- Publication: Gwinnett Daily News (“Daily News,” Metro Edition)
- Author: Jacqueline J. Dozier, Daily News staff writer
- Original Publication Date: Saturday, April 25, 1992
ATHENS — Responding to the first student homicide in almost a decade, University of Georgia officials Friday urged parents to stress personal safety to their college-bound children and to establish routine check-in times.
“I’m not sure some parents understand that the university is not being the parent while their kids are here. The vast majority of kids are good kids and they’ve been taught well,” said Chuck Norton, UGA chief of police.
“We just reinforce common sense, then hopefully it will prevent someone from becoming a victim, but then that doesn’t always happen.”
The victim, Jennifer Stone, 22, of Roswell was an advertising major in the journalism school, and was a member of the Kappa Delta Sorority.
School officials and counselors met with Kappa Delta sorority members late Friday to help grief-stricken students better cope with the tragedy.
David Fletcher, with student affairs, said students could seek counselors at the school’s mental health office.
Officials said the incident is the third slaying of a UGA student since the university’s founding in 1785. In 1890, a male student was murdered outside his dormitory room and in 1983, the body of Donna Lynn Allen was found on North Campus, about a half-mile from Ms. Stone’s apartment.
About 75 percent of the university’s estimated 30,000 students live off-campus. Officials say responsibility and personal safety is stressed at the beginning of school orientation and throughout the year.
“We try to instill responsibility, and we tell them we’re not the principal and this is not the 13th grade… but that decisions will be on them,” Norton said.
UGA police said officers patrol the campus 24 hours daily and said the incident would raise officers’ awareness.
Sgt. Mel Perdue, crime prevention officer at the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, warned students to keep doors and windows locked, leave television sets and radios on even when away from home and to be extra careful.
Friends said Ms. Stone, described as an avid photographer, was a very careful person who always closed her windows and locked her doors.
Investigators said there was no sign of forced entry at the victim’s apartment.
An emotional Carrie Shaw, president of Kappa Delta Sorority, said it was “too soon” for her to talk about the murder, when contacted Friday.
Ms. Stone graduated in 1988 from The Lovett School, a private high school off Paces Ferry Road in Atlanta. She attended the school her junior and senior year, and was a member of the soccer team, German, photography and student art clubs.