Two Virginia Tech students arrested over Nicole Lovell’s death
NICOLE Lovell, 13, pushed a set of drawers against her door, climbed through her window and wasn’t seen again — except by her killer.
NICOLE Madison Lovell was determined no one would know she’d left home last Wednesday.
The 13-year-old pushed a set of drawers against her bedroom door and climbed through her window and wasn’t seen again — except by her killer.
The teenager’s remains were found on Saturday just hours after an 18-year-old student, David Eisenhauer, was charged with abduction.
A murder charge was added when Nicole’s body was found near a highway in North Carolina, just across the border from Blacksburg, Virginia, where Nicole lived.
A friend of Eisenhauer’s has also been charged in connection with Nicole’s death, although not with murder. Natalie M Keepers, 19, has been charged with improper disposal of a body and accessory after the fact in the commission of a felony.
Both of the accused are students at Virginia Tech, the university infamous for the 2007 massacre where 32 people were killed. But exactly how they came to cross paths with young Nicole is the issue now confronting detectives.
Police inquiries are focusing on what link the accused, an athletic star and engineering major at university, had with Nicole, who was a 13-year-old who suffered from a liver condition which meant she had to take daily medication.
Friends have told local media that she was active on Facebook dating groups, but investigators have yet to say, publicly at least, if that was how they met.
The Roanoke Times reported she was a keen user of the groups, with her last message being less than 24 hours before she left home.
In a statement, Blacksburg police would only say they knew each other. But not how.
“Based on the evidence collected to date, investigators have determined that Eisenhauer and Nicole were acquainted prior to her disappearance. Eisenhauer used this relationship to his advantage to abduct the 13-year-old and then kill her,” the statement read.
Keepers then allegedly helped him “dispose of Nicole’s body”.
Blacksburg Police Chief Anthony Wilson gave further hints when he told reporters police had to “take apart the life” of Nicole in the search for answers.
“I’m not going to go into all the specific pieces of it, but when the pieces did come together, Mr Eisenhauer was identified.”
CNN reported “tips and leads” about the case were found on social media.
Her mother Tammy Weeks told the Washington PostNicole had met Eisenhauer online weeks ago, but didn’t have anymore details.
Ms Weeks said her daughter was bullied at school and often cried so she wouldn’t have to go.
“She was a typical student. She didn’t like going to school because she was bullied. She was telling me that girls were saying she was fat and talking about her scars from her transplant,” she said.
‘THAT EVIL BASTARD TOOK HER LIFE’
The mother couldn’t believe her daughter survived cancer when she was young only to die a violent death a few years later.
“God got her through all that, and she fought through all that, and he took her life,” she said. “That evil bastard took her life,” reported the Post.
A close family friend, Davy Draper, told Newsday that, despite her health problems, Draper Nicole was energetic and outspoken
“She was an awesome little girl. She was an angel here on Earth and she’s an angel now.”
Police have warned they have a long way to go until the family have all their questions answered.
“This investigation is far from over. The focus of the investigation is now to reconstruct a timeline leading up to Nicole’s tragic death,” Mr Wilson said to the Times. “This is the most devastating thing you can do to a family. We’ve got some very wounded folks in our community.”
In the four days between her vanishing and her body being found Nicole’s family searched frantically for her. When she was younger she had a liver transplant that required her to take medication each day — another sign for her family that something was badly wrong when she didn’t return home last week.
Police have not revealed how Nicole died.
FATHER HEARTBROKEN
Her father David Lovell posted an increasingly frantic commentary on his Facebook page as the days went on. At first he asked people “to help find our missing daughter” then “please God find her” along with media appeals and stories about the search.
Then on Saturday he told Facebook friends there would be an “update in 10 minutes”.
That update was she was dead.
“Devestad [sic] to learn that my daughter has been found dead! I’m so in shock I know nothing more to say, I’m broken!,” he wrote.
It’s understood Eisenhauer hasn’t admitted involvement in Nicole’s death and did not give police information that led to the discovery of her body.
The New York Post reported Eisenhauer was a three-time state champion in track and also competed in cross country.
At one point he featured on a local television channel’s ‘Athlete of the week’ segment where told of his desire “to be the best”.
“There is no reason I cannot be as good as other people are.”
He added, “I will personally not stop until I reach my peak performance, which could be anywhere,” reported The Daily Beast.
Meanwhile, according to online profiles believed to belong to Keepers, she has ambitions of working in aerospace engineering after she graduated. She also claimed to have spent time at NASA as an intern.
Virginia Tech president Tim Sands said the case left the school community “in a state of shock and sadness” and expressed sympathy with Nicole’s family.
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