Police say a Virginia Tech freshman charged in the January death of a middle-school girl texted a man saying he needed “a place to hide a body,” according to a search warrant filed in late April.
Engineering student David Eisenhauer, 19, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Nicole Lovell, 13, who lived close to the Blacksburg campus in a case that has shocked and puzzled the rural college town. Eisenhauer’s classmate, 19-year-old Natalie Marie Keepers, is also charged with accessory before the fact.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Mary Pettitt said during a February court hearing that the pair hatched a plan to kill Nicole, who met Eisenhauer online and told a friend she dreamed of running away with him. Pettitt said Eisenhauer lured the girl from her home on a cold January night then drove to a wooded area, where he stabbed her to death.
Keepers and Eisenhauer then loaded Nicole into a car and drove to North Carolina, where they dumped her body just over the state line, according to Pettitt and police. Nicole’s body was found Jan. 30.
In a search warrant, Blacksburg police sought to obtain the iPhone of a man who lives about 40 minutes west of Blacksburg in Pulaski, Virginia, saying they had found text conversations between Eisenhauer’s phone and the man’s phone. In one message, police said Eisenhauer wrote to the man saying that he needed “a place to hide a body near you.” In another message, police said, Eisenhauer wrote, “original plan failed.” Police said in the warrant they thought both messages were related to the girl’s killing.
Attorneys for Eisenhauer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for May 20.
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Moriah Balingit
