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In a perfect world, we would send our children off to college & not worry for their safety as they begin their journey into adulthood, having their first taste of freedom as they start their steps toward independence & adulthood. But sadly, we don’t live in a perfect world & monsters do walk among the rest of us who are just simply trying to live our lives as best as we can; going to school, starting our careers, going out for a run to keep our bodies healthy.
In this case, a college student headed out for a routine run on her college campus & never returned. Her parents are left to wade through the grief that threatens to swallow them whole after losing their baby girl to horrific violence at the hands of another.
Laken Hope Riley was born on January 10, 2002 in Marietta, Georgia to parents Jason Riley & Allyson Phillips. Laken had three siblings & her parents went on to divorce when she was young. During her time at River Ridge High School in Woodstock, Georgia, she was a marathon runner & member of the cross country team & running was a large part of Laken’s life.
After graduating from high school in 2020, Laken moved on to the University of Georgia where she had been enrolled up until the spring of 2023. By 2024, she was a 22-year-old nursing student in her junior year at the Athens campus of Augusta University where she was on the dean’s list. She was also part of the Alphi Chi Omega sorority. Laken documented her goals for the year & wrote that she hoped to go on a date after she’d been such a study bug. It was her vision that after graduation, she would work as a nurse in a children’s hospital.
On a fateful winter morning, Laken headed out for her usual run, never to return again. Jason Riley thinks back to the last conversation he had with his daughter when they discussed how she was doing with classes, never fathoming he wouldn’t hear the sound of Laken’s voice ever again. To this day, his mind struggles to accept that his daughter is truly gone & sometimes, when he first wakes up, he forgets & believes he can still pick the phone up to call her until reality comes crashing back.
On the morning of Thursday, February 22, 2024, Laken was getting ready to go out for a routine jog on the campus of the University of Georgia. Before she set out, she texted her mom Allyson at 8:55 am, Good morning, about to go for a run if you’re free to talk. Eight minutes later at 9:03 am she called her mom, but Allyson didn’t answer.
According to cell phone data, Laken began to listen to music & minutes later, her image was captured on a wooded trail camera at 9:05 am. She was holding her iPhone in her left hand, running in the direction of the intramural fields. At 9:06 am, she ran out of view. Oftentimes, Laken worked out with friends, but on this particular morning, she was alone.
Later review of cellphone data proves that only five minutes after Laken was outside of the view of the camera, she called 911 through the SOS application on her phone at 9:11 am. When the dispatcher picked up, they were unable to speak with the caller before the call ended. The dispatcher called back twice with no answer.
In the meantime, Allyson returned her daughter’s call at 9:24 am, twenty minutes after Laken called her, but the call went unanswered. She moved on to texting her several times; the texts started very casually & as they remained unanswered, Allyson became increasingly concerned. At 9:37 am she wrote, Call me when you can. She called her two more times & then texted again at 9:58 am, You’re making me nervous not answering while you’re out running. Are you ok? At 11:47 am she wrote, Please call me. I’m worried sick about you. During this time, Allyson & other family members, including her sister & stepfather, continued to call Laken.
Later that morning, trail cameras captured images of Laken’s roommates, Lilly Steiner & Sofia Magana, searching for their friend. During their search, they came across one of her AirPods, but there was no sign of Laken. When she still hadn’t returned home by that afternoon, they reported her missing at 12:05 pm.
At 12:38 pm officers were dispatched to search the path Laken normally ran when they came across her body, which had been hidden under leaves, lying 65 feet off the trail. She was found in the fields, unconscious, not breathing with visible injuries. When emergency responders arrived, they sadly determined that Laken was deceased. It was the first homicide at the university in nearly thirty years.
Laken’s body was found in an area across from a busy road where a large dorm & dining hall is situated, known as the East Campus where many freshmen are assigned to live.
The autopsy concluded that Laken died of significant blunt force trauma to her head which included eight injuries to the left side of her skull & above her right temple. One of the injuries alone could have been fatal & caused brain bleeding. There was also evidence of asphyxiation, but Dr. Michelle DiMarco could not categorize how it happened. Laken’s cause of death was determined to be from the combined effects of blunt force head trauma & asphyxia. The wounds to her head were so brutal that they caved in & disfigured the young girl’s skull.
Data review from the Garmin watch Laken had just gotten for Christmas proved that she stopped running at 9:10 am which was only seven minutes after she left the safety of her apartment & four minutes after she ran from the view of the trail camera.
Based on the data, it was clear that something happened to suddenly stop her in her tracks. One minute later she contacted 911 & the muffled phone call lasted a little over one minute. Four minutes later, the Garmin watch moved 65 feet into the woods & at 9:28 am, just about 18 minutes after she suddenly stopped in her tracks, the watch showed that her heart stopped.
By the next day, based on review of the trail camera, police focused their attention on one particular suspect, 26-year-old Jose Ibarra. Ibarra was a non-U.S. citizen from Venezuela who first entered the United States in 2022. On September 8, 2022 he was detained by the U.S. Border Patrol after entering from Mexico near El Paso, Texas. He was released with temporary permission to stay in the country & first headed to New York. He eventually relocated to Athens, Georgia because his brother lived there.
On August 31, 2023 he was arrested by the New York Police Department & charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 with a motor vehicle license violation. This occurred when he was driving a scooter with a child who wasn’t wearing a helmet. Before a detainer could be issued in this case, he was released & there is no record of his arrest on file. He was later arrested in connection with a shoplifting case in Georgia.
Hours after Laken was killed, homicide detectives pulled a photo from a surveillance camera of a suspect who wore a distinctive Adidas hat. Starting to investigate Ibarra, police found a suspicious navy blue jacket in the dumpster near his apartment. Ring camera footage captured Ibarra discarding the jacket as well as three black disposable kitchen gloves near his apartment complex at 9:44 am, about sixteen minutes after Laken died. Laken’s hair was found attached to the jacket while one of the black gloves had a hole in it & contained Laken’s blood.
The officer who found the items in the dumpster on the night of the murder indicated that there were leaves & dark stains on the jacket & dark hair was wrapped around one of the buttons. The hair was determined to originate from Laken or from someone with hair with the same, distinct characteristics. Both Laken & Ibarra’s DNA was found on the jacket. The gloves were located in a bush near the dumpster which matched additional gloves found in a drawer in Ibarra’s apartment.
When Ibarra was first approached by police, they noted scratches to his left forearm that looked to be a result of fingernail scratches as well as a fresh puncture to his left wrist & bruising on his palm. Officers wearing body cameras could be heard asking him what happened to his right bicep where there was a notable scratch & Ibarra was unable to explain. University of Georgia officer Rafael Sayan was brought in to assist with translating during Ibarra’s questioning. When asked why his knuckle was red, he attributed it to the cold.
Ibarra’s DNA was found under Laken’s right fingernails which proved that she had fought for her life before her death. His thumbprint was also found on Laken’s phone which was located near her body when he struggled with her during the 911 call she placed during her attack.
Ibarra was detained following the questioning & arrested on the same day on murder charges. Based on the hat & loafers Ibarra wore when discarding the bloodied jacked into the dumpster, his roommate was able to confirm that it was indeed Ibarra in the footage.
Ibarra was also charged with an unrelated peeping tom offense when on the same day as Laken’s murder, he could be seen peering through a woman’s window who lived in an on-campus apartment. He was seen on video going to the female student’s apartment multiple times & at 7:57 am & the student went on to call 911 to report that someone was trying to open the door of her apartment.
The female student later testified that while she was taking a shower she heard someone trying to open the door to her ground floor apartment. When she looked out the door to investigate, she saw someone duck down but their face was obstructed by a hat. When she ran to grab her phone to dial 911, the person was looking through her living room window. They wore a black hat, black jacket & black gloves.
The person at her apartment wore clothes that matched what Ibarra wore in a Snapchat selfie he posted earlier that morning which included a black Adidas hat. The trail camera showed a similarly dressed individual one hour after this incident, near the path where Laken went running. It was actually Ibarra’s brother who police spotted wearing the Adidas hat the day after Laken’s murder that led them to question Ibarra.
After Ibarra’s arrest on February 23, 2024, one day after Laken’s murder, he remained behind bars without bond at the Clarke County Jail. His charges included malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, obstructing an emergency call & concealing the death of another.
There was no link between Ibarra & Laken, there was no motive & it was obvious that the man was out hunting for a female victim that morning. It was simply a crime of opportunity where the monster just happened to see a young female, out alone.
During the investigation, Ibarra’s brother Diego was also arrested for presenting a fake green card. He pleaded guilty & faces up to ten years in prison followed by up to three years of supervised release.
Analysis of Ibarra’s Samsung cell phone data proved that he was in approximately the same area as Laken when she was murdered. In comparing his phone’s data with Laken’s watch, the data overlapped & his cell phone was in close proximity to the forest where her deceased body was located between approximately 9:10 & 9:32 am. His phone also pinged near the apartment where he attempted to gain entrance & peer into the student’s window earlier that morning.
Ibarra waived his right to a jury trial after his lawyers tried to unsuccessfully move the case out of Athens in fear that a jury in Athens would be impartial. Ibarra pleaded not guilty to all charges against him & faced a minimum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole if convicted. He also waived his right to testify in his own defense.
One witness included a woman who lived in the same apartment complex as Ibarra, who shared his apartment with multiple people, including his two brothers, Diego & Argenis. Stephanie Slaton indicated that on the night of Laken’s murder, he threatened her. When he asked about the police activity present at their complex, she told him that someone passed away in the back of our apartment.
She encouraged that if he heard or saw something suspicious, he should tell the police at that time. Using an app on his phone that translated words from Spanish to English, he wrote, If you tell them, I would tell them that you did it & then I will kill you too.
The trial began on Friday, November 15, 2024 & prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty & instead sought a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The state described the disturbing scene on the afternoon when Laken’s remains were found, When Laken Riley refused to be his rape victim, he bashed her skull in with a rock repeatedly. For nearly twenty minutes, the young woman fought for her life & her dignity.
Ibarra’s defense attorney argued that the prosecution’s evidence against his client was circumstantial & didn’t prove his guilt. During the trial, Ibarra wore headphones for translation purposes. His lawyers attempted to challenge the strength of the evidence including the DNA & questioned if one of his brothers could have committed the crime. Ibarra’s brother Diego was working a shift at the University of Georgia’s dining hall on the day of the murder.
Not only did the prosecution voice the fact that the probability of the DNA belonging to anyone other than Ibarra himself was one in 10 billion, excluding his two brothers, but they also highlighted the electronic data that placed both Ibarra & Laken in the same wooded area where her body was found. The GPS coordinates from both Laken’s cellphone as well as her smartwatch confirmed her precise location in the area where her body was located & pings between Ibarra’s phone & cell towers suggest he was likely in the woods as well.
Prosecutors also played a recorded conversation between Ibarra & his wife, Layling Franco, while he was in jail. During the call he told her that he’d been looking for work at the University of Georgia & she repeatedly urged him to tell her the truth about what happened to Laken. However, the judge announced that the call was not admitted into evidence & couldn’t be considered in the case as the judge did not find that it was more than contextual which violates the confrontation clause of the 6th amendment.
Because Ibarra had entered the United States illegally in 2022, conversation inevitably surrounded immigration policies within the United States. Despite prior arrests & citations, he was never deported. Jason Riley, Laken’s father, reflects that he has no way of knowing if changes in policies would have made a difference in his daughter’s fate, but he clearly recognizes that the man who was responsible for killing his daughter would not have been in Georgia at the time had we had secured borders. Since her death, Laken’s name has frequently been centered around political conversations regarding border policies.
Jason doesn’t appreciate that his daughter’s name has been exploited to secure political votes & instead, he feels that Laken should be raised up for the person that she is. He wants the world to know that his daughter was a one of a kind, exceptional human being. Those that know & love Laken have no doubt that her impact in this world would have continued to be tremendous. The lives she would have undoubtedly touched as a registered nurse will sadly never be known.
If the Laken Riley Act is signed into law it will require U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement to take into custody undocumented immigrants who commit theft-related crimes such as shoplifting. It will also allow state attorneys general to sue to prevent the U.S. homeland security secretary from taking immigration action when perceived policy failures harm the state or its citizens.
After her murder, a vigil was organized by Laken’s sorority sisters from the Alpha Chi Omega house & Laken was remembered as a young woman who showed devotion in every aspect of her life. Doing things halfway was never an option for Laken. She was smart, hard working, kind & thoughtful.
Jose Ibarra, who showed little, if any emotion during the trial, was found guilty on November 20, 2024 by Judge H. Patrick Haggard after a four-day bench trial & was sentenced to life in prison without parole. As the verdict was read, sobs could be heard from Laken’s family who sat in the courtroom.
Both her mom & sister were given the opportunity to deliver their victim impact statements before the judge handed down the sentencing. Allyson said, This monster took away our chances to see Laken graduate from nursing school. He took away our ability to meet our future son-in-law. He destroyed our chances of meeting our grandchildren. And he took my best friend. He ripped away every beautiful memory we will ever be able to make with her again.
References:
- CBS News: Body of nursing student found on a University of Georgia campus; suspect in custody on murder charges
- ABC News: Suspect charged with murder after woman who went on run found dead on University of Georgia campus
- ABC News: Laken Riley murder suspect seen with multiple scratches day after killing: Officers
- CBS News: Suspect in Georgia nursing student’s murder is accused of of “disfiguring her skull,” court documents say
- CBS News: Man convicted of murder in death of Laken Riley, Georgia nursing student killed on jogging trail
- Independent: What we know about Jose Antonio Ibarra, the man who murdered Georgia student Laken Riley
- ABC News: Laken Riley case: Murder suspect was ‘hunting’ for women on UGA’s campus, prosecutors say
- CNN: Laken Riley’s killer sentenced to life in prison after heart-wrenching pleas from her family
- The New York Times: Migrant gets life sentence for killing Laken Riley in case seized on by Trump
- ABC News: Timeline: Laken RIley’s last moments retraced during trial on Georgia nursing student’s murder
- NBC News: Father of Laken Riley addresses slain daughter’s legacy amid heated immigration debate
