Alleged serial killer Gary Michael Hilton claims he had nothing to do with the disappearance of a Clemson University student, and South Carolina authorities said Wednesday they are inclined to believe him.

"We think that he most probably was not involved," said Pickens County, S.C., Assistant Sheriff Tim Morgan, who interviewed Hilton on April 17 at the Georgia state penitentiary in Jackson, where Hilton is serving a life sentence for the murder of hiker Meredith Emerson.

The erstwhile drifter and grifter is also charged in the decapitation of Crawfordville, Fla. nurse Cheryl Dunlap, and is the prime suspect in the slaying of an elderly North Carolina couple, John and Irene Bryant.

Jason Knapp, then a 20-year-old sophomore, was last seen on Easter Sunday, 1998. He is thought to have disappeared somewhere in Table Rock State Park in Pickens, about 45 minutes from where the Bryants were abducted.

"There were similarities in all the cases, and we'd be derelict in our duties if we didn't talk to him," Morgan said.

Even Hilton acknowledged the apparent coincidences in Knapp's case and the four murders in which he's been either convicted, charged or implicated.

"He kind of laughed and then he said, 'That sounds just like my modus operandi,'" Morgan said.

But Knapp's credit cards were never used; Hilton had withdrawn money, or attempted to, from each of his alleged victims. Pickens County investigators say they believe Hilton was in the metro Atlanta area on Easter 1998.

Morgan said Hilton was garrulous and animated during their 90-minute conversation. The next day, Hilton faxed a two-page missive to the Pickens County Sheriff's Office, reiterating that he never met Jason Knapp and suggested the man fell to his death while hiking.

"Let me assure you again that all you would have to do is offer me no death penalty and I would be glad to clear everything up, but it wasn't me," Hilton wrote. "I hope that as a result of this letter and our interview that you will have some good thoughts of me and understand that I'm not all bad."