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22-year-old Laken Hope Riley went out for a jog at Lake Herrick, a recreational area on the campus of the University of Georgia near the school’s intramural fields. When she didn’t return, her friends called the police.
Around 12:30 p.m., officers found her unconscious with obvious injuries in the woods behind the intramural fields. They pronounced her dead at the scene. Her death led UGA to cancel classes until Monday; it was the second on-campus death in as many days, following another student found dead in a dorm on Wednesday.
An update from UGA senior leadership regarding recent events and class cancellation. https://t.co/QJH76qbkbX— UGA (@universityofga) February 22, 2024
Both deaths rocked the campus, but Riley’s death was particularly alarming because authorities suspected foul play. Riley was not a student at UGA, but she was studying nursing at Augusta University, which has a campus in Athens and has an agreement with UGA allowing its students to participate in activities at UGA.
According to News Nation, Riley had been a student at UGA until she transferred to Augusta’s nursing program, where she was a junior and a Dean’s List student.
“Anytime a life is lost, it’s difficult, but you can rest assured that the University of Georgia police in cooperation, as you can all see, with Athens Clarke County police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are continuing to work around the clock to resolve this crime and to bring anyone involved with it to justice,” a UGA spokesman told reporters on Friday.
