Mourners to gather for funeral of slain Athens nursing student who loved caring for others

Family, friends and classmates planned to gather Friday at a church outside Atlanta to say farewell to Laken Riley, the nursing student found slain after she went out for a morning jog on the University of Georgia campus.

A funeral service for 22-year-old Riley was set to follow a visitation Friday afternoon at Woodstock City Church in Cherokee County, where Riley lived before graduating from high school in Atlanta’s northern suburbs.

Riley was enrolled in the Augusta Medical College’s nursing program in Athens when police found her dead Feb. 22 on the neighboring University of Georgia campus. A friend called police after Riley left to go running and didn’t come home.

The killing shocked Riley’s fellow students in Athens, where more than 41,000 attend UGA and another 210 are enrolled in the medical program where Riley studied nursing. Police arrested a suspect, Jose Antonio Ibarra, on murder charges the day after Riley was slain in a forested area with trails for running and walking.

Riley “loved nursing and caring for others,” according to her obituary from Poole Funeral Home. She had remained active in the AXO sorority at UGA, where she studied before enrolling in nursing school.

In addition to her parents, Riley is survived by her stepfather, two sisters and a brother. One of her siblings, Lauren Phillips, posted on social media that Riley was “the best sister and my built in best friend from the very first second.”

“This isn’t fair and I will never understand it but I know you are in heaven,” Phillips wrote on Instagram following her sister’s death. She added, “I’m not sure how I’m going to do this but it’s all going to be for you from now on. I cannot wait to give you the biggest hug someday.”

Ibarra is a Venezuelan man who entered the U.S. illegally and was allowed to stay to pursue his immigration case, which has thrust the slaying to the forefront of the U.S. debate over immigration, a top issue in the 2024 presidential campaign.