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Man Faces Kidnap Charge In Georgia Hiker's Disappearance

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By DANIEL YEE, The Associated Press

Published: January 6, 2008

ATLANTA - Authorities said Saturday that they think a hiker who disappeared in the northern Georgia woods on New Year's Day is dead, and they charged the man who was reportedly last seen with her with kidnapping.

Union County Superior Court Judge David Barrett signed a warrant charging Gary Michael Hilton with kidnapping with bodily injury in the disappearance of Meredith Emerson, said Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead.

Authorities were serving the warrant on Hilton on Saturday evening. It was issued "based on evidence recovered in various locations," Bankhead said. He did not elaborate.

Bankhead said the search for the 24-year-old woman, who was hiking with her dog in Chattahoochee National Forest, is now focused on finding her body.

"The search has changed from rescue to recovery, based on the evidence we've uncovered so far," he said.

Hilton is in federal custody near Atlanta, held on a warrant for failure to appear in federal court for a charge of abandoning property in a national park.

The search continued into Saturday evening. Teams focused on a 5-square-mile area of rugged mountain territory about 90 miles north of Atlanta in Chattahoochee National Forest, near where her car was discovered Wednesday, Bankhead said.

The search had been focused on Vogel State Park, at the base of Blood Mountain in the national forest, where Emerson was last seen on New Year's Day hiking with her black Labrador retriever, Ella.

Also on Saturday, authorities went to Forsyth County in the Atlanta suburbs, where Ella was found Friday at a grocery store, Bankhead said. Authorities identified Ella using her implanted microchip, Union County investigator Kimberly Verdone said.

Police picked up Hilton at a convenience store in the Atlanta area, Verdone said.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation declined to specify how investigators learned Hilton's name and other details about him.

A friend described Emerson as an experienced hiker who has a blue belt in martial arts. Other friends said she was familiar with the trail near the spot her car was found at, having jogged on it several times with a partner.

Emerson, formerly of Longmont, Colo., recently moved to Buford, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta.

Vogel is one of Georgia's oldest and most popular state parks. The area includes a segment of the Appalachian Trail, the famous hiking route that stretches from Georgia to Maine.

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