• Publication: Athens Daily News / Athens Banner-Herald (combined Saturday edition)
• Author: Joan Stroer, Staff Writer
• Original Publication Date: Saturday, April 25, 1992

Preliminary autopsy reports have confirmed that strangulation is the cause of death of University of Georgia senior Jennifer Stone.

The news came to local investigators late Friday, more than 24 hours since the death of the 22-year-old journalism student from Roswell. Stone was murdered sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, police said.

Her partially clad body was found by three female acquaintances at 7:26 p.m. Thursday at her two-room house behind the Greyhound bus station on the corner of Hull and Broad streets. She lived alone.

Police moved the body at 2:30 Friday from the bedroom where police think the murder took place.

Analysis of the crime scene was suspended Friday at 8:30 p.m. and will resume Saturday morning.

Hundreds of items of evidence were gathered at the scene, but no conclusive evidence has yet been revealed, Bureau Chief Joseph Lumpkin said. No weapon was found.

Lumpkin said the lengthy on-site investigation, which left the body at the scene more than 30 hours from the estimated time of death, was necessary if workers hope for an eventual conviction.

“We hope that the time taken will uncover those types of trace evidence will link up the perpetrator with the murder,” Lumpkin said.

“We’re submitting every piece of evidence that we could find,” he said.

Police have thus far eliminated acquaintances as suspects. The house showed signs of possible breaking and entering, Lumpkin said. The door of the house was ajar when the body was discovered Thursday, with no signs of it being forced open, he said.

“That’s what we’re trying to clarify now,” he said. “I never said there was not a sign of forced entry. We still have not observed the rear.”

On Thursday, police noticed a window screen at the back of the house had been jimmied, but they have not determined if it had been tampered with before the murder took place.

At press time, no suspects had surfaced, although more than 70 persons had been interviewed. Many were acquaintances, Lumpkin said, but some were persons brought in the Athens-Clarke County jail on charges and were subsequently questioned in the Stone murder case.

The building housing Kennon’s Formal Wear is attached to Stone’s residence, but workers did not report anything out of the ordinary Wednesday or Thursday. Employees at Chick Piano on North Hull Street across from the scene also had no knowledge of the murder.

The last person to speak to Stone that police are aware is a girlfriend who spoke on the phone with her Wednesday night about an upcoming test.

Friday’s quiet crime scene stood in stark contrast to the shock and grief displayed throughout the night Thursday after the body was discovered. Miss Stone had been missed at a meeting at school where she was an advertising major and avid, creative photographer, friends said.

According to Tom Jackson, director of public information at the university, the last student murder near campus was that of Donna Lynn Allen, stabbed to death in 1983 behind the university’s academic building at about 7 p.m. after she left work on Broad Street to go to her parked car across the street. Stone’s slaying was first murder in the history in the Athens downtown business district, Chief Elected Officer Gwen O’ Looney released in a Thursday statement.

The mood downtown ranged from resignation to complete shock.

“I was totally shocked,” said Brian Shulsted, a sophomore finance major at the university. “I thought all this only happened in Florida.”

But 20-year-old Demian Weekly said the slaying hasn’t made him nervous about his South Poplar Street residence, near downtown, or working downtown at The Grill restaurant on College Avenue.

“It’s strange but I’m not all that worried really,” Weekly said.

Mike Church, 32, an acquaintance of Stone’s and an employee two downtown establishments, disagreed. Church said the slaying has shaken up a complacent community.

“One of the reasons people live in Athens was that things like this don’t happen here,” he said. “That’s why a lot of people flock here.

“A lot of people are scared.”

More than 140 members of the Kappa Delta sorority Stone joined as a sophomore met at 5 p.m. Friday for counseling and to grieve the loss of Stone.

After the closed meeting, sorority president Carrie Shaw read a statement to members of the press thanking the community for support since the discovery of the homicide.

Dana Getzinger, a university student who survived a stabbing at her Dearing Street apartment, observed the scene of the crime Friday.

Getzinger began Safe Campuses Now, a growing organization which lobbies for greater protection for university students. She pointed out Stone’s murder is a reminder that students off campus can be particularly vulnerable to crime.

“Fraternities and sororities are off campus, students live off campus, they go out off campus — everything to do is off campus.

“Awareness is the key to prevention.”

Stone is survived by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ray Stone. She is the youngest of five daughters.

A memorial service was being planned, said Dwight Douglas, vice president for student affairs. An exhibition of her artwork is also being planned.

Stone was a graduate of The Lovett School in Atlanta and a senior in the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

[Photo caption, page 14A] Investigation continues: Police continued to comb the area for clues in the murder of student Jennifer Stone Friday evening. The scene was quiet compared to the grief expressed by her friends outside her house Thursday night, according to witnesses. (Michelle Biggio / Staff)

[Photo caption, separate page] Victim’s car: The car of the slain University of Georgia student Jennifer Stone has been impounded for investigation by the police department. It has been taken to a local gas station. (Jayson Mellom / Staff)