Katharina Buczek
Laken Riley, a 22-year-old University of Georgia College of Nursing student, was brutally killed on February 22 during a morning jog on campus. Now, the murder trial against 26-year-old Jose Ibarra is underway after beginning on Friday, November 15.
Laken, who had made the dean’s list student shortly before her death, had left for a run on her normal trail route at 9:03 a.m. that Thursday morning when she encountered Jose, a Venezuelan migrant.
Using a Garmin smartwatch she was wearing, which she’d been gifted for Christmas, investigators were able to determine that something made Laken “stop dead in her tracks” at about 9:10 a.m.
At 9:11 a.m., Laken also activated the emergency function on her cell phone to dial 911. The audio from her final phone call was played in court on Friday, and only a male voice could be heard. The call left Laken’s mother in tears.
“She’s on this trail with this defendant for about four minutes, and then you see four minutes later, her Garmin [smartwatch] moves 65 feet into the woods,” explained prosecutor Sheila Ross.
Laken’s roommate, Lilly Steiner, testified before the court and detailed how, earlier that morning, she had seen Laken’s location using the Find My iPhone feature.
“I checked her location to see where she was, and I saw that she was on a run on a trail that she typically ran,” Lilly stated.
Once Lilly realized that Laken’s location had not changed by 10:45 a.m., she went to search the trail for Laken with another roommate. They found an AirPod, which they thought was Laken’s, and took a photo. Then, they returned home with the AirPod and contacted UGA police at about 12:05 p.m.
According to Ross, Laken’s encounter with her killer was “long” and “fierce.” Her heart stopped at 9:28 a.m., based on her smartwatch data, and there was no more movement thereafter.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
