that he just leave the money in John's office where he has a key to enter. That's creepy.
00:40:00
Speaker
ah So basically he was setting him up to pick up the money. um SWAT gets all set up to trap Gary and hopefully end what seems to be a murder spree. And Gary never shows.
00:40:11
Speaker
Of course. Yeah. He probably saw the SWAT outside the building somehow or whatever. Yeah. Or was saying if he could trust John or was going to murder John. Who knows?
Gary Hilton's Capture and Evidence
00:40:20
Speaker
So as a separate event on January 3rd, police also received a tip that a black dog looking just like Meredith's dog Ella was seen walking into a nearby Kroger grocery store by herself.
00:40:33
Speaker
They picked up the dog, said she seemed clean, fed, watered, basically like she was taken care of. They scanned the dog's chip and they confirmed this was indeed Meredith's dog. So this isn't the red lab we saw before.
00:40:45
Speaker
No, the red lab was Gary's dog. ah This is Meredith, the girl who's missing. so Okay. I thought he had just taken her dog, which is why. yeah You know, he had his own dog. It's a red, a red Reddish brown golden retriever. Right. Yeah. And hers is a black lab.
00:41:01
Speaker
So wonderful. Yes. They find that this is indeed Meredith's dog. They searched all around the area of the grocery store and saw there was a quick trip gas station across the street. Investigators went over to the gas station and they confirmed with the employees there that Gary Hilton had come inside, used the pay phone, hung around outside for a while and then left.
00:41:22
Speaker
For those of you who aren't familiar, payphone is a phone that people would find in public that you would put coins into and be able to make a phone call. This was prior to the cell phone popularity. I thought this was funny because I was like, people had payphones in 2007. I was like, I mean, I was using them when I was like, you know, 15, 16, 17. So that makes sense.
00:41:42
Speaker
So they couldn't see him or his van on the camera, but they decided to search the dumpster because the clerks mentioned that Gary had parked his white van next to the dumpster's. Inside the dumpsters, they found garbage bags that differed from the ones that the gas station used.
00:41:56
Speaker
And in the garbage bags, they found Meredith's wallet, her driver's license, and other IDs. They found clothing covered in fresh blood, not yet congealed or fully dried. On January 4th, which is the next day, around 8 p.m., investigators start getting flooded.
00:42:11
Speaker
with tips of people reporting to see Gary Hilton driving around in Atlanta, Georgia, at a Chevron gas station, cleaning out his van. Police got there just in time when we were able to apprehend Gary, and they were able to take him into custody without a fight, and his dog Dandy was with him, but the two missing people were not.
00:42:30
Speaker
So with him in custody, investigators are still trying to tie him to the other two victims while locating them, and Gary's not talking. The biggest problem that the investigators were running into was that this guy was basically living out of his van.
00:42:43
Speaker
and traveling all over the place. He had no digital footprint, even at a time where having such a thing was still new. Investigators stated that his car was filled with random things, a lot of totes and full of trash bags.
00:42:57
Speaker
When they arrested him, he was in a parking lot gas station running from the van to the dumpster throwing things away. But as we know, he'd gone to other gas stations before and dumped a bunch of stuff. So we don't know. There's no telling like how much he's already dumped off, right?
00:43:11
Speaker
So in the dumpster, they did check. They found sleeping bags, duffel bags with blood on them, some porno magazines, a lot of camping gear, all with blood all over them. He was basically throwing away anything he could tell that it had blood on it.
00:43:24
Speaker
They found the yellow rain jacket with a silver stripe that looked like duct tape on the camera footage they had at the ATM. They found blood on the back of his driver's seat, paper towels in the car, just stuff everywhere. Like it was just a mess.
00:43:38
Speaker
There was also thick metal chains with nylon ropes attached to them. Some black zip ties had been cut. Bloody clothes, boots, like thick blood on these clothes. um One of the investigators said that the jacket they found was so saturated with blood that they could likely wring it out if they had tried to.
00:43:56
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. Basically, at this point, all of the different police departments are trying to work together to tie this one guy to all of these murders. But they can't take him to court for any of it until they have like solid proof.
00:44:06
Speaker
um And they're still trying to find Meredith and John and see if it's this is a murder or just an abduction. Right. How is that not solid proof? Because they haven't been able to prove what he did to them. Did he murder them?
00:44:17
Speaker
Or has he just abducted them? It's only been three days. Okay. So we have evidence that we saw him put into a dumpster and we have retrieved that evidence. And I mean, like, have we matched blood to the victims or anything like that? They've matched. We're getting there. Okay.
00:44:32
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, at this point, they've just like, they're collecting all this evidence and they're like, okay, we know he did something. Is this the guy who's been murdering people? Did he abduct them? Was he just a driver? is he just a crazy homeless man who does someone else's bidding? Like that's what they're trying to figure out. Like what, where, what is his involvement? And they don't want to show their cards too soon until they know for sure what they're looking for. Correct. and They do. They do have them in custody at the very least.
00:44:55
Speaker
Oh, okay. I feel like I missed that part. So yes. Good. No, good. So they take him to jail. They start the booking process. They're taking pictures of him and, taking inventory of his clothing. He has a big gouge on his nose where it looks like someone scratched the shit out of him. And he's just like, really looks beat up all around, right?
00:45:11
Speaker
His eyes are wide and bloodshot, really creepy looking. in the pictures, he's laying on the floor and you can see his sneakers that are wrapped in duct tape. And apparently he was laying on the floor telling officers he couldn't move because he was having ah multiple sclerosis attack.
Plea Deal and Meredith's Body Discovery
00:45:28
Speaker
I don't know anything about MS, but I know it can keep you from moving for sure. Okay. But they said that they had the doctor check him out and confirm and that he did not have MS.
00:45:39
Speaker
Nice try, dude. Yeah. He just laid there refusing to talk saying he wanted to talk to his attorney and that he wouldn't tell them anything. But like, they're like really in a rush to try to find Meredith. Right.
00:45:51
Speaker
So when they started processing all of the bloody items, they found a lot of the DNA they found to be Meredith's. So They're pretty sure she's dead at this point, but they don't know what he's done with her. So they're trying to find her body and it's still nothing on John Bryant.
00:46:07
Speaker
So on January 5th, investigators met with Gary and his lawyer to try and find Meredith. The deal that his lawyer laid out on the table was to remove the possibility of the death penalty in exchange for the location of Meredith.
00:46:21
Speaker
They agreed to it on January 7th. Keep in mind, this is just for Meredith in Georgia. No, North Carolina. I'm going to stop you for a second. Would you prefer, not that you really usually get to choose, but say you did something exceptionally heinous and you either are faced with the death penalty or life in prison, would you prefer to live the remainder of your days in prison or would you want to end it?
00:46:47
Speaker
I would end it. But I know a there's a lot of people who are afraid of death and that's kind of why they do this kind of thing because they want to be in control of death. Interesting. I mean, it's still being in control to make the choice, but again, you don't usually get to make the choice yourself. Yeah. And much like your last story, even if you want the death penalty, you may not get it. Exactly. Okay. Sorry. Continue. It's okay.
00:47:09
Speaker
I promise we're almost done. On January 5th, investigators met with Gary and his lawyer to try to find Meredith. They... they They made that deal and agreed to it. Gary informed them that Meredith was in Dawson forest in Georgia.
00:47:21
Speaker
It's a very thick forest, which wouldn't make it easy for them to find her. So they decided to take him to the forest ah with them to show them where the remains were. He mentioned that she would be missing her head, which was placed elsewhere in the forest to make identifying her more difficult.
00:47:38
Speaker
So on this ride, They took the opportunity to ask him about what happened to Meredith. I want to warn anyone listening that this gets a little rough. So I've been tailing her for a while.
00:47:50
Speaker
He was able to strike up a conversation with her as they walk their dogs together for a little bit on the trail. Then suddenly she took off running. So he trailed her through the woods and hid waiting for her to come down on one of the trails. So that's probably what people were seeing.
00:48:05
Speaker
What did she take off running for? Like, did she, was she just trying to make it like, did she get weirded out and to make a break for it? Sounds like it. um So when she did come down the trails, he brandishes bayonet, bayonet, bayonet knife. He had that little bayonet knife.
00:48:20
Speaker
Oh, okay. That goes on the edge. Okay. I has just the knife i was just picturing him with a fucking old ass civil war era bayonet, like gun with the bayonet on it. No, he just has a knife. And he told her that he just wanted her credit cards or pin number.
00:48:33
Speaker
But she immediately started fighting him and got the knife away from him. She was apparently skilled in martial arts and he was not expecting it. Good girl. Yeah. So he started attacking her with a baton that he had and instead the police baton.
00:48:45
Speaker
And she got that away from him too. Nice. Yes. So that's why he was all beat up. They fought on the trail for a while. and then he pulled a gun on her. To this, she complied, followed his instructions to move deeper into the woods and And he tied her to a tree and told her that if she screamed, he would kill her dog.
00:49:05
Speaker
No! Yes. I'm going to stop here and let everyone know. Never let them take you to a second location. Because they will never find you. Like, I'm not trying to be- I've heard this from so many cops who I know in my life do not go to a second location. Like, the the likelihood of you being found after that, especially alive, it's not going to get better.
00:49:25
Speaker
Does the dog make it? We saw them at Kroger, remember? Right. I'm sorry. Continue. You look your face. Okay. So they, they fought on the trail for a while and then he pulled a gun on her to this. She complied, followed his instructions to move deeper in the woods. He tied her to a tree, told her that she screamed, he would kill her dog.
00:49:44
Speaker
Yeah. um So he stepped away from her to go back to where they had struggled to pick up the items that they had dropped. The water bottle, leash, and baton. But there was already a hiker there and he was picking up all of the items. Ah!
00:49:59
Speaker
Yeah. So Gary made them hide in the woods until it was much darker just in case, you know, law enforcement came looking for them. But once it was dark, he took her to her car, took her wallet and cards and made her get in his van with her dog.
00:50:13
Speaker
and told her again that if she tried to scream or run, he would kill her dog. He had her chained to the back of his driver's seat, which is why there was blood there. He took her to various ATMs and tried all of her cards. Apparently, she just kept giving him the wrong pin numbers until the ATM would freeze a transaction, and he would have to find another ATM.
00:50:32
Speaker
They just kept going in this loop to find an ATM, wrong pin numbers. It seems she was hoping that this movement to different ATMs and wrong pins would draw attention and get help. But remember, the bank failed to notify the police of her cards being used.
00:50:45
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. Even though they told her, told them like the day they that she went missing, like they would have found her if they would have done that. Yeah. Banks the worst. He also admitted to sexually assaulting her at least once.
00:51:00
Speaker
um It was really horrible to the way he said it. Like they had asked, like, did you sexually assault her? And he said, well, it wasn't violent, but it wasn't consensual. it's like, well, if it's not consensual, it's automatically violent. You dickbag. So, oh, yeah, it just shows that like there was that disconnection for him there.
00:51:18
Speaker
On January 3rd, he took her to Dawson Forest. They stayed there the whole day. And on the fourth, he pulls her out of the van, tells her that he's going to let her go, but he has no intention of doing so.
00:51:30
Speaker
So he takes her out to the woods. He chains her to a tree and tells her he was going to get her things and leave her there. Instead, he grabs a tire iron from the car and repeatedly hits her over the head with it until he thinks that she's dead.
00:51:43
Speaker
And then he decapitates her. He doesn't say how he did that. Not sure it matters. and We know this guy's an animal already. Yeah. So he takes her head, puts it in another area of the forest to avoid identification of the remains if they're ever found.
00:51:57
Speaker
And he made sure to leave the remains lightly covered by brush to aid in the decomposition process of the remains and any evidence. So kind of the same thing he did for Irene. I did see some video and audio of the interviews of him, and it's really horrible how he talks about like how surreal it was to kill her and remove her head.
00:52:15
Speaker
and all that like is like the recordings are horrible um so they get to the spot where they find her remains where he said they would be and again i couldn't imagine being these people like having to follow these these criminals to their their spot and uncovering what they've done but ah i couldn't imagine how that would stick with you so they have her body and her limbs and stuff on january 2008 he two thousand and eight Gary Hilton was brought forward on charges of malice murder for Meredith's murder in Georgia.
00:52:47
Speaker
I'd never heard of that charge before, but with his confession and the evidence they found, they were able to charge him with murder on January 31st of 2008. So they closed this case really quickly and they treated it as its own case basically at this point, because they used it to break all of the other cases and,
00:53:04
Speaker
and They had not fully integrated all of like the state's cases together yet. They needed more time for those other cases and they didn't want to lose what they had for this case. Also, they were trying to close this case really quickly because it was possible that the audio of him confessing to the crimes could be taken as confession under duress and there was a possibility that they wouldn't be able to use it if they went to trial so they had to take the plea to be able to just get him on something so they yeah they got him for life on this one so at this point Gary Hilton is in jail he's been convicted of one murder but Florida and North Carolina are now looking at him for the murders of Irene and Cheryl and the disappearance of John Bryant
00:53:45
Speaker
So in searching his background, they find that he actually had shot his stepfather at one point when he was younger because he didn't like the way that he was treating his mother.
Hilton's Background and Psychological Profile
00:53:54
Speaker
But he didn't kill him.
00:53:56
Speaker
It seems like he didn't serve any time for it either. Maybe he was a juvenile. I guess it didn't go on his record. i don't know. He had joined the military when he was younger. So he did have military training.
00:54:07
Speaker
He had been married multiple times, including to a police officer at one point. Oh, wow. Yeah, he was on medication for MS, but he didn't have MS. And he was on Ritalin for some reason, but it seemed like maybe a doctor gave him a script under the table for it.
00:54:21
Speaker
He was just really unstable. He did seem to be like a true psychopath. He really didn't have any emotional attachment to people, but he did say that he would never hurt an animal or any of the dogs in those situations. Like he, he had, he loved his animals.
00:54:36
Speaker
He stated that the only reason he would do what he did was because he needed the money to keep, you know, his life off the grid going. And he was of the opinion that the only way to avoid getting caught was to kill the victims that he robbed.
00:54:49
Speaker
But police psychologists were convinced he was like actually a psychopath that lacked empathy, right? They tried to go through all of the missing persons in state parks, remote locations, and try to tie him to all these murderers. In tying him to the Bryant's murders, um investigators were given picture evidence obtained by hikers in the area of the time of the murder.
00:55:06
Speaker
Just pictures of Gary loading unloading his white van at the picnic area of the trail near where the Bryant's car was found a few weeks before the murder. Additionally, on February 3rd, 2008, a hunter did discover the skull of John Bryant in the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina.
00:55:23
Speaker
He reported the remains and investigators also found a pelvis, spine and a pacemaker. Yeah, no clothing was found at the dump site. um Investigators were able to positively identify his remains through the serial number on the pacemaker.
00:55:36
Speaker
How are we already down to bones? Because he's not burying them. He's leaving them like barely on the surface. To decompose with any of the critters. and Exactly. Yeah. So animals are taking what they can. And then, you know, the forest is doing its job. Yeah.
00:55:53
Speaker
He, in exchange for a plea deal to avoid the death penalty, he had admitted to killing both Irene and John Bryant. During his trial, he stated he killed Irene as soon as they got out of the car and then abducted John to get all of his banking information off of him.
00:56:07
Speaker
After he had what he needed, he shot John with a.22 Magnum in the head and dumped his body. Gary did not want to be tied to Cheryl's murder. Wanted nothing to do with being tied to that murder, specifically because he knew that Florida still had the death penalty on the table.
00:56:20
Speaker
So at this point, he's gotten life for these other three murders and nothing on this one. He continued to deny killing Cheryl, but a traffic ticket issued to him in early December, around the time an area Cheryl went went missing and the car listed in the citation was a camo truck.
00:56:37
Speaker
which was seen in the video of the bank right that was that was found for her. So one of the tips that was reported stated that Carrie Hilton was seen at a campsite off Highway 20 and Joe Thomas Road in Florida.
00:56:52
Speaker
There investigators found an area of ground where the pine needles looked burned and compacted, like a fire had been started and then eventually like stamped out and spread out. So in the debris, they were able to find a burned skull fragments, finger bones, and plastic beads, an earring and burnt clothing.
00:57:09
Speaker
They were not able to directly tie the remains to Cheryl through DNA since he had burned it all, but they were able to tie the beads that were found at the burn site to the beads that were thrown all over her car.
00:57:21
Speaker
So it's really sad, but the gift that her grandkids gave her was used to identify her. Aww. Additionally, at the burn site, they found dog hair that matched the red gold dog hair that they found in Cheryl's car.
00:57:33
Speaker
Cheryl didn't have a dog, but we know that Gary Hilton did. um and they were able to find a cigarette butt at the dump site um that had Gary's DNA on it. So they know it was him who did it.
00:57:44
Speaker
The final piece of damning evidence was a pair of hiking boots that were tied to Gary from the dumpster where he was disposing of evidence. They found that Cheryl's DNA was soaked into the laces of the shoes and in the fabric of his van. So investigators believe that Carrie abducted Cheryl, held her captive for two days and then murdered her and dismembered her.
00:58:03
Speaker
um But again, he refused to admit it. Yeah. yeah So, but he was found guilty on February 22nd, 2011 and sentenced to death in Florida for her murder. So what i found really weird about all of these Is that he would beat the women over the head to kill them and dismember them, spread their remains. Like Irene, he beat her in the head, but he didn't dismember her because he had John.
00:58:25
Speaker
Right. But for John Bryant, he just shot him and dumped him, which is weird, right? Like,
Investigation into Potential Additional Murders
00:58:32
Speaker
I don't know. But it's believed that Gary Hilton was responsible for multiple homicides before 2007. Yeah.
00:58:37
Speaker
at least five different victims between 90 1997 and 2007. He was never directly tied to the murders, but they match his pattern of killing. They can match him to the area, the way that the remains were hidden, all of that. Like, but they just can't prove it through other evidence. So they got him on these though, but.
00:58:56
Speaker
yeah that Is he still on death row or has that already come to pass? I think he might still be on death row because I know it takes forever. Right? Right. Sorry, I know this is a long one. That's okay.
00:59:08
Speaker
Let's see Dude, he is creepy looking though. like Oh, yeah. I would run away from him too. Yeah, right? like He's so creepy. There's a book about this, though. and And like I said, there's a show about it.
00:59:24
Speaker
It's they're all really great. um I didn't have a lot of time to get into the book, but I started reading and it was really good from what I read. i know he did try to appeal ah the death sentence. Yeah. But of course, he didn't ever get anywhere with it.
00:59:39
Speaker
Yeah. It looks like he's still on death row. Wow. He's still on death row. He's about 77 years old now. Apparently he's been saying that it was a schizophrenic episode, but that lasted over a decade. Yeah. I don't know.
00:59:55
Speaker
I've, I've heard all sorts of tales of spooky things happening in the Appalachian mountains. And that kind of stuff is far more scary than any of those folklore tales.
01:00:05
Speaker
So it's funny you say that because that's how I came across this is because I was looking for like spooky things in the Appalachian Mountains because um i found that in May, ah Ace and I will be driving through that those areas and I'm like, oh God, it might be dark and sometimes i don't know i don't know that sounds really scary take notes of everything so scary but yeah so i was like and and then i found this and like i said i keep looking for spooky stuff and ending up on murder so if anyone has any spooky stuff suggestions i would love to look into it nightmare cottage at gmail.com
01:00:43
Speaker
Hello, ghoul friends. So we're releasing this episode on Gary Hilton on April 13th. And it just so happens that on April 13th, a interview with Gary Hilton is going to release at the same time, not the same time, sorry.
01:01:00
Speaker
on the same date. So i can't provide a full update just yet, but I will later. Apparently Gary Hilton, and he's still on death row as of now, but he is confessing to killing Cheryl Dunlap, which is the only one that he did not confess to um initially. So think he was convicted back in 2007. So quite a bit of time has passed, but he has decided to come forward and do a full interview on how he killed Cheryl and and why and and all of all of the things involved. So as messed up as it is to say, I'm excited to see it.
01:01:35
Speaker
He's saying apparently that he is admitting to killing Cheryl now because he has He's having some heart issues and he's sure he's going to die sooner rather than later, um even though this is still under appeal. So to him, there's, I guess, no point in holding back now.
01:01:51
Speaker
So this update, this episode that will be airing, um it's Court TV channel that is doing the interview. um It's called Interview with a Killer. It will be coming out on April 13th at 8 p.m. Eastern.
01:02:04
Speaker
It looks like there's not a whole bunch of places to watch it if you don't have Court TV. So Looks like maybe it might stream on like YouTube TV and Apple TV, those kinds of things. I'm going to try to watch it and i will update you guys as soon as I have more information, but excited to see more information come out on, um these kinds of things, especially, you know, hopefully it'll bring some kind of peace to somebody knowing that who killed her has been caught. Right. Even though they were pretty sure. So see y'all later.
01:02:35
Speaker
Yeah.
01:02:41
Speaker
So i know we're pretty far in, but I do want to do ah quick little palate cleanser unless you have some nightmare fuel to share first. Have you been reading anything nightmare-ish lately? um I'm reading book that's technically horror, but isn't very spooky, but I like it. So we'll make it that. It's called The Ninth House by Lee.
01:03:01
Speaker
Lee Bardugo. It's pretty good. I've been recommended this author several times. set at Yale and it kind of, it's a magical, spooky ghost thing that revolves around like the skull and bones and the various secret societies of Yale. Oh, that's cool.
01:03:17
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty neat. So I'll recommend that I'm i'm like halfway through it. I'm not even all the way, but I'm enjoying it so far. Awesome. Your nightmare fuel, you said there was a book. Yes.
01:03:29
Speaker
So the book is called Trials of Death, the True Story of National Forest Serial Killer, Gary Hilton. Nice. Yeah. And what was the name of the documentary that you found? It is.
01:03:41
Speaker
um So it's actually a doc. It's a series. um Docu series. Yes. um So it is called Wild Crime. I watched it on Hulu and Max um and it was season three episodes one through four, I believe is what it was.
01:03:56
Speaker
Nice. Yeah.
01:04:03
Speaker
Cleansing the palate. I don't know how cleansing is all mean. Well, shit. So I just have some like questions for you. I'm just going ask you a few questions so that you know people can hear your beautiful voice today. I have an alibi, I swear. oh my goodness.
01:04:16
Speaker
um Have you ever done the whole Bloody Mary thing? I feel like I did a bit when I was a kid, but nothing ever. like It was just, yeah, ah me and my my my brother and my sort of cousin, I think I was probably sick So he would have been nine and she would have been seven or eight.
01:04:35
Speaker
And we would do all sorts of bullshit, like, you know, make a fake Ouija board and all sorts of stuff. So I feel like the Bloody Mary thing happened in there, but it never materialized into anything for us.
01:04:47
Speaker
Have you ever had an experience with like something unexplainable or supernatural? Not directly. My grandmother told me stories. She told me that in the house that we lived in when i i I was a baby. No, this was before I was born. My brother was a baby.
01:05:05
Speaker
And my grandmother saw a woman with a tray walking to my brother's room and then she disappeared. So that's a story she told me. But nothing directly to you No.
01:05:17
Speaker
Disappoint. I mean, i i am a person who wants, I want to believe, but nothing has let me believe because there's no fucking proof. So anyways, I, no, I unfortunately have not had any kind of unexplainable moment.
01:05:34
Speaker
Has there ever been a horror movie that like really scarred you or like really scares you to the point where you're like, i don't know if I would watch that again or Like it was just really scary and like kind of shook you.
01:05:47
Speaker
I have encountered some horror movies that I've turned off because they were bad, like bad even by my standards. I was like, I love beat movies. I love C movies.
01:05:58
Speaker
I love F movies. Yes. When they know what they're doing and they're doing it on purpose. That's true. But when they're trying to be something they're not. And sometimes that's even artfully done, but like, I don't know. I know.
01:06:09
Speaker
Okay. Sorry. Do you believe in any kind of mythical monsters like chupacabras or shadow people or Bigfoot? Believe in? No.
01:06:20
Speaker
No. No. Gosh. I know. i'm I don't know how you can be so like strong in your conviction that you don't believe in. i do i believe because I have not seen proof otherwise. And I know that's so backwards.
01:06:33
Speaker
I agree that that is backwards. Hey, I was Catholic at one point. Okay. You know, and that's fair. How long do you think you would last in a horror movie? I think I would actually do pretty all right.
01:06:44
Speaker
ah You don't think you'd fall into like the tropes of like falling over and tripping over your shirt? I think that i have... Tripping over my boobies. I think I have final girl potential, or at least I did when I was younger. Okay.
01:06:56
Speaker
Because I'm analytical and i don't think that, like like in ah in a stressful situation, i get my shit together. Like that is when I am at my best. So last question.
01:07:10
Speaker
Is there anything that you are superstitious about or even slightly stitious? So like, even if it's something dumb, like i I, have to, you know, make sure that this coffee cup always goes here or something like that.
01:07:23
Speaker
No, but I'm so open to it. Like I'm just like waiting for something to be like, hey, bitch. Oh my gosh. I wish I could be superstitious. I wish I could, you know, believe in ghosts and stuff like that. And actually it ends up kind of ruining sometimes when i'm trying to read ah fictional book and I'm bitch, that's so not realistic.
01:07:44
Speaker
It's like, it has to be too unrealistic for me. I don't know. So I'm a mess and no, I'm sorry. i feel like ah that makes me a boring person, but it's really hard for me to like, accept these things that again and again science has disproven or not been able to find any evidence of it being correct or anything like that i do accept that there's a lot of things that science doesn't know yet but i i don't i don't know that any of the weird things in life like that are not explainable somehow see and i can see
01:08:15
Speaker
Like super like creatures like the chupacabra and all that stuff. Like I could see them being real and just being like a species that's dying out or like weird genetic disorder something. No physical evidence of it anywhere. If it was just a small hiccup, like a little literal small hiccup of like this subset.
01:08:33
Speaker
I mean, there's nightmare creatures that are out there that people have no idea exist. And then I see them show up on the internet like this has been a thing for how long? Like there's a lot of crazy ass creatures out there. And that's what I mean. Like, I wonder if it could be a situation like that, where like, you know, it's not necessarily like an evolutionary thing, which takes time it's you know, a genetic anomaly in a specific species in a small confined area or something like that. But sure, if you want to get all scientific and boring about it. I know. I'm so sorry. i And I feel like that's not what our listeners will want to hear out of me is that I don't listen to that.
01:09:08
Speaker
If anything, I think that's why you should do a lot of research on horror stuff, because you're not a believer. Because if it was me, I'd be like, oh, my God, and then this happened. But like real, like in real life, I would just die. Like I would not actually believe it.
01:09:22
Speaker
You know, right now I wouldn't believe it. But in real life, I would believe You know, and I will go back just a little bit because I don't know if you remember, we went to we went to go see my mom, you and me. And we were sitting outside with the telescope and it was this is out in the middle of nowhere.
01:09:36
Speaker
And there's no
Chilling Telescope Experience
01:09:37
Speaker
light pollution. So when it's dark, it's fucking scary out there. There was a point we were just like sitting out, having a couple drinks on the the driveway, like with the telescope. And at one point you just kind of like stopped and you're like, no, no, I need to go inside. I'm sorry. I need to go inside.
01:09:56
Speaker
And like, I felt like this like flood of fear when you said that, because I'm like, you're right. I can't see shit. And there really, really could be anything
The Missing Moon Mystery
01:10:05
Speaker
out there. So that was definitely a feeling of, of woo. Yeah. for me like yeah that's something something that was that the same weekend we couldn't find the moon yes we couldn't find the moon and the app kept saying it was right there but we couldn't find the moon yeah that was weird there was not a cloud in the sky that that moon was gone yeah uh-huh how do you explain that science i'm just totally kidding please don't please don't explain it yeah that's all i got today
01:10:32
Speaker
Oh, that was a lot.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:10:34
Speaker
That was a lot, man. That was a really good story. Thank you. yeah Cool. Next time we'll be back with some more shenanigans and I'll have a story for you as well. Or he-nanigans, depending on your pronouns.
01:10:47
Speaker
Or they-nanigans. They-nanigans. Sweet dreams. If you have topic requests, book or movie recommendations, or just want to say hi, email us at nightmarecottage at gmail.com or visit our website at nightmarecottage.com.
01:11:01
Speaker
Sweet dreams.