True Crime in the Great Outdoors
The most shocking crimes from national parks, camping trips, backpacker murders, and hiking incidents
The Terrifying Case of Gary Michael Hilton, the National Forest Serial Killer: Part 3 Irene and John Bryant
Irene Bryant murdered, Pink Beds area of Pisgah National Forest, Transylvania County, North Carolina, October 21, 2007. John Bryant murdered, Nantahala National Forest, Macon County, North Caroline, October 2007
To read more on Gary Michael Hilton:
The Terrifying Case of Gary Michael Hilton, the National Forest Serial Killer: Part 2 Cheryl Dunlap
The Terrifying Case of Gary Michael Hilton, the National Forest Serial Killer: Part 4 Other murders
On October 21, 2007, 79-year-old John and 84-year-old Irene Bryant went hiking on the Pink Beds Loop Trail in the Pisgah National Forest in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina.
John and Irene were a devoted couple, married for 55 years. When the family did not hear from them by early November, their son, Bob Bryant, flew from his home in Texas to North Carolina and gained access to their home. Everything seemed fine, except they were nowhere to be seen, and their backpacks were missing.
He reported his parents missing to the police and headed off to the Pishah National Forest to start a search. He came across their abandoned red Ford Escape on the east side of Yellow Gap Road, off U.S. Highway 276.
Instead of searching the area around the vehicle, they began looking on and around the Pink Beds Loop trail area, but to no avail. After three days of fruitless searching, police discovered that at 4 p.m. on the afternoon of the disappearance, someone had placed a 911 call from Irene’s cellphone, but it dropped because of a poor signal.
A day later, on October 22, 2007, at 7.37 pm, the couple’s ATM card was used 75 miles away in Ducktown, Tennessee, to withdraw $300.
Man in yellow cat using Bryant ATM card
On November 9, searchers came across a decomposing body of a female only 25 yards from the Ford Escape. The body was identified as Irene. She was wearing pants, a T-shirt, a bra, a white sock, a blue sock and a hiking boot on her left foot. The right foot boot and her long-sleeved shirt were discovered nearby.
The autopsy found she had died from blunt force trauma to the head with several blows fracturing her skull multiple times caused by a hammer or jack handle. The left forearm and fingers were broken, indicating defensive wounds. The right forearm was detached from the body. For now, there was no sign of John.
John Bryant remains found
Then, in February 2008, a hunter, Mark Waldroop, found remains including a human skull among paint cans and tattered clothing near an illegal dumping site in the Nantahala National Forest of Macon County. The State Medical Examiner's office positively identified the remains as those of John Bryant using a pacemaker that was found and dental records. The exact location was off West Old Murphy Road, about 5 miles from Highway 64 between Franklin and the Clay County line. There were in an isolated area not far from the main road between Pisgah National Forest and Ducktown
Gary Michael Hilton connected
On January 16, 2008, detectives linked Gary Hilton to the Bryant murders. Locals said that Gary Hilton had been living at a shelter in the Nantahala National Forest called Rock Gap Shelter and was ordered by authorities to leave the area.
Witnesses also reported seeing Hilton in Ducktown, Tennessee., around the date someone used the Bryants' bank card to withdraw money from an ATM.
The Chevrolet Astro van that Hilton was driving in Georgia had a set of license plates stolen from Transylvania County.
Transylvania County detectives and other investigators attempted to interview Hilton after his guilty plea for the Meredith Emerson case but Hilton refused to talk and asked for an attorney.
Speaking in early February 2008, North Carolina, Transylvania County Sheriff David Mahoney told ABC News that his department was almost certain that Hilton was responsible for both Bryant deaths. "We've uncovered evidence," Mahoney said when asked about Hilton's possible involvement. "We haven't spoken to any specific details, but at this point in the investigation, I am completely comfortable and confident that he is the suspect."
Hilton sentenced
In April 2011, Hilton was convicted and received a death sentence for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap near the Leon Sinks Geological area, Apalachicola National Forest, on December 1, 2007
In June 2011, a federal grand jury returned a five-count criminal indictment charging Hilton, 65, with the kidnapping, robbery and murder of John Bryant, 81, in Nantahala National Forest in Macon County using a firearm. Hilton also admitted to killing Irene Bryant, 84, in Pisgah National Forest.
In March 2012, he pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in Asheville, N.C to murdering the Bryants as well as robbery, kidnapping and firearms offenses, a month before he was scheduled to go on trial. Hilton was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Holly Bryant, John and Irene’s daughter, said at the time she would have preferred a death sentence but she took solace in knowing he won't kill again, "He will spend the rest of his life and die in a cage or at the hands of a Florida executioner. But the main thing is he will never get out to harm anyone again."
Judge Martin Reidinger accepted the guilty plea Hilton entered to the charges in 2011 with prosecutors to avoid a possible death sentence if the case went to trial. Defense attorney Kimberly Stevens said Hilton would be sent back to death row in Florida after spending more than a year in the Buncombe County, N.C., jail.
Hilton offered a brief apology to the court before sentencing, "Your honor, I do have remorse. I am sorry."
Holly Bryant said she detected a smile on the defendant's face, "For him to laughingly say he's sorry is a slap in the face," she said. "He beat my mother in the head. He shot my father in the head. Sorry is not enough."
Bob Bryant, said, "I wanted a bullet put in his head, and I think they should have done it five years ago”.
Sources
https://eu.blueridgenow.com/story/news/2012/03/27/hilton-admits-he-killed-john-and-irene-bryant/28291760007/
https://eu.goupstate.com/story/news/2008/02/05/nc-hiker-found-dead-at-dump-site/29426786007/
https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4243627&page=1
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/25/nc-serial-killer-sentencing/2113819/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hizH_vtlzg
Further viewing
Dr Todd Grande Siding Salesman Stalks Women in National Forests | Gary Michael Hilton Case Analysis