(WSB Radio) News of the women's deaths gripped the southeast: Jennifer Ewing, assaulted and murdered—allegedly by a convicted sex offender—while out biking on the Silver Comet Trail in the summer of 2006. Meredith Emerson, kidnapped and killed after a hike in the north Georgia mountains in the first week of January, 2008.

Listen: The Power In Fear, Part 1

The thought that independent, athletic and safety-conscious women could be victimized in such a way sent an icy finger of fear up the collective spine of many women.

"Very scary, to say the least," says a local sales executive.

"It made me evaluate how vulnerable I am," admits an avid biker.

"I was really scared that you can go out on a walk with your dog and not come home, ever!" says an aspiring model.

Other women staunchly deny any ramped-up anxiety.

"I've always felt that I could do anything," an accountant says, "but when you hear something like that it makes you think, 'I have to stop and look around and be more aware.'"

"I try not to live in fear. Fear is a bad thing," declares an event planner. "I think caution is good. Fear can paralyze you."

"I hike Red Top a lot, and I thought if it could happen to someone so athletic and able to take care of herself, it could easily happen to me," confides a radio traffic manager.

Is that fear? Or is it something else—worry?

"Fear is an emotion," states security expert Bob Martin, vice-president of the Gavin de Becker security consulting firm in California. The nearly 30-year-old firm bills its experts as specialists in the prediction and prevention of violence—and the management of fear.

"Fear is a physiological response to hazard, and there is nothing you can do about it. You have no control over the fear. What you do have control over is worry. And worry is a choice. Fear is a physiological reaction," Martin says.

In other words, "fear" is a real reaction to real threat; it's not imagining something bad might happen one day. Getting a handle on the difference means when fear rears its head, it's not something to be ashamed of, and definitely not something to be ignored.

Listen here to Martin describing how fear is a gift, and how generally speaking, women and men fear different things--and fear things differently.

"I listen to WSB AM-750 and every day, there's some tragedy, if not here in Georgia, somewhere," says a business manager. "So it teaches you that you have to be cautious nowadays."

Sandy Springs Police Detective Liz Concepcion says wise women will learn to hone that feeling of fear—and heed it.

"The more that you know what your 'instinct' feeling is—if it's the hairs raising on the back of your neck, if you get a funny feeling in your chest or your stomach—you just have to figure out what your body's telling you, and really listen to it," Concepcion says.

The apprehension, the antsy feeling, the fear you feel? There is power in harnessing it, and there could be near-deadly consequences when you don't, as "Kelly" found out the hard way.

Her story, Tuesday.

Monday, 25 February 2008