(NewsNation) — A man is in custody in connection to the death of 22-year-old Laken Riley, a nursing student whose body was found on the University of Georgia’s campus, police said Friday.
Riley was reported missing by a friend at 12:07 p.m. Thursday after she didn’t return home from a run.
A student at UGA until last spring, Riley had transferred to a nursing program at a nearby school, Augusta University.
The University of Georgia Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Athens Clarke County Police Department and federal law enforcement are now all investigating.
NewsNation national security contributor Tracy Walder, a former CIA officer and FBI agent, said the University of Georgia campus had not had a homicide in years, making Riley’s death all the more shocking to the community.
“This is a very brazen crime. It sounds like it occurred in broad daylight in a pretty well-traveled area,” Walder said. “And so (authorities) are going to have a large amount of probably forensic data, as well as digital data, to go through.”
Federal law enforcement will help local officials streamline that, Walder said.
Reporting by NewsNation’s Andrew Dorn and Brian Entin contributed to this article.
