John and Irene Bryant-NC

[panglossian]

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080115/NEWS01/80114096

From what it sounds like in this article, Hilton (or someone) stole the plates off a vehicle that was probably sitting in a repair garage lot or the like. The plates came off a vehicle that wasn't on the real owners' property. I'm glad to hear the real owners of the plates are okay.

IMO, for Hilton to be able to get out to NC, my guess would be he already had a vehicle to drive out there. After that, he stole some plates off another. The best place for plates to take without having them noticed quickly would be from a repair garage with cars in the lot that needed fixing.
Given his criminal history, i do wonder if he stole some cars also. In that one atm video (not sure offhand which case) there was a pickup truck in the camo wrap in the background. If it was Hilton, maybe he stole that. I really think this guy has some "home bases" in different areas he frequented; either to stash his souvenirs whether they be plates, victim's belongings. I hope LE are checking into abandoned cabins. There are ones out there, and i'm sure Hilton would find them with his hiking experience.
It may even be a type of run down cabin in the woods not accessable by a car or vehicle that could be hiked to. (doubtful Hilton has an atv or quad).

Although Hilton has been confronted camping in the open areas of the woods, he may have camped in caves as well. I'm sure he spent more time off trails than on, judging by the amount of time he spent in the parks. Those would be additional areas to search besides cabins. Is the area where the plates were taken adjacent to woods?

 

[Native New Yorker]

http://tiny.cc/qRZTH

 

[SuziQ]

The Transylvania County Sheriff's Office has scheduled a news conference in the John and Irene Bryant case.
It will be held Wednesday, January 16, at 2:00pm.

http://www.wspa.com/midatlantic/spa/news.apx.-content-articles-SPA-2008-01-15-0033.html

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Could someone please give us a report on the news conference since I won't be here?! Please!! I hate to miss this one!

 

[DixiePeach]

Sheriff tries to connect Hilton links


By John Harbin
Times-News Staff Writer

BREVARD -- Transylvania County Sheriff David Mahoney will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. today about the murder of Irene Bryant, one day after the department's investigators met with law officers from two other states about suspect Gary Michael Hilton.

The sheriff said he will make a brief statement but take no questions.

"The reason I said that was because I know the first question that you will ask and I can't answer that question," Mahoney said.

It was not clear what Mahoney was referring to but a significant remaining question is what happened to Irene's husband, John, and, if he was killed, where is his body.

<snipped>

http://www.blueridgenow.com/article...51/NEWS/Sheriff_tries_to_connect_Hilton_links

 

[gardenmom]

http://tiny.cc/qRZTH

That is so sad. They sound like wonderful people. It's such a shame some monster came along and took them away. They sound like the kind of people anyone would love to know. They lived a wonderful, long life, and had the kind of love we all just dream about. It's just so sad...

 

[Jade]

http://tiny.cc/qRZTH

So Irene Bryant was a vet. I missed that fact previously. Animal lover connection again.

snip>>>took her doctorate from Washington State College and opened a veterinary practice concentrating on large animals, becoming one of the first women vets in Montana. >>>snip


Wonder who started the encounter? Hilton or Bryants. Pretty nervy for Hilton to take on two people even if they were older. Poor Irene. Wonder if she bent over to pet the dog and was hit with the baton.

 

[Aleph]

I found this on another thread here, I guess this is what I was thinking of. It doesn't sound like him, but you never know.



skate's 2002
Appalachian Trail Journal

First Previous Next Last
Sunday, March 17, 2002
Destination: Hiawassee, GA
Starting Location: Cheese Factory Site
Today's Miles: 12.70
Trip Miles: 66.80
Wow! Actually slept last night. Had to turn my sleeping bag 180 degrees so my head was at the foot of the tent to avoid the incline. I don&#8217;t quite have the knack down for selecting the perfect tent spot yet. Rained all night, but broke long enough at 6:30 AM for us to pack up our gear. Today was a body climate control challenge &#8211; wind, rain, countered by body heat and sweat had me switching fleece hat to bandana and back, rain jacket on/off, fleece jacket on/off. Finally I gave up and settled for T-shirt drenched in sweat and damp from rain. One of the great features of a thru-hike is the &#8220;Great Unknown.&#8221; Every day is truly a new day and it is fun to see what unfolds as the day progresses. Hawkeye and I stopped briefly at Tray Mountain Shelter to enjoy the luxury of a latrine and discovered a bag of fresh oranges hanging at the shelter - Trail Magic. Also met &#8211; a Vietnam Vet, and his black Lab, Tucker. He is quite the conversationalist. In the course of 15 minutes, he covered the crusades, life on the line at General Motors, the Vietnam War and the 101st Airborne Division, Hanoi Jane, and the Palestinians and Israel! Pickle joined us and we took off for Deep Gap. Walking, walking, walking the AT, walking the AT north, walking the AT north from Georgia to Maine&#8230; With that cadence in mind, I climbed the never, never, never ending climb up Kelly Knob. The descent led to the Blue Blaze Trail to Deep Gap Shelter. I reached the shelter first and it was already crowded &#8211; Turkey Bacon, Yankee Joe, Eric (Ohio), Tinman and Godiva, and Greg. With more hikers pouring in, it would be a sardine can tonight. I walked back to the water source and met Hawkeye and Pickle. A quick pow-wow and we decided to move on. Boy, did we move! It was 4 PM and we knew if we covered 3.5 miles we could catch a ride to Hiawassee. Hot bath, hotel &#8211; enough said. We booked up, over and down those mountains and hit Dick&#8217;s Creek Gap in 1.2 hours. I swear we were practically running those ridges. Several cars and trucks passed us at Dick&#8217;s Creek before a retired couple pulled over and took us into town (11 miles). The best Trail Angels we&#8217;ve met thus far. Hot bath, a real bed, food, glorious food&#8230;. Life is good. We&#8217;ll take a day tomorrow to do laundry, stock up on food supplies, and plan our next week on the Trail. -skate

Hi there,

I did some investigating in the hiker thread. M is not GMH, just so you know.

 

[SuziQ]

Could someone please give us a report on the news conference since I won't be here?! Please!! I hate to miss this one!

Presser is 10 minutes away and there is no link.

 

[SuziQ]

So Irene Bryant was a vet. I missed that fact previously. Animal lover connection again.

snip>>>took her doctorate from Washington State College and opened a veterinary practice concentrating on large animals, becoming one of the first women vets in Montana. >>>snip


Wonder who started the encounter? Hilton or Bryants. Pretty nervy for Hilton to take on two people even if they were older. Poor Irene. Wonder if she bent over to pet the dog and was hit with the baton.

IMO, Dandy was to Hilton as a cast was to Bundy.

 

[Native New Yorker]

That is one of the many reasons that this case has hit me so hard....

I have a dog who spends a lot of time with me....I used to go to dog parks, every day as a matter of fact, but had some bad experiences, though nothing dangerous....still enough to make me aware that not every dog owner is a kind or nice person...
also ran into several injuries caused by not-so-nice dogs....

BUT I can see that if I were a lot younger, I might not see things this way...
clearly, there were many who were taken in by Hilton/ Dandy...
the Bryants, as far as I know were not dog owners....so they likely did not know that owning a dog does not ipso facto make a person a trustworthy one....

 

[SuziQ]

Sheriff David Mahoney said investigators have established a positive link between the murder of Irene Bryant, the disappearance of her husband and Gary Michael Hilton. At a press conference today, Mahoney said because of the complexity of the investigation that he couldn’t discuss details and that he said, “details regarding the timing or venue of criminal charges will not be released at this time.” (more at link)

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080116/NEWS01/80116072

 

[DeltaDawn]

Interesting article, thank you SuziQ for placing that here for us to read.

I wonder what the piece of evidence is that ties Hilton to them? It looks like LE will take their time here before letting more info out of the bag. I wish they would have been able to speak with/ have Hilton give them a location for Mr Bryant's body..so their family could have a service and some closure.

 

[Tallytowngirl]

I wonder what the piece of evidence is that ties Hilton to them?

I recall that Hilton dumped several garbage bags while that 911 caller had him in sight. I would suppose that there were things in those bags that Hilton knew would convict him... Something like Mr. Bryant's yellow jacket? (or at least the same yellow jacket that is in the Ducktown ATM pictures)

Also, how many fleeces do you think Meredith had with her when she was hiking? One for sure, possibly two - but three? He was found with three blood covered fleeces... I wonder if any of those belonged to the Bryant's?

 

[Pure Maple Syrup]

Also, how many fleeces do you think Meredith had with her when she was hiking? One for sure, possibly two - but three? He was found with three blood covered fleeces... I wonder if any of those belonged to the Bryant's?

Just to clarify here, the police stated that "three blood-soaked fleece tops" were found in the dumpster in Cummins a few hours earlier.

The warrant for searching the van mentions a purple zip-up fleece.

Most hikers will wear a wicking base layer plus a warm fleece layer. They may also carry a second fleece or shell layer to put on anytime they stop moving and get chilled. My guess is she wore two, maybe had the 3rd tied around her waist.

Re: the purple one...who knows? Agreed that for Meredith to have had FOUR fleeces with her would have been odd.

 

[Pure Maple Syrup]

Just to clarify here, the police stated that "three blood-soaked fleece tops" were found in the dumpster in Cummins a few hours earlier.

Also, immediately upon finding these, police stated that they did not believe Meredith was still alive. They were apparently soaked in so much fresh, wet blood that police concluded that no one wearing those could have lost that much blood and still be alive. There may also have been other, er...stuff on them, like brain matter or bone fragments that indicated that the former wearer was deceased.

 

[Tallytowngirl]

Just to clarify here, the police stated that "three blood-soaked fleece tops" were found in the dumpster in Cummins a few hours earlier.

My bad - I've read so much, I forget half of it! I just remembered thinking "three fleeces? how odd..." and forgot they were in the dumpster, not the van.

The warrant for searching the van mentions a purple zip-up fleece.

hmm... sounds like somebody (witnesses, boyfriend?) knew Meredith was wearing a purple zip up fleece, since they were looking specifically for that in connection with her. Not to belabor the point - the warrant didn't mention several fleeces, right? just the one?

I've done a bit of hiking in the cold myself (even if I'm from Tallahassee), and certainly will wear one fleece and a windbreaker, and possibly carry a second fleece along... I haven't personally carried two with me and worn a third. So I just thought that 3 would be more than she'd have had with her (but I can see she might have taken second extra along, since it was snowy, so you're right - guess I've been in the far south too long. We don't have snow down here)

My thinking was - Hilton, being homeless, might have wanted to keep things like warm fleeces - like ones he'd taken from say, the Bryants. But maybe he was really dumb and kept the Bryant's ATM card or something really incriminating. We can only hope...

The blood probably was Meredith's... sounds like he killed her in the van, and if his van was as junked up as witnesses have said, her blood probably got on all of the stuff inside it.

I wonder about the purse? I'm looking forward to hearing more when our LE gets back in town - see if it was Cheryl's purse they found in the dumpster. Of course, they've been so closed mouth about the whole thing, I wonder if they'll tell us.

 

[panglossian]

Don't forget Meredith was a runner who had regularly run this trail with her friends. Runners don't wear 3 fleeces. Not even in the snow belt. The clothing used in running translates to hiking, particularly on hilly trails and with a young energetic dog. At one year Ella is still considered a puppy.

 

[Pure Maple Syrup]

The blood probably was Meredith's... sounds like he killed her in the van, and if his van was as junked up as witnesses have said, her blood probably got on all of the stuff inside it.

I've thought a lot about that. It just doens't make any sense. Why decapitate her inside the van and get blood and gore all over it and all the stuff inside it. Now everything's bloody and contaminated with her DNA. Much easier and cleaner to drag/march/carry her a few hundred yards into the woods and do it there.

And why take her dripping-with-blood clothes off AFTER death and take them with you? Where her blood and DNA will get all over everything? Just leave them there with the body...

 

[Pure Maple Syrup]

I've done a bit of hiking in the cold myself (even if I'm from Tallahassee), and certainly will wear one fleece and a windbreaker, and possibly carry a second fleece along... I haven't personally carried two with me and worn a third. So I just thought that 3 would be more than she'd have had with her

We also gotta remember that he held her captive for three days in the van in winter. Early on, he might have lost or thrown away the purple fleece that she had been carrying/wearing that day, that's why the warrant mentioned it. But in the days that followed, she must have been cold lying in that van so, to keep her alive, Hilton dressed her in other victim's fleeces that he had lying around the van.

Note that it was never reported that the clothing found in the dumpster WAS Merediths, only that it was "consistent with what she was thought to have been wearing".