20/20 - Wild Crime: More Victims? | S3 Ep. 4

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

Wild Crime Season 3: Blood Mountain Episode 4: More Victims? Georgia sentences Hilton to life; now Florida tries him for killing Cheryl Dunlap. We reveal his childhood and meet others who vanished; are they his victims too? We end with investigators talking about Meredith’s legacy and how the case affected them.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Deborah Roberts, co-anchor of 2020. It's time for the final episode of Wild Crime Blood Mountain. Here's Episode 4, More Victims? When you go out to visit with nature, you don't expect to encounter a monster. Not just a killer, I mean a monster. It's a very unique type of killer that is going to actually hunt humans as prey. I don't think somebody wakes up at 61

and now they're a serial killer. It's scary to think how much Gary could have gotten away with. How many more victims are out there? And where are they? That's in the back of my head every day with this case. Hilton was a monster. They run shit and they kill them with it. They kill little bitches.

And he even sang as he was taking her dead body. My little darling. We're doing it, boy. He deserves to die. Life for a life. Mr. Hilton, if you would rise, please. I'm sorry. We're in the mountainous region of North Carolina. The woods and the mountains here that day crosses my mind. I was looking off down in this hollow and I noticed something below the road

that it looked like a human skull. I was nervous and once I got closer to it I knew it was a human skull. At that point, I contacted the Sheriff's Department. February 2nd, 2008, I was contacted in reference to a human skull that had been found on the Nantahala National Forest. Nantahala National Forest, it's a huge, huge, huge national forest. Once you get into the Forest Service land, it's remote. There's just no traffic. Where the call came in at, if you've not been there, you're not going to know anything about it. it. When we found out that a body had been discovered in the Nantahala National Forest, we were anxious to find out who this was. We knew there were other missing persons cases in that

area. And of course, John Bryant was still missing. Since this was on U.S. Forest Service land, Junior Young was the special agent assigned to the area as the investigator for the Forest Service. I immediately get my patrol car, blast out to the area. We go out there, look off a bank, very rugged little area, and I could see the skull, part of the rib cage, spine. When we walked down to the crime scene, I noticed inside the rib cage was a pacemaker. I knew John Bryant had a pacemaker. I contacted his cardiologist and was able to confirm that the serial number on the pacemaker was, in fact, placed inside John Bryant in a medical procedure.

My heart sank. It was really sad. The family was holding out hope that we would be able to find Mr. Bryan alive. And then unfortunately, he is no longer with us. The remains were collected and sent to a medical examiner for an autopsy. Based on autopsy, John had been killed with a firearm.. Now you have the investigation going forward. John Bryant's abduction, kidnapping, and now his death.

I think it's very safe to say that Gary Hilton was our prime suspect, but investigators from our agency attempted to interview him regarding the Bryants. And he was just arrogant and told us he had nothing to say to us. Hilton loved to talk, but he would not get into the Bryant case. He just would not talk. So we have to rely on evidence. So we have to rely on evidence. Everything was in high gear to link the evidence found in the van to the Bryant murders. I'm going through all the inventory items that the GBI had taken out and cataloged. Mr. Bryant had a yellow rain jacket with a fluorescent stripe.

And Hilton had tried to use their ATM card wearing that jacket. Well, when searching the vehicle, I found a yellow rain jacket with a fluorescent stripe, which the Bryants later identified as that belonged to their parents. Also, the GBI found blood in a van that matched the DNA profile of John Bryant. This would be the back of the driver's seat. That's a blood transfer pattern.

His hair came in contact with the back of the seat, left a transfer pattern. So another piece of evidence that helped tie Gary Hilton to the Bryant case. That moment was like, okay, it's done. We know who did it. Since this was U.S. Forest Service land, the FBI got involved. Because if an individual is committing crimes in multiple jurisdictions,

federal charges would be stronger than state, local charges. At that point, I finished all of my reports and all of that was turned over to the FBI. In February 2008, Hilton's indicted in Florida for the death of Cheryl Dunlap. Florida was chomping at the bit to go ahead and come get the evidence. You know, they're ready to prosecute him right then. Florida Department of Law Enforcement came in a tractor trailer and actually drove the van up inside of a tractor trailer along with all of the evidence. It all went to Florida.

Hilton didn't want to be extradited to Florida because he knew that it was very likely that he would be found guilty and given the death penalty. That judge is ruling against Hilton's effort to fight the extradition, clearing the way for Florida authorities to pick him up. The time comes for us to go pick up Hilton and bring him to Leon County for his prosecution. When you're riding in a car with somebody that you know has killed four people, you

have a sense of caution. We had body chains on him. We had lead vehicles. We had trail vehicles. We had SWAT team members because you never know what could happen. This was a several hundred mile trip. We were taking no risks whatsoever. When we got him to jail, you do kind of have that, we've got him now. He's in our custody. On I Was Prey, the podcast, listen to the life-or-death experiences of people who have survived animal attacks, natural disasters, and deadly parasites alike. Hear how a triathlete is attacked by a shark while training and manages to escape after being pulled underwater. And how a hiker in Alaska survives a 1,000-pound moose attack after the animal crushes her limbs.

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Go to CHIME.com slash disclosures for details. My name is Georgia Kappelman. I'm the Chief Assistant State Attorney here in Leon County. Hilton was charged with first degree murder and kidnapping. At the time, he was already doing life from the Meredith Emerson case. And we were not giving Gary Hilton a freebie for murdering one of our citizens, and we were going to be seeking the death penalty. It's very rare for the death penalty to be recommended here in Leon County.

Gary Hilton is the worst of the worst. He's pure evil. Everyone that encountered him had sort of a universal experience where the hairs on the back of their neck stood up just being in his presence. And I was no exception. It's a very unique type of killer that is going to actually go out and hunt humans as prey. And that's what we have here. It's the stuff of nightmares. Cheryl Dunlap was minding her own business, reading a book at the sinks

shortly before her disappearance. Hilton probably had already identified her as a target. She probably made it back to her car and encountered Gary Hilton probably had already identified her as a target. She probably made it back to her car and encountered Gary Hilton. There was some kind of struggle where she was taken from her vehicle and put into his van. He drove around with her for a couple days, and I think that's probably his M.O. I think he wanted to keep them alive as long as he could

for his own purposes, which were probably sexual in nature, but also to drain their bank accounts before ending their lives. It's particularly cold-blooded. It's not normal to take two years to investigate the evidence in a crime, but when the evidence is so prolific, we had a semi-trailer full of stuff. We've got the van chock full of all kinds of evidence, all those campsites. So there were a lot of crime scenes.

We needed to try to connect those to Gary Hilton. And it was really important to find DNA evidence that linked her directly to him. I examined Cheryl Dunlap's car at the laboratory. And one of the things that was in there was plastic beads. This is a picture of a driver's side rear floorboard, and there are two beads in the center of the picture. The plastic beads were from a piece of jewelry

Cheryl Dunlap wore that her grandchild had made her. Those beads obviously were broken in the struggle and at some point ended up in her vehicle. This is where the burn pit was located in Joe Thomas Road. There's all the yellow markers where evidence was found. In the upper right hand corner, there was a very small burned cigarette butt that had Hilton's DNA on it, which then put him at the Joe Thomas Road scene where the hand and skull bones were found. Beads like this were also found at the burn pit. I knew that she was a grandmother, so having those beads in her car would not be unusual,

but it was unusual to find those beads at Joe Thomas Road. Those beads linked him to both that campsite and to her vehicle, which was important in linking him to her murder. We found a pair of Gary Hilton's boots in the dumpster that had blood on the laces that belonged to Cheryl. That was a critical piece of evidence. boots in the dumpster that had blood on the laces that belonged to Cheryl. That was a critical piece of evidence. The FDLE was able to analyze items taken from Gary Hilton's van, including sleeping bags,

a duffel bag which contained Cheryl Dunlap's DNA, as well as one of those beads consistent with the plastic beads that were found both in the fire pit at Gary Hilton's campsite and in Cheryl Dunlap's vehicle. The DNA evidence from the van linked Cheryl Dunlap directly to Gary Michael Hilton in the form of her blood. There is absolutely no reason that her blood could be in his van if he was not the one that murdered her. The jury was out less than four hours deliberating during the guilt phase, and they returned a verdict of guilty as charged.

Once the jury found Mr. Hilton guilty, we went into the penalty phase for the jury to make a determination as to whether to recommend the death penalty. We're here in the state of Florida versus Gary Michael Hilton. My name is Betty Fuentes. I am a mitigation and sentencing specialist. And I became the mitigation specialist for the case of Gary Michael Hilton out of Leon County, Florida. As a mitigation specialist with the defense team, we have to do everything possible

to keep that person not getting the death penalty. I do record collection for everything that has happened to him in his whole entire life. And the defense then brings in the mitigation in the trial. The defense presented mitigating factors, and those were first a Murphy bed falling onary's head when he was a young boy he had dozens of stitches put in his head it hit the frontal lobe of his brain which affects the way that you treat people that's the importance of the head injury

the bed falling on gary's head certainly could have caused a concussion and all sorts of other problems. But what we're looking at with these kinds of cases is predatory violence, hunting human beings. It is not caused by a blow to the head. The second mitigating factor was the Ritalin that he was taking, supposedly for his MS. There was a doctor in Atlanta that prescribed Ritalin. He wrote scripts, gave Hilton several of them, and then Hilton self-medicated by constantly having them. You have to look at the drug history because the drug history could be a sign of a mental illness. There are many people who take Ritalin, many people

who take much more debilitating drugs that don't become serial sexual killers. In my assessment, those factors would not be the explanation for the kind of violence that Gary engaged in. At the end of the penalty phase, Georgia Kappelman played a couple of videos that she had been saving. When we caught Hilton, there was a video camera in his van. Gary Hilton thought that he had deleted those videos. But FDLE was able to recover the video and audio, and Ms. Kaplman played those for the jury.

Okay. Okay, okay. The date stamp was December 3rd, 2007, two days after he had abducted Cheryl Dunlap. On a couple of the clips, it seemed Gary Hilton didn't realize the cameras were recording. He's either talking to himself or his dog and it was vulgar. It's absolutely terrible. There's a little bit of visual consistent with him being near the area where Cheryl Dunlap's body was found. He's talking about murder, he's talking about hiding things. I killed them with that. That's over, bitches.

There was a visceral reaction to some of that information. When he said, I killed those bitches, it was awful. He said some horrible things. That led us to believe that that recording could have been made around the time that he was hiding Cheryl Dunlap's body. And he even sang as he was taking her dead body. My little darling. We're doing it, boy. He was a monster. Yeah.

Hilton was a definite monster. Yeah. a monster. Hilton was a definite monster. Yeah. That's a kill for a bitch, isn't it? Those videos gave the jury a clear idea who Gary Hilton really was. And after that, the state rested and the jury would have to decide whether to give Gary Hilton life or death. Mr. Hilton, if you would rise, please, sir. The court now finds beyond a reasonable doubt that you, Gary Michael Hilton, be sentenced to death for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap, as provided by law. May God have mercy on your soul.

They voted to put him to death unanimously and I'm 100% in agreement for that. I would handle it for them if they would let me. He deserves to die. A life for a life. I firmly believe that. I was very pleased with the jury's recommendation. It was an emotional case for everyone involved, including those jurors who listened to all that evidence. It's been very hard for our family, our whole family. It was very hard.

Yeah. After his conviction in Florida, there were still the cases of John and Irene Bryant in North Carolina. The case was going along really well. All of the evidence was in. And about a week before the trial was scheduled for the murders of John and Irene Bryant, Hilton entered a guilty plea for murder

in exchange for no death penalty. I went to Asheville to his sentencing hearing. The Bryant family was there. He did, in fact, admit that he had killed John and Irene Bryant. Hilton received four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. And then as he was being led out of the courtroom, he looked over at me and just kind of smiled. I feel saddened for the Bryant family.

That never goes away for them, I'm'm sure but it doesn't for me either. And by that time I had decided it was time for me to retire. But I think there's still a lot of unanswered questions. Are there more victims? And if so, where are they? That's in the back of my head every day with this case. I believe Gary Hilton committed more murders than the ones he's charged for. I don't think somebody wakes up at 61 and now they're a serial killer. I have never, ever seen that. It's a progressive evolution of behavior.

It doesn't just start at 61. It's a progressive evolution of behavior. It doesn't just start at 61. It's scary to think how much Gary could have gotten away with. Once you've taken someone, you either kill them or you get caught. It's as simple as that. He was very mobile, so he could have a lifestyle that

involved victimizing people, and no one would ever know. How many more victims are out there? We definitely consider Gary Hilton a suspect in other unsolved cases that we have, especially Levi Frady, since he also was found in Dawson Forest. found in Dawson Forest. Levi was 11 years old. He was riding his bicycle home one day, and he disappeared. The next day, he was found in Dawson Forest,

and he had been murdered. And that case to this day is unsolved. And until that case is solved, I find it difficult to rest. I was down there that morning. I was involved in securing the scene until the investigation could be done. I mean, you can't forget something like that.

And I know there's somebody out there that would have some information. You know, it needs to be solved. I've never eliminated Gary Michael Hilton from being responsible for Levi's case. You never eliminate anyone until you know exactly who it is. Would Gary have been tempted and capable of killing a young boy like Levi Frady? Absolutely he would have been. Absolutely. Gary was a human predator. He likes thrill and excitement, which are traits of psychopathy.

A psychopath is also impulsive and will incorporate risk into his crimes because it makes the crime more exciting for them. Psychopaths will cross over gender lines, and they can cross over age lines when picking their victims. So there could be other victims out there that don't fit the profile that law enforcement have in mind, like Levi Frady. I'm going to tell you something. You take it to the bank, pal. I remember Gary Hilton talking in one of his interviews about hair salons and the fact

that he would stop often at those and go in and just ask for money. You'd be surprised how easy it is. They would generally give him money just to scurry him away so that they could finish their lunch before the next customer would arrive. And of course, Gary knew this and exploited hair salons for money by going at lunchtime. He liked talking with hairdressers. Well, a beauty shop. and exploited hair salons for money by going at lunchtime. He liked talking with hairdressers. Well, a beauty shop.

The owner is going to be there. I take their money and keep it all myself. Okay. It's very interesting to me because of Patrice Endress, an unsolved homicide case. Patrice Endress is a hairdresser from Forsyth County that was kidnapped from her shop in 2004. Patrice vanished in the middle of the day at work. I'm Rob Endress.

Patrice Endress was my wife. I'm Rob Endress. Patrice Endress was my wife. She was caring and loving and gentle and patient. Patrice had a two-chair salon north of the city of Cumming. On the 15th of October, 2004, in the morning, we kissed goodbye and said, I'll see you later. And never heard from Patrice again. It was probably about three o'clock or so, I got a call from a captain from Forsyth County Sheriff's Office and he said Patrice had gone missing.

Patrice was reported missing by a customer. We have a 13 minute window in which Patrice talked to someone on the phone, and then 13 minutes later, another person called. Patrice did not answer the phone, which is very unusual. We believe within that 13 minutes, the events that cost Patrice her life occurred. You wouldn't walk into her shop and immediately think, this is a crime scene. Her cash register drawer was open and there was no money in it. Money was missing. Her purse was there.

There was money in her purse. Nothing else was disturbed about her shop. It's as though she just walked away, but of course we do not believe that's what happened. We have two independent witnesses that saw a blue car there. We're still looking for the people who came to Patricia's shop that day in the blue car. 600 days later, her skeleton was discovered in Dawsonville. Sorry.

No. This was my wife. Patrice. She was the woman that I loved. Patrice was found in a wooded area behind a church. Just outside the Dawson Forest Management Area, in an area that Hilton would know. Very near where Levi Frady was found in 1997. And near where we found Meredith Emerson.

Gary Hilton very well could have kidnapped Patrice. There's a huge match there if you let yourself consider it. It's been an open case for 19 years. Still don't know what happened to her. And she's not the only cold case out there. to her. And she's not the only cold case out there. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops.

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Did I mention that we care? My name is Anibal Miliani. I'm Rosanna Miliani's father. My daughter went missing from Bryson City, North Carolina. Bryson City, North Carolina. It's the far western part of North Carolina. It's the doorway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

doorway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. My name is Luz Miliani and my daughter is Rosanna. She was 29 years old. There we are. Look at her smile. Rosanna's last known sighting was December 7th, 2005. She had contacted her father that morning and told him that she was planning on staying in the area for a little while and hiking the Appalachian Trail. Detectives then started with the missing persons investigation. And it was learned that she had obtained a storage unit from a gentleman named Donald Clough. She had some personal stuff that she needed stored. He owned a storage unit, so he picked her up, got her set up there, and brought her back to town.

After that, she's vanished. During the investigation, Mr. Clough agreed to take a polygraph examination. And it was noted that there was no deception. Mr. Clough had been cleared as being a suspect in her disappearance. At that point in time, it became a cold case. At that point in time, it became a cold case. Time was going by and nothing was happening.

And we contacted a private investigator, Mr. Steve Sisk. Detective Sisk was really very caring about Rosanna. He didn't know her, but he took the case with heart. Steve was retired law enforcement from this area. He was well-liked. He was known as a good investigator, very thorough. Once he got involved in the investigation, Steve had reached out to one of the local newspapers here and asked them to write an article about her disappearance

to try to generate some new information. And after that article was run, an employee at a local thrift store had contacted Steve and said that she had some information about the disappearance. And she said that she saw my daughter in company of a gentleman, approximately 60 years old, that was leading her. She said it looked like he was wearing a wig to disguise himself. And she was kind of nervous. They bought a backpack and they left.

She said that she had seen a picture of Gary Hilton on the news and that she believed that the person that she saw with the wig was Gary Hilton and the female was Rosanna. They had been together in her store. Once Steve had this information, he contacted a sketch artist trained by the FBI and requested him to have a sketch drawn and to put it out in the public to see if it helped generate any information.

That's more or less what the gentleman looked like. This looked like Hilton. Looked like Hilton was awake. Gary's booking photo, you can see that, of course, he has a receding hairline. The round in the chin, he has some very distinct things with the lips. The features of the bridge of the nose. There's some similarities that make you think that there was a very good chance that that was Gary Helton that came in to the thrift store that day. Once Steve has the sketch done, he provides it to law enforcement.

It's released to the media. We're hoping that that sketch is going to generate some new leads. But it really didn't. No one came forward to say that they had seen her. Unfortunately, in 2021, Steve passed away due to COVID. At that point in time, the case was given to me as a cold case. You have a female that's alone. You have remote areas.

You have national forests. There's too many similarities not to consider Gary Michael Hilton as a suspect. So we traveled to Florida State Prison. They brought Hilton in and we were going to take a chance, you know, maybe we can get some information on Rosanna's disappearance. This is about a lady by the name of Rosanna Miliani. Okay, I know who you're talking about. Well, Mr. Chipman, there's a couple reasons I want to talk to you about this. Well, it's my M.O.

Had you been in North Carolina any time around that time, December 2005? No, I haven't been in North Carolina for years. For years. Rosanna, I, on December 7, 2005, was seen with a male, a white male. Yes, yes. And he's a composite. It's similar to you. Is that you?

Oh, no, no. Listen, she disappeared during a hiking trip under some circumstances. My victims were all taken in the woods. Okay, it all fits together. I was active in North Carolina, but it wasn't me, okay? Gary Hilton did not admit to being in this area during the time frame of 2005. I did not believe him. One single bit.

Let me ask you this. Would you be willing to take a polygraph? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Uh, just relax. The protest is about to begin. Okay, let's go over these questions together. Regarding the disappearance of Rosanna in North Carolina, do you intend to answer truthfully each question about her? Yes. Are you responsible for the disappearance of Roseanne? No. Did you cause the disappearance of Roseanne? No.

You have absolutely no ties to this disappearance? No, no. Other than, sure as hell looked like it was me. Yeah. Okay. The polygraph was noted with no deception. The only thing with that is somebody that is a psychopath believes what they're saying.

So they could pass the polygraph and still be lying. I'm still not convinced that Gary Hilton did not have something to do with Rosanna's disappearance. I personally believe that there are cases out there that has Gary Hilton's name on it that just have not been solved yet.

And this is one of them. It is very hard to wake up every morning without knowing what your daughter is. Two more years, and it will be 20 years since Rosanna disappeared. So, a lifetime. A lifetime. My goal is to find out what happened to my daughter. There's no clue. There's no body. There's no evidence. I'm 75 years old, so I hope I don't go to the other side without knowing.

I plead to anyone that knows something about what happened to Rosanna to contact the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Maybe out of this, something will come out. So what happened to Rosanna to contact the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation? Maybe out of this, something will come out. So far, it's a terrible mystery. It's a painful mystery. Yeah, we have been through a lot. But you have to keep on going.

I will stop when I die. The totality of all of these states, all of these crimes, all of these jurisdictions, everything came down to Gary Michael Hilton. This is the person responsible for creating harm to all of these families. When you go out to visit with nature, you don't expect it to be dangerous. You don't expect to encounter a monster on a hiking trail.

Not just a killer, I mean a monster. He's an animal. Wherever he went, if he's seen an opportunity, it's just like a jackal. You know, he's going to take the opportunity. He's a psychopath. That's what they do It's just like a jackal. You know, he's going to take the opportunity. He's a psychopath. That's what they do. They just like killing people.

No remorse. Just the devil incarnate. I think his motivations were multiple in nature. These crimes are so complicated, there's never one motive. They're sexually motivated. There's motivations that include things like wanting power and control over the victim. Looking at Gary's history, I would think that he started

to act out, and not necessarily in a homicidal way initially, in his mid-teen years and that could have included sexual crimes attempted rapes but at a certain point it evolves and it becomes even more violent typically early to mid-20s is when the extreme violence would have started to manifest itself. He's a serial sexual killer. He took extreme risks when he committed the crime. He had no accountability, which is why we probably don't know the full extent of what he did.

The amount of violence is significant. The amount of cruelty, even more significant. And how these people were treated, both before death and after death, is really stunning. First time we've been back, will you? Yep. And it don't bring back good memories. No, it doesn't.

I can't understand how anybody could do something like that, but I've never saw that kind of evil before. Rough. Yeah. I saw them over right here that night, and I wanted to know. Yeah. I saw them over right here that night, and I wanted to know. Yeah. That was a sad day. Yeah.

Well, there's no way to make any sense of it. The Meredith Emerson case was the last case I worked at GBI. I think it's changed all of us. The motto that I've tried to live by all of my career was never get too close, never let it get personal. And I let it get personal. I let it get to me. And I just can't seem to get over that.

John was destroyed by this case the same way I was. We're supposed to be, you know, 10 foot tall and bulletproof. This doesn't affect us, but this case certainly did. This case was different for us because normally we arrive to find the victim and then we work hard to seek justice for them. In this case, we were proactively working to save a life actually working to save a life. As Meredith very intelligently manipulated Gary to stay alive just to give us another minute, another hour to get to her. Um... Yeah, give me a second.

Yeah, give me a second. You know, I keep thinking, you know, what if we found her? I mean, man, we were so close. Just couldn't make it happen. It was difficult knowing we didn't get there before she ran out of time. And that is devastating to think about. It's just, it's something that is beyond what you can deal with. Gary Hilton would still be killing people today in my opinion had Meredith Emerson not fought him and continued to fight him for the rest of her life. She's the hero. She's the one that solved her

own murder and solved the murders of Cheryl Dunlap and John and Irene Bryant. God may choose to forgive him. However, he is not worth the time and energy it would take me to do so. My focus will remain on all the good Meredith stood for and still does. Meredith touched so many people in a positive way both in life and death. Meredith saved a lot of lives because Hilton admitted that he would never have stopped killing had we not captured him. I believe that people are put on earth for a reason. I think hers forests are safe. They're good places to go, to get away, to forget about troubles you may have or just

relax. You know, danger lurks at good places. You just have to be aware and you have to understand that people are watching you. And there's probably more Gary Hiltons out there just waiting on somebody to come along when they're alone. So take a friend. This is Deborah Roberts. Gary Hilton remains on death row in Florida. No execution date has been set.

Wild Crime was produced by Lone Wolf Media for ABC News Studios. You can find the series streaming on Hulu, along with, of course, more episodes of 2020. Thanks for listening.