Sam Amico
Police are questioning a suspect in the death of a Georgia nursing student who died after going out for a run. Her body was found just off campus with “visible injuries,” according to UGA police.
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Laken Hope Riley, 22, had transferred to Augusta University College of Nursing from the University of Georgia in 2023. She was found “not breathing” in a forested area near Lake Herrick on Thursday afternoon, police said.
Riley was still active in her sorority at UGA, spokesperson Greg Trevor told The Red & Black. “She was active in the community and well known and from all accounts very well-liked,” Trevor said.
One individual identified as a “person of interest” has been detained in connection with the tragedy.
“Evidence at the scene indicated foul play,” Athens-Clarke County Coroner Sonny Wilson told The New York Post.
The cause of death has not been determined.
The Post reports:
Riley, a promising student who had previously made the Dean’s list, was first reported missing by her roommate around noon when she failed to return from a run around the Intramural Fields on what is typically known as “East Campus,” police said.
… Riley, who was pictured smiling with pals in her final Instagram post just days before her tragic end, had graduated from River Ridge High School in Woodstock, Ga., in 2020.
She made the dean’s list at the Augusta University College of Nursing last fall and was a keen runner, who had ran the Athens, Georgia Half-Marathon in October.
She was pictured with her mother, Allyson Brown Phillips, just a couple weeks before her death.
