- Publication: The Atlanta Journal / The Atlanta Constitution (combined Saturday edition)
- Author: Not credited
- Original Publication Date: Saturday, April 25, 1992
ATHENS — An autopsy shows that a 22-year-old University of Georgia student from Roswell who was found dead in her off-campus house was strangled, an Athens-Clarke County Police Department official said Friday night.
“I don’t think we have a situation here to put the town in a panic,” said police bureau Chief David Camp, who received the autopsy results from the State Crime Lab in Decatur. “But everybody needs to understand that . . everybody is a potential victim.”
Police would provide no further details about the slaying.
Investigators spent more than 19 hours stalking clues inside the house before removing the body of Jennifer Lynn Stone around 2 p.m. Friday.
Ms. Stone, a UGA senior, was found dead in a bedroom of the house, where she lived alone.
“We don’t have any suspects at this point,” said Joseph Lumpkin, chief of criminal investigations for the Athens-Clarke County police.
Investigators said Ms. Stone was not known to have problems with anyone on campus that would have prompted an attack. That jibed with comments by Ms. Stone’s stunned friends, who on Friday recalled a smart, talented and friendly young woman.
“I know everybody always says nice things about someone else in this kind of circumstance,” said Jennifer Ramsdell, a classmate, “but it’s really true in this case.”
Ms. Stone, a former student at Atlanta’s Lovett School who was to graduate with a degree in journalism at the end of the spring quarter, was talented both as a photographer and copywriter, her teachers said. The youngest of five daughters of a Roswell family, she was picked just this week for a summer internship at Bockel, Clark and Gill, an Atlanta advertising agency.
University of Georgia art professor Walt Nix found a series of black-and-white portraits hanging on the drying rack in the art department Friday morning — the last photographs Ms. Stone took.
“I was looking at them and picturing her working on them a day or two earlier,” Dr. Nix said. “They were photos of people, including a self-portrait, with very sensitive lighting. It’s a tragedy there will be no more creative work from her, because Jenny really had something to say.”
Many of those who knew her well, like Dr. Nix, were in shock Friday as news of her death circulated through downtown Athens and across the UGA campus, friends said.
University administrators said they had arranged for several counseling and mental health professionals, as well as a Catholic campus minister, to meet Friday night with members of the Kappa Delta sorority, of which Ms. Stone was a member. Dwight Douglas, vice president for student affairs, said a memorial service was being planned and that counseling was offered to any student wanting it.
But for many students who didn’t know Ms. Stone, the slaying was an isolated and rare occurrence in this college town — and “a startling reminder that we’re not invincible,” said Laurie Allen, 20, a French major from Sandy Springs.
“Most of us are such safe, little cloistered suburban kids,” she said. “You don’t think about somebody being behind your house or waiting for you inside. It’s made me realize I don’t want to live alone anymore.”
UGA Police Chief Chuck Horton understands: “I think we’ve got a very safe campus, but that doesn’t mean something can’t happen here, even though parents feel the college atmosphere should be safe of all problems.”
Relatives and neighbors began gathering Friday morning at the Stone family’s two-story brick home in the Willow Springs subdivision in Roswell, but were too upset to be interviewed. Family friend Paul Drack said Ms. Stone’s father flew to Louisiana Friday to break the news of Ms. Stone’s death to one of her sisters.
In Athens Friday, a half-dozen uniformed and plain-clothes investigators paraded in and out of the small, two-room brick house at North Hull and Clayton streets, near the city bus station. Cardboard boxes, a trunk and other household items were outside the home.
Police believe Ms. Stone was attacked late Wednesday evening or early Thursday morning. She was last heard from late Wednesday night, when she spoke on the phone with a student about a class she was taking.
Ms. Stone was supposed to meet Thursday with students she was working with on an advertising project. But she didn’t show up, something that was unheard of for the dedicated student.
Three students in her project group went to the home before 7:30 p.m. Thursday, found the door unlocked and discovered Ms. Stone’s body in the bedroom.
The downtown section of Athens where she lived was considered a little rough, students and business owners said.
“I bet she was the only girl on campus who lived by herself downtown,” said senior Michael Carvell, 21. “That’s crazy.”
Because she lived near the bus station, police are investigating the possibility that her killer was traveling by bus through Athens — and may now be in another state.
How this report was prepared: Journal-Constitution staff reporters Rebecca McCarthy, Joe Earle and Dennis McCafferty reported from Athens and Atlanta.
[Photo caption] Officials gather outside the rental house where Jennifer Lynn Stone was found strangled Thursday night. Investigators searched the scene for 19 hours before removing the body. (Marlene Karas / Staff)
[Map] Body found — UGA student slain Thursday night (map of downtown Athens; Duffy Dolan / Staff)
[Photo] Jennifer Lynn Stone