Second Virginia Tech student arrested in teen's death

The grim death of a 13-year-old girl and the arrest of two promising Virginia Tech students has cast a pall over the picturesque college town of Blacksburg in the rugged Blue Ridge Mountains.

Nicole Madison Lovell, who vanished from her Blacksburg home early Wednesday, was found late Saturday along a highway in Surry County, N.C., just over the Virginia border, police said. Surry is about 90 miles south of Blacksburg and Virginia Tech's sprawling, 2,600-acre campus.

David Eisenhauer, 18, a freshman engineering major and member of the cross-country team, was charged with first-degree murder. Natalie Keepers, 19, a sophomore engineering student, was charged Sunday with one felony count of improper disposal of a dead body and one misdemeanor count of accessory after the fact. Keepers, from Laurel, Md., helped Eisenhauer dispose of Nicole's body, Blacksburg police said in a statement.

Both students were being held without bond pending court hearings.

The police statement said Eisenhauer and Nicole knew each other before she disappeared and that Eisenhauer "used this relationship to his advantage to abduct the 13-year-old and then kill her."

Nicole's family found a dresser pushed up against her bedroom door and believes she climbed out a window, the girl's uncle, Fred Hawks Jr., told The Roanoke Times.

The murder and arrests have stunned the college town of more than 40,000 people as well as the university that provides Blacksburg a national identity.

"This is a sad day for the Blacksburg community," Mayor Ron Rordam said. "As a parent, I know that this is an unbearable loss for the Lovell family. And as the mayor, while I know that Blacksburg is a safe community, on occasion the town and the Virginia Tech community have suffered inexplicable tragedies."

The most notorious was the campus shooting rampage in 2007 by Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho that left 32 people dead. A permanent memorial to those victims is prominently located on the 30,000-student campus.

Rordam and Blacksburg Police Chief Anthony Wilson asked the public for help in finding out more about Nicole's death. Wilson said investigators were trying to reconstruct the timeline of Nicole's disappearance and death. Nearby police departments, Virginia State Police, the FBI and the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation were among agencies aiding the probe.

“This has been an extremely fast-paced investigation,” Wilson said. "We still have a great deal to do as there are multiple interviews to conduct and evidence to (be) collected and analyzed."

In a Facebook post, her father, David Lovell, expressed his sorrow.

"I'm so in shock I know nothing more to say," Lovell said. "I'm broken!"

Virginia Tech president Tim Sands posted a statement on the school's website, saying the school community was stunned and saddened by the case. The university was offering counseling to students and others who might be struggling with the news.

"Our hearts go out to Nicole’s family and friends," Sands said.

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Eisenhauer, of Columbia Md., was an all-state runner as a Maryland high schooler. After his arrest, his name was dropped from Virginia Tech's cross-country roster. School spokeswoman Tracy Vosburgh said the school was assisting law enforcement "in any way it can."

The school police department and Corps of Cadets aided the search for Nicole's body.

"The entire Virginia Tech community extends its support to Nicole’s family and friends," the school said in a statement.