Suspect in custody after AU nursing student slain in Athens
ATHENS, Ga. - Police said Friday they have a suspect in custody in connection with the death of an Augusta University nursing student on the University of Georgia campus.
The victim – 22-year-old Laken Hope Riley, a junior at AU’s College of Nursing campus in Athens who was on the dean’s list – was found Thursday in a wooded area on campus.
Authorities on Friday night identified the suspect as Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, who lives in Athens but is not a U.S. citizen. Authorities said he didn’t appear to be a student at UGA.
Authorities said they didn’t believe the suspect and victim knew each other, classifying it as a “crime of opportunity.”
Riley’s cause of death was blunt force trauma, according to law enforcement.
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He’ll be charged with malice and felony murder, aggravated battery, kidnapping, concealing the death of another and several other charges, authorities said.
After Riley was found, officials quickly classified the death as a homicide.
Police set up a mobile command post Friday at an apartment complex just south of the wooded area, with more than a dozen officers present. Just before noon, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Athens-Clarke County police, campus police and other authorities were seen taking three people into custody at the Argo apartment complex.
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At one point, officers searched a dumpster at a gas station across the street.
Just after 5 p.m., authorities said they had the suspect in custody.
The evidence suggests that the suspect acted alone, authorities said Friday night.
UGA Police Chief Jeffery Clark called the evidence “robust” and said surveillance cameras played a key role. He said officers were preparing to search the suspect’s apartment.
“Rest assured that the University of Georgia police in cooperation with Athens-Clarke County police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are continuing to work around the clock to resolve this crime and to bring anyone involved into justice,” UGA spokesman Greg Trevor said.
On Thursday, UGA police said they received a call just after noon from a person concerned for Riley, who had not come back from a run at the intramural fields.
Officers searching the area found Riley in a forested area behind Lake Herrick.
The area is across a busy road from a large dorm and dining hall complex on what’s commonly called “East Campus.” Most of the students in those dorms are freshmen.
Riley was suffering “visible injuries,” Clark said, and officers tried to give emergency aid, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
UGA said in a letter to students that foul play was suspected, adding that the safety and welfare of the campus community was s’ top concern.
“My investigators will be working this case day and night, and they will look at every camera that we have,” Clark said.
“We’re not going to leave any rock unturned in this investigation.”
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Riley had studied at the University of Georgia through the spring of 2023 before transferring to Augusta University’s College of Nursing, according to a statement from the University of Georgia, which does not have a nursing program itself. She remained active in the sorority she had ed at the University of Georgia.
Riley graduated in 2020 from River Ridge High School in Woodstock, a suburb northwest of Atlanta, where she ran cross country.
“Our community and our world lost a shining light with the tragic ing of Laken,” Cherokee County schools Superintendent Brian Hightower said in a statement. “An outstanding scholar athlete, Laken inspired classmates and teachers with her love of learning and her kindness to all. We ask that the community please keep her family in their hearts.”
Officials told students to travel in groups and avoid the wooded area where Riley was found, though the UGA police chief said he didn’t believe there was any “immediate danger.”
Augusta University canceled classes Friday at the College of Nursing in Athens.
However, the school sent counselors and other services to be on hand for students, faculty and staff throughout the day.
“The campus will remain open as a gathering place for students, faculty and staff to receive care and counseling as needed. Classes on the main campus in Augusta will continue as normal,” AU said.
AU President Brooks A. Keel said: “We extend our deepest sympathies to the family.”
All classes at UGA were also canceled until Monday.
UGA also saw another unrelated death on the campus just hours earlier. A student died Wednesday night in Brumby Hall, UGA said in a statement, calling this a “traumatic time for our university.”
The university did not say how the student died, but the student’s high school alma mater said the death was by suicide.
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It’s been 41 years since the last on-campus homicide. UGA student Donna Lynn Allen was stabbed to death on Dec. 21, 1983, according to legal records.
Warren Reid Hall was arrested seven days later on different crimes, including using a gun to assault a woman in a shopping center parking lot and attacking another woman with a knife. He itted to Allen’s murder while being questioned by police.
The state initially sought the death penalty, but the jury sentenced Hall to life in prison in 1984. He also pleaded guilty to the other two crimes and received an additional 45 years.
Hall appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia, arguing in part that his rights had been violated during police questioning, but the court upheld his sentence.
What we know
- On Thursday, a person called UGA police around noon after their friend didn’t return from a morning run at the school’s intramural fields. Police found Riley’s body in a wooded area behind Lake Herrick with “visible injuries,” and she was pronounced dead at the scene.
- The coroner’s office has identified the victim as 22-year-old Laken Hope Riley. Augusta University said she was one of its students at the school’s College of Nursing campus in Athens.
- Foul play is suspected, police said.
- The death is the first homicide on campus in decades, UGA Police Chief Jeffery Clark said.
- UGA police are working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Athens-Clarke County Police Department to investigate the incident.
- All classes at UGA were canceled until Monday. The Augusta University College of Nursing also canceled classes on Friday.
- Police ask anyone with information about the incident to call 706-542-2200.
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