Woman murdered after she met man at Rainbow Gathering, deputies say

LUMPKIN COUNTY, Ga. — The Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office is working to identify a woman police say was murdered by someone she met at the Rainbow Family of Living Light Gathering.

Authorities told Channel 2 Action News they were contacted by the Elizabethtown Police Department in Kentucky about the arrest of Joseph Bryan Capstraw, 20, who said he met the woman at the gathering in Lumpkin County.

Police initially did not know the identify of the victim but were able to identify her after getting the word out on social media. Police have not released the victim's name.

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The Rainbow Family is a name for a very loose collection of self-described misfits, nature-lovers and artists who gather once a year in a national forest. This was their 47th gathering, but the first in Georgia.

According to authorities, the woman accompanied Capstraw as they left, hitchhiking from the event.

Channel 2's Michael Seiden covered the gathering near Dahlonega. Many of the people he met on assignment told him they do not go by their legal names during the event. That could prove to be a challenge for investigators.

Cox Media Group