ATLANTA -- Using her wits and training as a martial artist, Meredith Emerson struggled to survive in the north Georgia mountains after she was abducted by a drifter who was looking for easy prey, interviews with her convicted killer have revealed.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation released tapes of interviews with Gary Michael Hilton to WSB-TV Channel 2 on Monday.

On the tapes Hilton describes four days with Emerson, and how she fought him from the moment he tried to overpower her as she hiked with her dog, Ella.

"I had to hand fight her and I still couldn't get control of her," Hilton told investigators. "She would feign or pretend that I was in control and then start fighting again; I had to hit her a number of times."

In the end, it was Hilton who apparently outsmarted her before bludgeoning Emerson to death and decapitating her. But investigators said she never gave up.

Hilton, a wiry man with a slight build, told investigators he targeted the 24-year-old University of Georgia graduate because she was a woman. For a time, they walked together with their dogs on New Year's Day near the Appalachian Trail in Union County, but the 61-year-old Hilton couldn't keep up.

When Emerson headed back down the trail, Hilton was waiting with a military-style knife. He demanded her ATM card and Emerson immediately went on the defensive, grabbing the blade and the baton Hilton countered with.

Hilton finally overpowered her and marched Emerson to his van. He kept her chained inside the vehicle while she gave him wrong ATM numbers for several days.

The confessed killer said he was so angry about the wrong numbers the first night, he raped Emerson.

During the interview Hilton said he planned all along to killed Emerson.

"I'm gonna tell you right now, there was never any plan to let her go," Hilton said.

On the day Hilton killed Emerson, he told her "she was going home." After securing her to a tree, he walked back to the van to collect himself and made some coffee.

When he came back, Hilton walked up behind her as if he were coming over to remove the chains holding her to the tree and hit her several times with the handle from a tire jack.

"I struck her with that," Hilton told investigators in a flat, emotionless voice. "She said 'No, let me go.' Put her hands up; I kept striking her and she, you'll see some defensive wounds to her hands. She lost consciousness and I kept striking her to ensure she was dead."

Hilton is serving a life sentence for murdering Emerson.

Channel 2 obtained a list of items that were discovered in Hilton's van when he was caught. Whenever Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents get a search warrant they’re required to file a document which lists everything they found inside. It is an extremely detailed document and the GBI told Channel 2’s Jodie Fleischer that some of the items listed are still considered evidence in other pending cases against Hilton.

PDF: List Of Evidence Found In Hilton Van 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

The list is lengthy and detailed. Twenty shirts and a dozen pair of pants, eight jackets, 29 hats and three sleeping bags were found as well as a hack saw, porn and needles.

Hilton has also been indicted by Florida authorities in the death of Cheryl Hodges Dunlap.

Dunlap disappeared December 1, 2007 and her body was found December 19, 2007 in the Apalachicola National Forest, southwest of Tallahassee. Sheriff's Major Mike Wood said in January that authorities confirmed that Gary Michael Hilton was in the area at the time of Dunlap's disappearance.

A state law enforcement source told WSB-TV that Dunlap also was decapitated, as was Emerson.