- Publication: Athens Daily News / Athens Banner-Herald (combined Sunday edition)
- Author: Joan Stroer, Staff Writer
- Original Publication Date: Sunday, April 26, 1992
A wave of fear passed through on-campus dorms this weekend after unfounded rumors circulated of a second slaying.
Police received more than 60 calls in 24 hours from students and parents considering withdrawing their children from school. University officials are trying to quell the tide of concern with flyers and counseling sessions. They’re considering a telephone line with news updates to further deter rumor.
“It’s typical in a crisis situation,” Tom Jackson, university public information director, said of the scare. “Young people get scared, they get panicky.”
The Jennifer Stone slaying Thursday is only the third murder in the university’s history, Jackson said. The first was in 1890 and the second the 1983 stabbing of Donna Lynn Allen. At 7 p.m., in sight of Broad Street Christmas traffic, Allen was stabbed three blocks from where Stone was slain.
Allen left her job at a medical billing company above what is now the China Express restaurant on College Avenue and walked toward her car, parked behind the university’s Academic Building. She made it as far as the University Chapel bell.
Safety was top concern over the first part of the weekend. “We’re telling people to keep doors locked, keep windows locked, don’t let strangers inside you don’t know,” police Major David Camp said.
“I want people to be aware and take precautions,” he said. “I don’t want people to be afraid to walk the streets of Athens.”
But despite the low number of Athens student murders, points out Dana Getzinger, students on and off campus need to be aware of their vulnerability.
Getzinger survived a much-publicized, brutal stabbing in her Dearing Street apartment in 1988. And she distrusts current statistics on student assaults.
“They publish on-campus crime statistics,” she said. “It’s misleading.”
If off-campus crimes against students are factored in, figures triple, she has said. A group founded by Getzinger, Safe Campuses Now, was instrumental in the passage this legislative session of a state bill that requires law enforcers to note victimized students in crime reports.
Three murders were investigated between Aug. 1, 1991 and April 1, 1992 in Athens-Clarke County, police reported. Three suspects in the cases have since been arrested. No rapes were reported in the central business district during that time period; however, 22 rapes were reported county-wide. That number may be higher, according to the Athens Rape Crisis Line.
There were 55 cases of armed robbery during the same period, with five in the central business district.