ATLANTA — Family and friends came together Thursday night to remember the life of Katie Janness that was taken when she was brutally murdered earlier this week.
Joe Clark got emotional as he shared stories of his grieving daughter’s wife as he was surrounded by friends, family and complete strangers.
“What they did to her is ridiculous,” he told Channel 2′s Michael Seiden. “There is a monster on the loose in the city of Atlanta.”
[RELATED: ‘My heart is so very broken’: Wife of woman stabbed at Piedmont Park remembers her]
Emma Clark, Janness’ wife, hasn’t been back to the park since she found her wife and their dog, Bowie, stabbed to death in what family members have described as a horrific scene.
“Katie can’t be seen. You can’t look at her because of what they did to her. What they’ve done is put the knife in my daughter’s heart at the same time,” Clark said.
A candlelight vigil at the entrance to the park saw more than 100 people gather together to pay their respects.
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Janness tended bar to pay her bills, but to those who truly knew her, she was so much more.
“Somebody says, ‘She’s a bartender.’ She said ‘Sell, I just didn’t want to go to school!,’ but she was the most intelligent... She’s a magnificent singer. She wrote her own songs. She taught herself how to play guitar” Clark said.
Family members say Janness and Clark were building a life together, even getting ready to purchase their first home.
Police are still searching for the person who killed Janness.
Investigators have not been able to determine how long Janness laid in Piedmont Park before Emma Clark became worried that her wife’s walk with the dog took too long and pinged her phone. She found her wife dead just before 1 a.m.
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Clark says that detectives have found new evidence they hope will lead them to an arrest. He says detectives told him they found DNA in Bowie’s, indicating Bowie may have tried to protect his owner by attacking her assailant.
APD has not confirmed that report.
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