BLACKSBURG, Va. -- A second Virginia Tech student has been arrested by Blacksburg Police in connection to the abduction and murder of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell, who went missing from her home in Blacksburg on January 27.
Police arrested 19-year-old Natalie M. Keepers and charged her 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. Keepers is a student at Virginia Tech from Laurel, Maryland.
She is being held at the Montgomery County Jail without bond.
Natalie M. Keepers (SOURCE: Montgomery County Jail)
The search for Lovell ended Saturday afternoon when Virginia State Police discovered her body just along Route 89 just over the Virginia border in North Carolina.
"It’s with a heavy heart that I have to announce we've located the remains of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell," Blacksburg Police Chief Anthony Wilson said during a 9:30 p.m. news conference. "As investigators progressed through the afternoon we were able to determine an approximate area where she might be found."
Lovell's remains, which were found by state police around 4 p.m. just inside in Surry County, N.C., will be transported overnight to the Roanoke Medical Examiner's Office for autopsy.
Nicole Madison Lovell
“This has been an extremely fast investigation within the just past 12 hours,” Wilson saud. “And we still have a great deal to do as there are multiple interviews to conduct and evidence to collected and analyzed as we reconstruct the timeline of events leading up to Nicole’s tragic death.”
David Lovell, the girl's father, posted on Facebook earlier in the evening that he was heartbroken.
"[Devastated] my daughter has been found dead! I'm so in shock I know nothing more to say, I'm broken!"
David Eisenhauer (SOURCE: Montgomery County Jail)
The First Suspect
Blacksburg police arrested 18-year-old David E. Eisenhauer, a freshman at Virginia Tech, Saturday morning after he became the focus of their investigation late Friday night.
The Columbia, Md., native was charged with one fount of felony abduction in Lovell's disappearance before he was later charged with first-degree murder after her body was recovered.
He is being held without bond at the Montgomery County Jail.
WDBJ reportedpolice said students at Virginia Tech may notice an increased police presence on campus.
Additionally,Virginia Tech Policeposted on Facebook that because the engineering major had been arrested for a felony arrest, the university has the option to place him on immediate interim suspension.
Eisenhauer was profiled by WMAR in Baltimore for a "Student Athlete of the Week" segment in March of 2015 that stated he had been at Wilde Lake High School for two years since he transferred from Washington State. That reported stated that he "made a name for himself right away" on the track.
“I make my personal goals achievable – or just out of reach of achievable – that way I’m always constantly striving to better myself," Eisenhauer said in the report.
The Disappearance
Lovell vanished Wednesday, Jan. 27 from her home in the Lantern Ridge area in Blacksburg. Her mother told police she believed the girl climbed out of her bedroom window sometime between midnight and 7 a.m.
Police were concerned because Lovell was without her daily prescribed medication from a previous liver transplant. She had been last spotted wearing black jeans, grey striped Mossy Oak shirt and brown and pink “Baby Phat” boots. Additionally, she was reported to have possibly been carrying a blue blanket with yellow “Minions” characters.
If you have information about this case that could help investigators, call Blacksburg Police at 540-961-1150 or anonymously at 540-961-1819.
