In the early morning hours of October 7, Gardner-Quinn was walking home in Burlington, Vermont, to her campus dormitory after a night out with friends.

At a press conference on October 13, police announced that they had found Gardner-Quinn's body and arrested Brian L. Rooney (born June 27, 1970) on separate charges unrelated to the case.

Rooney, a construction worker with several prior arrests, was facing charges from neighboring Caledonia County pertaining to sexual assault and lewd conduct with a child.

[1][2] Rooney's guilt was based largely on the strength of DNA evidence taken from semen found inside Quinn's body, while his lawyer argued that "two nanograms of sperm" handled by a forensic lab with a history of sloppy work was not sufficient to convict.

[3][4] Rooney's lawyer, David Sleigh, argued that he should be acquitted outright because the State failed to prove that Gardner-Quinn's death occurred at the time of her rape, which is a requirement for the crime of aggravated murder with which he was charged.

Her parents are creating a scholarship in her name at UVM (WPTZ) An essay she wrote (just days before her abduction) about her environmental beliefs was featured at Live Earth concerts in July 2007 and on an August 5 National Public Radio broadcast.