Slaying of 13-year-old girl shakes Va. Tech campus, Blacksburg community
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Version 0 of 1. BLACKSBURG, Va. — When 13-year-old Nicole Lovell disappeared last month, Virginia Tech students came out to help in a massive search that, at first, seemed to have no connection to their campus. Then two of their own were accused of plotting the girl’s slaying. Tech students responded by organizing a vigil at the edge of campus in Nicole’s memory and wearing ribbons of blue — Nicole’s favorite color. Others sent a canvas bearing messages of love and support to her middle school. Nicole’s death has deeply shaken this college town, where Tech students are ubiquitous and often serve as role models for area schoolchildren. College students regularly visit neighborhoods to coach youth sports teams, mentor and tutor. They help rake leaves and shovel snow. Now, they say they will work to ensure that the trust built over time between collegians and locals is not diminished despite the allegations against two students. “I hope our overwhelming support counteracts that,” said Danielle Hill, a freshman engineering student. Hill said she remains “shocked that someone in our community would do something like this,” but didn’t think it would strain the relationship between the campus and the town. [Slain teen told friends she planned to run away with alleged killer] For many, the identities of Blacksburg and Virginia Tech are tightly intertwined. The college is the town’s largest employer, and during the school year its 30,000 students constitute the majority of the population. Town and gown, for the most part, operate in harmony. It was in this environment — where many schoolchildren grow up idolizing Tech students — that freshman David Eisenhauer lured Nicole from her mother’s apartment in late January, drove her to a nearby wooded area and stabbed her to death, according to police. Friends of the Blacksburg Middle School student said Nicole was depressed and vulnerable, and found Eisenhauer, a cross-country runner and engineering student, kind and funny. She told a friend that Eisenhauer was her “boyfriend” and that she dreamed of running away with him and starting a family. Investigators said that Eisenhauer, 18, planned the girl’s killing for nearly a month with 19-year-old classmate Natalie Keepers, who was studying to be an aerospace engineer. Blacksburg Mayor Ron Rordam said at the vigil last week that even as they mourned Nicole, the community remained “strong and united.” “We stand together in our obligation to protect the weak and the vulnerable,” Rordam said. Nicole’s mother, Tammy Weeks, who was too overcome with grief to speak at the vigil, reassured the crowd through her statement that her anguish was not directed at the student body as a whole. “I want to make it clear that I have no animosity towards the Virginia Tech community or anyone at the BPD [Blacksburg Police Department], only towards the two people who took my baby girl away from us,” Weeks said in a statement read by Blacksburg police Chief Anthony Wilson as she stood by, tears streaming down her face. Still, Jane Vance, who founded Help Save the Next Girl after the murder of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, said it has been “a difficult moment.” It has prompted the club, which sends college students to middle and high schools to warn young people about predators, to add information about Internet safety to its program. Among Tech students, there is anger and incredulity that two of their own could be accused of such a crime when so many others volunteer in the community to help youngsters. Growing up in the shadow of the campus, with autumns marked by the roar of fans from the football stadium, many children in the area dream of following in the footsteps of college students they interact with. “They think we are the ‘bomb-dot-com,’ ” said freshman Ryan Graham, a 19-year-old horticultural student who tutored elementary schoolchildren in math and reading as part of the Virginia Tech Literacy Corps. “They love that I go to college.” Ethan Mattice, a 22-year-old computer science student, coaches a club lacrosse team with children from Blacksburg and neighboring Christiansburg. “They idolize the school,” Mattice said. “Even the young kids, they all want to go to Tech.” Amanda Roberts, an 18-year-old freshman studying environmental informatics, is a member of Help Save the Next Girl and educates high school students on predatory dangers. She hoped that the student body’s reputation would not be hurt by the arrests of Keepers and Eisenhauer. But she fretted about what it meant that a pair of college students without criminal records and who, by all accounts, were academically successful, would be charged with plotting to kill a 13-year-old. “It’s honestly really scary. I have friends who actually knew the people. They said they didn’t notice anything wrong about them,” Roberts said. If her own friends could not detect anything amiss about the pair accused in the death of a young girl, how can she teach schoolchildren to be vigilant of would-be assailants? “It’s hard to teach how to identify people, if they have any ill intentions.” |