Post by Joanna on Feb 3, 2016 21:04:17 GMT -5
Detectives investigating the death of school girl Nicole Lovell (above) believe her murder may have been planned over a three-week period. The 13-year-old went missing January 27 and police say she was stabbed and died the same day.
Officers have stressed their probe is still in early stages. Court documents accuse Natalie Keepers of being involved in the crime between January 4 and January 27. First, however, they charged Virginia Tech track team member David Eisenhauer with felony counts of first-degree murder and abduction.
Today charges against his fellow Virginia Tech student, who lived in college accommodation near her alleged accomplice, had charges against her upgraded. Keepers is now charged with accessory before the fact to first-degree murder. A source at the Montgomery County District Jail confirmed Keepers was accused of being an accessory to the murder and assisting in luring Lovell to her death. Keepers was originally charged with one felony count of improper disposal of a dead body and one misdemeanor count of accessory after the fact in the commission of a felony. The new charges carry a penalty of 20 years to life in prison and an arrest warrant issued in her name was the first conformation that police believe the murder was planned last month over a three-week period.
Nicole Lovell disappeared after pushing a dresser against her bedroom door and climbing out a window in her Blacksburg home. Her body was found late Saturday afternoon in Surry County, North Carolina.
Detectives are looking at the victim's internet usage and have stated she was known to Eisenhauer before the day of her death. Investigators are checking how the victim came to be with Eisenhauer and have yet to reveal a motive. Preliminary inquiries reveal she was stabbed and this led to her death, but the full autopsy report isn’t complete.
Commonwealth Attorney Mary Pettitt said Tuesday during a news conference that the investigation shows that 13-year-old Nicole died Wednesday, January 27, the same day she disappeared from her home. The prosecutor says Keepers will have her charge changed from accessory after the fact to accessory before the fact. Pettitt did not reveal a motive for the slaying.
Nicole's mother, Tammy Weeks, talked about her daughter (whom she calls “Coley”), saying she had survived various health ailments during her young life, including a liver transplant. “After the transplant, she was able to come home at the age of 1,” Weeks revealed. “Coley tried to live a normal life up until age 4 when she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. At this point, we almost lost her for the second time.”
Weeks continued: “She fought once again, but after that, it wasn't enough. Coley developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, ARDS. With the ARDS, she slipped into a coma for six months in which time she developed MRSA (a staph infection). We were advised at that time she only had a 1% chance of survival. Coley once again beat the odds though. After eight months in the hospital, she was released and she started to thrive.”
Nevertheless, 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,” Mrs. Weeks said, but the bullying continued on social media. Her daughter had a passion for pandas, music and dreamed of being on the television show American Idol, Weeks added. “Nicole was a very lovable person. Nicole touched many people throughout her short life,” Weeks said before whispering, “I can't do that part,” before bursting into tears and leaving the room. The family pastor, Josh Blankenship read the remainder of a prepared statement. “Our hearts still ache in sadness and secret tears still flow. What it means to lose you, no one will ever know,” before exiting the room.
On January 27, Lovell barricaded her bedroom door and went out the window to meet 18-year-old Virginia Tech engineering student David Eisenhauer. That same day, the girls’ body was found hidden off a North Carolina road, two hours south of the Virginia Tech campus. Following his arrest, Eisenhauer reportedly told police, “I believe the truth will set me free.” The truth of what happened to Nicole Lovell has been closely guarded by investigators. Eisenhauer is currently charged with kidnaping and murder.
Blacksburg police said they have evidence showing Eisenhauer knew the girl before she disappeared. “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,” police revealed in a statement. On the Virginia Tech campus, state police divers continued to search a pond, but wouldn't say what they hoped to find.
Stacey Snider, who lives close to Nicole said Jaydon, one of her 8-year-old twin daughters, had provided police a lead that had led to Eisenhauer (above left). The girls had been playing with Nicole when she showed them a text she had received through the instant messaging service Kik, Snider told the New York Times. “She said that he was 18, but I didn’t think it was real,” Jaydon told the Times. “I was like, ‘You shouldn’t do that.’” Nicole reportedly talked to the Snider twins about sneaking out of the house to meet Eisenhauer, something Mrs. Snider says she didn't know about until after the disappearance. “She was talking about this boyfriend she had that was 18 and went to college and his name was David. And showed some text messages off of a Kik and pictures. And that's what the girls told the police officers when they asked,” Mrs. Snider said. “I would have told her mother. But we didn't know nothing about it until she came up missing, unfortunately,” Mrs. Snider added.
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. “We had no reason to think he would be unsuccessful in his goals because he was very focused,” said Principal James LeMon at Wilde Lake High School, where Eisenhauer graduated last year. Named Boys Indoor Track Performer of the Year by The Baltimore Sun last March, Eishenhauer chose Virginia Tech to pursue engineering while competing with the Hokies' top college runners, LeMon added.
Eisenhauer lived in Ambler Johnston Hall, the same co-ed residence hall where the first two people were killed in the 2007 campus massacre that left 32 dead. “From what we've heard, he really stayed in his room a lot,” said Abbey Workmeister, another freshman who lives in the same dormitory. Logan Fry, a sophomore who lives on the same floor and also ran track in high school, said Nicole's death and the arrest of her dorm neighbor was frightening. “Like, it definitely could have been me,” she said.
Keepers (above right), who interned at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, led science experiments at her church's Bible school and pursued a future in aerospace or ocean engineering, her online resume indicated. “It's just very, very surprising,” said her principal, Marcia Leonard at Hammond High School.
Kik. 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 and unlike others, it doesn't require a working telephone 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.” Ted Livingston, the start-up’s founder and chief executive officer, has said the service, which has 240 million users, reaches roughly 40 percent 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.
But the app’s anonymity turns it into 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. In a guide for law enforcement, Kik says names, emails and ages do not allow the company to locate user accounts – the exact username is required. The site will, however, preserve data for a period of 90 days, pending receipt of a valid order from law enforcement.
For example, a Michigan teenager is facing child pornography charges for allegedly selling nude pictures and videos of herself online. The 15-year-old told authorities she used an account on Kik – where she reportedly was known as “YourFavoriteBunBun” – to make her sales. She allegedly made around 20 sales and more than $1,000 from the online business for more than a year, but relatives who found out about it told her mother, who then called police.
A Secret Service agent who sexted an undercover police officer posing as a 14-year-old girl also allegedly admitted to sending obscene pictures and messages to two other underage girls. Lee Robert Moore, who worked as a uniformed officer at the White House, was arrested in an online sting by Delaware State Police in November of last year. In an affidavit, Detective Kevin McKay said he was first contacted by Moore on social media app Meet24, but then agreed to chat using messaging app Kik, as it allows the exchange of images and videos.
A 15-year-old from Ohio was kidnaped and held against her will by a 41-year-old man after she told him she was unhappy at home on Kik, police said. Alexis “Lexi” Boroviak, 15, was rescued by authorities 23 days after going missing in Marthasville, Missouri, a nine-hour drive from her home in Brooklyn, Ohio. Chris Schroeder is facing federal and state charges after authorities found evidence he had engaged in sexual intercourse with the teenager.
A Philadelphia mother was sentenced to 25 years in prison for offering her daughter for sex to a man she met in a Kik Messenger chat room. Christine Yoder pled guilty in March last year to two counts each of producing child pornography and distributing sexually explicit photographs. Authorities said Yoder, who went by the name “freakygirl82,” offered to fly her eldest daughter to Detroit to have sex with the man.
A 14-year-old Alabama girl was found hanging in her bedroom after exchanging messages about auto-erotic asphyxiation with strange men she met on Kik. Sydney Dane Sellers was found dead in her home in Pell City by her mother, who later turned her on her daughter's iPhone. When Kik opened, she saw what her daughter had been messaging at the time of her death.
An Arizona woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison and lifetime probation for seducing teenage boys while pretending to be a 15-year-old girl. Anna Areola-Hernandez, 24, of Glendale, pled guilty to three counts of child molestation. She admitted to authorities she had sex with a 13-year-old boy, but told him she was 15, after the boy's mother called police. Prosecutors said she used messaging apps including Kik, Snapchat to lure multiple teenage boys.
Source: Shekhar Bhatia and Martin Gould, The Daily Mail, February 3, 2016.
