Police discovered homicide victim Haruka Weiser’s body in a University of Texas creek bed last week, 30 years to the day that Jeanne Clery was raped and murdered in her dorm room at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University.

Three decades and 1,600 miles separate the tragedies, but the legacy of Clery’s death was apparent in Austin last week — and may have played a part in quickly leading investigators to Weiser’s alleged killer.

Weiser, an 18-year-old freshman attending UT on a full dance scholarship, was randomly targeted and killed the evening of April 3 while making the five-minute walk from the drama building to her dorm room on the usually bustling campus, police said.

University of Texas dance student Haruka Weiser was slain April 3. (Family photo) More

The 1990 Clery Act requires colleges and universities to disclose their security policies, keep a public crime log, publish an annual crime report and provide timely warnings to students and campus employees about immediate or ongoing threats.

Slideshow: University of Texas homicide in Austin >>>

The federal law doesn’t dictate safety measures such as emergency call boxes, electronic keycards at residence halls or video surveillance, but the increased scrutiny has led many U.S. colleges to beef up their security presence.

“The type of target hardening that can either prevent crimes from occurring or when a tragic crime does occur, can be used to promptly identify a suspect — that may have not been possible in previous years,” said S. Daniel Carter, a longtime campus safety consultant.

Today, the University of Texas has 617 video surveillance cameras in use on its 431-acre campus. While the technology didn’t prevent Weiser’s death, cameras did capture video of the ballerina passing her alleged attacker near a walking trail close to the UT alumni center and football stadium.

Murder suspect Meechaiel Criner. (Austin Police Department) More

Police used the images to get the public’s help in identifying Meechaiel Criner, a 17-year-old homeless runaway who they said killed the popular dance student sometime between 9:30 and 11:50 p.m. Criner, charged with murder, remains in jail with bail set at $1 million. According to his arrest affidavit, the video shows Criner pulling what appears to be a “shiny rigid object” from his pants as he begins to trail Weiser. When arrested, detectives said Criner was in possession of some of Weiser’s things, including her laptop and duffle bag.