Police Find Hiker's Blood-Stained Clothes, IDs

WSBTV.com, Action News 2, Atlanta ^ | 1/05/2008 | WSBTV

[Scoutmaster]

Police believe missing hiker Meredith Emerson is dead after finding her blood-soaked clothing Saturday in a dumpster.

[Stonewall Jackson]

Our forefathers hiked armed too - for entirely different reasons.

Wackos like this are just as dangerous as any Indian that Daniel Boone might have encountered while passing through the Cumberland Gap or Jedidiah Smith might have run into while exploring the Rockies. Unfortunately, most of these wackos look like the guy next door, making it a might bit difficult to discern friend from foe.

I like to go hiking, but I have started carrying a pistol with me whenever possible. There are too many meth labs popping up out in the woods in my area and too many cases of rabid animals for me to go traipsing through the woods without adequate protection.

[pax_et_bonum]

Ger dog was a lab mix, I’m assuming from this labs aren’t very protective.

?

Maybe a better assumption would be that labs aren't omnipotent.

[hellbender]

Ger dog was a lab mix, I’m assuming from this labs aren’t very protective.

Most Labs are almost as worthless for defense as Golden Retrievers. They are friendly, indiscriminately affectionate, and not very brave.

[Scoutmaster]

Most thru-hikers will tell you to don’t camp close to roads...may sound strange to some but i agree with it.

I've heard the same -- both because of the danger and the desire for solitude. Thru-hikers may not want to handle all of the questions and bonhomie from weekend hikers who are in the shelters.

However, aren't you allegedly 'required' to sleep in shelters rather than along the trail?

[Scoutmaster]

I think Hilton had a dog too.

Hilton did indeed. Meredith and Hilton were observed letting their dogs play together -- it may be how he approached her, like Ted Bundy and his fake cast.

The dog also played a role in Hilton's identification. At least one of the hikers who saw Meredith and Hilton together described the dogs and remembered the name of Hilton's dog. Once the description of the man and dog, and the dog's name, were announced, tipsters quickly gave police Hilton's name.

[hellbender]

Have any of the AT murder victims not been female? I think it is very dangerous for a woman to be on the trail alone. Another factor is that a hiker inside a sleeping bag in a small tent , esp. when actually asleep, is extremely vulnerable. It's almost like already being tied up inside a cage.

[doodad]

However, aren't you allegedly 'required' to sleep in shelters rather than along the trail?

No not at all. I have never stayed in them except one time when they built the new loft models. Many reasons, but mice being one of them. Also, we always liked to get off the trail and have a sense of solitude and/or better views. I have met some real wierdos out in the woods. Another reason to stay off trail and out of sight.

[dljordan]

“The AT is one refuge for solitude i look forward to...and now crazies are running loose there....it’s hard to keep your spirits up in this world....this really gets me down....i seel so sorry for her family....i need to get the thoughts out of my head of what i would do to Mr. Hilton...it’s not healthy.”

Back in the 80’s and 90’s my friends and I used to hike a portion of the trail every month. Hikers were being killed, raped and robbed even back then. I always carried a Charter Arms .38 in my pocket just in case.

Another factor is stupidity. I used to hike with some Sierra Club people and they were totally clueless about the back woods of Tennessee and Georgia being mostly from NYC and LA but they thought they knew everything. I had a hell of a time one day convincing them that they didn’t want to go down a certain trail in the Cherokee National Forest that was being guarded by a “Deputy Sheriff” with a .357 on his hip. The lawyers in the group wanted to argue with him and I just couldn’t come out and tell them that he was guarding a pot crop. Dumbasses.

[chasio649]

No...you don’t have to sleep in shelters...except for the Smokey Mountain part of the trail....I don’t like to sleep in shelters myself...too many mice and it’s warmer in a tent anyways...the best advice i have is be aware of your surroundings but it is hard to do when you have been hiking all day and negotiating rocks and roots....really the best advice is don’t go alone...always hike with a partner for many good reasons.

[Scoutmaster]

I think it was North Carolina....Pisgah National Forest.

If you are thinking of John and Irene Bryant, the elderly Colorado couple who disappeared in late October, then you're correct. It was the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina, about 150-170 miles north of Vogel State Park. Vogel is the area of the AT where Meredith disappeared.

The body of Irene Bryant was found three weeks later. She had been beaten to death. John Bryant is still missing.

From Pisgah, the story headed to Ducktown, Tennessee, about an hour from Vogel. A surveillance tape captured images of a man in a yellow coat using the Bryant's ATM card. The yellow coat is thought to have belonged to John Bryant.

At the beginning of the search for Meredith, it was reported she was last seen with a man and a second dog - and the man was wearing a yellow coat.

The Bryants:

Meredith Emerson:

[Southerngl]

OH NO!!

This is my territory down here and when they found that guy cleaning out his van I knew it wasn’t good. He had rolls and rolls of paper towels in his windshield area as if he were washing out with paper towels. And her dog was found 50 miles from where she went missing. I bet the guy didn’t expect the dog to have a microchip implant.

So sad, but I was afraid of this from the start. Her friends said she was a bluebelt in martial arts and she probably felt a false sense of security hiking alone on BLOOD MOUNTAIN.

[chasio649]

Honestly...i hope he did both murders.

[Alberta's Child]

I learned an interesting lesson as a young adult when I was out camping in the woods with a couple of friends and came across someone on the trail who just "wasn't right" (without knowing exactly what his story was). He turned out to be a very nice guy, but we never felt safe around him and were glad to see him go off on his way.

When we talked about later one of my friends asked me why the guy seemed so excessively nice to us.

"Just look at us," I said (we had been in the woods for three days without a shower, shave, or anything of the sort -- and some of us include various and sundry military equipment in our hiking/camping gear) . . . "That strange dude is probably a serial killer, but one look at us and he could barely keep from crapping in his pants."

My rule of thumb in the outdoors is to make sure the group I'm with looks almost like something out of a Mad Max movie. The best defense in a situation like that is an aura of borderline derangement.

[devane617]

I also wonder about the missing teacher from south Georgia. I can’t recall her name, but she was from Ocilla, or the Tifton area. Went missing about a year ago without a trace.

[CurlyDave]

...dog was a lab mix, I’m assuming from this labs aren’t very protective.

My labs will bark & growl at strangers, but have never bitten.

If I interact peacefully with the stranger, they calm down.

I suspect this guy interacted with her long enough for her dog to treat him as a "friend", since they were seen talking together. Then, when there were no witnesses he did her in.

She should have been carrying...

[Uri’el-2012]

Meredith Emerson should have taken an NRA Refuse to be a Victim course.

One is taught to carry OC Pepper Spray.

[buckalfa]

Thank you for the clarification.

[Scoutmaster]

Have any of the AT murder victims not been female?

Yes. Three men. The murders:

• 1996 (Virginia)- Two women found in Shenandoah National Park with their throats slashed. They were camped off the trail, and had a golden retriever which was unharmed. The man convicted of killing them indicated he did so because he hated women and gays (the women were lesbians).

• 1990 (Pennsylvania)- A man and woman shot to death in a shelter as they slept. The killer was caught.

• 1988 (Pennsylvania) - Two women attacked by a man on the trail in Pennsylvania. He shot and killed one. Again, the killer was captured and indicated he did so because the women were lesbians.

• 1981 (Virginia) - Man and woman thru-hikers killed in cabin. Killer was caught.

• 1975 (Tennessee) - A woman hacked to death with a hatchet. Killer was caught.

• 1974 (Georgia) - Man killed in shelter.

[blueheron2]

She should have been carrying and she should have had a dog like my last two German Shepherds. They thought they invented “trust but verify.”
I told my daughter’s boyfriend not to move but he thought he knew more about dogs than he did.

[Concho]

It seems to me that there have been other missing persons or deaths in that area associated with the stranger in the yellow coat.

Wonder what the take would be if they began finding those drunks, druggies and derelicts along the AT? Human nature being what it is, I’m surprised that there isnt a citizen uprising in that area.