Man charged in Ga. hiker murder looked at for missing NC hiker

BRYSON CITY, N.C. (AP) The man charged in the beating death of a Georgia hiker is being looked at in the 2005 disappearance of a Florida woman who was hiking in western North Carolina.

Investigators said 26-year-old Rossana Miliani was last in Bryson City on December 7th, 2005.

A store clerk from Bryson City recently told a private investigator that Miliani came into her store with a white man in his 60s and appeared nervous when they bought a backpack. The clerk contacted private investigator Steve Siske after reading about Miliani on the second anniversary of her disappearance.

Siske said he noticed case similarities when 61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton was arrested for the murder of 24-year-old Meredith Emerson, whose body was found in a national forest in the north Georgia mountains.

A spokeswoman with the State Bureau of Investigation confirmed Monday that agents are ``considering the possibility of a connection,'' but declined further comment.