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2007-12-27  TOP STORIES | Forsyth Sheriff's Office investigating ties between slain hiker, hairdresser
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| | by Jason Wright | |  |
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| | | (Sketches courtesy GBI)
This mug shot of Gary M. Hilton from his 1995 arrest in Cobb County for simple battery bears a striking resemblance to two sketches of men wanted ffor questioning in connection with the 1997 disappearance and slaying of 11-year-old Levi Frady. One sketch is from a description of a man seen where Levi disappeared and the the other was of a man seen near where the body was found. (click for larger version) | |
January 09, 2008
CUMMING -- The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office and GBI are looking at possible links between the cases of slain hiker Meredith Emerson and the 4-year-old case involving deceased hairdresser Patrice Endres, Capt. Frank Huggins, a spokesman for the Sheriiff's Office, said.
Huggins said there are similarities between the cases -- both victims were women who disappeared suspiciously and were found in wooded areas of Dawson County.
Now police are investigating whether Gary Hilton, who the GBI announced Jan. 7 had taken authorities to Emerson's body, was involved in the earlier homicide also.
"But right now the GBI is focusing on this [current] case, obviously," he said.
Possibly hampering the investigation, Huggins said, was the fact that Endres' remains yielded no clues nor evidence as to her disappearance and death.
The Jan. 1 abduction of 24-year-old Emerson from a hiking trail near the base of Blood Mountain in Union County and subsequent arrest of Chamblee resident Hilton for killing her has shocked and captivated Georgia and the nation.
Forsyth County links to the case include the Jan. 4 discovery of Emerson's black Labrador dog wandering the parking lot of the Kroger at Ga. 306 and Freedom Parkway in Cumming. Police also made the grisly discovery of her bloody clothing and identification in a dumpster at the Quick Trip gas station across the street, according to Hilton's Union County arrest warrant.
The warrant also said Hilton placed phone calls from the gas station and was seen using Emerson's charge card at a Regions Bank in Canton. Investigators also found a bloody piece of seat belt in Forsyth and found Hilton's van -- which he was cleaning with bleach and water at the time of his arrest -- to be missing a portion of its seat belt.
According to Hilton's arrest warrant, he was picked up Jan. 4 at a convenience store on Ashford Dunwoody Road by DeKalb County police officers.
The GBI announced Jan. 8 Emerson died from blunt force trauma to the head and then was decapitated. She was found in the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area in Dawson County.
Endres, who went missing April 15, 2004 from her Tambler's Trim-N-Tan salon on Matt Highway in Cumming, was found Dec. 6, 2005.
Two men working at the Lebanon Baptist Church in Dawson County found her skeletal remains behind the building.
Jeremy Jones, a convicted murderer from Alabama, admitted to killing Endres in 2005. He seemed to be leading investigators on a wild goose chase, however.
Her killer remains at large.
- www.northfulton.com
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Links to slain child?
The 1997 case of a slain 11-year-old boy whose body was found in the same wooded area as Meredith Emerson's body might also be linked as well.
According to the GBI's unsolved homicides Web site, Levi Frady was last seen on Little Mill Road in Forsyth County Oct. 22, 1997. His body was found the next day in the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area.
Suspect sketches from the case seem to bear a passing resemblance to Gary Hilton, who helped lead the GBI to Emerson's body and stands accused of her murder.
According to John Bankhead, a GBI spokesman, the agents in the Cleveland field office, which covers Dawson County, are currently involved in the Emerson case.
Though there are similarities in the cases, agents will investigate the Frady link as time and work load allows.
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Tags: Meredith Emerson
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