A man accused in the killing of a teenager found at a Gwinnett County park in 2021 was indicted Wednesday, court records show.
Austin Tybre Ford was indicted on charges of murder, aggravated assault, voluntary manslaughter, two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony, two counts of theft by taking, and tampering with evidence in the death of Tori Lang, according to court records.
The 18-year-old was found underneath a tree at Yellow River Park near Stone Mountain in July 2021, Gwinnett police spokesman Sgt. J.R. Richter said.
At the time of Ford’s arrest, which came nearly nine months after the incident, he was already in the Clayton County Jail on unrelated charges, Richter said.
On July 28, 2021, police responded to an “unknown medical call” about 6:30 a.m. after parkgoers discovered the teen’s body during their morning walk and called 911, Richter said. Lang, a 2020 Stephenson High School graduate, was found in a grassy field with an apparent gunshot wound, he said.
Less than a week later, Lang’s burned-out Nissan Versa was discovered at DeKalb County’s Hidden Acres Nature Preserve, less than five miles from where she was killed, Channel 2 Action News reported. A park ranger found the compact sedan, which authorities said had been set on fire and then rolled or pushed into the woods.
Credit: GoFundMe
Credit: GoFundMe
Lang’s family reported her missing the day her body was discovered, according to a DeKalb police report. They learned the teen had been killed after Gwinnett police posted photos of her tattoos on social media in an attempt to identify her.
Her father, Torrey Lang, said they often visited the sprawling 691-acre park as a family, but said he wasn’t sure why she was there.
“It’s just hard every day thinking of this moment,” the teen’s aunt, Tamara Lang, said. “What would you do if this was your child? If you know something, if you saw something, we just implore somebody to say something.”
Credit: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ford’s next court appearance has not been scheduled.
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