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Nicole Madison Lovell: Virginia teen remembered as ‘angel’ on Earth

A 13-year-old girl was abducted and killed last week for motives that are under investigation. A family friend described her as an energetic and outspoken person who got along with everyone.

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Matt Gentry/The Roanoke Times/AP
Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Mary Pettitt (l.) and Blacksburg Police Chief Anthony Wilson listen to questions during a news conference Saturday, in Blacksburg Va. Blacksburg Police have arrested and charged a Virginia Tech Student with felony abduction in relation to the disappearance of 13-year-old Nicole Madison Lovell.
  • By Lonnie Shekhtman Staff

Nicole Madison Lovell, a 13-year-old who was abducted and killed for motives that are still under investigation, is being remembered by people who knew her as an “angel.”

Davy Draper, who said he's a close family friend of the Lovells and knew Nicole most of her life, described her as an energetic and outspoken person who got along with everyone.

"She was an awesome little girl. She was an angel here on Earth and she's an angel now," Mr. Draper told The Associated Press on Sunday.

A Virginia Tech student, 18-year-old David Eisenhauer, has been charged with first-degree murder and abduction in the death of Nicole, who was missing for several days from Blacksburg, Va., before her body was found Saturday in North Carolina, police said.

Another Virginia Tech student, Natalie Keepers, 19, faces charges of improper disposal of a body and accessory after the fact in the commission of a felony.

Mr. Eisenhauer and Ms. Keepers were being held without bond at a jail in Montgomery County, Va., with no date set yet for their first court appearances.

Police found Nicole's remains in Surry County, N.C., just over the Virginia border.

Blacksburg Police Chief Anthony Wilson told The Roanoke Times that Eisenhauer has not confessed to involvement in the teen's death nor given police any information for the investigation. There is evidence, however, that Eisenhauer and Nicole knew each other before she disappeared, police said.

Before she was found over the weekend, Nicole had been missing since Wednesday. Her family says she disappeared after pushing a dresser in front of her bedroom door and climbing out a window.

According to Virginia Tech’s website, Eisenhauer was a freshman engineering major at the school before he was suspended from school over the weekend. He had been a track star at his high school in Columbia, Md.

This report uses material from The Associated Press.

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