Meredith Hope Emerson 1st Annual Union County Remembrance Walk & Festival and 2nd Annual Ella’s 5k & Fun Run

Comments

1. Glenn Adams says:

   August 13, 2009 at 1:21 pm

   Thank you BabyBoomerQueen, for posting this comment. Mertedith was a kindred spirit, a fighter. She still is…
   ~Wolfscratch~
2. Glenn Adams says:

   August 18, 2009 at 5:38 am

   Just got back from the Meredith Hope Emerson Remembrance Walk & Memorial service, excellent turnout, really enjoyed it. Several hundred people participated in the walk, many of which were LE and Fire personnel that assisted in the search for Meredith. Got there a few hours early and volunteered for a few hours. After the walk and lunch, we walked up the trail where she was abducted and to the Neal’s Gap Trading Post, Blood Mountain.
   Meredith’s family sent Julia, an email to all attendees thanking them for their support and said Ella Meredith’s Black Lab puppy now weighs 77 Pounds. Julia; Meredith’s roomate, was a good friend, and she and ‘Right to Hike’ Org., did a great job organizing the memorial.
   Wolfscratch
3. babyboomerqueen says:

   August 18, 2009 at 1:05 pm

   That all sounds wonderful and if there is such a thing and Meredith Hope Emerson is still wondering around the woods where she was abducted, she saw how much she was missed, loved and appreciated for being the life force that she was.

   Rest in Peace, Meredith Hope Emerson…

   Sincerely,
   Sharon
   ~The Baby Boomer Queen~
4. Glenn Adams says:

   December 22, 2009 at 10:08 am

   A Trail Angel Rises
   An Elegy by Winton Porter
   January 2008

   Out on the trail, when a comrade falls, a trail angel rises.
   Meredith, whose kind and loving spirit was cruelly taken from all those who knew and loved her, has joined the ranks of trail angels.
   She will forever be our guide.

   Because trail angels dance along the path of peace and joy forever.
   Because trail angels watch over those who merely want to walk forever.
   Those who simply want to live.
   Those who want to live simply.
   And beautifully as Meredith did.
   Merediths light once illuminated the path of hundreds of friends and family members as well as among the many, many she touched along the graceful trail of her life.
   The light Meredith brought us has not been extinguished.
   It has risen.
   It now illuminates the path of millions
   Across our nation.
   Around the world.
   And as her light rises, we come to know its source.
   A source inextinguishable.
   An inner source.
   It came from Merediths compassion.
   Her kindness.
   Her love of outdoors.
   Her love of animals.
   It now fires our love.
   Our compassion.
   Our resolve to live better lives.
   Kinder lives.
   It warms us, consoles us, unites us here and now.
   And as her light rises,
   It ignites in us the good of our natures.
   It reveals to us the beauty of these mountains.
   It fires in us a renewed joy for living, for those around us, for the walks we share today.
   Her light reminds us not to wait but to love while we still can.
   Now….Stop. …Listen.
   Hush and truly listen.
   Hear the drums?
   Feel them on the wind?
   Hear the human tales of triumph and sadness that echo through these vast and ancient mountains?
   These are human tales, bouncing off the cliffs,
   Reverberating among the high tree lines,
   Following the deep gaps.
   Filling our hearts.
   Separateness is an illusion, my friends.
   There is no me.
   There is no you.
   There is only We.
   We of this earth.
   We the one.
   I am you.
   You are me.
   Together , we are bound by common experience:
   Love. Life. Hope. Joy. Sorrow. Pain. Memory.
   Meredith Emerson is you.
   You are Meredith Emerson.
   Follow her light.
   It will guide you well.
   Remember.
   Out on the trail, when a comrade falls, a trail angel rises.
5. Glenn Adams says:

   December 22, 2009 at 10:20 am

   Merry Christmas & Happy New Year Baby Boomer Queen and to all from the North GA Mountains…

   Wolfscratch
6. Glenn Adams says:

   January 30, 2010 at 4:33 am

   After reading Ann Rules’ book; ‘GREEN RIVER, RUNNING RED’,

   My suspicions as to the reason for the ‘Silence by the Justice System’, in the Gary Michael Hilton; Prolific Serial Killer Investigation has peaked.. I am confident that GMH, had Associates as well as Sidekicks in the decades long ‘Trail of Terror.’ There is an untold number of unknown innocent victims in multiple States, up and down the East Coast of the United States, that need identifying and locating, to afford some semblance of closure
   for the victims Families, Friends, and Loved ones…

   Proclaimed: ‘The Real Story’ of America’s Deadliest Serial Murder’, the book highlights the lives of Gary Ridgeway’s victims, for which I salute yhe author: Ann Rule. They were mothers, sisters, aunts, grandaughters, neices, and daughters… Ann Rule, proclaimed the Master of True Crime Reporting, sifted through almost 100, 000 pages of official transcripts, pics, LE records/reports, and maps, identifying critical info.

   For over two decades Ridgeway eluded Law Enforcement while the body count continued to rise and the suspect list of those scrutinized by the Green River Task Force grew to over 40, 000. Although Ridgeway’s first victim Wendy Lee Coffield was discovered in the Green River in July 1982, it wasn’t until November 30, 2001, almost two decades later, that Gary Ridgeway was identified by DNA as the Green River Serial Killer and Arrested.

   GR, was housed in an ultra security cell. GR was arested for soliciting prostitutes two months prior to the discovery of the first victim and was suspected in 1987 as being the Green River Serial Killer. He was cleared after passing two polygraphs and convincing LE of his innocence. GR, would let some of his victims live as well as befriending some for alibis and witnesses to confirm his innocence. Obviously a psychopath, passing the polygraph was childsplay for him. GR also claimed that there was a Good Gary and an Evil Gary, although LE discounted the claim. On December 5, 2001, although responsible for many tragic murders, Gary Ridgeway was formally charged with the murder of only four victims: Marcia Chapman, Opal Mills, Cynthia Hinds, and Carol Ann Christensen. Ironically in August 1982, in the clenched hand of victim Opal Mills, was a brown Cau. hair yanked from her killer’s head. It had been bagged, tagged, and misplaced.

   A tag number reported to LE, nineteen years before GR’s arrest by a friend of Kim Nelson; another victim, had also been lost… The Federal Govt contributed $500,000.00 in Dec 2001, to help pay for DNA tests for 45 more probable victims, where there were no charges yet filed. Several Meetings between Task Force Members and the Proscecutors were held to devise a strategy.

   A unique or ‘out of the box’ strategy was agreed upon that was to be held in the upmost secrecy under the radar of the media and the public, even the victims families. Their first goal was to locate the previously owned vehicles of Ridgeway’s to check for DNA or other residue. The Green River Task Force was housed in a segregated building and no one outside the Task Force knew the strategy or the avenue of the continuing investigation of the victims where charges hadn’t been filed.

   On March 27, 2002 Gr was charged with three more victims; Wendy Coffield, Debra Estes, and Debra Bonner. The discovery in the Green River Case produced overt 420, 000 pages of discovery evidence, and that was only the beginning. By June 2003, after threats by GR’s defense team of a change of venue, it apeared that GR would be tried in King County, Washington, where the murders occured. GR’s Defense Team consisted of 8 Lawers, 8 investigators, 2 clerks, and 6 paralegals. (Dream Team, huh..) The original jury summons consisted of over 10,000 registered voters, which was whittled down to 500 prospective jurors. The first tentative date of a trial was July 2004,

   ******************************************************************************************
   Gary Michael Hilton’s reply concerning a Death Penalty Trial and how the other prisoners & guards treated him, GMH said:

   “No one messes with me here. They treat me real good.” “I’ve got my own T.V. ‘I READ’. I’ve got my meals cooked, served…the dishes are washed. My laundry is done….Hey, I love it!” “I’m gonna f—— raise hell, total hell. I’m not gonna be happy unless it takes three to four years to go to trial. Unless we have a ‘1,000 person Jury Pool’, and unless we have at least ‘Two Changes of Venue’.

   And that’s just to begin with (laughs).”

   *******************************

   A very tight lid was kept on what was happening behind the scenes. Gary Ridgeway’s attorneys had contacted the Proscecutor to ask if GR might avoid the death Penalty, if he would plead guilty to the original charges and show the location of the undiscovered victims. Although there were more than 50 possible victims of Gary Ridgeway, the state could only proscecute on the seven victims, the rest going unavenged. Considering the lengthy Appeals process, the now 54 year old Ridgeway. might very well die of natural causes before excecution could be carried out….

   On June 13, 2003, the proscecutors and the defense team entered into an agreement: the State would not seek the Death Penalty, but GR, would have to plead guilty to aggravated murder in the 1st degree for all the homicides that he had committed in Kings Co., Washington. The plea agreement was not revealed to the public or the innocent victims’ families. It was June 2003 when the rumors began: Where was Gary Ridgeway?

   It was certain that he was not in the King County Jail, but any info on his whereabouts had been ‘Sealed by a Judge’….

   Green River Task Force Members and Search & Rescue teams were spotted in areas where victim’s remains were previously located. Questions were asked, were proscecutors seeking evidence overlooked or or had they struck up some kind of plea deal with the defense team; ‘Ridgeway’s Life, in exchange for the identity and location of the unknown victims from Kings County, Washington? The plea deal did not include other geographical area that Ridgeway preyed.. The task force personnel wore civilian clothes to remain stealth to the media and behind the heavely tinted glass of the unmarked cars was a Prolific Serial Killer, wearing leg irons and handcuffs. Rumors of where Ridgeway was being out of control. It was reported that he was being kept secured under armed guard in a posh apartment. The public was outraged that he was being held in luxury after the body count that he had amassed.

   The Task Forces PIA , under this pressure anounced that a cell had been constructed in the Task Force Headquarters and GR was living among the investigators. It was the last place anyone thought to look… There had been no precedent for this strategy.. In order to get in to the head of Ridgeway, although it meant spending so much time with an evil cold blooded killer, tantamount to residing with a noncharismatic Hannibal Lecter, it was necessary to bridge the wall, erected by his team of Attorneys and seek the truth of his Terror Trail. GR had a captive audience and relished the attention paid to him as did Ted Bundy, was delighted of the attention given him by Florida detectives after his 1978 arrest. Ridgeway would now have the opportunity to gloat over the details of his ghastly deeds.. He made himself available as a subject that was quite willing to participate in marathon interogations. He found pleasure in demonstrating his expertise in the art of of torturous murder, to his ideal audience; the same detectives that he had taunted, remaining oblivious too, for decades. He loved being the focus of their attention. For the interrogators, it was exausting, disgusting, shocking, traumatic ,frustrating, and very horrific work. The experience would have been and unsettling and traumatic experience for anyone, hundreds of hours of grotesque recollections from a man that apeared totally harmless as he calmly described, raping, torturing, mutilitating, and killing dozens of Women in a halting and disspassionate voice. GR stated, “all I wanted to do was have sex with them and kill them.”

   When Ridgeway accompanied them on ‘Field Trips’ to the undiscovered Body Dumps, he brightened, smiling in anticipation, as they got closer to his killing fields and trophy areas… The Task Force Team was elated and relieved when Psychiatrists and other FBI BAU Agents flew in to interview Ridgeway. It gave them a much needed break from their journey into the abyss, the darkness.. Although Ridgeway had maps and a sharp recall of the areas where the bodies were dumped, he could not remember his victims faces or names.

   When referring to his innocent victims remains, he would say, “I dumped ‘it’ in that location”, meaning that they were objects subject to disposal… GR, had let some of his intended victims, go free. He would say. “your to cute for a guy like me”. He later admitted that he let them go for future witnesses, in case he should ever need them to verify that he was a good guy and couldn’t possibly be the Green River Serial Killer. After being asked to elaborate on his abnormal sexual desires during childhood, he admitted to frotterism, exposing himself, stalking, voyerism, rape, murder for sexual release, and finally Necrophillia. Ridgeway had, indeed, had an inapriate relationship with Mary Ridgeway, his late Mother. After wetting his bed at the age of 13 or 14, she had humilated him as well as sexually stimulated him. Ridgeway to being sexually aroused when his mother apeared half naked in front of him and spent 15 minutes or more soaping, washing, and drying his penis and testicles, causing an erection.

   Oedipus syndrome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex (According to my info, GMH’s childhood friend was asked if GMH, had mentioned having sex with his mother) Ridgeway admitted to returrning to the bodies of about ten of the women having post mortem sex, until the flies came.. On one occasion his son waited in the truck only 30 feet away. When asked by the detective if his son remembered and threatened to tell, if he would have killed him? Gary Ridgeway, responded, “No….I might have”…. When asked how he felt when his first victim’s remains were found. Ridgeway said that he felt that they were taking something that belonged to him…

   He began taking skeletons or partial skeletons to an adjacent State at that time to confuse task force detectives and prevent them from confiscating any more of his possessions. By the time Ridgeway was scheduled to go to trial, 71 innocent victims’ remains had been located in Kings County, WA, alone, by Task Force members with the assistance of Gary Ridgeway, K9s, Sonar-XRay Devices provided by the FBI, and ‘Grave Dowsing, yes, that’s correct; ‘Grave Dowsing’: an Ancient Art, utilized by Law Enforcement Agencies across the US, for locating remains and other items of evidence…

   Ridgeway, feeling invincible, continued his research to perfect his crimes. He not only took great pains to remove all forensic traces of himself from the victims, his house and truck, and went as far as planting evidence; cigarette butts & chewed gum of others, that he found at the airport, to confuse investigators into believing that the unsub was a traveler. False tips were sent to the media: ‘The Post Intelligencer’.
   Ridgeway, insured his Stealth by not sharing his evil deeds with friends. He had no friends or confidants. He was gratified to revisite his crime scenes and was fascinated to find some of the victims skeletons intact years later, in areas where he had expected animals to dismantle them. Yet others that were left exposed in open fields that had vanished without a trace…
   Ridgeway, would sometimes lie to the investigators to keep them on the hook, insuring the delay of the inevitable: ‘ Being returned to Jail or Prison ‘… In addition to the delay, GR had an audience to pontificate on all aspects of his evil deeds…
   GR’s IQ tested in the low/normal range. It was suspected that he may have been idiot savant: although of low intelligence, being Brilliant in one area(Mathmatical aptitude, musical prodigy, etc.) Guess, GR, had excelled in perfecting the skills of a Stealth Predator..
   GR, began his Evil Trail of Terror, as a teenager, when he tricked a 6 year old boy to go into the woods with him to build a fort. Once in the woods, GR stabbed the little boy. The little boy survived the stabbing and was located by investigators. The day of the incident, the little boy asked GR why he killed him? GR, smiling and laughing responded, “I always wanted to know what it felt like to kill somebody, GR, then started walking down the knoll. laughing, putting his head in the air and laughing real loud”…

   GR, revealed to the investigators that he had read many crime magazines, including “True Detective”, and other fact-detective magazines that Ann Rule, had written articles for and even dropping her name on occasion.
   GR said that he researched Zodiac articles, two or three of Ann rule’s, and how not to act in a courtroom; when to speak up and when to keep quiet.
   Ann Rule, states that writting about Gary Ridgeway, was one of the hardest things that she has ever done. She said that she had no desire to be inside his head due to the sheer cruelty and brutality that consumed him and his total inability to empathize with humanity, possesing a black cloud of Evil, that was so hard to erase from her memory…
   The first two years of GR’s Trail of Terror from 1982 to 1984, were considered to be the peak of his killing women, yet most serial killers accelerate, raising many questions for the Investigators.
   Once incarcerated, Gary Ridgeway, said that he thought alot about the Death Penalty. He said that he figured that it would be a decade before it was carried out and that with Lethal Injection, you simply doze off to sleep, your heart stops, and their is very little pain.(think about the pain, torture, and terror GR, inflicted on his innocent victims.)
   GR said that if he told the truth and prayed that he would go to Heaven. He noted that ‘Life in Prison’ would be much worse…yet he selfishly wanted to live…
   In November 2003, Gary Ridgeway, would plead guilty in Court for the 1st degree Aggravated Murder of 48 young women, in the presence of their Families, Friends, and Loved Ones.
   In December the Families would have their say. The Proscecutor and Sheriff held a meeting with the families to prepare them, as well as explain to them why they had taken such a unusual and unique approach to prosecuting Ridgeway.
   Although the decision for the plea agreement had been reached in June 2003, when the State of Washington had agreed to the Defense’s Proffer. ‘ABSOLUTE SECRECY’ had been maintained. The Majority of the Victims Families accepted the Prosecutor’s Decision. Some wanted to see Gary Ridgeway, Dead, and always would.

   The Prosecutor knew that the many unknown Victims would have never been revealed if the Death Penalty had been sought. He was also aware of the many years of Trials and endless Appeals,

   During the sentencing hearing Ridgeway, was directed by Judge Jones to state in his own words, if and why he had murdered the 48 innocent women. Ridgeway said, “I killed them, but didn’t know their names, I killed so many women that I don’t even remember their names.” He said that he picked prostitutes because he hated them and did not want to pay for sex. He said that he they were easy prey and possibly would not ever be reported missing and that he could kill as many as he desired without being caught.
   Gary Ridgeway had honed his skills as a prolific serial killer, even improving the hiding of the dead girls.
   Ridgeway stated to the Sheriff in his final interview that some of the victims had touched his heart and gave a victim’s name as an example; Debbie Abernathy. When asked why, GR stated, “because her murder happened on his son’s birthday.”
   When asked why he killed them, Ridgeway said, “because I had a craving, because they were prostitutes, because I wanted to control them.”
   Although Gary Ridgeway had revealed 48 victims, in his last interview before heading to prison for Life, he mentioned 71 victims that he had killed…
   In Gary Ridgeways statement to the Court at Sentencing he said,
   “I’m sorry for killing these Ladys. They had their whole life ahead of them. I am sorry that I caused so much pain to so many families.”
   A statement by one of the victim’s mother read, “There is a Hole in My Heart, a Vacancy that only a Child can Fill, the Emptiness is very Deep and it Hurts!”

   Wolfscratch: May Gary Hilton’s many, many Victims be ‘Revealed’ and rest in Peace…
7. Glenn Adams says:

   February 23, 2010 at 2:50 pm

   Right to Hike’s ‘In Memory of Meredith Hope Emerson

   An Evening of Hope:

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1D7ygV25YE

   Wolfscratch