It’s been a week since Nicole Lovell’s body was found on the side of North Carolina’s Highway 89, and yet there’s still so much we don’t know about the 13-year-old’s bizarre murder.

How 13-year-old Nicole Lovell’s tragic murder was planned out by two college students: https://t.co/ShMVHPlWjw pic.twitter.com/t49VTfkdTu

— Teen Vogue (@TeenVogue) February 5, 2016

I can start off by telling you what we do know.

The Blacksburg, Virginia teen had already been through a lot in her 13 years. She survived a liver transplant as an infant, and was taking daily medication to support her liver. She was also a victim of bullying at school, and often used social media to gain self confidence, make friends, and talk to boys.

Then on January 27, Lovell snuck out of her home in the middle of the night to meet up with David Eisenhauer, an 18-year-old freshman and standout track athlete at Virginia Tech; they are believed to have met online. The full extent of their relationship has not yet been released to the public, but the pair is presumed to have been involved romantically.

2nd Va. Tech freshman student arrested over 13-year-old girl’s murder https://t.co/d8Y9OHTDOR pic.twitter.com/nweCs0YRWP

— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 31, 2016

Eisenhauer was later charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder, and his fellow classmate Natalie Keepers was also charged as an accessory before and after the fact. The pair is said to have planned the murder weeks in advance, and drove to separate Wal-Marts to purchase cleaning supplies and a shovel with Nicole’s body hidden in the back of Eisenhauer’s Lexus.

We’re still trying to uncover a clear motive for why two college students would allegedly conspire to murder a young girl, but it’s already being speculated that the plot was an attempt to cover up a potential sexual relationship that Eisenhauer was having with the underage girl. Because Lovell often communicated with Eisenhauer using the popular social messaging app Kik, there have been growing concerns from parents wondering what the app is and if it’s safe for their kids.

Kik is a free instant messaging app that allows users to send messages, photos, games, and other media to one another using WiFi or a data plan. The app has become extremely popular among young teens, and can be used for communication in lieu of cell phones. The app is also similar to Snapchat in that it doesn’t keep records of any of the conversations or allow for messages to be filtered or tracked. Users can easily remain anonymous when using the app, which also makes it easy for people to develop fake profiles in order to disguise their true identities.

The combination of these features make it hard for police to use Kik as an investigative tool like Twitter and Facebook, which both store data. The app itself can, however, be perfectly safe for kids communicating with people they already know, but there’s always a potential danger when kids begin talking with users they meet online.

So if there’s underage kid using the app, a parent or guardian needs to keep up with them to monitor who they’re actually talking to. Everyone should be especially cautious of suspicious profiles and make sure not to share personal information over the internet. And I can’t stress enough the importance of making sure everyone, adults and children, know never to meet up secretly in person with anonymous people they meet online, because there’s always the possibility that what happened to Nicole could happen to them.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post What We Know About Nicole Lovell’s Murder and the Role Kik Played appeared first on Law Street.

On Monday, September 16, 2013, I woke up to news that a mass shooting was taking place at the Washington Navy Yard, ten miles from my house.  It had been nine months since the last devastating mass shooting had taken place, in December 2012, and I came to the realization that I literally was unable to delve into the minutiae of this attack.  My heart couldn’t take the stress.  And for the first time in a long time, I stayed away from the news.  For three days, I neither watched nor read the papers, and knew nothing of the Navy Yard Shooting (because these events always get whittled down to two or three word titles: Columbine. Virginia Tech.  Tucson.  Aurora.  Sandy Hook.  Navy Yard. ________.  (This last example is for the inevitable next shooting that I end up writing about, since our members of Congress respect the NRA’s dollars more than they do our lives).

Today, Thursday September 19, 2013, I felt ignorant for not knowing the facts around this tragedy.  Here is an event that happened in the city where I was born and raised, in an area where many of my friends live, and I did not know the facts.  So today, I sat down and I read them.  Now I’m angry.

Today I learned that the shooter visited two Veterans Affairs Hospitals in two cities seeking help for mental distress.  Each time he sought assistance, he was told that there was not a problem that warranted official concern. For the record, this is absolutely not a condemnation of the mental health professionals who treated the shooter.  They likely followed the protocols to the letter, and were under constraints due to the restrictions Veterans Affairs’ Hospitals typically encounter.  I also learned that the shooter was given a clearance and entered the building using a properly-issued badge.  I learned that the same vetting company cleared both this shooter and the Fort Good gunman.  I learned that he entered the building with a backpack, went into a restroom, came out with a shotgun, and began firing.

I have a suggestion: a uniform procedure for entering government buildings.  There are some government buildings where a the presentation of a badge is the sole security measure.  In others, though, employees and visitors alike go through the same screening precautions.  Indeed, in the summer of 2011, I interned for the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan.  To get into the building, employees had to pass through the metal detector, even with our badges.  Similarly, when entering the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, my bag passed through a security machine every time I entered the building, whether for the first time that day or for lunch. Finally, when I interned for the White House, the security was as tight as one could imagine, no matter what type of badge you possessed.

Was it annoying? Sure.  Realistically, though, it always took less than five minutes.  I don’t know about you, but five minutes is worth my time.  Five minutes is certainly worth my life. If enhanced security is necessary for some government buildings, shouldn’t it be necessary for all?

I also watched a video from the Washington Post where a former Marine told viewers how to react in the event of a mass shooting.  At first I thought, “I will never need to watch this,” but then I realized that it’s probably more beneficial than not.  As a society, we have seen various former safe havens lose their place in our hearts, and come to the realization that we’re not safe anywhere: not in high school, not in college, not in super markets, not in parking lots, not in movie theaters, not in kindergarten, and now not at work.

So I took seven minutes out of my day (less than the time it would take to properly secure all government buildings) and I watched this video.  I felt like I owed it to myself, because every few months we have our sense of safety eroded.  I wanted to learn how to protect myself in the event of danger.

Our workplaces are dangerous.  Our schools are dangerous.  Supermarkets are dangerous and movie theaters are dangers.  What’s left?

Don’t worry, though: the minute news broke that there was a shooter at the Navy Yard, security was increased at the Capitol, and all House and Senate buildings were locked down.

—

Featured image courtesy of [Tim Evanson via Flickr]

Peter Davidson II

Peter Davidson is a recent law school graduate who rants about news & politics and raves over the ups & downs of FUNemployment in the current legal economy. Contact Peter at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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