Authorities have said they believe Emerson was kidnapped in Union County and killed in Dawson County.

Her body was found nearly 50 miles from where she vanished during a New Year’s Day hike near Blood Mountain in Union County. An autopsy report says Emerson was beaten to death and then decapitated.

Hilton was the last person seen with Emerson on the hiking trail and had tried to use her credit card, according to his arrest warrant.

Hilton has been named as a suspect in the murder of two other women and the disappearance of a man in North Carolina.

If you could have teleported one object to Meredith at her final moments, would it have been a legal defensive gun or a note that said “Sorry, but you shouldn’t have one”? Now look at her picture and say that out loud.

A mother and daughter slain this week while hiking a popular trail in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest were shot, a Snohomish County Sheriff’s spokesman said Thursday.

Deputy Rich Niebusch provided few other details about the killings of Mary Cooper, 56, a librarian at Decatur AEII Elementary School, and her daughter, Susanna Cooper Stodden, 27, both of Seattle. They were killed while hiking on the Pinnacle Lake Trail, about 20 miles east of Granite Falls.