Virginia Tech said in a press release that hundreds of its cadets ended up participating in the search for Lovell.
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The 13-year-old girl, identified as Nicole Madison Lovell, disappeared from her home in Blacksburg, Virginia, on January 27.
Last October, she uploaded a photo saying, “I’m single”.
Even when she didn’t go to school, bullies kept harassing her online, Weeks said. She didn’t give other comments or discuss the focus of the news conference.
Eisenhauer is charged with first-degree murder and abduction, while Keepers is facing a felony charge of improper disposal of a body and a misdemeanor offense of accessory after the fact in the commission of a felony. They remain in jail without bond.
Police said they arrested Eisenhauer based on tips and leads obtained from social media, and they say he and Lovell knew each other.
A Virginia Tech engineering student has been charged with abducting and killing a local 13-year-old girl and another student is charged with helping dispose of the body, police in Blacksburg, Virginia, say. Boxes were marked to indicate no firearm was used and that neither suspect had a criminal record. Chris Heydrick, who competed against Eisenhauer in high school, told The Baltimore Sun that Eisenhauer was “cocky” but “the dude was mentally tough”.
University officials said Eisenhauer had been suspended.
Nicole’s mother said she was heartbroken that he girl who had endured such hardship would end up being preyed upon by the suspect.
Lovell’s mother, Tammy Weeks, told The Washington Post her daughter had survived a liver transplant, MRSA and lymphoma when she was 5.
At the time of her initial disappearance, the girl’s father had expressed hope that his daughter’s immediate whereabouts may be ascertained, whilst at the same time expressing concerns with his daughter’s health given the teen having a liver condition which necessitated her having to take daily medication.
“God got her through all that, and she fought through all that, and (Eisenhauer) took her life”, she said.
Davy Draper, a family friend, told the Associated Press Nicole was an energetic and outspoken girl who got along with everyone.
Some of the girl’s friends learned of her death Saturday night at a candlelight vigil held near her home, reported CNN affiliate WFXR.
Keepers, also a good student, was involved in the theater program at a high school roughly five miles away in the same town, Howard County public schools spokesman John White said. Drake said she could not confirm that because of privacy laws, but she said the county’s schools have anti-bullying programs.
Keepers and Eisenhauer lived in residence halls just a few minutes apart on the Virginia Tech campus, which has 31,000 full-time students.
Abbey Workmeister lives in the same dormitory as Eisenhauer – Ambler Johnston Hall, the co-ed residence hall where the first two people were killed in the 2007 campus massacre that left 32 dead.
Both students appeared before a judge on Monday in nearby Christiansburg, Virginia.
Eisenhauer was an engineering student and one of Maryland’s top high school runners.
“Like, it definitely could have been me”, she said.
A number listed for Eisenhauer’s parents was busy Sunday.
There was no answer Monday afternoon at the family homes of David Eisenhauer in Columbia and Natalie Keepers in Laurel.
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One day after Eisenhauer’s arrest, a second Virginia Tech student, Natalie Keepers, was arrested and charged with disposing of Lovell’s body.
