<p>Lauren Burk, age 18, was murdered last night. She was a freshman here at Auburn. The police received a call about her last night around 9 pm. She was transported to the nearby hospital but she was pronounced dead there. At 9:30 pm, the police got a call about a car on fire on campus. The car was Lauren's. However, she was found several miles away from where the car was. </p>
<p>Lauren was from Cobb Co, Georgia, near Atlanta. Although I did not know Lauren personally, my heart goes out to her friends and family and I hope they catch the bastard that did this. To have something like this happen in such a small town and tight-knit community as Auburn is, it's devastating. No one feels safe anymore.</p>
<p>kayleealia, the police aren't really sharing anything right now, but they also aren't bumping up security too much either. That makes me think they have a suspect or at least a bit of a suspicion, or else they would have serious security step up in patrolling the campus. It seems to me that whoever did this must have known Lauren since they dumped her out 3 miles away from campus, and then went back to campus, found her car, and burned it. If this was just a random shooting, they wouldn't have known where her car was (I'm sure there are dozens of black honda civics around my campus) or what it looked like. Also, I'm thinking it was probably premeditated as well, because most college students aren't carrying around guns, even here in the south. If it was a crime of passion, they probably would've strangled her or hit her in the head with something. Gun+burning the car makes me definitely think someone planned this. The question, then, would be what happened to make someone want to murder this little 18-year-old girl? From what I know, she seemed just like a normal college freshman.</p>
<p>Update on Lauren Burk murder:
A suspect has been arrested in Phenix City, AL (about 30-40 minutes away). His name is Courtney Lockhart, age 23. They haven't really said anything other than who he is; the police isn't saying much about WHY they think he killed Lauren other than that they have alot of evidence. There will be a memorial service for Lauren in the Beard Eaves Coliseum on campus Monday at 3 pm CT. </p>
<p>Additionally, the Westboro Baptist Church is planning on picketing Lauren's funeral tomorrow in Marietta, and the memorial service on Monday (apparently it's because she was Jewish? who knows with those crazy people). Hopefully, with the service being moved inside this will keep them from being heard during the service. If I see them I plan on letting them know exactly where they can stick their hateful signs.</p>
<p>actually, lauren was killed the day before eve, but yes, it is tragic either way. While I'm glad they've apprehended Lauren's killer, I really hope they catch that guy who was using eve's card/driving her car, since he must be the one who killed her.</p>
<p>So sad... she was a member of the same sororitory as me (different chapters), and one of our members wrote about it on our house whiteboard, asking us to send our thoughts and prayers to our sister and her family.</p>