'Sociopath in Training' Idolized Murder Suspect

BLACKSBURG, VA — Two college freshmen at Virginia Tech accused in the disappearance and death of a 13-year-old girl looked into the camera for their mugshots. Natalie Keepers, the alleged accomplice, appeared with a stern, angry look on her face.

David Eisenhauer, the one actually accused of killing the girl over an alleged inappropriate relationship, showed no emotion. You could write almost anything on his face: concern, ambivalence, turmoil, conviction.

The pictures were taken in late January after a desperate three-day search for Nicole Madison Lovell ended with her body found just across the state line in North Carolina. In court hearings in May, testimony from the detectives who first interviewed the pair seem to offer an explanation for the differing mugshot reactions.

Keepers, 19, reportedly told police that she was the novice, the "sociopath in training," said Det. Ryan Hite of the Blacksburg Police Department. Eisenhauer was a "sociopath," Keepers reportedly told investigators. By helping Eisenhauer, Keepers said she had joined "the best club in the world."

"Wherever She Is"

The two students will face the grand jury this summer on charges in the death Nicole, a seventh-grader who disappeared from her mother’s apartment in Blacksburg early in the morning on Jan. 27.

Terri Lovell found her daughter's bedroom door barricaded and her window open. Her cell phone and a blue blanket with Minions characters on it were also gone.

The first missing person alert described a runaway child in need of medicine, possibly clutching that blanket. "Nicole Lovell has slightly past shoulder-length brown hair and a tracheotomy scar on her throat." Lovell had received a liver transplant and needed medication daily.

"It's getting down to the wire," Terri Lovell told the press as the search for her daughter went into a third day. "She's sick wherever she is."

Nicole was already dead, Commonwealth's Attorney Mary Pettitt later confirmed in court filings. She had been killed the same morning that she'd snuck out of the house.

"We Definitely Did Overkill"

Keepers' parents testified last month that she had aspirations to follow in her father's footsteps as an aerospace engineer. She had interned at NASA. Testimony also noted that she had met with a school therapist in the fall, but was told she didn't need further sessions. She also visited a psychiatrist.

Eisenhower was a Columbia, Md., high school track star, named the Howard County track and field athlete of the year in 2015.

By using GPS, security footage and interviews with the suspects, investigators say they have drawn a map of Eisenhauer and Keepers traveling through town that night before Eisenhower pulled up to Nicole's window. They allegedly stopped at a Walmart to buy a shovel (confirmed by surveillance footage), had dinner at a Cook-Out and took a quick drive by the remote spot where Nicole would later be killed.

Investigators claim the suspects considered several different scenarios — faking a death by suicide or exposure in the snow — before settling on slicing the young teen's throat and disposing of the body. The medical examiner would later rule Nicole's death being due to a stab wound in the neck.

Keepers isn't implicated in the murder itself, she's accused of conspiring prior to the death, helping to put Nicole's body in the back of Eisenhauer's Lexus and traveling with him to Surry County, N.C., to bury the body. She would later tell police that they made another stop at a Walmart in Wytheville to buy cleaning supplies after the murder, and that she helped clean the body with sanitizing wipes and bleach.

“I smell like cleaning supplies,” a message reads from Keepers to Eisenhauer after they returned to Blacksburg. “I don’t want to smell like that. I want to take a shower.”

Police say Eisenhauer was confident he'd covered his tracks. “As long as they don’t find the body for a week, it will never be found,” read one message reportedly sent from Eisenhauer’s phone. “We definitely did overkill. Always do overkill when your life is on the line.”

"A Person Who Clearly Left the Scene"

Investigators quickly followed trails left on Nicole's social network accounts and found recent chats with one account, "Dr_Tombstone." The account was allegedly linked to an email owned by Eisenhauer.

Detectives say Eisenhauer admitted to driving to Nicole's apartment the night of her disappearance, but said he left by himself soon after. During early interviews, he reportedly told investigators, "I think police should spend more time looking for a body … instead of trying to interrogate a person who clearly left the scene. I'm calling a lawyer. I'm done."

Eisenhauer was charged with abduction early Jan. 30. After Nicole's body was found late that afternoon, the charge was changed to murder.

Keepers had initially provided little information to investigators — remember that angry college student in the mugshot. But she eventually opened up, taking police to the spot where Nicole was allegedly killed. They found blood in the snow at the scene, in Eisenhauer's car and on the shovel. She showed police where they dumped Nicole's clothes and backpack.

The "Minions" blanket, the only bit of security Nicole took with her out that window, was found in Keepers' dorm room.

The grand jury will consider indictments July 26.