Sentenced to death in Florida and to life imprisonment in Georgia and North Carolina, Hilton remains a suspect in several other killings, including that of Judy Smith.

After not hearing from them for two weeks, family members reported the couple as missing to the Henderson County Sheriff's Office, who promptly launched a search for the Bryants, consisting of more than thirty volunteers, cadaver dogs and a helicopter.

Simultaneously, it was revealed that a bank card belonging to the Bryants had been used to withdraw $300 from an ATM in Ducktown, Tennessee, with the surveillance cameras showing an older Caucasian man wearing a yellow rainjacket whose hood was obscuring his face.

[11] Considering this behavior to be unusual, her family reported her missing on the following day, after her abandoned car, a white Toyota Camry, was located north of the county line.

[13] On December 16, 2007, Ronnie Rentz, a hunter passing through the woods in the Apalachicola National Forest with his dogs, discovered the decapitated, decomposing body of a white woman, immediately reporting the finding to the state authorities.

[20] On New Year's Day of 2008, 24-year-old sales manager Meredith Hope Emerson decided to go for a hike along the Freeman Trail on Blood Mountain, in Georgia's Vogel State Park.

[25] On January 5, 2008, authorities located numerous items belonging to Emerson inside a dumpster near a QuikTrip parking lot in Cumming: her bloodied clothing, wallet, driver's license, a University of Georgia ID card and a bloodstained car seat belt.

[41] Upon examining his van, the same 2001 Chevrolet Astro as reported earlier in tips by witnesses, authorities noticed that it was missing its rear car seat belt, which matched the one located among Emerson's personal items.

[42] In exchange for dropping the death penalty against him and assuring his dog Dandy's safe rehoming,[43] Hilton agreed to reveal where he had disposed of Emerson's remains, leading the investigators to the Dawson Forest Management Area.

[46] Despite his efforts to fight his extradition, Hilton was brought to Leon County from the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in June 2008, and was remanded to await trial for the Dunlap killing.

[48] At his trial, prosecutors claimed that Hilton had abducted Dunlap from the Leon Sinks Geological Area and held her captive for two days, before eventually killing her and decapitating her body.