Woman Killed With Dog In Atlanta Was Stabbed 50 Times, Had 'F A T' Carved on Chest

An autopsy performed after the murder of an Atlanta woman this summer has revealed grim new details of her death.

Katherine Janness, 40, was found dead on July 28 near the body of her family dog, Bowie, in Piedmont Park in northwest Atlanta. Both were stabbed to death.

Janness' long-time partner and Bowie's co-owner, Emma Clark, discovered their bodies around 1 a.m. after using a cell phone app to find Janness' phone, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Clark told ABC affiliate WSB-TV in Atlanta that Janness had taken Bowie out for a walk and not returned.

The autopsy report, released by the Fulton County Medical Examiner on Friday, suggests the scene Clark confronted was horrific.

Janness suffered more than 50 stab wounds to her head, neck, chest, abdomen, back, hands and arms as well as blunt force injuries to her face, neck, hands, arms and legs. Her cause of death was listed as "sharp force injuries of the face, neck and torso" — which included her throat being slit. Her face alone had been slashed 15 times; she had a deep slash from the bottom of her rib cage to the top of her pelvic mound, around which the killer carved the letters "F," "A" and "T." (For the record, the autopsy listed Janness' BMI as 25, which is rounded up from 24.6 — or what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a healthy weight.) She had also been stabbed in the back at least 25 times, including 14 times in the area of one of her tattoos. 

She was found with her pants and underwear around her knees, and a rape kit was performed. The results were not in the autopsy.

In an interview over the weekend with CBS affiliate WGCL in Atlanta, Janness' partner, Clark, begged the Atlanta police to clear her name, saying that she'd been receiving death threats from people who think she's responsible.

"Somebody called my phone, left a voicemail, that's not OK," she told the station. "She called me some choice words, said I would be caught; I sent it to police."

Clark told police and the station that she was working at a local restaurant on the night of Janness' murder. Janness stopped by with Bowie to tell Clark she was walking the dog in the park and going home around 11:30 p.m., according to Clark. When she arrived home after midnight, Janness and the dog weren't there, so Clark told the station that she got back on her bike and ran to the park.

"I could see Bowie; I didn't see Katie right away, it was pretty dark," she said. "I was there, I saw her, I went over to see if she was still alive; I ran."

In a statement to WGCL who asked if they were prepared to clear Clark, the Atlanta Police said that they could not comment on an active investigation.

"We understand it is frustrating for there to be so little information released publicly," the statement said. "However, to ensure the investigation isn't compromised, we simply cannot release much information on our active investigation."

Clark said that she continues to cooperate with the investigation and doesn't believe she's a suspect, but the public lack of a statement bothers her and her family.