GBI Just Missed Rescuing Emerson

More information is emerging about how close the GBI may have been last week to capturing Gary Hilton and rescuing Meredith Emerson.

Hilton moved about openly, and the GBI was soon able to track him.

GBI agents were hot on Gary Hilton's trail by the end of the three days last week when Hilton held Emerson alive. It's just that Hilton was a step ahead of them.

One place Gary Hilton drove last week while holding Emerson prisoner was a Huddle House restaurant on Highway 53, west of Dawsonville, in Pickens County.

Late Thursday afternoon, Hilton came inside, saying he needed to make a phone call, but couldn't find a pay phone. So he used the restaurant's phone.

"[He] called somebody, sat in one of our booths, talked for quite a long time," said restaurant owner Jim Barkley. "He would get agitated, and calmed down, and get agitated, and calmed down."

Barkley said the man he now knows was Gary Hilton spoke so long on the phone, the server finally asked Hilton to hang up and leave, and watched Hilton walk outside to his van and drive away -- possibly, according to the GBI, with Meredith Emerson inside of it, alive and tied up.

"This is very sad to think that Thursday afternoon she was alive and in our parking lot," said Barkley.

Barkley said one of his servers was just getting off of work at 5 p.m., and she was leaving at the same time Hilton was walking out.

She is 18 years old, and, as they both walked outside to their vehicles, Barkley said she began to feel uneasy.

"She was very nervous" because of the way she said the man who turned out to be Hilton looked at her. "She didn't know why, at the time, but she just was nervous about it, because he was watching her."

One hour later, authorities released Hilton's name and photo, asking the public's help in finding him. Before Jim Barkley could call the GBI about Hilton having just been in the restaurant, the GBI showed up. Agents took his restaurant's surveillance tape.

But Gary Hilton, with Meredith Emerson, was already long gone.

"I just wish that we had known then what we know now," Barkley said. "Maybe we could have done something to save her life."

So who did Gary Hilton call from the restaurant? Barkley said the GBI agents told him they know who it is -- it's someone who immediately called the GBI about Hilton's call, as soon as the GBI announced that Hilton was wanted for questioning.

And that's how they tracked Hilton to that restaurant.

Emerson's body was found on Monday in Dawson County, an hour's drive away from where she went missing.

Dawson County lies in a different judicial circuit than Union County. Authorities there made a deal with Hilton, that they would not pursue the death penalty if he led them to Emerson's body. Whether Dawson County authorities will honor that deal is unclear.

"Neither I, nor any of my staff was made aware of, involved in, or invited to be any discussion," said Dawson D.A. Lee Darraugh.