• Publication: Athens Daily News
• Author: Joan Stroer, Staff Writer
• Original Publication Date: Wednesday, September 30, 1992

In a heated letter to Gov. Zell Miller, a state lawmaker has called for greater involvement by Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents in the investigation of the April 22 murder of Jennifer Stone.

“This case has been dragging on for over five months and I want this murder solved,” wrote Charles Poag, D-Eton, in the letter.

“I have a daughter in school at Athens, and I am speaking for all the parents who have students at U.Ga., as well as the citizens of Georgia.”

Saying he thought Athens-Clarke police already have a good idea who murdered Jennifer Stone, Poag asked the governor Monday to let “the State of Georgia take charge of this case and solve it.”

But Athens-Clarke police, who have handled the case since the University of Georgia senior was found sexually assaulted and strangled in her downtown, off-campus apartment April 23, say the GBI has been intimately involved from the start.

GBI agents worked the Hull Street crime scene, analyzed evidence at the lab and assisted in interviews. And Athens-Clarke Police Chief Ronald Chandler remains in close contact with J. Robert Hamrick, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, about the case, Bureau Chief Joseph Lumpkin said.

GBI Deputy Director Paul Carter said Tuesday his office would gladly put more agents on the investigation, although agents are usually seen by local investigators as expert help in unsolved crimes, not case directors. No decision as to the GBI’s further involvement in the probe had been made Tuesday, Carter said.

“We’re not in the business of taking cases over,” he said. “It would not be us calling the shots — we would work jointly and concurrently together.”

The widely publicized slaying marked the third student murder in the university’s history. It is one of four unsolved murders investigated by Athens-Clarke police detectives this year. And it is still the subject of frequent calls to the police department, Lumpkin said.

Department officials were not aware of a concerted effort to place the GBI in charge of the case, an unprecedented move here.

“We welcome any assistance,” Lumpkin said. “Police enforcement has always been cooperative by nature — that’s the way we accomplish things.”

Investigators remain sensitive to statewide apprehension linked to the case, he said, and are committed to solving it. He declined to comment on how close detectives are to solving the slaying.

Many residents felt the department was close to cracking the case when police arrested three suspects in July believed to have sold cameras, stolen from Ms. Stone, in the early morning hours after her slaying blocks from her house.

But hopes fell when the suspects’ DNA and fingerprints failed to match those taken from the Hull Street crime scene and the two cameras. Detectives have been close-mouthed about whether interviews with the three men have brought them closer to arresting her murderer.

Poag, who served as deputy sheriff of Murray County for 16 years, said he feels the detectives have nearly identified Ms. Stone’s murderer, but have been slow in closing the case.