Hilton Suspected in Slaying of Fourth Hiker/Bits & Pieces

While it’s still somewhat tenuous right now there are some similarities between the disappearance of 29-year-old Rossana Miliani in December 2005 and the deaths of Meredith Emerson and Cheryl Dunlap.

Rossana was last seen in Bryson City, North Carolina on December 7th 2005. A store clerk from Bryson City told a private investigator that Miliani came into her store with a white man in his 60s and appeared extremely nervous when they bought a backpack. She also rented a storage space there. The State Bureau of Investigation is considering the possibility of a connection but won’t comment any further.

Miliani had been vacationing in Cherokee, North Carolina at the time of her disappearance. She called her father on that day and had spoken of hiking the Appalachian Trail.

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The 2nd white van belonging to Gary Michael Hilton has also been found. It had been abandoned on a road in White County and towed to a scrap-metal yard. Apparently the van has been stripped and is in bad shape but investigators will be processing it for evidence next week.

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One bit of information I was unaware of is that Transylvania County Sheriff David Mahoney (where the Bryants disappeared/died) confirmed that the North Carolina license plate on the back of Hilton’s van when he was arrested had been stolen from a vehicle registered in Transylvania County.