• Publication: The Red & Black (University of Georgia student newspaper)
• Author: Shelley Hill, Staff Writer
• Original Publication Date: April 23, 1997

On April 23, 1992, 22-year-old University senior Jennifer Stone was raped and strangled in her one-bedroom apartment on Hull Street. Five years later, Athens-Clarke County Police are still looking for the killer.

“This case will never be closed until it is solved,” said W.J. Smith, the officer investigating the case. “I want to know who did it.”

Stone’s body was discovered April 24, 1992, by three friends who went to her apartment after she missed an on-campus meeting.

Police have talked with several hundred people and checked 60 to 70 blood samples with samples taken from the murder scene in an effort to eliminate people as suspects.

“We know a ton of folks who did not do it,” Smith said.

If a homicide case is not broken in 48 to 72 hours, the odds of it being solved go down dramatically, said Smith, who supervises the ACC Police persons crime unit. He admitted it is not often a case is solved years after the murder. However, Smith remains optimistic. He said the crime lab has strong DNA information in the case.

DNA information is stored on a state crime lab computer. Whenever there is a similar case, the computer automatically checks unsolved cases for DNA matches.

Smith estimated several thousand DNA comparisons have been run in the Stone case.

He said he last worked on the case in December and January, when police were investigating other local rape cases — including five serial sexual assaults in Five Points in 1995 and 1996, as well as three rapes last summer that police have linked to a “Daylight Rapist.”

In a rape investigation, the chances of finding a DNA match are good, said Smith, pointing to the Five Points Rapist case. Citing the first interstate DNA match in forensic history, police arrested John Alexander Scieszka in January and charged him with the Five Points rapes.

In the Stone case, “we are one suspect away from solving the thing,” Smith said.

ACC Police have solved the only two murders that have been committed this year. In 1996, there were 16 murders, five of which were solved, said ACC Police spokeswoman Hilda Sorrow.

Stone was the last University student to be murdered.

Her death was a shock to the University and the community because of its violence, said Rev. Steven Pavignano, who led Stone’s memorial service attended by 500 students.

Although a whole generation of students has moved on, Pavignano said Stone’s murder is still in the minds of many who were here in 1992.

“The administration, campus ministers and especially campus police are very aware that there has been a murder,” Pavignano said.

Pavignano said the five-year anniversary of Stone’s murder should be a reminder that students can make it harder for people to commit these crimes.

“We’ve taken safety for granted at times,” he said.

— Staff Writer Danielle Underferth contributed to this story.

[Photo caption] Jennifer Stone (File)