Laken Riley murder suspect went 'hunting' for women: 5 facts revealed so far from Jose Ibarra's trial
Technology
Ring camera footage captured Riley dressed in athletic clothes leaving her home on the morning of Feb.22, her hair pulled back in a ponytail as she went for a run. The nursing student brought with her an iPhone, a smartwatch and noise-canceling headphones.
Camera footage recorded Riley around 9:05 a.m. jogging toward what would soon become a crime scene, according to CNN. The 22-year-old and her mother, Allyson Phillips, typically spoke on the phone during her run, but Riley didn’t answer the phone that morning.
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Phillips called her daughter’s three roommates, as the girls all shared their location with one another through their phones. Riley’s roommates had further difficulties trying to reach her due to cell phone service issues with their provider.
One roommate tried to locate her friend through the Find My feature on her iPhone, which showed that Riley had not moved from her last known location, a trail near the University of Georgia.
Two of the roommates, Lilly Steiner and Sofia Magana, went looking for Riley on the trail around 11:30 a.m., but the only sign of her was a single AirPod. The friends reported Riley missing, and authorities later discovered the young woman’s body.
According to prosecutors, Riley’s Garmin smartwatch provided clues about her final moments before her murder. Data analyzed by the FBI’s Cellular Analysis Survey Team showed that something happened during the nursing student’s run, and she later activated her watch’s SOS function and called 911.
Riley called the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, but her phone disconnected the call around 9:12 a.m. When dispatchers tried to call her back, she did not answer.
The young woman’s heart rate also started dropping over the next several minutes, according to the smartwatch data. The smartwatch eventually moved over 60 feet away from the trail and into the woods, with data indicating a struggle occurred at some point that lasted several minutes.
Her heart rate slowed until around 9:30 a.m. when the smartwatch showed no further activity.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
