• Publication: Athens Daily News
• Author: Joan Stroer, Staff Writer
• Original Publication Date: Friday, April 23, 1993

As news of Jennifer Stone’s strangulation slaying traveled across state news wires last April, signs that Athenians were feeling its impact spread across town:

• A wave of fear went through on-campus dorms, where a rumor circulated that a second body had been found in a trash can, said Connie Sampson, assistant University of Georgia police chief. The department saturated dorms with patrols.

“People felt vulnerable,” Ms. Sampson said. “We did what we could to ease people’s fears.”

• The day after the murder, Athens-Clarke County CEO Gwen O’Looney issued a press release to the media saying Miss Stone’s murder was the only one in the history of the downtown central business district. University officials, busy answering calls from worried parents, sent a similar statement.

• Clerks at Franklin Sports on Atlanta Highway waited on dozens of nervous women immediately after the slaying. The customers told workers the slaying had made them want a handgun. That month, they sold 414 more handguns than in April 1991.

“It probably jumped considerably. It has a tendency to do that anytime you have a hideous crime,” said owner Clarence Franklin.

• Police offered a $13,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Stone’s killer. The money was contributed by the U.Ga. foundation, the local government, the Athens Downtown Council and the governor’s office, and still stands.

• During the year, pressured by more than seven new public safety groups, police increased the downtown force from six to 12 and put four cops on bicycles. They are now optimistically discussing with city officials the opening of a second downtown office.

As public interest gradually waned in the case, police questioned hundreds of people.

The department racked up more than 2,000 overtime hours on the case, pinpointed 75 to 100 suspects then rejecting them.