Murder of Meredith Emerson

[10] A local drifter and as-of-then unidentified serial killer, 61-year-old man Gary Michael Hilton, became and was announced as a person of interest in her disappearance.

[11] On January 4, three days after Emerson and Ella were last seen, a witness at a Chevron gas station called DeKalb police and stated that "the guy you are looking for is cleaning out his van."

[12] The next day, more of Emerson's belongings would be found in a dumpster near a QuikTrip elsewhere in the city: her bloodied clothing, wallet, driver's license, a University of Georgia ID card, and a bloodstained car seat belt.

Hilton claimed he had asked Emerson for her debit card PIN and that when she failed to give him the correct number, he kept her for four days before killing her with a tire iron.

On February 25, 2010, Hustler magazine reporter Fred Rosen asked for the Meredith Emerson crime scene and autopsy photos as part of an open records request filed with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).

This order came on the same date that the Georgia House Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed "The Meredith Emerson Memorial Privacy Act", which prevents crime scene photos from being publicly released or disseminated, according to Rep. Jill Chambers.

"We have to walk the line between open record laws and the constitutional provisions that allow women to be able to be photographed nude or in pornography when they knowingly and willingly offer their bodies for dissemination," Chambers stated.