Authorities Apprehend Suspect in Augusta University Student’s Death After Body Found on UGA Campus!
CNS News–Local police say that campus police arrested a suspect in the death of an Augusta University College of Nursing student on the University of Georgia campus in Athens. Campus police said they are going to recommend charges against 26-year-old Jose Antonio Ibarra of Athens for killing Laken Riley.
These charges include felony murder, false imprisonment, kidnapping, and hiding the death of another person. At a news conference on Friday, police said Ibarra would be taken to the Clark County Jail. Riley was found dead Thursday near a lake on the University of Georgia campus. She was a junior and on the dean’s list at Augusta University College of Nursing.
Chief of Police at UGA Jeff Clark said that she was killed because of a “crime of opportunity” by “someone who woke up with bad intentions.” Clark said there was no proof that the two knew each other. He also said that Riley died from a blow to the head. Clark said that police used camera footage from the campus as well as physical evidence to link the suspect to Riley’s death.
They also searched the suspect’s apartment after getting a warrant. Clark says that the suspect does not have an “extensive” criminal history. He also said that Ibarra lives in Athens but is not a US citizen or a student at UGA. “The evidence points to this being a one-person job,” Clark said, adding that police had arrested three or four other people but not Ibarra.
BREAKING UPDATE: A suspect has been taken into custody by campus police in connection to the death of an Augusta University College of Nursing student on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, UGA announced. https://t.co/ENRbr8Ta24
— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) February 23, 2024
In this case, he said, “there are no signs of a continuing threat to the community at this time.” UGA earlier said that police had found a person of interest and were questioning them as they searched hard for the student’s killer. The campus woods were searched by police to find clues about who might have killed Riley.
A spokesperson for the company, Greg Trevor, said, “We want to stress that this is still an active investigation that is still going on.” Riley was a student at the University of Georgia until 2023, a spokesperson for the UGA said. Before she started at Augusta University, she was there. Friday classes were canceled because police were still looking for clues and two college communities were sad.
University of Georgia Police Chief Jeffrey L. Clark said Thursday evening that around noon on Thursday, someone called to say that they were worried because their friend had gone jogging at the university’s intramural fields and never came back. Clark said that the body of the jogger was found around 12:38 p.m. in an area behind a nearby lake.
On Friday, all classes were canceled at the University of Georgia in Athens. Classes will start up again on Monday, the school said. Augusta University canceled classes on Friday at the Athens campus of the College of Nursing. This campus is about 2.5 miles from the intramural fields at the University of Georgia. In a statement released Thursday, Augusta University’s president said he was saddened by the death of the student.
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“It is with deepest sorrow that I share with you the news that one of our students at our College of Nursing campus at Athens has passed away,” Augusta University President Brooks A. Keel wrote in a letter to the people who go to his school. Two terrible things happen at UGA in less than a day.
Police on campus said Riley’s body was found hours after the “sudden death” of a UGA student the night before. UGA police records show that when they found the student dead in Brumby Hall, they did not find “any indications of any criminal actions or foul play.” The event was marked as a death investigation or suicide.
The school said Thursday, “The last 24 hours have been a very bad time for our university.” “Although we are still sad about that terrible death, today’s terrible news will test the strength of our campus community, especially our students.”