A Georgia man faces life in prison after a Dawson County jury found him guilty Wednesday of all 24 charges in the 2019 killing of a Lumpkin County woman.
After six hours of deliberation, a jury found Austin Todd Stryker guilty in the death of 21-year-old Hannah Bender. His charges included malice murder, violation of Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act, aggravated assault, concealing the death of another and tampering with evidence.
The sentencing hearing has not been scheduled, Dawson County District Attorney Lee Darragh said in an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“Throughout the trial and preparation of this case, the focus of our office has always been, and will continue to be, getting justice for Hannah Bender. The jury accomplished that today in their most appreciated verdict,” Darragh said. “We look forward now to sentencing in which our focus will be complete accountability for Austin Stryker.”
Stryker became the center of a manhunt after Bender was reported missing and bloody clothing was found soon after, the AJC previously reported. Bender’s body was eventually found in late September 2019 in a shallow grave in Forsyth County, police said at the time.
A few days later, Stryker turned himself in to police in Pittsburgh. He was sitting outside the station and said he was wanted on murder charges in Georgia. Five months later, Stryker was booked into the Dawson County Jail.
The case led to several additional arrests, including Isaac Thomas Huff, 20, and Dylan Patrick Reid, 21, both of Dawsonville, who pleaded guilty to multiple charges in April, Darragh said. Those charges included aggravated assault, tampering with evidence, concealing a death and violating the state’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act.
Both men, who were facing up to 60 years in prison, received shortened sentences after a negotiated plea deal. Huff received a 12-year prison sentence, while Reid was given 15. As part of their deals, each testified about the circumstances surrounding Bender’s murder. They described how the young woman was lured from her home, killed without warning and buried in the shallow grave.
Huff and Reid testified that the killing on Sept. 14, 2019, was planned by Stryker with the blessing of 79-year-old Jerry Harper. All four men were members of a small criminal gang known as “THIS,” though Huff and Reid said Stryker and Harper were higher-ranking members.
According to the two men’s testimony, Bender got into the back of a pickup truck with Huff and Stryker carrying a packed bag after they told her they were going on a vacation to Florida. While driving through Dawson County, Stryker shot Bender in the head while she was in “mid-sentence,” according to one of the prosecuting attorneys. Bender was critically injured by the gunshot, but not killed. The men then took Bender to Huff’s home, and Huff and Reid testified that Stryker stabbed and killed Bender.
Harper was arrested and indicted on one count of violating Georgia’s street gang law and hindering the apprehension of a criminal, records show. According to his indictment, he helped hide Stryker in the days after Bender’s death while Stryker’s whereabouts were unknown to authorities.
Elizabeth Brooke Donaldson and Bailey Williams, both 21, were also arrested on charges of tampering with evidence. Donaldson is Stryker’s fiancee.
The cases against Harper, Donaldson and Williams are pending, Darragh said.
