• Publication: Athens Daily News / Athens Banner-Herald (combined Sunday edition)
• Author: Joan Stroer, Staff Writer
• Original Publication Date: Sunday, April 26, 1992

Further autopsy results released Saturday confirmed University of Georgia student Jennifer Stone was raped as well as strangled to death in her off-campus house.

Search of the crime scene resumed early Saturday morning, ended shortly after 3 p.m. and will begin again Sunday. The ongoing investigation has revealed hundreds of pieces of evidence, among them car keys and valuables not taken by her murderer, police Maj. David Camp said. Police await forensic results from the hair strands, fluid samples and other trace evidence submitted to the state crime lab in Decatur.

A man was questioned in the case by detectives after he was brought in by detective Terri Willis at 5:40 a.m. Friday on entering auto, loitering and prowling charges.

Marvin Taylor, 18, of Stephens, was subsequently charged with the April 18 rape of a woman at the playground at Parkview Homes on Broad Street. Taylor is the only rape suspect jailed since the Stone murder. He is being held in the Clarke County Jail without bond on charges of rape and kidnapping.

Investigators do not consider him a suspect in the murder, Camp said.

Law enforcers also began canvassing downtown Friday night, showing pictures of Ms. Stone to bar patrons and asking if they had seen her. More than 70 acquaintances of Ms. Stone had already established alibis or explanations of their activity during the estimated hours of the murder’s occurrence, Camp said.

“Right now there’s nothing to point to them as suspects,” he said.

Police also don’t have reason to believe Ms. Stone’s assailant entered or left town via the Greyhound bus station adjacent to her house, Camp said.

“We haven’t had anything to indicate it’s a transient,” he said.

The body of the 22-year-old senior from Roswell was found by three friends Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at her home on the corner of Hull and Broad streets where she lived alone, a block from where other students were starting the weekend early in downtown clubs. The door was ajar. Inside the small house there were no obvious signs of a struggle between Stone and her assailant, police said.

A search with laser technology and fingerprinting by police investigators, GBI agents and members of the district attorney’s office followed the discovery.

Her body had no apparent flesh wounds or bodily trauma other than neck bruises, but Ms. Stone may have been able to try to resist her attacker, police said.

“I don’t think that would imply there wasn’t a struggle,” Camp said.

A preliminary autopsy released by state forensic experts Friday confirmed reports of death by strangulation between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Police discount the rumor that the murder didn’t happen at Ms. Stone’s house. Although officials have revealed little about the case or evidence found, findings suggests the murder happened in her bedroom where the body was found, Camp said. Her white Volkswagen Cabriolet was routinely taken to a Five Points gas station Friday for security and to be dusted for fingerprints.

If Ms. Stone was murdered downtown it is the first ever in the downtown business district, according to city officials. It is the third in the university’s history.

And it has shaken a generally complacent community.

Ms. Stone chose to move downtown this fall after a roommate backed out of plans to share an apartment, friends said. She liked the location because it was near school, where she spent most of her time, said sorority sister Angie Harper.

“She wasn’t a big partier, she wasn’t promiscuous,” Ms. Harper said.

Some friends mentioned she sometimes left her door unlocked.

But teachers denied Ms. Stone was involved in reckless activities or kept dangerous social ties.

“Heavens, no,” said Mary Ruth Moore, a photography teacher. “She didn’t run with a wild crowd. She spent a lot of time in the darkroom. It was one of her main passions.

“She was attentive and independent too,” she said. “We just enjoyed watching her grow. We’re heartbroken.”

Ms. Stone was preparing work for a senior photography exhibition this spring and had presented a well-received series of photos in class Wednesday, Mrs. Moore said. Friends gathered negatives from Ms. Stone’s drawers at the university darkroom Friday, planning to use them later for a solo exhibition.

“She had already bought paper — big, nice paper” for developing exhibition prints, Mrs. Moore said. “They’re going to see to it that it’s done.”

Ms. Stone’s developing style of portraiture was non-conventional and stylish, she said. She planned to use her photographic talent in advertising, friends and teachers said.

The last known contact before her death between Ms. Stone and a friend was a Wednesday night phone conversation, in which they discussed an upcoming test. Owners of the Hull Street property, Mr. and Mrs. James Carter, refused comment Saturday on the case.

Forensic experts released her body into the care of the H. M. Patterson Funeral Home in Atlanta Friday afternoon.