The Murder of Nicole Lovell, 13 -- Virginia

[HairOfTheDog]

I'd hoped she'd run away, though it never really seemed likely.

This story makes me sad. I want to know why Nicole Lovell was killed, but those details haven't been released yet.



Nicole Lovell ^ sneaked out of her house on January 27^th. She placed a dresser in front of her door and climbed out a window.

Her mother, Tammy Weeks, reported Nicole missing right away. Police are not releasing a lot of details, but police arrested a suspect quickly and Nicole's body was found by the side of the road not long thereafter.

Today, LE announced that Nicole had been stabbed to death on the same day she went missing. RIP.


Nicole's mother, Tammy Weeks ^, spoke at a press conference today. She said that Nicole didn't like going to school because girls called her fat and talked about her transplant scars. "It got so bad I wouldn't send her, but the bullying continued on social media."

Nicole was 5 years old when she survived a liver transplant, MRSA (a drug-resistant bacterial infection) and later lymphoma.

Nicole's classmates were grieving Monday at Blacksburg Middle School, where 10 counselors were brought in to support them, Montgomery County schools spokeswoman Brenda Drake said.

Drake said privacy laws prevent her from commenting on Nicole's experience, but she said the school has anti-bullying and Internet safety programs.

Refs:
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/...ents-lives
http://www.people.com/article/nicole-lov...h-students

[HairOfTheDog]

The Suspects


Virginia Tech student David Eisenhauer, 18, has been charged with the abduction and first degree murder of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell. Fellow student Natalie Keepers, 19, allegedly helped dispose of the body and is also charged as an accessory before the fact.

Eisenhauer was a track star and high performing engineering student at Virginia Tech.

Keepers was also a high performing student and was an intern at NASA.

Blacksburg police said they have evidence showing Eisenhauer knew the girl before she disappeared Wednesday.

'Eisenhauer used this relationship to his advantage to abduct the 13-year-old and then kill her. Keepers helped Eisenhauer dispose of Nicole's body,' a police statement said.

Stacey Snider, who lived close to Nicole, said one of her 8-year-old twin daughters had given police a lead that had led to Eisenhauer. The girls had been playing with Nicole when she showed them a text she had received through the instant messaging service Kik. Nicole told the girls that the boy was 18 and that she was going to meet him that night.

The arrests of the two ambitious and focused students shocked people who knew them in Maryland, where they attended nearby high schools. Neither had prior criminal records, police said.

Ref: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z3z3KC4hf7

[HairOfTheDog]

Social Media Controversy

Some case followers are contending that 13-year-old Nicole was too young to be on Facebook and using apps like Kik. Kik is a smartphone messenger app that allows users anonymity.

Authorities believe Nicole Lovell may have met David Eisenhauer, 18, on smartphone messenger app Kik.

The app, which was founded in 2009 by a group of University of Waterloo students, grants its users anonymity as unlike others, it doesn't require a working phone number - just a unique username.

This, according to the app's website, is so 'users are always in complete control of who they talk to on Kik.'

However, the app’s anonymity makes it a minefield when it comes to solving crimes, such as child exploitation, bomb threats and terrorism.

It allows users to search for others by age and send photographs that are not stored on phones – making it popular with pedophiles and predators and the bane of law enforcement.

Ted Livingston, the start-up’s founder and chief executive, has said the service, which has 240million users, reaches roughly 40 per cent of Americans aged 13 to 25.

The free app uses native advertising - including video advertisements - to earn revenue. To target its primarily young audience, it also offers advertisers the chance to reach consumers using branded GIFs.

However, in a guide for law enforcement, Kik says names, emails and ages do not allow the company to find user accounts - the exact username is required. They will, however, preserve data for a period of 90 days, pending receipt of a valid order from law enforcement.

Ref: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...z3z3LEz0XH

[koko]

"Nicole didn't like going to school because girls called her fat and talked about her transplant scars. "It got so bad I wouldn't send her," Weeks said, but the bullying continued on social media."

Girls are so fucking mean to each other.

I too am curious about the motive, HotD. Also can't help but wonder whether or not anything sexual took place...my gut tells me "of course there was" but I hope I'm wrong.

[Duchess]

I saw a picture of her someplace recently and she didn't look as childlike in it as she does in those up there ^^^^^^. She still looked like a little kid but she was a bit more polished. It's a very sad story. She was probably very excited to go meet up with him :(

[HairOfTheDog]

The family released a lot of photos when she was missing, and some may have been pulled off social media as well.

This one is probably more recent, Duchess.



I'm curious about whether the motive was sexual assault too, Koko. So far, LE is being pretty tight-lipped about details.

[Duchess]

I know being very bright doesn't preclude one from being a fucked up individual but nonetheless I'm almost always surprised when kids of this caliber do something so despicable.

[sally]

I think the motive was to see what it felt like to kill someone and she walked right into it.

[ramseycat]

I saw the mother on the news. It was heartbreaking. She looked so broken. I hope these fuckers get shanked in jail.

I too was surprised to hear what smart kids these are Duchess. They had such bright futures. Makes me wonder what the hell happened to them for them to be so evil. Or were they just born that way?

[HairOfTheDog]

On New Year’s Day, 13-year-old Nicole Lovell reportedly posted a photo of herself in the Facebook group Teen Dating and Flirting, along with the question: “Cute or nah?” The post apparently garnered 304 responses, most of which were mean-spirited.



Even after the Blacksburg, Virginia, teenager’s disappearance and murder in late January, the members of that Facebook group continued to cyberbully Lovell. That is until Tuesday afternoon, when the group went offline, just after Virginia Tech students David Eisenhauer, 18, and Natalie Marie Keepers, 19, were charged with involvement in Lovell’s death.

“No dead people allowed!” one group member commented on a post about Lovell, hours before the group’s page disappeared from Facebook. Another member, using expletives, wrote that the killing was justified because of the victim’s appearance.

In the aftermath of Lovell’s death, groups such as Help Save the Next Girl and Justice for Children Without Voices asked Facebook to remove the group.

A Facebook representative tells Newsweek that the social network does not comment on specific cases or Facebook groups, and directed Newsweek to the social network’s community standards. Because there are 1.55 billion Facebook users and millions of Facebook groups, the representative says, the company only becomes aware of potentially problematic content if a user reports that content. A group can be disabled for repeat violations, the representative adds.

Justice for Children Without Voices says it had reported the group for containing nudity and that Facebook confirmed that it removed the group.

It is possible that Lovell and Eisenhauer met through Teen Dating and Flirting or through another social media platform, according to reports.

Parents are now beginning to fight tech with tech, as a slew of smartphone apps are now available to help them track how their children use phones. TeenSafe, for example, lets parents monitor their child’s text messages (including deleted ones), phone calls, social media use, Internet browsing history and location. It claims to have more than 1 million parent users.

According to a January Pew Research Center study of how parents monitor their teens’ use of technology, 94 percent of parents surveyed said they talk to their teens about appropriate Web sharing. Thirty-nine percent said they block, filter or monitor their child’s online activities.

Services such as TeenSafe also enable parents to monitor third-party apps, such as Kik Messenger, which claims to have 240 million users. According to its website, more than 40 percent of American teens use the messenger.

Full piece: http://www.newsweek.com/nicole-lovell-vi...ook-422355

[HairOfTheDog]

I saw the mother on the news. It was heartbreaking. She looked so broken. I hope these fuckers get shanked in jail.

I too was surprised to hear what smart kids these are Duchess. They had such bright futures. Makes me wonder what the hell happened to them for them to be so evil. Or were they just born that way?

I think Einsenhauer or Keepers may be a pedophile who had been grooming Nicole, with the help of the other. It's just speculation on my part, based on the latest updates. It's still not clear if Nicole had ever met one or both of them in-person before the night she was killed.

Latest:
Investigators believe David Eisenhauer, the Virginia Tech student accused of killing 13-year-old Nicole Lovell, had an inappropriate relationship with the middle-school student, a law enforcement official said.

The 13-year-old was planning to expose their relationship, the official said, and investigators believe he stabbed her to prevent that. The law enforcement official would not describe the nature of the inappropriate relationship.

Investigators have been tight-lipped about the evidence they have that allegedly ties Eisenhauer to the killing.

Nicole showed her friends, 8-year-old twin girls,a picture of her "older boyfriend" on her phone the day she went missing. It was Eisenhauer. She told them she was meeting up with him that night. That was a big lead for LE.

Kik administrators quickly complied with requests from FBI in regards to activity on Nicole's account, according to a company spokesperson.

Eisenhauer did not lead authorities to the body, according to Blacksburg police Chief Anthony Wilson, nor did he confess to murder. Still, authorities managed to piece things together after sorting through social media, exploring 300-plus tips and searching for other information pertinent to the case.

Refs:
http://wtvr.com/2016/02/03/inappropriate...cial-says/
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/...end-before

[HairOfTheDog]

I think the motive was to see what it felt like to kill someone and she walked right into it.

There was a hearing yesterday and some new details were released.

It definitely seems possible that Eisenhauer targeted and lured Nicole by acting like her on-line boyfriend just so he and Keepers could kill someone (rather than killing her because he'd actually had a relationship with her and he was afraid she was gonna tell).

Latest:
Two Virginia Tech students formed a college relationship over their hometown roots — then hatched a plot to kill 13-year-old Nicole Lovell, according to testimony Thursday.

They bought a shovel, selected a secluded location and then planned to lure Lovell from her Blacksburg home with the promise of a date with an older boy, Montgomery County Commonwealth’s Attorney Mary Pettitt said.

Natalie Marie Keepers apparently had neither met nor spoken to Lovell, but the Tech student told police she helped David Edmond Eisenhauer load the teen’s body into the trunk of his Lexus after he killed her, Pettitt said during a hearing Thursday. A judge denied Keepers’ bond.

Both Keepers, 19, and Eisenhauer, 18, have maintained they were not present when Lovell was killed, according to Pettitt. The prosecutor, however, described preparations the pair allegedly made in the days leading up to Lovell’s disappearance:

Pettitt said they met at the Blacksburg Cookout restaurant on South Main Street to discuss the plan. They later bought a shovel at Walmart, selected a secluded location off Craig Creek Road and drove past Lovell’s apartment to scope things out.

The plan was for Eisenhauer, who had been messaging Lovell, to lure her out of the home late at night under the guise of a date, Pettitt said. He took Lovell to the site he and Keepers selected together and slit the girl’s throat, Pettitt said.

When interviewed by police, Eisenhauer said he had communicated with Lovell in the days before her disappearance. He also said he had visited the teen outside her bedroom window at the Lantern Ridge apartment complex in Blacksburg on the night she went missing, Pettitt said. That was 12:39 a.m. Jan. 27, which was also the last time Lovell connected to one of her various social media sites.

According to Eisenhauer’s account, he gave Lovell a “side hug” outside her home and then returned alone to Keepers’ dorm on Virginia Tech’s campus, Pettitt said.

Keepers and Eisenhauer later stopped at a Walmart to buy cleaning supplies, leaving Lovell’s body in the parking lot, the prosecutor said. The cleaning supplies, along with a Minions blanket Lovell had taken with her from her bedroom, later were found in a suitcase in Keepers’ room, Pettitt said.

Keepers and Eisenhauer both are from the Baltimore area and were friends at Tech. Eisenhauer rushed Keepers to the hospital when she needed an emergency appendectomy in the fall.

Keepers said she was “excited to be a part of something secret and special with Eisenhauer” in regard to Lovell, according to Pettitt.

Full story (with comments from suspects' and victm's family members): http://www.roanoke.com/news/crime/blacks...a7462.html
-----------------------------

Everybody who knows Keepers is reportedly very surprised about her involvement in a premeditated murder of a girl the same age as her little sister. Keepers brought up her history of depression and cutting in court. Oh, and Keepers told the court that she's allergic to gluten, but the jail doesn't have a gluten-free menu.

[sally]

That was my first thought that they did it for some kind of sick pleasure, and not just because he got scared that he would get in trouble for messing around with an underage girl. It reminded me of the movie Hostel 2 where the guy lures in the silly girl by pretending to be her boyfriend and then the women hacks her up for fun.

[koko]

This gluten free broad sounds like a fucking dumbass. Obviously a good student, but in other terms, a complete dumbass. "Excited to be part of something secret and special with Eisenhauer" like their planning a fucking surprise party? When she is way more than old enough to know better, and has a sister who is the same age as Nicole?? Either she is a dumbass so desperate for inclusion that she doesn't care, or the both of them are equally sadistic fucked up little bastards

[HairOfTheDog]

Natalie Keepers seems like a very strange person for sure, koko.

She told the court that she used to be bullied like Nicole and that she was suicidal until college when she started seeing a therapist. It appears her defense will likely be mental incapacity.


Meanwhile, Nicole's dad ^ and stepmother did an interview with Dr. Phil that's going to air on Wednesday.

David Lovell says that he thinks Keepers participated in killing his daughter, that she was more than an accessory, and that Nicole would have fought back (he speculates that's how Keepers got the scratch on her face which is visible in the mugshot).

Mr. Lovell also revealed that he and Nicole's mom were aware since Christmas that Nicole was interacting with men online (men who tried to portray themselves as boys) and that they'd previously restricted Nicole from her phone and social media.

Here's the full story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...s-out.html

[SIXFOOTERsez]

Some more stuff, not much new. This poor kid was so mixed up she didn't know which way was up

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationw...story.html

Slain Virginia teen told friends she planned to run away with alleged killer

The 13-year-old Blacksburg, Virginia, girl who was abducted and killed last month told friends that the Virginia Tech student accused in her slaying was her boyfriend and talked of running away and starting a family with him, a friend said.

Nicole Lovell described David Eisenhauer, 18, as "funny and really nice" in the weeks leading up to her Jan. 27 disappearance. And Eisenhauer, who is now charged with first-degree murder in Nicole's death, appeared to be a conscientious engineering student during the period in which prosecutors said he and another Virginia Tech freshman plotted the high-profile slaying.

Nicole's friends and the first interview with Eisenhauer's Virginia Tech roommate reveal fresh details about how the two teenagers' paths crossed, their relationship and the period leading up to her death and his arrest.

Natasha Bryant, 13, said Nicole - a friend and classmate - told her and other friends that she and Eisenhauer were dating. She said the two initially made contact on Facebook and corresponded online. Natasha said she was unaware of Eisenhauer's age at the time, but she and other friends shared concerns about Nicole's online activities.

"She told people she was talking to him," said Natasha, whose father agreed to let her be interviewed. "We didn't think it was that big of a deal because she didn't make that much of it. She always talked of running away with him. She used to talk to a lot of older guys. A lot of people told her not to. I told her it's not safe. I told her she was going to be hurt or kidnapped or something."

Eisenhauer's roommate at Virginia Tech told The Washington Post that the engineering student and athlete seemed in many ways an average freshman. He was a diligent student who spent hours completing homework assignments while also dedicating time outside of the classroom to the university's cross country team.

"He seemed very excited to be at Tech," said the roommate, who agreed to an interview with The Post on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly. "He was very excited about running cross country for the school."

The roommate said that Eisenhauer never mentioned having a girlfriend, and he said he had never once mentioned Nicole. The roommate said that although they were not friends socially, he considered Eisenhauer to be a mostly typical dorm room companion.

"Nothing extraordinary about him, nothing horrible about him," he said.

But he also described Eisenhauer as a loner and a difficult person to understand. He said that Eisenhauer did not appear to have many friends on campus and kept mostly to himself, dividing his time between classes, studying and running practices twice a day.

He said that Eisenhauer occasionally stayed up until 2 a.m. finishing homework only to have to wake at 7 a.m. for cross country commitments.

The roommate said that nothing about Eisenhauer's behavior stood out to him during the week that the middle school girl went missing.

"Nothing David said during the week was cause for suspect," the roommate said. "However, much of what he said did seem strange after I found out he was arrested."

Asked to explain further, the roommate said that Eisenhauer "was just out late at night and that wasn't usual for him."

The roommate said he returned to their dorm on Saturday, Jan. 30, to find Virginia State Police troopers and FBI officials investigating the slaying.

"It shocked me because I never expected it at all," he said.

Eisenhauer's attorney declined to comment Monday.

Nicole's friends said she endured bullying at school, but remained a bubbly girl who loved pouring her feelings out in a notebook, painting and pandas.

"We would always goof around in the hallway at school," Natasha Bryant said of their time at Blacksburg Middle School. "She stood out in a crowd."

Prosecutors have not revealed a motive for Nicole's killing, but two law enforcement officials have told The Post that Eisenhauer had sexual contact with the girl.

At a bond hearing last week, Montgomery County, Virginia, Commonwealth's Attorney Mary Pettitt described an elaborate plot by Eisenhauer and his friend Natalie Keepers, 19, who has been charged as an accessory before and after Nicole's killing and with helping dispose of the girl's body. The plot they hatched took shape over the course of the month of January, authorities said.

Pettitt told a judge that Eisenhauer and Keepers bounced ideas back and forth about how to kill Nicole, bought a shovel and picked a remote spot to slit her throat. Keepers was also an engineering student at Virginia Tech. Both are from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C.

Pettitt said Eisenhauer used his relationship with Nicole to lure her out of her home Jan. 27 and abduct her. Nicole's body was found several days later along the Virginia-North Carolina border. A preliminary investigation found that she died of stab wounds.

Gaige Kern, a Virginia Tech distance runner who knows Eisenhauer, took to Facebook to write an open letter to Eisenhauer in the wake of his arrest, questioning how well he knew his friend. Kern published the statement publicly online and subsequently declined to be interviewed by The Post.

"My ability to trust has diminished, and I'm now skeptical of everyone around me," Kern wrote. "Was this newly surfaced personality always there, lurking in the shadows, hiding amidst lies? And if it was, how did you hide it so well?"

Natasha Bryant, the middle schooler, said she did not know when Nicole began corresponding with Eisenhauer, but said they initially made contact on Facebook. She said another friend told her Nicole showed her numerous messages from Eisenhauer and that the two would frequently argue.

"She was looking for someone who would give her attention and give her some compassion," Natasha said, noting that Nicole was frequently bullied at Blacksburg Middle School. "A lot of people talked behind her back. They talked about the scar on her throat."

The scar on Nicole's neck was the result of a tracheotomy; she had survived lymphoma and a liver transplant, among other health ailments early in life.

Natasha said the bullying left Nicole depressed. She talked of cutting herself and running away. Another friend said Nicole had reached out to an online counseling group to discuss the bullying.

"It was having a big impact on her life," the friend said.

Still, Natasha considered Nicole a good friend. She said that Nicole's ability to overcome her health problems was impressive, and she developed a close circle of friends.

Some of those friends were expected to attend a vigil planned for Monday night to celebrate Nicole's life. Nearly 900 people had said they would attend in response to a Facebook invitation; Blacksburg Police Chief Anthony Wilson wrote in a statement that the family welcomes the event.

"I have spoken to the family of Nicole Lovell, and while they are devastated by the loss of their precious daughter, they hold no ill feelings towards anyone other than the individuals who are responsible for her death," the statement read. "They would like nothing better than to have Nicole's memory be associated with building a greater sense of community."

Natasha said Nicole's memory would remain with her long after Monday night.

"She is on my mind 24/7," Bryant said.

[HairOfTheDog]

Sounds like she was a mixed up kid, one who had gone through a lot in her 13 years of life, Six.

Here's an update on the case:



Police believe they now know how Maryland man and Virginia Tech student David Eisenhauer first made contact with teen girl Nicole Lovell whom they say he kidnapped and killed, reports CBS Baltimore.

According to the station, a search warrant obtained by the Roanoke Times shows that Eisenhauer, 18, used the screen name "Dr_Tombstone" on the social messaging app Kik. He has been charged in the kidnapping and death of a teenage girl.

Investigators believe that 13-year-old Nicole Lovell had only begun communicating with "Dr_Tombstone" a few days before her death, reports the station.

The paper explains that the Kik account is registered to "David A." and was linked to a Gmail account that has been connected to Eisenhauer.

Eisenhauer has been charged with kidnapping and killing Lovell. Natalie Keepers, who is also from Maryland, faces charges in connection with her death.

Their next court date is March 28.

Ref: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-virgi...tombstone/
=======================================

I'm very curious as to the motive and whether Nicole was sexually assaulted before her murder. Such a sad case.

[HairOfTheDog]

The defendants attended a preliminary hearing today. The judge found that there was sufficient evidence for the case to go to a grand jury.

Eisenhauer claims he didn't know Nicole in person. But, his accomplice Keepers gave a full confession and admitted that she was involved in planning the murder, disposing of Nicole's body and belongings, and attempting to cover up the crime.

The details that were shared by the case detective in court today are sad and disturbing. Details: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...death.html

Keepers told LE that Eisenhauer was a sociopath and that she was a sociopath in the making. She said Eisenhauer made her feel like part of a secret club. Worthless pieces of shit.

[HairOfTheDog]

Motive?

Court documents show a Virginia Tech student accused of killing a 13-year-old girl said he might have had sex with the girl and was worried she was pregnant.

Nineteen-year-old David Eisenhauer is charged with first-degree murder in Nicole Lovell's death.

Twenty-year-old Natalie Keepers is charged with accessory before the fact and concealing a body. Eisenhauer and Keepers are Maryland natives who were freshmen at Virginia Tech when Nicole was slain in January 2016.

The Roanoke Times reports that according to court documents filed this week, Keepers told investigators that Eisenhauer met Nicole at a party and was worried he might have had sex with her, but couldn't remember because he blacked out.

Keepers also said that Eisenhauer was worried that Nicole might have been pregnant.

Keepers is scheduled for trial next month.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national...-1.2969128

[HairOfTheDog]

ONE DOWN...



David Eisenhauer (right), 20, pleaded no contest to the murder of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell in Virginia court today. The plea came on the fourth day of testimony in his trial.

Nicole's mom Tammy Weeks teared up as he made the no contest plea.

Prosecutors told jurors Eisenhauer, then 18 and attending Virginia Tech, killed the 7^th grader in 2016 because he was afraid she would expose their relationship.

Lovell went missing after sneaking out of her house the night of January 27, 2016. Her body was found in North Carolina three days later, with 14 stab wounds.

The no contest plea means that Eisenhauer will no longer fight the charges against him, but he is not addmitting guilt. Eisenhauer faces the possibility of life in prison, plus 15 years, when he's sentenced in May.

Meanwhile, Eisenhauer's alleged accomplice, Natalie Keepers, is being charged as an accessory and is awaiting a trial expected to start in September. She is accused of helping him plan the murder and dispose of the body.

Full story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...lling.html