Gary Michael Hilton and Missing Miami Woman

July 27, 2009

The latest information on the so-called Appalachian Trail Serial Killer, also known as Gary Michael Hilton, indicates that he may be linked to a missing Miami woman, 26-year-old Rossana Miliani, who disappeared four years ago after purchasing a sleeping bag at a Bryson City, North Carolina general store.  At that time she was seen in the company of an older man with graying hair who, police say, may have been Hilton.  Miliani's father, a Miami resident, said that a new sketch of the man seen with his daughter that is now being circulated looks like Hilton.  Rossana's father said that he has not seen or heard from his daughter since December 7, 2005.

The man in Rossana's company told a clerk at the general store where they purchased the sleeping bag that he was a traveling preacher who visited campsites in and around the Appalachian Trail to spread the word of God.  The man also apparently said that he had taken a bus from the South Florida area, where Miami is located, and traveled to North Carolina.  When the clerk described the man, he said that he seemed nervous, and appeared to have been in his late 50s or early 60s.  He said that it looked like the man may have been wearing a hairpiece.  The store clerk also told a private investigator, Steve Siske, that the woman accompanying him also appeared nervous.

There is no hard evidence linking Hilton to Miliani, only the newly-released sketch and notable similarities to other cases that Hilton is believed to have been involved in.  Rossana's father wants the police in North Carolina to thoroughly examine the possible link between Hilton and his daughter, but so far it appears that little has been accomplished.

"The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is still considering a possible connection between Hilton and Miliani's disappearance, but that is not the sole focus of our investigation," said a spokeswoman for the police agency.

Although Miliani was known to have bipolar disorder, her father does not believe that she ran away or committed suicide, and is looking for answers to his daughter's mysterious disappearance.

"She called me most every night, to check in," her father said of his daughter's extensive travels.

He said that she had called him on December 6, 2005 from a Ramada Inn in North Carolina, located approximately five miles from Bryson City.  Like the man described by the general store clerk she, too, had taken the bus from South Florida to North Carolina earlier that same day.  When she spoke to her father that day, she said that she wanted to go hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

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The North Carolina Bureau of Investigation told Siske, the private investigator, that they planned to interview Hilton, but have not yet done so.

"The frustration I have with the case is, if it's not Hilton, who is it?" said Siske.  "If he's not involved, then we can eliminate the only real lead we have so far."

"It's so painful not knowing," said Rossana's father.  "I hope she never met him (Hilton), but I want to know one way or another.  It's been almost four years."

Hilton, readers will recall, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering and decapitating hiker Meredith Emerson in Georgia, and is awaiting trial for the murder and decapitation of nurse and Sunday school teacher Cheryl Hodges Dunlap, whose dismembered body was found December 15, 2007, in the Apalachicola National Forest in Florida.  Prosecutors in that case are seeking the death penalty.  He is also the only suspect in two other murders that are still being investigated, and has been named as a person of interest in yet another slaying.

We will keep you informed as additional information surfaces about the bizarre cases Hilton is suspected of being involved in.

Related Link:
Gary Michael Hilton Update
Update on Suspected Serial Killer Gary Michael Hilton

Photo Credit: Police file photo

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Comments

[tazebell]

I wish the PI would clarify a few points in Miliani's disappearance:

She spent time in Asheville before arriving in Cherokee. When she arrived in Cherokee was she alone? The motel room she got was secured through a local minister - did she share her plans with him? The shopping thing confuses me, too. I have read she either got a sleeping bag or backpack. This older man, who looked like he was wearing a wig, said he was a traveling preacher when he spoke with the clerk- this clerk didn't come forward for two years, however. I have read her companion paid for the purchases, which included a used suit for himself. Interestingly enough, this is the first I have heard that he was on the bus up to NC as well. Finally, Miliani rented a storage unit for one month. The owner gave her a ride to his place, some 5 miles out of town, where she left basically all she brought with her from FL. How did she get back into town? Did she have a room for that night or did she plan to jump right out on the trail?

These are just a few ideas that have been on my mind as I read about how she went missing. I could go on - but I will spare you my ramblings. Somebody should have talked with her or seen her with these people. She didn't have a car, and had to rely on others or buses and cabs. (did that public system even run in December of that year because they don't currently). I think trying to make this out to be Hilton without filling in some of these blanks is foolish.

[MB]

Thank you for the update, I have bothered that the cases with this man seem to go without updating. Glad he is off the streets and off the hiking trails!!!

[Joe Zingher]

Actually, Gary Michael Hilton is a psychopathic killer who specialized in using his victim's ATM card. For 20 years, he lived as a transient, using their cards to live on. He's been convicted in Georgia of Meredith Emerson's murder, and using her card. He's been indicted in the murders of Jack and Irene Bryant in NC and using their cards. Some sources claim he's the suspect in 50 or so murders up and down the south east Atlantic. He's not unusual at all. There's also Bruce Mendenhall, a cross country trucker who was caught with his most recent victim's ATM card and a reciept. He's in jail now in Nashville and under indictment in a dozen states, also for murders going back twenty years or so. Then there's the "Town Center Mall Killer" who is wanted for the murder of Randi Gorenberg and Nancy & Joey Bochiccio in Boca Raton. All murdered for their ATM cards. In Chicago, we have Tameka Newson and Martha Jean and their boyfriends, aka, "The Honey Trap Killers." The women would lure men to a hotel room where they'd be expecting a party. The boyfriends would rush the room, tie up the men, torture them for the PINs and then kill them. The banking industry uses political muscle to prevent the statistics from being tracked on the problem. By keeping it out of sight and out of mind, the sheep keep using the ATM, paying the fees, and have no idea how extensive the problem is. Even the Federal government has no idea how high this murder rate is. [url]http://ftc.gov/os/2010/05/100504creditcardreport.pdf[/url] Had the crime pattern been tracked, the police would have been alerted to Hilton and others like him years earlier.