College Girls and Murder - Who's Next?

Unsolved murders involving college girls continue to escalate around the U.S. University of Nevada (Reno) college student Brianna Denison--age 19. Denison disappeared just before dawn on the morning of January 20, 2008. She had been staying with friends at an off-campus rental house and sleeping on a couch near an unlocked door. Friends awoke to find her gone--her purse and cell phone left behind. A large teddy bear she had been using as a back-up pillow was also missing. Police were notified. A search began. Snow fell. And finally on Friday, February the 15th (approximately 25 days after she went missing), the body of Brianna Denison surfaced. Laying in an empty open field, 8 miles from the scene of the abduction--one hundred feet from the curb of Sandhill Road, she had been raped and strangled. Police announced they believe the crime was "sexually motivated" and that her killer is most likely a "local, serial rapist--familiar with the area." DNA recovered from the scene has already been tied to two additional (possibly three) previous rapes of area college students, the most recent taking place boldly inside the very garage where campus police keep their security vehicles parked. Police are optomistic the rapist (turned killer) will be apprehended.

The murder in Reno follows closely on the heels of Leah Nicole Hickman--of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Hickman, 21, was a broadcast journalism major at Marshall University. Described as "sweet and very quiet," she vanished from her apartment in Huntington (West Virginia) on December 14, 2007. She was reported missing two days later by her mother after failing to show up for work that weekend. On December 21st, her body was discovered in the building's basement, where it had laid for seven days in a crawlspace opposite the building's laundry room. It was said she had been planning to "wash her clothes" that evening--after returning home from McDonalds. Her final cell phone call was made to a friend just before 6 p.m. In the upstairs room she shared with her sister, police found Hickman's personal items intact --except for her cell phone (which has not been found). Police have come under heavy criticism for not finding Hickman's body sooner, despite the fact the building had already been searched thoroughly from top to bottom, using trained dogs. Also frustrating is the fact that no specific information has to date been released regarding a cause of death, other than to say it was a "homicide," adding "laboratory work is still pending." While police are reluctant to discuss the nature of those tests, it is surmised they are probably DNA-related in regards to a probable "sexual assault" motive. Reasons for holding back such information vary.

Brittany Phillips was an 18-year-old Tulsa Community College student studying chemistry in 2004 when she was sexually assaulted and strangled in her Tulsa, Oklahoma apartment after returning home from campus on the evening of September 27th. Several days elasped before her body was finally discovered. She had been only days away from her 19th birthday. Police statements indicated they were looking for a "non-local, serial criminal." Still up for debate is exactly how the killer accessed and entered Phillips apartment. Several years elasped with no break in the case. Recovered DNA from the crime scene had been processed, but database search results had come up empty. With only minimal information being released, police finally brought forth additional evidence in conjunction with the 2007 third anniversary. Why they had waited as long as they had to ask for public assistance in identifying a rather non-descript item found at the crime scene is an unexplained mystery in itself.

In March 2008, the nation awoke to headlines regarding the murders of Lauren Burk and Eve Carson. Though their deaths occurred 500 miles apart, both had happened within hours of one another. Pretty, dark-haired Lauren Burk was an 18-year-old pre-graphic design student at Auburn University in Alabama. On March 4, 2008, she was abducted at gunpoint from her apartment near campus and robbed. The killer forced Lauren into her car and began driving her around. He then ordered her to remove all her clothing. She refused. He shot her point blank. She died instantly. Her body was dumped alongside Highway 147, 5 miles from campus. The killer then drove her car back to campus and set it on fire in a parking lot a half an hour later. Within hours (but unrelated) came another murder. This one at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Beautiful and blonde, Eve Marie Carson was the current student body president there. She was 22-years-old but would never age beyond that. Having left her apartment door unlocked, she was kidnapped by two assailants. They forced her into her car and had her drive to a nearby ATM, making her withdraw $1400 from her savings account. They then shot her multiple times. Eve died at the scene. Her keys and wallet have never been found. *Both girl's killers have been caught. At present, however, the trials are still pending.

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