Instead of a college diploma, two former Virginia Tech students received indictments for the death of a 13-year-old girl who reportedly sneaked out from her house to meet a date. The pair had different plans and the innocent minor never returned home.
NBC News reports that Nicole Lovell, 13, was found dead after a 3-day search when she went missing from their Virginia home on January 27. After investigation, authorities claim that former Virginia Tech students, David Eisenhauer and Natalie Keepers, had executed their plot to kidnap and kill the 13-year-old girl.
According to NBC News, Eisenhauer and Keepers were then first year Engineering majors at Virginia Tech. Eisenhauer was reported to be having a relationship with Lovell and they were to meet that night of Lovell's death. As per Los Angeles Times, Lovell, before disappearing, had shared to her 8-year-old friends that she was meeting David, her 18-year-old boyfriend.
However, David the boyfriend had other plans and little did Lovell knew that it was going to be the last day of her life. Keepers, the accomplice, had confessed at a May preliminary hearing that she and Eisenhauer had devised plans on how they will kill Lovell.
They thought of overdosing the girl with drugs until she dies and they would make it seem like suicide. But the former Virginia tech students followed their first plan anyway: grab Lovell from the back, cover her mouth and slit her throat (via Los Angeles Times).
According to Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Mary Pettitt as per The Roanoke Times, Eisenhauer and Keepers scouted for a place where they would execute their murder plot. The ex-Virginia Tech students bought a shovel and look around rural areas outside Blacksburg where they found Craig Creek Road.
The GPS device mounted on Eisenhauer's car helped trace his whereabouts. He drove near Lovell's Blacksburg, Virginia apartment and then went to Craig Creek Road around 2 in the morning of January 27. At that time, according to Keepers' testimony, she was not present but she confessed to helping hide the body after Eisenhauer stabbed Lovell to death.
No motive for the heinous crime has been identified yet but Eisenhauer and Keepers are indicted and if proven guilty, they will both be punished with life imprisonment. Eisenhauer is charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and hiding Lovell's body while Keepers is charged as an accessory to kidnapping and murder, and helping hide the victim.
The trial dates of the former Virginia Tech students would be held on March. As of now, the two suspects are being held by authorities without bond (via NBC News).
