AJC ARCHIVES

**Daffodil** · Admin Number of posts: 109 Registration date: 2008-03-17

Did anyone save the front page of this newspaper?

Man sought for questioning about hiker
Person of interest: Police want to talk to a 61-year-old seen with woman before she vanished.
Date: January 4, 2008 Publication: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA) Page Number: A1 Word Count: 1033

As friends, family and volunteers searched in bitter cold and rugged mountain terrain Thursday for Meredith Hope Emerson of Buford, a 24-year-old hiker not seen since New Year's Day, another search was under way for an aging backpacker now wanted for questioning in her disappearance.
Law enforcement officials said at nightfall that they wanted to talk with Gary Michael Hilton, 61, who was seen by other hikers in Vogel State Park as he and Emerson walked with their dogs up.....

if so, can you please share? Is there a picture on the front?

GeorgiaPeach · Subject: Re: AJC ARCHIVES Sun Jun 08, 2008 1:29 am

I am trying to clear up the confusion. Christian Boone and I are still in contact. I asked Christian to let me know what was the first edition of the AJC to name and show Hilton's picture and whether or not the edition that would have been on the stands 1/3/08 by 4:30 would have actually named Hilton or just described the person of interest or maybe just been about Meredith being missing. I will post his response.

Judging from everything I can find on the internet that still has the original date and time on it, the AJC did not contain Hilton's picture on 1/3/08. It wasn't until later that evening that his name was actually being put out there.
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=5379471&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1

**Daffodil** · Admin Number of posts: 109 Registration date: 2008-03-17

Could it have been another newspaper? A local one perhaps?

GeorgiaPeach · Subject: Re: AJC ARCHIVES Sat Jun 14, 2008 11:22 am

Daffodil wrote:

Could it have been another newspaper? A local one perhaps?

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2008/03/02/cagle03021.html?cxntlid=inform_sr

Case closed
The disappearance and slaying of 24-year-old hiker Meredith Emerson haunts the lead investigator on the case. He wonders why some things were and weren't done and could her death have been prevented.

By Rhonda Cook
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/02/08
John Cagle said he wakes up at night thinking about how close investigators came to finding Meredith Emerson.
A turn down a different trail might have led searchers to the 24-year-old hiker before it was too late....

Investigators used the media to involve the public in the search for Hilton, putting out a description of the van and then a sketch and then his name. In the end, the tactic helped investigators find Hilton. But that same publicity also may have pushed him to kill Emerson when he did. When police captured Hilton, they found two days of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution —- with front-page stories about the search —- in Hilton's van, Cagle said.

BandMom · Angels Number of posts: 42 Registration date: 2008-03-20

"Investigators used the media to involve the public in the search for Hilton, putting out a description of the van and then a sketch and then his name. In the end, the tactic helped investigators find Hilton. But that same publicity also may have pushed him to kill Emerson when he did. When police captured Hilton, they found two days of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution —- with front-page stories about the search —- in Hilton's van, Cagle said."

Regarding details released to the public, it appears LE and the media are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

GeorgiaPeach · Subject: Re: AJC ARCHIVES Sat Jun 14, 2008 10:00 pm

BandMom wrote:

Regarding details released to the public, it appears LE and the media are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

It wasn't what was in the paper that made a difference to Hilton, rather it was what was not in the paper that could have made a difference to Hilton. His own words were, "if you are already caught then there is no use in killing them", but we will never know for sure now, if John Tabor's story had made it to the front pages on the 3rd whether Hilton would have killed Meredith or not. But I am going to guess that it would have made a difference. I am also going to guess that the phone call Hilton made on the 1st from Vogal State Park was to John Tabor and that call, along with the second call made on the 3rd was all a part of Hilton's game plan. Tabor's own sick words were "game over".