Gainesville murders remembered; ‘It was a huge thing’

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) -Thirty-five years after five University of Florida students were murdered, the Gainesville campus is calm, but for some, the memory still lives on.

For current student Hannah Torres, the history is personal. Her mother was a student during the 1990 murders.

“They had the buddy system,” Torres said. “But my mom would still sneak out. She said if you got caught, it was crazy.”

Although the threat felt real, Torres said her mother, like many students at the time, tried to carry on with college life. “It was danger going on, but she wasn’t face-to-face with it,” Torres said.

Known as the “Gainesville Ripper” case, the murders scared the city and reshaped campus safety. But today, many students know little or nothing about it.

“I didn’t know these murders happened