By Susan-Elizabeth Littlefield Reporter
News 3 On Your Side
Auburn Police are trying to figure out who shot and killed an Auburn University freshman from Georgia, then left her body in the road.News 3 On Your Side
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Stumble It!Auburn Police got a call at 9:08 Tuesday night that a woman was injured on Alabama Highway 147,
near Highway 280 in auburn. At 9:27 pm, police received a second call that a car was in flames on Lem Morrison Drive on campus.
That vehicle was registered to the victim. Police are trying to figure out how the events are connected.
Lauren Burk- that's what they called the smiling faced freshman, just last year she graduated high school in Marietta, Georgia near Atlanta. Now, she's being remembered as a victim of murder.
“It hurts, I have a daughter myself and I can't imagine what her family is going through, says Auburn Assistant Police Chief Tommy Dawson. Even for a veteran police officer, this death was tough to take, “This is particularly hard because it is a young lady.”
Dawson says that Burk was found on highway 147 Tuesday evening. Witnesses called police saying a woman was injured.
When police arrived, they found Lauren Burk shot and lying in the roadway. Dawson says when they arrived, Burk was alive. They performed CPR but she died at the hospital a short time later.
Twenty minutes later police got a call about this - a burned up car on campus off Lem Morrison Drive - a car that belonged to Burk. Police say the car was in flames when they arrived. Late Tuesday night, Asst. Chief Dawson called Burk's parents to tell them the news.
In 21 years of police work, that's probably the most difficult thing I've ever done, “says Dawson.
Dawson says Burk's parents drove in from Atlanta and identified her body. Despite the violent chain of events, police say they do not believe other students are in danger.
“I do not have anything to believe parents should be overly concerned.”
Police won't say who they believe killed Lauren Burk but they say they have spoken to several people of interest. Dawson says they are hopeful they will soon be able to make an arrest in the murder of Lauren Burk.