THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 14, 1995 TAG: 9507140404
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Police have established a scholarship fund in tribute to a Georgia college student whose life ended brutally in the resort city.
A futile search for 21-year-old Emory University pre-med student Jennifer Lea Evans ended with the discovery of her body in Newport News Park on June 27. She disappeared from an Oceanfront-area nightclub on the second day of her vacation. Evans was from Tucker, Ga.
The fund will benefit Emory University students who have chosen medicine as a career. Evans' goal was a career as a doctor helping sick and injured children.
Two men have been charged with murder and sexual assault in the crime that has haunted some of the police officers involved.
``She came to our city, to our back yard, where we raise our families,'' police spokesman Mike Carey said. ``And she was murdered. That was not acceptable to us.''
The case stunned even investigators already hardened by bizarre and senseless murders.
Somehow, the Evans case was different.
This case was unlike most murder cases, in which the body is found first and police later learn about the victim's life. Here, investigators first gathered so many details about the trusting, intelligent young woman who aspired to be a children's physician that the news of her death hit hard.
``We try not to get emotionally involved in cases,'' Carey said. ``But unfortunately, we did this time.''
That emotional involvement led Carey and partner Lou Thurston to establish The Jennifer Lea Evans Memorial Scholarship Fund. They publicly opened fund-raising Thursday at a news conference.
Representatives of three police organizations are supporting the effort. The Police Supervisor's Association, the Policemen's Benevolent Association and the Fraternal Order of Police each donated $1,000. Commerce Bank, chosen to administer the scholarship, donated $500.
``The Evanses never asked for anything themselves,'' said Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf. ``They just asked that we remember Jennifer.''
Oberndorf said the scholarship will be a ``living memorial'' to the Evans' only child.
``This will indeed give life to the dreams and ambitions of another bright, talented student,'' said David Rowe, an Emory University official. ``We are grateful to her mother and father for sharing Jennifer with us for an all-too-brief time.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Lou Thurston, left, and Mike Carey of the Virginia Beach police
announce the fund. ``She came to our city, to our back yard, where
we raise our families,'' Carey said. ``And she was murdered.''.
Graphic
IF YOU CAN HELP
Tax-deductible contributions can be made at any of the 21 Commerce
Bank locations in Hampton Roads, or they may be mailed to The
Jennifer Lea Evans Memorial Scholarship Fund, in care of Commerce
Bank, 1433 Kempsville Road, Virginia Beach 23464.
KEYWORDS: SCHOLARSHIP FUND MURDER JENNIFER EVANS
by CNB