Mostly cloudy The Atlanta Journal-Constitution The mile and a half charity walk was to raise money for Right to Hike Foundation, founded by Emerson’s
friends and family to purchase GPS for hikers and joggers, said Susan Cash, director of the Piedmont Rape Crisis Center in Barrow County. The event was particularly meaningful, Cash said, because Kristi Cornwell was abducted only a few miles away while walking in her Blairsville neighborhood last week. Police say Cornwell, 38, a former probation officer, was abducted Tuesday while on an evening walk along a little-traveled road near Blairsville. At the time, she was near her parents’ house and on her cell phone, telling her boyfriend in Atlanta that a car was following her. Douglas Davis, the boyfriend, called the Union County Sheriff’s Office around 9:20 p.m. to report that he heard a struggle and Cornwell’s cries for help. Cash said women in the area seem to be more alert and some are nervous.
“You should be scared every day, not just when an abduction happens,” said Cash, who was abducted and raped in Savannah 20 years ago. “We try and make women pay attention to their surroundings and be more aware of what’s going on to prevent tragedies like this.”