Hundreds mourn slain 13-year-old at funeral

Nicole disappeared early on January 27, spurring an extensive search that led to the discovery of her body three days later in a wooded area in North Carolina.

Keepers told investigators that she had been with him when he went to Walmart to get cleaning supplies while Nicole’s body was still in the trunk, Pettitt said. Eisenhauer was charged with abduction and murder, while police initially said they believed Keepers had helped hide Lovell’s body after she died.

Eisenhauer and Keepers had separate arraignments at Montgomery County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on Monday, appearing briefly while wearing orange jumpsuits and shackles.

Pettitt did not suggest a possible motive in court, or describe the killing itself.

On the night Lovell disappeared, Pettit said Eisenhauer watched her climb out her bedroom window and she said he was the last person to talk to Lovell on social media.

Like others her age, Nicole was tech-savvy, posting on Facebook and chatting using the Kik messenger app. Unlike other young teens, she had to take daily medicine to keep her transplanted liver from failing, and endured bullying over a disfiguring tracheotomy scar in her neck, a reminder of the months she spent in a coma.

She also told police where to find the body, Pettitt said in court Thursday.

The judge denied the request because he did not believe Keepers, whose family lives in Maryland, has sufficient ties to keep her from fleeing Virginia.

The Washington Post reports that two law enforcement officials have said Eisenhauer had sexual contact with Lovell and used their relationship to lure her out of her home.

Keepers and her parents testified at the bond hearing today in Virginia.

David Eisenhauer and Natalie Keepers.

A neighbor said she told 8-year-old friends before she vanished that she planned to sneak out to meet her 18-year-old “boyfriend”, a man she said was named David, whose picture she displayed on her phone.

The search turned up a “Minions” blanket and cleaning supplies, police said.

“Nicole loved pandas, music and dancing”, Tammy Weeks, Lovell’s mother, said, according to NBC, adding that she dreamed of being on American Idol.

Defense lawyers argued that Keepers had her own troubled past and would become mentally unstable if kept in isolation for her own protection from other inmates. Tim Keepers teared up as he told the judge his daughter wanted to follow in his footsteps an aerospace engineer.

A Howard Community College student in Columbia who knew Keepers in middle school described her similarly to the Associated Press as energetic, also noting she was not violent and had been “really interested in guys”.

The suspects were high-achieving engineering students at Virginia Tech, officials said.