and what nature of man is gary hilton? , listen to the confession tapes to what he says about meredith's dog, ella. hilton says he knew the pet had that identifying chip when he let the dog go in the supermarket parking lot. >> if i wanted to ensure that no one would associate the dog with her i would have killed the dog. but there's no way i could do that. he was too much of a softy to kill the dog as he explained it. but poor meredith, ella's owner, never had a chance. >> she was dead from the beginning. yeah, she was. >> why? >> because i just told you, once you've done, it you're either going to kill her or get caught. there's no other solution. and if that sounds cold and cruel, yeah, it was. >> in his unbelievably cold recollection of the crime, hilton said he told meredith he was going to let her go after four days of captivity. >> we're pack up and i told her i'm going to release her. >> instead, hilton went to the van, came back with a tire iron and bludgeoned meredith emerson to death. in an attempt to thwart inve