A woman’s body was found in a wooded area on the University of Georgia’s campus in Athens on Thursday, according to university officials, who said that foul play was suspected in her death.
In a statement to The Times, the university said the victim was an undergraduate student at the school until the spring of 2023 and then enrolled at Augusta University’s nursing program, which has a campus in Athens.
Just after noon, a friend reported to the campus police that the woman was missing after she did not return from a run near the university’s intramural fields, the University of Georgia Police Department said.
At 12:38 p.m., officers found the woman’s body in a patch of forest near a lake. The woman, whose name and age have not been released, “was unconscious and not breathing” and had “visible injuries,” the police said. Paramedics arrived and pronounced her dead.
The police do not have any suspects, Jeffrey Clark, the chief of university police, said at a news conference on Thursday night.
“When you have a suspect that’s on the loose, there’s always a danger,” the chief said. “But there’s no immediate danger at this time.”
Chief Clark declined to comment on the nature of the death.
He said he could not recall any homicides on campus in the past 20 years.
Investigators were reviewing footage from campus security cameras, the chief added. He urged anyone with information about the case to the university Police Department at (706) 542-2200.
The university police said that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Athens-Clarke County Police Department were assisting in the investigation.
Kelly Girtz, the mayor of Athens-Clarke County, said he joined the community “in deep sadness over today’s murder,” adding that the city was working with university police to bring the investigation to a “rapid conclusion.”
The university said the school’s president, Jere Morehead, met with members of the victim’s sorority to offer his condolences.
The school canceled the remainder of classes on Thursday and all classes on Friday. Officials encouraged students and staff members to take precautions on campus and recommended that people “travel in groups when possible and be aware of your surroundings,” according to a statement. Augusta University also said it canceled classes Friday at its nursing school campus in Athens.
“I don’t feel safe anywhere,” Anika Bhattacharya, a sophomore at the University of Georgia, told the television news outlet 11Alive, adding that she had recently thought about going for a run in the area.
“I’m not even considering walking by myself much after all this — at least for the next couple months,” she said, adding “I just don’t want to take any chance at all.”
According to The Red & Black, a campus newspaper, students at the intramural fields said that their classes had been canceled midway through a class period on Thursday afternoon. The newspaper said that police officers had checked the identifications of the people on the fields before they left the area.
The body was found in a wooded area near Lake Herrick, part of a larger recreational area that includes playing fields, tennis courts and trails for walking, running and biking. The lake and intramural fields abut the Oconee Forest Park.