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

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.

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.

In March 2012,, Gary Michael Hilton pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to murdering the Bryants as well as robbery, kidnapping and firearms offenses, a month before he was scheduled to go on trial.

In June 2011, a federal grand jury returned a five-count criminal indictment charging Hilton with the kidnapping, robbery and murder of John Bryant, in Nantahala National Forest in Macon County using a firearm. Hilton also admitted to killing Irene in Pisgah National Forest.

Hilton was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prior to this, In April 2011, Hilton was convicted and received a death sentence for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap in Leon County in Florida and was serving a life sentence for the 2008 murder of Meredith Emerson in northern Georgia.

In April 2011, Hilton was convicted and received a death sentenced for the murder of Cheryl Dunlap near the Leon Sinks Geological area, Apalachicola National Forest, on December 1, 2007

Hilton was also serving a life sentence for his convictions related to the 2008 murder of Meredith Emerson in January 2008, after her abduction on Blood Mountain, Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia..

Sources

https://eu.blueridgenow.com/story/news/2012/03/27/hilton-admits-he-killed-john-and-irene-bryant/28291760007/