Virginia police found the remains of a 13-year-old girl missing for three days on Saturday, and arrested two Virginia Tech students in connection with her death, authorities said.
Searchers had been urgently looking for Nicole Lovell after the liver transplant recipient went missing from her Blacksburg home early Wednesday without her daily medication, police said.
Her body was found along a highway in Surry County, North Carolina, at around 4 p.m. and by Saturday evening college student David Eisenhauer, 18, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
On Sunday, police announced a second arrest had been made. Virginia Tech student Natalie M. Keepers, 19, was arrested and is being held without bail on one count of improper disposal of a dead body and accessory after the commission of a felony. "Keepers helped Eisenhauer dispose of Nicole’s body," Blacksburg police said in a statement.
An earlier statement said that investigators zeroed in on Eisenhauer late Friday and arrested him early Saturday on a charge of abduction. After the girl’s body was found, he was also charged with first-degree murder.
He will be arraigned Monday in Montgomery County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court because the court has jurisdiction over cases involving juvenile victims of crime.
"This investigation is far from over," Blacksburg Police Chief Anthony Wilson told reporters Saturday. He said investigators will work to establish a timeline of events.
Eisenhauer, of Columbia, Maryland, is a freshman engineering major at Virginia Tech and was staying at a dorm on campus where he was arrested, police and the university said. He is being held without bail at Montgomery County Jail.
The FBI and state and local police were among the agencies searching for Lovell.
Virginia Tech President Tim Sands said the girl's death and the arrest "has everyone in a state of shock and sadness."
"Speaking on behalf of our community, let me say that our hearts go out to Nicole’s family and friends," Virginia Tech President Tim Sands said.
