Suzanne Marie Collins Suzanne Marie Collins was a Marine Lance Corporal who was tortured , raped and murdered by Sedley Alley in 1985 . At the time of her murder she was stationed at Naval Air Station Memphis in Millington , Tennessee . Collins was a student undergoing training at the base , and was scheduled to graduate from avionics training on the day of her murder . She is buried in Arlington National Cemetery . Suzanne Collins was the daughter of Jack and Trudy Collins . She graduated from Robert E . Lee High School in Springfield , Virginia . Abduction and murder . Sedley Alley , a civilian married to an enlisted member of the military , abducted Collins late in the evening of July 11 , 1985 while she was jogging on the base . He transported her to nearby Orgill Park where he raped and murdered her . He left her body in the park . Two Marines jogging near where Collins was abducted heard her scream and ran toward the sound . However , as they reached the scene , they saw Alley ' s car leaving the area . They reported to base security and accompanied officers on a tour of the base , looking for the car . Unsuccessful , they returned to their barracks , but soon the Marines were called back to the security office . There they identified Alley ' s car , which had been stopped by officers . Alley and his wife gave statements to the base security personnel accounting for their whereabouts . The security personnel were satisfied with Alley ' s story , and Alley and his wife returned to their on - base housing . The two Marine witnesses returned to the security office shortly after Alley and his wife departed . The Marines disputed the couple ' s version of events , citing that the loud , distinct sounds made by the muffler on Alley ' s car matched those sounds they had heard prior to and during Collins ' abduction . The security personnel indicated that since no one had yet been reported missing , there was nothing more that could be done . The Marines were thanked for their assistance and told to return to their barracks . Collins ' body was discovered several hours later . Alley was immediately arrested by military police . He voluntarily gave a statement to the police , admitting to having killed Collins but giving a substantially false account of the circumstances of the killing . He claimed that his wife went to a Tupperware party which had angered him . He drank two six - packs of beer and a bottle of wine . He told authorities that he had gone out for more liquor when his car accidentally hit Collins as she jogged near the air base . He also claimed he accidentally killed the young woman when she fell on a screwdriver he was holding as he was trying to help her . However , an autopsy revealed that her skull had been fractured with repeated beatings , there were no screwdriver wounds , and no wounds consistent with being hit by a car . In addition to a severe beating and numerous head traumas , Alley had repeatedly rammed a tree limb into her vagina with sufficient force to enter her abdomen and lacerate one of her lungs . She died of internal hemorrhaging and head injuries . Trial and execution of Alley . In spite of his attempt to convince a jury that he had multiple personality disorder , Alley was convicted on March 18 , 1987 of murder in the first degree and was sentenced to death . He was also convicted of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated rape , for which he received consecutive forty - year sentences . He was scheduled to die by electrocution May 2 , 1990 , but was reprieved indefinitely by the state Court of Criminal Appeals . A Shelby County judge denied Alley ' s initial request for state - funded DNA testing of 11 samples of physical evidence , saying he hadn ' t shown " reasonable probability " that he wouldn ' t have been prosecuted or convicted if the tests were in his favor . After numerous appeals , Alley was executed by lethal injection at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville , Tennessee , on the morning of June 28 , 2006 ; he was pronounced dead at 2 : 12 a . m . The length of Alley ' s appeals process caused Collins ' family to successfully work for limitations on groundless habeas corpus appeals . His time on death row closely approximated the age of his victim at her time of death . The book " Journey Into Darkness " by John E . Douglas dedicates three chapters to the life and murder of Suzanne Collins and to the advocacy work of her parents following the murder . Advocacy of Jack and Trudy Collins . After the murder , the Collinses dealt with their grief in part by joining a Fairfax County support group for surviving members of homicide victims led by Carroll Ellis and Sandra Witt . Due to involvement with the group , the Collinses got more involved in attending the hearings and criminal proceedings of the killers of their loved ones . With the appeals of Alley stretching into years , the Collinses became frustrated with the long habeas corpus appeals and continuing delay of Alley ' s sentence . Both Collinses then became deeply involved with activism and reform work . In March 1991 , J . Collins addressed delegates at the Crime Summit in Washington D . C . , convened by then Attorney General Richard Thornburgh . Collins ' s statement was about the lack of finality with criminal convictions and pressing for reform . In the early 1990s , both Collinses became Eastern Regional Directors of Citizens for Law and Order , based in Oakland , California . J . Collins continued with opportunities presented to the couple and worked with Executive Director Lee Chancellor of the Judicial Reform Foundation to create a pamphlet on habeas corpus abuses and history of the judicial process . On May 7 , 1991 , J . Collins testified before congress on habeas corpus reform and the endless appeals that Alley was requesting . T . Collins was in attendance in support of her husband . The Collinses have also established a scholarship named the Suzanne Marie Collins Perpetual Scholarship , first awarded in 1996 .