BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — The father of a slain 13-year-old Virginia girl says in a recorded episode of the “Dr. Phil” television show that she had recently been grounded from social media for chatting inappropriately online with older men.
The show says in a news release that David Lovell told host Phil McGraw that it was obvious some of the older men had fake profiles. He said the parents found out before Christmas and took her phone away, although she later got it back. The episode is scheduled to air Wednesday.
Nicole Lovell vanished Jan. 27. Her body was found four days later just across the state line in North Carolina.
Eighteen-year-old Virginia Tech student David Eisenhauer, who graduated from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, is charged with abduction and first-degree murder. Another Virginia Tech student, 19-year-old Natalie Keepers, a Laurel resident and Hammond High School grad, is charged with accessory before and after the fact and illegally disposing of Nicole’s body.
A friend of the 13-year-old Virginia girl who was killed after climbing out of her bedroom window says the seventh-grader talked of running away and starting a family with the man now charged in her slaying.
Natasha Bryant told The Washington Post that Nicole said Eisenhauer was her boyfriend. She says Nicole described Eisenhauer as “funny and really nice” shortly before her Jan. 27 disappearance in Blacksburg.
Natasha says Nicole met Eisenhauer online. She says she and other friends worried about Nicole’s social media interactions.
Organizers held a vigil in Blacksburg Monday.
The Roanoke Times reports that more than 100 people gathered in downtown Blacksburg on Monday night to honor Nicole.
Light poles in the area were strung with blue Christmas lights and members of the community held candles throughout the night. Lovell’s mother, Tammy Weeks, addressed the crowd, thanking the community for their thoughts and prayers.
Blacksburg Mayor Ron Rordam also spoke at the event, saying the community is strong and standing together.
The event was sponsored by Womanspace at Virginia Tech and Take Back the Night, two organizations dedicated to student and citizen safety.
Both Eisenhauer and Keepers were engineering students at Virginia Tech. Their attorneys have not returned calls seeking comment. Both students are being held without bond in Virginia.
Eisenhauer was the Baltimore Sun’s indoor track athlete of the year last year and a two-time Class 3A state runner-up in cross country. He was a member of the Hokies track team. He has been placed on interim suspension from the team, said Pete Moris, a university athletics spokesman.
Keepers participated in theater while at Hammond High School. The relationship between the two students from Howard County remains unknown.
Preliminary hearings for both teens are scheduled for March 28 in juvenile court. Virginia law requires cases to begin in juvenile court if the victim is a child, the Virginia county’s prosecutor said. After preliminary hearings, the cases will go before a grand jury and be tried in Virginia’s Circuit Court, she said.
Reporting from The Baltimore Sun contributed to this article.
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