Jenny is born on December 9, 1969, the youngest of five daughters of Raymond and Joan Stone in Lexington, Kentucky. She spends most of her childhood in the small town of Buchanan, Michigan.

Coverage: More clues sought in Athens slaying (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 27, 1992)
U.Ga. student Jennifer Stone to be buried on Monday (Athens Daily News, Apr. 26, 1992)

Jenny graduates from The Lovett School in Atlanta, then enrolls at the University of Georgia.

Coverage: U.Ga. student Jennifer Stone to be buried on Monday (Athens Daily News, Apr. 26, 1992)
Autopsy shows student strangled — No suspects in UGA senior’s slaying at home (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 25, 1992)

Her father describes her as an avid traveler. She spends the summer after her sophomore year in Italy and London, and the following summer at Oxford University.

Coverage: 10-year observance of slaying — Death of student remains unsolved (The Red and Black, Apr. 23, 2002)

At UGA’s Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, Jenny majors in advertising and minors in photography.

Coverage: U.Ga. student Jennifer Stone to be buried on Monday (Athens Daily News, Apr. 26, 1992)
Unsolved a decade later: Stone’s murder still haunts friends, puzzles investigators (Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 23, 2002)
10-year observance of slaying — Death of student remains unsolved (The Red and Black, Apr. 23, 2002)

Jenny moves into a small three-room brick cottage at 187 Hull Street in downtown Athens. According to the GBI, she has lived there alone for about eight months by April 1992.

The cottage is behind the Greyhound bus station, within walking distance of the downtown social scene.

Coverage: Unsolved a decade later: Stone’s murder still haunts friends, puzzles investigators (Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 23, 2002)
Old case still puzzles (Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 23, 2009)

Professor Lee Wenthe accompanies Jenny and several other advertising students on a field trip to New York. Wenthe later says Jenny got a first-hand look at the real world of advertising and was “so excited.”

Coverage: Slain coed mourned by friends (Gwinnett Daily News, Apr. 25, 1992)

Jenny is appointed account executive for her advertising campaigns class in winter quarter, which a friend calls both an honor and a big responsibility. In spring, according to Sandi Turner, she is president of the mock advertising company her class project group runs.

Coverage: Stone remembered as devoted, motivated — Funeral to be held today (The Red and Black, Apr. 27, 1992)
Old case still puzzles (Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 23, 2009)

Several 1992 reports say Jenny had just learned she was picked for a summer internship at Bockel, Clark and Gill, an Atlanta advertising agency. A friend adds that she planned to attend the Portfolio Center in Atlanta after graduating in June. The agency’s Howard Clark says she had been “pleasantly persistent” about the job.

Coverage: Slain coed mourned by friends (Gwinnett Daily News, Apr. 25, 1992)
Autopsy shows student strangled — No suspects in UGA senior’s slaying at home (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 25, 1992)

Around noon, Jenny spends 30 minutes with Professor Wenthe. “She wanted to talk about her future. She wanted to be a copywriter,” Wenthe says. That day, art teacher Bill Paul’s advanced photography class critiques her work, and she jokes with a department secretary that she is graduating soon.

The next morning, an art professor finds a series of black-and-white portraits hanging on the drying rack in the art department, the last photographs she took.

Coverage: Slain coed mourned by friends (Gwinnett Daily News, Apr. 25, 1992)
Solution to murder covered in cloud (Athens Daily News, Apr. 27, 1992)
Autopsy shows student strangled — No suspects in UGA senior’s slaying at home (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 25, 1992)

Jenny Stone works with classmates on a group advertising project. She is last known to be alive around midnight, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

A boyfriend’s telephone call at about 1:00 a.m. on April 23 is described as the last recorded contact with her. That detail comes from a single source, a 2012 Patch account.

Coverage: Old case still puzzles (Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 23, 2009)
After 52 weeks, police still seek the right clue (Athens Daily News, Apr. 23, 1993)

Jenny misses a scheduled project meeting at noon, then a second one at 6:00 p.m.

Coverage: UGA student found slain in Athens home (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 24, 1992)
Autopsy report: Jennifer Stone strangled (Athens Daily News, Apr. 25, 1992)

Three classmates go to Jenny’s cottage at 187 Hull Street. They find a side door standing open a few inches and Jenny’s body in the bedroom.

The exact time is disputed. The GBI’s public listing and 2022 broadcast coverage say 7:00 p.m. The Athens Observer of April 30, 1992, the closest contemporaneous account, says 7:30 p.m.

Coverage: Autopsy report: Jennifer Stone strangled (Athens Daily News, Apr. 25, 1992)
Solution to murder covered in cloud (Athens Daily News, Apr. 27, 1992)
Autopsy shows student strangled — No suspects in UGA senior’s slaying at home (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 25, 1992)

Investigators place the attack in the early-morning hours. Their working reconstruction: Jenny stepped outside for air after 1 a.m. When she returned, she surprised someone who had come in through an unlocked door. A struggle began in the kitchen, and she was forced into the bedroom, raped and strangled.

This is the police theory, not established fact.

Coverage: Old case still puzzles (Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 23, 2009)
GBI: Rape preceded Stone’s death (The Red and Black, Apr. 27, 1992)

Athens–Clarke County police and GBI agents work the scene. A WAGA-TV crew, and later WXIA Channel 11, broadcast footage from outside the house.

A 1992 news report says Jenny’s parents heard about a slaying on a news broadcast. They called to check on her, and a police officer answered her phone.

Coverage: Body found downtown — Student killed, investigation offers few leads (Athens Daily News, Apr. 24, 1992)
Clues Sought In Slaying — Few Leads Revealed So Far In Slaying Of U.Ga. Student (Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 24, 1992)
Student found dead in home — Police rule death of senior as homicide (The Red & Black, Apr. 24, 1992)
Slain coed mourned by friends (Gwinnett Daily News, Apr. 25, 1992)

Officers hold the scene for roughly 19 hours before the body is removed. They process the house and a surrounding block for three days.

Coverage: Autopsy shows student strangled — No suspects in UGA senior’s slaying at home (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 25, 1992)

The state crime lab confirms strangulation. An autopsy later establishes that Jenny was also raped. Police report that the only visible injuries were bruises to the neck. There is no forced entry, and nothing is reported missing from the house at this stage.

Coverage: Autopsy shows student strangled — No suspects in UGA senior’s slaying at home (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 25, 1992)
Slain student was sexually assaulted (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 26, 1992)
Strangled student also raped — Police: No arrest for murder yet (Athens Daily News, Apr. 26, 1992)

An 18-year-old man is arrested after allegedly trying to break into a young woman’s apartment on South Pope Street. He is later charged after an Athens woman says he abducted and raped her a week earlier.

A commander of the Criminal Investigation Division, says publicly: “At this point we don’t have anything to tie him to the Stone case.” Police excluded him from the investigation. The charges against him are allegations.

Coverage: Not a suspect, police say of alleged rapist (The Athens Observer, Apr. 30, 1992)

Athens–Clarke County police and GBI agents search the house and a block-wide radius around it again for evidence.

Coverage: Strangled student also raped — Police: No arrest for murder yet (Athens Daily News, Apr. 26, 1992)
More clues sought in Athens slaying (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 27, 1992)

The campus-safety group Safe Campuses Now says it will use the slaying to lobby UGA to publish off-campus crime statistics. The group was founded by UGA graduate Dana Getzinger, who survived a 1988 attack in her Athens condominium by a man who was never caught.

Coverage: Group will use slaying to lobby UGA to publish statistics about campus crime (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 24, 1992)
IS COLLEGE SAFE? Victim started Safe Campuses Now (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 25, 1992)
Safe Campuses boosting efforts in wake of death (Athens Daily News, Apr. 28, 1992)

The funeral is held on Monday, April 27. A memorial service follows on Wednesday, April 29, at 4:00 p.m. at the University Catholic Center in Athens.

Coverage: U.Ga. student Jennifer Stone to be buried on Monday (Athens Daily News, Apr. 26, 1992)
Friends mourn student at funeral (Athens Daily News, Apr. 28, 1992)
Memorial service set for slain UGA senior (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 28, 1992)
500 gather to remember Stone (The Red and Black, Apr. 30, 1992)

Ten officers are assigned to the case. More than 100 people are interviewed in the first week alone as investigators try to trace every movement Jenny made that day.

Police say they are “fairly confident” that a transient from the Greyhound station next door is not responsible. They also report no sign of prying or forced entry and no indication of robbery. The door may simply have been unlocked.

Coverage: Not a suspect, police say of alleged rapist (The Athens Observer, Apr. 30, 1992)
Solution to murder covered in cloud (Athens Daily News, Apr. 27, 1992)

Governor Zell Miller and Secretary of State Max Cleland sign an official notice offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. It is published May 13.

Community and family contributions reportedly push the total reward fund to roughly $30,000, including $1,000 pledged personally by the lead investigator. The $30,000 figure comes from a single source, the retired investigator speaking to Patch.

The Athens Observer reports there are no concrete suspects. The investigation has slowed while detectives wait on the Atlanta crime lab. Sgt. Alan Brown says: “We’re not getting the headlines we got early on, but we’re still working just as hard on this case.”

Detectives have re-canvassed downtown and computerized the file to cross-reference it.

Coverage: Crime lab the key in Stone murder? (The Athens Observer, Jun. 11, 1992)
Athens police have high-pressured spring (The Red and Black, Jun. 8, 1992)

UGA announces at Jenny’s memorial service that her degree from the Grady College will be awarded posthumously. According to the Athens Observer, her parents are expected to sit in the President’s box at Sanford Stadium when she is awarded her diploma at commencement.

Coverage: Crime lab the key in Stone murder? (The Athens Observer, Jun. 11, 1992)
Friends mourn student at funeral (Athens Daily News, Apr. 28, 1992)
One Year Later: Jenny Stone’s presence still felt (The Red and Black, Apr. 23, 1993)

The art department shows 26 of Jenny’s black-and-white photographs in the courtyard of the Visual Arts Building, organized by professor Robert Nix with her teachers, friends and family. The images, mostly one or two figures, include several self-portraits and pictures found on a drying rack in her apartment after her death. “She really had something to say,” Nix says.

Coverage: Stone photo exhibit brings together family, friends (The Red and Black, June 25, 1992)
Crime lab the key in Stone murder? (The Athens Observer, Jun. 11, 1992)

The Jennifer L. Stone Memorial Award for Creativity is presented for the first time at a graduation ceremony. The student Ad Club will give it annually.

Coverage: Family, friends still struggling with tragedy (Athens Daily News, Apr. 23, 1993)

The Drug and Vice Squad recovers one of Jenny’s cameras in northern Athens, reportedly during an unrelated drug raid. A second camera is traced to Oglethorpe County.

Coverage: Recovered cameras link three men to Stone case (The Red and Black, Jul. 9, 1992)
Police charge three men with Stone camera thefts (Athens Daily News, Jul. 9, 1992)
2 possible slay suspects have records (The Atlanta Constitution, Jul. 9, 1992)

Three men are charged with theft by receiving or selling Jenny’s cameras in the hours after the murder: Larry D. Brown, 34, and Donald Wilson, 32, both listed as homeless, and Earnest Brown Jr., 29, a UGA employee. Earnest Brown is released on $6,500 bond. Wilson and Larry Brown are denied bond.

These are property charges only, and none of the three has ever been connected to the killing. Later coverage reports that prosecutors dropped the charges.

Coverage: Police charge three men with Stone camera thefts (Athens Daily News, Jul. 9, 1992)
Fingerprints from Stone’s house don’t fit suspects (Athens Daily News, Jul. 10, 1992)
Two cleared in the Stone theft probe (Athens Daily News, Oct. 17, 1992)

The state crime lab reports that DNA from all three men does not match the DNA recovered at the murder scene. Maj. Guntharp: “We can safely say that DNA evidence at the scene does not match any of those three men. We do not have at this point a suspect that left the evidence.”

The men remain of interest only because of the cameras.

Coverage: Stone killer’s trail cools (The Athens Observer, Jul. 23, 1992)

A grand jury indicts Earnest Brown Jr. and Donald Wilson on charges related to disposing of the stolen cameras.

Coverage: Stone case still frustrates police (The Red and Black, Jan. 25, 1993)
Hypnosis may be used in Stone case (The Red and Black, Jan. 8, 1993)
Two cleared in the Stone theft probe (Athens Daily News, Oct. 17, 1992)

Five months in, downtown Athens is still uneasy. Athens–Clarke County Police Chief Ronald Chandler says officers are still pursuing information about the timing of the camera sales.

State Rep. Charles Poag writes a heated letter to Gov. Zell Miller asking that the GBI take charge of the case. Police say the GBI has been involved from the start, working the scene, analyzing evidence and assisting with interviews. The GBI’s deputy director says the bureau would add agents but does not take cases over.

Coverage: Slaying of student leaves undercurrent of fear at UGA (The Atlanta Constitution, Sep. 28, 1992)
Lawmaker seeking more GBI help in Stone case (Athens Daily News, Sep. 30, 1992)
Get GBI to take over Athens slay case, Poag asks governor (The Atlanta Constitution, Oct. 1, 1992)
Representative wants Stone investigation turned over to GBI (The Red and Black, Oct. 1, 1992)

In Superior Court, an Assistant District Attorney says there is not enough evidence to prosecute Earnest Brown Jr. and Donald Wilson on the camera charges. He says the cases were weak and that nothing connected the disposal of the cameras to the slaying. The case against Larry D. Brown is not heard that day.

Reports from this period differ on exactly which charges were dismissed and when. See the January 1993 entries below.

Coverage: Two cleared in the Stone theft probe (Athens Daily News, Oct. 17, 1992)
Stone murder case update: Two suspects dismissed (The Red and Black, Oct. 20, 1992)
Stone suspect cleared, but new data gathered (Athens Daily News, Oct. 21, 1992)

Police bring a 19-year-old man back from Louisiana after his name comes up several times in the investigation. He is held on an unrelated charge. DNA evidence eliminates him as a suspect.

A man formerly charged over the cameras tells police who he thinks gave them to him. A detective travels to Houston to collect a sample from that man.

Coverage: Stone suspect cleared, but new data gathered (Athens Daily News, Oct. 21, 1992)
Two cleared in the Stone theft probe (Athens Daily News, Oct. 17, 1992)
Stone murder case update: Two suspects dismissed (The Red and Black, Oct. 20, 1992)

The GBI crime lab tells Maj. Guntharp on November 26 that blood from the man in Houston does not match the evidence from the scene. Guntharp says police are no closer to a suspect than they were months earlier, and that investigators are working back through information from the camera defendants.

Coverage: Suspect cleared in Stone case (The Red and Black, Dec. 4, 1992)

Sgt. W.J. Smith says two of the camera defendants, Earnest Brown Jr. and Donald Wilson, have been asked to let a psychiatrist hypnotize them in the hope of learning more. One has agreed and the other has tentatively agreed.

The Red & Black describes both men as still charged and still suspects, despite the earlier reports that charges were being dropped. DNA had already ruled all three men out as the source of the crime-scene evidence.

Coverage: Hypnosis may be used in Stone case (The Red and Black, Jan. 8, 1993)
Stone case still frustrates police (The Red and Black, Jan. 25, 1993)

The district attorney’s office moves to dismiss the theft-by-receiving charges against Larry D. Brown and Donald Wilson. Brown had been in jail since July because he could not make bond. Earnest Brown Jr. remains charged, and officials say his case will likely go to trial.

Sgt. Smith: “I hate to see any charges be dismissed, but they … know whether or not there is a case, and it’s their call.”

Coverage: Stone case still frustrates police (The Red and Black, Jan. 25, 1993)
Stone investigation: A year of ups and downs (The Red and Black, Apr. 23, 1993)

One-year anniversary coverage reports that the case is still unsolved.

Coverage: Stone investigation: A year of ups and downs (The Red and Black, Apr. 23, 1993)
One Year Later: Jenny Stone’s presence still felt (The Red and Black, Apr. 23, 1993)
After 52 weeks, police still seek the right clue (Athens Daily News, Apr. 23, 1993)
Remembering Jennifer Stone: Eulogy never spoken (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 18, 1993)

UGA announces the Jennifer L. Stone Memorial Scholarship, full tuition for a student chosen by the Grady College who shows creative skill in advertising. A $25,000 gift from the Amax Foundation, whose subsidiary employed Jenny’s father for 40 years, seeds the fund. The first scholarship will be awarded for the 1993–94 school year.

Coverage: Remembering Jennifer Stone: Eulogy never spoken (The Atlanta Journal, Apr. 18, 1993)
Family, friends still struggling with tragedy (Athens Daily News, Apr. 23, 1993)

Police say the DNA of a man who pleaded guilty to raping a college student in Charlotte, N.C., does not match the killer’s. It is the 45th sample taken from a possible suspect. Smith says he is more encouraged than he was six months earlier.

Coverage: Stone case: Police remain optimistic (The Red and Black, Nov. 17, 1993)

Smith says more than 300 people have been questioned and 47 suspects eliminated through DNA blood sampling. He says he works the case every day.

A $13,000 reward is on offer, funded by Gov. Miller, the Athens–Clarke County government, the University foundation and the Athens Downtown Council.

Coverage: Anniversary of Stone’s death brings memories, few answers (The Red and Black, Apr. 22, 1994)

In spring 1996 the Athens Observer reports that lawyers in an unrelated civil defamation case have subpoenaed Lt. Smith and a local attorney for documents from the Stone investigation. The paper reports that the file named the adult son of a Superior Court judge as a possible suspect, and that he was reportedly one of the last people to see Jenny alive. It reports that police questioned his former wife about a possible link, and that an informed source said the questioning followed a confidential informant’s statement that he was with Jenny just before she was killed. The county attorney said that was not what the informant told police.

Smith and the attorney win protective orders. The county calls the files “state secrets” and says that, to the extent a tape and an anonymous letter exist, they are part of an ongoing investigation. The paper also reports that the county could not find any record of the attorney’s 1992 request for the same material.

The paper reports that police asked him for a DNA sample in 1992 and that he was never tested. Officials point to an apparent alibi: he was reportedly in a treatment program at the time. The paper questions the court records that support it.

Investigators have publicly ruled him out. In 2009, the retired lead investigator said investigators accounted for his whereabouts and found he could not have committed the crime. He has never been charged, and police have never publicly named him a suspect. These reports rest on unnamed sources and court filings in a separate case, and none of the allegations has been proven.

Coverage: Stone murder files dubbed “state secrets” (The Athens Observer, Mar. 28, 1996)
Stone files will remain closed (The Athens Observer, May 16, 1996)
The Stone files: authorities seek to cloud their existence (The Athens Observer, May 23, 1996)
County can’t find Tolley’s request for Stone info (The Athens Observer, June 13, 1996)
Stone case DNA: a tale of two tests (The Athens Observer, June 20, 1996)
Old case still puzzles (Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 23, 2009)

Smith says police have checked 60 to 70 blood samples against the scene evidence and that the killer’s DNA profile is stored on a state crime-lab computer that automatically checks it against similar cases. “In the Stone case, we are one suspect away from solving the thing,” he says.

Coverage: Stone case still open five years after death (The Red & Black, Apr. 23, 1997)

Athens–Clarke police largely discount a tip. The GBI received an audiotape and letter from a California private investigator who gave only the name “Frank.” The 30-minute tape, he said, was a phone call recorded in 1993, and it contains cryptic references to a body.

Smith says five investigators listened and found no mention of Jenny Stone, Athens or anyone they could identify.

Coverage: Police skeptical of latest tip in Stone slaying (Athens Daily News, Mar. 10, 2000)

Georgia begins requiring DNA samples from convicted felons entering prison, seeding the database that Jenny’s crime-scene profile is checked against. The same year, her case is among the unsolved Georgia murders featured on the GBI’s new cold-case website.

Coverage: Nine years pass since Stone slaying (Athens Daily News, Apr. 23, 2001)
DNA ‘fingerprinting’ may someday produce suspect (Athens Daily News, Apr. 23, 1993)

Tara Louise Baker, a 23-year-old University of Georgia law student, is found dead in her burning Athens home, a day before her 24th birthday. Police determine she was beaten, stabbed and strangled before the fire was set. It is the first killing of a UGA student since Jenny’s, and no one is charged for more than two decades.

Her case becomes the standing comparison for Jenny’s. Athens–Clarke County police keep both files sealed as pending investigations, and the two cases are fought over together in the open-records lawsuit that reaches the Georgia Supreme Court (see 2003 and 2005–2008).

Sources: The Red & Black, Feb. 2026, FOX 5 Atlanta, Feb. 19, 2026

Coverage: Survey: College students unlikely murder victims (Athens Banner-Herald, Jan. 20, 2003)

Raymond Stone says he still holds out hope that his daughter’s case will be solved. The crime lab’s director says the killer’s DNA sample has been compared to “hundreds of thousands” of suspects through state and federal databases. A new Georgia law will expand the state database to cover all convicted felons.

Coverage: Nine years pass since Stone slaying (Athens Daily News, Apr. 23, 2001)

A decade after the murder, no one has been charged. The Red & Black reports that no suspects remain. Raymond and Jo Stone spend the day quietly at their home in Greenwood, Ind.

Coverage: 10-year observance of slaying — Death of student remains unsolved (The Red and Black, Apr. 23, 2002)
Unsolved a decade later: Stone’s murder still haunts friends, puzzles investigators (Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 23, 2002)

Lt. W.J. Smith retires after 26 years on the Athens and Athens–Clarke County forces. The Stone case is the one he says will “hang around” for him.

Coverage: Smith retires from force — Badge of honor (Athens Banner-Herald, May 5, 2002)

Jenny’s father, Raymond Stone, dies at 77 without seeing her killer brought to justice. Lt. Smith learns of his death on his last day at work.

Coverage: Smith retires from force — Badge of honor (Athens Banner-Herald, May 5, 2002), Find a Grave

Athens–Clarke County attorneys tell the state Attorney General’s office that the Stone and Tara Baker files are exempt from release as pending investigations. The county discloses that investigators received a new lead the previous July, about a suspect who may have had possession of the stolen cameras.

Coverage: Files in 2 slayings to stay closed — Police: Cases still active (Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 23, 2003)

DNA from Derrick Todd Lee, 34, later convicted as the Baton Rouge–area serial killer, is compared against the DNA recovered from Jenny’s scene. A GBI spokesperson confirms the profiles do not match.

Coverage: Suspect in rapes not linked to Athens case (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, May 29, 2003)

The Athens Banner-Herald marks three years since the murder of UGA law student Tara Louise Baker and twelve years since Jenny’s. The paper notes that Athens–Clarke County police have solved neither case and keep both files closed to the public. A letter to the editor demands release of both investigative files.

Athens Newspapers LLC, publisher of the Athens Banner-Herald, files an Open Records Act request for the Jennifer Stone and Tara Baker investigative files. It is denied nine days later as a “pending investigation.” The paper sues. See the Student Press Law Center report.

Coverage: Banner-Herald sues police — Wants records from student murder cases (The Red and Black, Sep. 14, 2005)

The Georgia Court of Appeals rules for the newspaper. The Unified Government of Athens–Clarke County appeals, and the Georgia Supreme Court hears argument on November 30, 2007.

Coverage: Georgia Supreme Court to hear open records case (The Macon Telegraph, Nov. 30, 2007)
Court to hear open-records law case (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Nov. 30, 2007)

In Unified Government of Athens–Clarke County v. Athens Newspapers, LLC (284 Ga. 192), the court holds that an investigation remains “pending,” and its file exempt from disclosure, until the file is formally closed, whether or not a prosecution is active.

The newspaper wins only a narrow procedural point about when the three-business-day response clock starts. The Stone & Baker files stay sealed.

Smith, retired for seven years, lays out the police theory of how the murder happened. It matches the reconstruction above. Assistant Chief Alan Brown, who worked the case with him, says he “never did lock into any one theory.” He remains open to the killer being someone Jenny knew, or someone from out of town who came through on a bus.

The GBI crime lab checks at least once a month whether a profile newly entered into the national DNA database matches the killer’s.

Coverage: Old case still puzzles (Athens Banner-Herald, Apr. 23, 2009)

Jenny’s mother, Joan, dies in August, 2011. See Classic City News, Find a Grave.

Twentieth-anniversary coverage in The Red & Black, the Athens Banner-Herald and Patch draws on retired Lt. W.J. Smith, the case’s longtime lead investigator.

An Assistant District Attorney forms a cold case unit. Re-interviews witnesses and re-examines the evidence. No official updates have been reported since.

Coverage: After 20 years, University student murder still unsolved (The Red & Black, Apr. 19, 2012)

The independent podcast Cold Casing devotes its first season to Jenny’s murder.

The families of Tara Baker and of Rhonda Sue Coleman, an 18-year-old killed in 1990 in Hazlehurst, Georgia, press the legislature for the Georgia Homicide Victims’ Families Rights Act. The bill does not pass that year. It returns in 2023 as the Coleman-Baker Act.

Thirty-year coverage about the Jenny Stone case appears from WSAV, WRBL and others. There is no arrest and no publicly announced forensic breakthrough.

The Georgia House and Senate unanimously pass HB 88, the Coleman-Baker Act, on March 29. Gov. Brian Kemp signs it on April 28 at the Athens–Clarke County Courthouse, with relatives of both namesakes in attendance. It takes effect July 1.

The act puts $5.4 million toward a cold case unit inside the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Under it, families of homicide victims can ask law enforcement to review an unsolved case and, once six years have passed, get access to the file. Agencies must have a way to accept such requests.

Sources: The Red & Black, April 29, 2023, WUGA, April 28, 2023

The new GBI Cold Case Unit reviews Tara Baker’s case in September 2023. In May 2024, the GBI and Athens–Clarke County police announce the arrest of Edrick Lamont Faust, 48, for her murder. He is charged with murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, arson, aggravated sodomy and other counts. GBI Director Chris Hosey credits biological evidence and DNA science, and says investigators found no connection between Baker and Faust.

Source: CBS News, May 2024

The trial begins February 2, just over 25 years after the killing of Tara Baker. Prosecutors rely heavily on DNA evidence from the original investigation, and jurors review video of Faust’s 2024 GBI interview and the DNA reports. On February 17 the jury finds him guilty on all 12 counts, including murder, rape and arson.

On February 19, Chief Superior Court Judge Lisa Lott sentences him to two consecutive life terms plus 45 years. Baker’s family says the verdict does not restore her future. Faust’s relatives say he did not kill her, and the defense argued that his DNA was not the only DNA found.

Baker’s is a cold case that was solved. Jenny’s remains unsolved.

Sources: The Red & Black, FOX 5 Atlanta

The GBI still lists the Jennifer Lynn Stone case as an open unsolved homicide, jointly with Athens–Clarke County Police and GBI Region 11 (Athens).

Tips: Athens–Clarke County Police, 706-613-3330. GBI Athens, 706-552-2309.