A family friend said she hoped Riley was "just" kidnapped — but then "this nightmare spiraled out of control"

 Carrie Howell, a longtime friend of Laken Riley’s mother and stepfather, described a never-ending nightmare that started 272 days ago.

“On the morning of February 22, 2024, our lives were forever changed in a way none of us could have ever imagined,” Howell told a judge shortly before he sentenced Jose Ibarra to life in prison.

“The moment I got the call from my husband that Laken had not returned home from her morning run — that no one could get her on the phone and she was missing — I knew in my heart something horrific had happened to her,” Howell said.

She continued: “I had the worst feeling that she was no longer with us, but I prayed and prayed and prayed as I frantically got ready to make the drive to Athens to be with my friends. I was begging the Lord for her to still be alive. And as terrible as this would be — that she had ‘just’ been kidnapped and would be found physically unarmed and alive or that she would be able to escape to safety and praying she wasn’t being trafficked.”

Howell paused and acknowledged how surreal her prayer seemed.

“I’ve never prayed for anyone to be kidnapped,” she said. “At the time, that seemed better than the alternative.”

But the alternative became reality, and Howell started sobbing as she recalled learning of Riley’s fate.

“This nightmare spiraled out of control when I received another call from my husband while I was on the road to Athens,” she said. “(Riley’s stepfather) had called my husband, and he said to my husband: ‘She’s with Jesus, brother.’ That will never leave my memory.”