Two Virginia Tech students have been charged in Nicole’s death.
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Her father, Tim Keepers, said he and his wife, Sara, learned of Eisenhauer in October, and that the young man had “dropped everything” a year ago to rush their daughter to a hospital for an emergency appendectomy. She planned for follow her father’s footsteps into aerospace engineering, Tim Keepers said.
Nineteen-year-old Natalie Keepers appeared in court for an hour-long hearing Thursday.
Eisenhauer was arrested on Saturday and faces charges of first-degree murder and abduction. Eisenhauer also is being held without bail.
Pettit says Eisenhauer and Keepers met at a fast-food restaurant to plan how they’d kill Nicole, and drove past her home.
He said that his daughter is being kept in solitary confinement at the jail because she is “not street smart” and could be targeted by other inmates.
An initial autopsy of Lovell determined she was stabbed to death, authorities said. Pettit says the pair put the body in the back of a Lexus. Authorities said it was likely Lovell was killed the same day.
After police issued a search warrant for Eisenhauer’s dorm room on January 30, he told police he had gone over to Nicole’s apartment after their phone call, and he saw her climb out of her window, Pettitt said. “Nicole touched many people throughout her short life”.
Friends and neighbors have described her as a lovely if awkward girl, clinging to childhood ways while exploring older behaviors.
Taking the stand Thursday, Keepers testified she was medicated for anxiety and depression and had been seeking counseling at Virginia Tech since arriving at the university in August 2015, the Roanoke Times reported.
A judge denied bond for Keepers at the hearing in Christiansburg, Virginia, a court official confirmed. She looked down as she entered but answered Judge Robert Viar Jr.’s questions clearly and without emotion. They suggested she’s under duress and being held in isolation.
The details came to light in a courtroom Thursday as prosecutor Mary Pettitt argued against granting bail to Keepers.
Nicole’s parents, David Lovell and Tammy Weeks, attended the hearing but made no comments before leaving for her private funeral.
A Howard Community College student in Columbia who knew Keepers in middle school described her similarly to the Associated Press as energetic, also noting she was not violent and had been “really interested in guys”. Keepers is charged with being an accessory before and after the crime, and she’s accused of helping to hide Nicole’s body.
Now Eisenhauer remains an enigma, the mystery compounded by his statement to police after his arrest, “I believe the truth can set me free”. Both are engineering students at Virginia Tech.
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Keepers, 19, is accused of being an accessory to murder before the fact, concealing a body and being an accessory to murder after the fact.
