UGA student abducted, assaulted

By Katie Leslie

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As police investigate the abduction and assault of a University of Georgia student, school officials are reminding others about campus safety.

Police say the 20-year-old Athens woman was kidnapped around 1:30 a.m. Friday after taking a ride from a man she believed was a taxi driver, according to the Athens Banner-Herald.  The man drove the student to Jackson County where he assaulted her, according to authorities. The woman was found partially clothed, wrapped in a blanket on U.S. 441 around 7 a.m. Friday, according to the story.

Athens-Clarke police are investigating the kidnapping. Jackson County Sheriff's deputies are now searching for evidence to help identify the suspect in the assault, the Athens paper reports. Deputies found some of the woman's clothing over the weekend near U.S. 441 and Jarrett Road, evidence that may lead authorities to the attacker.

The victim told authorities the man was driving a dark-colored SUV.

Campus safety officials told the Banner-Herald that the woman's story is a reminder to new students to use extra caution, especially in the evening hours.  Two UGA female students were abducted and assaulted by a man in a white van in 2007, according to the story.

"Last year, everyone knew about the man in the van," Keith Sims, director of Safe Campuses Now, said.  "But if you talk to freshmen now, they have no idea. They have never heard that there was someone out there acting as a good Samaritan offering girls a ride because he was worried for them, and using that as a way to get them alone and attack them."