TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The man who admits to brutally killing a 24-year-old woman in the North Georgia mountains on New Year's Day 2008 is appearing in a Florida courtroom Friday for separate murder charges.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Gary Michael Hilton is being tried for first-degree murder in the death of Cheryl Dunlap, a Florida nurse who whose body was found in the Apalachicola National Forrest in December 2007.
Hilton has already been sentenced to life in prison in the death of Georgia hiker Meredith Emerson. Authorities said Hilton faces the death penalty in the Dunlap case.
Hilton admitted attacking Emerson as she hiked near Blood Mountain in Union County on New Year's Day. He held Emerson captive for three days, beat her to death, then decapitated her body in the Dawson Forrest Wildlife Management Area. Officials believe Dunlap was killed in a similar way.
Meanwhile, authorities have linked Hilton to at least three other slayings but so far, he has not been charged in any of them.
Monday
April 28th, 2025
11:54PM
