ATHENS — Just as Laken Riley began her ill-fated jog on the morning of Feb. 22, she texted her mother.
“Good morning. About to go for a run if you’re free to talk.”
She tried to call her mom at 9:03 a.m.
She never got a chance to try again.
Prosecutors say that’s because she unexpectedly encountered Jose Ibarra on the running trails near the University of Georgia intramural fields. They say he attacked her, tried to rape her and, before it was over, killed the 22-year-old nursing student.
Meanwhile, Riley’s mother, other relatives and friends grew increasingly worried as they tried to reach her.
“Call me when you can,” Allyson Phillips texted her daughter at 9:38 a.m. She then called Riley. No answer.
“You’re making me nervous not answering while you’re running. Please call me. I’m worried sick about you,” Phillips texted at 9:58 a.m. Again and again, she called and texted. Riley’s sister tried calling; so did her stepfather and her roommates, who went searching for her just before noon but didn’t find her.
Evidence presented during the murder trial of Ibarra, in its third day Tuesday, showed the Garmin watch Riley was wearing stopped registering a heartbeat at 9:28 a.m.
Ibarra, arrested the day after her killing, is charged with felony murder, malice murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, aggravated battery, hindering a 911 call and tampering with evidence. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.
Tuesday, special prosecutor Sheila Ross called to the stand Investigator Sophie Raboud of the University of Georgia police to narrate security camera footage that showed the apartment complex where Ibarra lived with his brothers.
Police contend that Ibarra is the man seen in the video, moving from the front of the building to the back multiple times. The video shows that, at 7:56 a.m, the man entered the nearby woods that lead to the running trails.
It also showed Riley that morning jogging toward the trails. The footage, the last time Riley is seen alive, drew an emotional response in the courtroom, where more than a dozen of her relatives and friends were watching.
Testimony is continuing.
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