A Venezuelan migrant in the U.S. illegally has been identified as the sole suspect in the alleged murder of an Augusta University nursing student, which took place on the Athens campus of the University of Georgia on Thursday.
Suspect Jose Antonio Ibarra illegally crossed into El Paso, Texas from Venezuela in 2022 and was released due to lack of detention space, according to NewsNation.
UGA police believe that the attack was a crime of opportunity, and do not believe there was a connection between Augusta student Laken Riley and Ibarra, according to Fox News.
Ibarra has been charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call, and concealing the death of another, according to UGA police chief Jeffrey Clark.
The police chief said that the evidence tying Ibarra to the crime stems from campus security footage, physical evidence, and comments from the community. Riley’s death is being treated as a homicide due to evidence of blunt force trauma, according to Clark.
“The evidence is robust,” Clark said in a press briefing Friday night. He added that while the investigation is still ongoing, there is no active threat to the community.
Investigators found Riley’s body at approximately 12:38 p.m. on Thursday near a lake on the UGA campus. Riley, a former UGA student who transferred to Augusta, had visible injuries and was not breathing at the time she was found. Authorities had been notified that she was missing on Thursday morning, after she failed to return from a run. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Screenshot via FOX 5 Atlanta/YouTube |
Jose Antonio Ibarra, the suspect who was charged with the Thursday murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus, was confirmed to be an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, according to Fox News.
Ibarra, 26, illegally crossed into El Paso, Texas, in September 2022 and was released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody, according to three ICE and DHS sources cited by Fox News. ICE said it had no official comment on the matter, Fox News reporter Bill Melugin posted on social media Saturday morning.
After police arrested the Venezuelan national on Friday, Ibarra was charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, hindering a 911 call, and concealing the death of another. Ibarra neither attended UGA as a student nor knew the victim, authorities said.
Ibarra will remain in the Clarke County jail after Judge Donarell Green denied his bond Saturday morning. The murder suspect was present in court.
Riley, who studied nursing at Augusta University on its campus in Athens, Ga., was found dead near a lake at UGA mid-day Thursday with “visible injuries,” UGA police chief Jeff Clark told reporters. Officers located her body after a concerned friend called the police when she didn’t return from a run in the area.
Riley graduated from UGA in 2023 and continued her education at Augusta’s College of Nursing in Athens, where both schools are located. --->READ MORE HEREFollow link below to a relevant story:
Jose and Diego Ibarra: Court documents reveal immigration, criminal past in the United States
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