The parents of a slain student from Cobb County are asking the Alabama Board of Adjustment to award them $1 million because they say Auburn University did not provide adequate security.
Jim Burk and Viviane Guerchon told the board Tuesday they believe the University’s decision to merge its police force into the city of Auburn contributed to their daughter Lauren being kidnapped from a campus parking lot in 2008.
Lauren Burk, a 2007 graduate of Walton High School, was a freshman at Auburn when she was abducted from a campus parking lot on March 4, 2008. She was later found dying after being shot in the back along a rural road about four miles north of the Auburn campus, according to police.
Three days later, Courtney Lockhart, a dishonorably discharged soldier, was arrested in Phenix City, Ala. A jury later convicted Lockhart,and a judge sentenced him to death for the crime.
The Burk family believes Auburn might have prevented the crime had they had a campus police department. The school ended its campus police department in the 2000s in an effort to save money and uses Auburn City police to patrol campus. The family also believes Auburn failed to follow security recommendations in a federal report released before the murder happened.
Former Auburn Police Chief Tommy Dawson told the board that the merger provided more officers on campus who were better trained. Dawson became emotional and said not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about Lauren Burk, but he doesn’t see where Auburn police could have done anything differently.
The four-member board will vote next month on whether to award the money.
— The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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