The AT is one refuge for solitude i look forward to...and now crazies are running loose there....it’s hard to keep your spirits up in this world....this really gets me down....i seel so sorry for her family....i need to get the thoughts out of my head of what i would do to Mr. Hilton...it’s not healthy.
Hilton is also now a person of interest in the death of an elderly woman and the disappearance of her husband in a wilderness hiking area in Upstate South Carolina last fall.
The AT has had it’s share of ghastly crimes over the years.
I guess solitude also draws the deranged.
If Meredith was, indeed, murdered, I think this would be murder number ten on the AT since 1974 (three double slayings and four individuals). To my knowledge, no AT murders from 1923 through 1973.
I think the AT is particularly vulnerable because of how often it passes through or comes close to civilization. Access to the trail is relatively easy for those who intend to do wrong. The shelters are known places to find hikers. Also, so many through-hikers have a few places where they hike or hitchhike into town for a shower, mail, fresh food, and other luxuries. A hiker seen in town may be followed back to the trail.
As to your thoughts about Hilton, I understand them completely. My thoughts about what should be done to him aren't healthy either.
“The AT is one refuge for solitude i look forward to...and now crazies are running loose there....it’s hard to keep your spirits up in this world....this really gets me down....i seel so sorry for her family....i need to get the thoughts out of my head of what i would do to Mr. Hilton...it’s not healthy.”
Back in the 80’s and 90’s my friends and I used to hike a portion of the trail every month. Hikers were being killed, raped and robbed even back then. I always carried a Charter Arms .38 in my pocket just in case.
Another factor is stupidity. I used to hike with some Sierra Club people and they were totally clueless about the back woods of Tennessee and Georgia being mostly from NYC and LA but they thought they knew everything. I had a hell of a time one day convincing them that they didn’t want to go down a certain trail in the Cherokee National Forest that was being guarded by a “Deputy Sheriff” with a .357 on his hip. The lawyers in the group wanted to argue with him and I just couldn’t come out and tell them that he was guarding a pot crop. Dumbasses.