Friend says slain teen talked of running away with defendant
BLACKSBURG, Va. — The 13-year-old Virginia girl who was killed after climbing out of her bedroom window talked of running away and starting a family with the man now charged in her slaying, a friend and classmate of the seventh-grader said.
Natasha Bryant told The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/1o082hf ) that Nicole Lovell said Virginia Tech engineering student David Eisenhauer, 18, was her boyfriend. She said Nicole described Eisenhauer as “funny and really nice” shortly before her Jan. 27 disappearance in Blacksburg.
Eisenhauer is charged with abduction and first- degree murder. Another Virginia Tech student, 19- year- old Natalie Keepers, is charged with accessory before and after the fact and with illegally dumping Nicole’s body just across the state line in North Carolina. Authorities say Nicole was stabbed.
Natasha, also 13, said Nicole met Eisenhauer online and corresponded with him online. Natasha said she was unaware of Eisenhauer’s age at the time. But Natasha said she and other friends worried about Nicole’s online activities.
Nicole’s father, David Lovell, said in a record- ed interview for the “Dr. Phil” television show that the family also became concerned after learning before Christmas that Nicole was chatting “inappropriately” with older men, according to a news release from the show.
“You could tell these older guys had fake profiles,” Lovell told host Phil Mcgraw, according to excerpts in the release. “Some of the things they said were way too grown up for the picture they had.” The parents took away Nicole’s phone, but she later got it back, he said for the show, which airs Wednesday.
Natasha told the newspaper — which said her father agreed that she could be interviewed — that Nicole told people she was talking to Eisenhauer.