ATLANTA -- Police investigators across the southeast are reopening unsolved murder investigations and looking for possible links to Gary Michael Hilton.

He is the drifter accused of kidnapping and killing hiker Meredith Emerson.

The 61-year-old is now considered a possible suspect in cases in North Carolina, Florida and at least three killings in Georgia.

The family of Levi Frady, whose body was found in the same Dawson County forest as Emerson's, thinks Hilton resembles sketches of two men police want to question in the 1997 murder.

Some members of Frady's family told WSB-TV Channel 2 Tueday they think a booking photo taken of Hilton after a 1995 arrest bears a striking resemblence to at least one of the sketches.

"That kind of caught my eye. It resembles the picture," said Justin Frady, the murder victim's cousin.

You can see the sketches and the mug shots below.

Levi Frady was abducted on October 22, 1997. His body was found shot to death a day later.

"He was more like a brother to me than a cousin," said Justin Frady. "The thought of it being ten years and they still haven't found anybody; it's enough to break your heart all over again."

Detectives at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said they are not convinced there is a connection between the Frady case and the Emerson murder. They said there are obvious differences in the cases.

Detectives working the disappearance of two hikers in North Carolina say there are similarities in their case and the Emerson murder.

John and Irene Bryant, an elderly couple from North Carolina, were last seen alive Oct. 20 hiking in the Pisgah National Forest.

Irene's bludgeoned body was found three weeks later. Her husband John remains missing and presumed dead.

Someone wearing a yellow jacket tried to use their ATM card. Hilton tried to use Meredith Emerson's ATM card several times, according to police.

Transylvania County investigators on Monday told Bob Bryant, the couple's son, that Hilton's arrest has led to a "significant lead" in his parents' disappearance and presumed murder.

"They're looking at it very seriously," Bryant said from his Austin, Texas home late Monday.

GBI Director Vernon Keenan said, "There's no conclusion been made. There's no linkage that has been made."

In another case, the body of Patrice Endres was found not far from where Emerson's body was dumped.

She disappeared from her Cumming beauty salon in April 2005. Her remains were found behind a Dawson County church eight months later.

Her husband told WSB-TV Channel 2 he thinks it's possible Hilton was involved in his wife's murder.

Forsyth County investigators are looking for links to Hilton.

In Crawfordville, Fla., police looking into the murder of Cheryl Hodges Dunlap, 46, have also mentioned Hilton as a suspect.

She was found murdered in Apalachicola National Forest near Tallahassee Dec. 15. A masked person suspected in Dunlap's murder used her ATM card on three separate occasions following her disappearance on Dec. 1. No one has been charged in the murder of the nurse and Sunday school teacher.