Woman charged in teen’s death says she, too, was bullied

“It’s kind of like being punched in the stomach”, her father, Tim Keepers, said of what it was like to receive the call about his daughter being allegedly involved in a murder plot.

Natalie Keepers and David Eisenhauer, Virginia Tech students, allegedly planned the crime to abduct and kill Nicole Lovell in late January at the Cook Out, a fast-food chain restaurant, in Blacksburg, Virginia, authorities said Thursday, Feb. 4. Tim Keepers, wife Sara Keepers as well as Natalie’s siblings – a sister and twin brothers, all live in the Laurel, Maryland home where her father promised she’d be held up if released on bond.

Pettitt didn’t give a possible motive or describe how the killing was carried out.

“We understand the allegations are disturbing and serious”, attorney Kristopher Olin said.

When Nicole was dead, Keepers helped load her body into Eisenhauer’s Lexus, the prosecutor added.

Judge Robert Viars Jr denied Keepers bail.

Prosecutor Mary Pettitt, opposed to bond, argued one of the charges against Keepers, accessory before the fact to the first degree murder, “essentially puts her in the same place as the person that committed the murder”. She also reportedly said she had struggled with suicidal thoughts and self-mutilation since eighth grade.

On Thursday, several hundred people paid their final respects to Lovell.

Friends and neighbors have described Nicole as a lovely if awkward girl, clinging to childhood ways while exploring older behaviors.

“The David I knew had his faults, but this is beyond the scope of imagination”, Gaige Kern, who ran cross country with Eisenhauer at Virginia Tech, wrote on Facebook. Authorities have not confirmed that this was Eisenhauer’s photo.

Eisenhauer was taken to the Blacksburg Police Department on January 30, where he denied involvement but admitted to communicating with Lovell and driving to her house on or about the time of the last message, received at 12:39 a.m. on January 27.

Tammy Weeks, Nicole’s mother, said this week that she found a nightstand propped against her daughter’s bedroom door and a window ajar.

Jaydon revealed that Nicole agreed to meet the guy on the night of her disappearance.

Mary Pettitt, a commonwealth prosecutor, detailed everything Natalie Keepers told the FBI investigators during the interrogations.

She told the judge she was not getting her full dosage of anti-anxiety medicine while in jail.

“I’ve learned how to love myself and to take care of myself and deal with any stress that I have”, Keepers said, describing how she had promised a friend that if she stopped cutting herself, she would get a tattoo of a semicolon, representing that her life was not ending, but taking a new path.

Lovell had brought her Minions cartoon character blanket to keep her warm. Before college, he attended Wilde Lake High School in Columbia. Excelling in the classroom and on the track, Eisenhauer drew raves from his coach and principal at Wilde Lake High School and was focused on competing with top college runners.

Keepers, for her part, displayed a packed resume on her LinkedIn profile, including a summer internship with NASA, where she made how-to videos for engineers.

Two Virginia tech students who were arrested for the murdered 13-year old had plotted the abduction and killing cautiously.

They bought cleaning supplies at one Wal-Mart and a shovel at another, Ms Pettitt said, and claimed they had decided that Eisenhauer would cut the teenager’s throat. Now the subject of shocking murder charges.