Virginia Tech community copes with latest violent incident

Seventh-grader Nicole Madison Lovell's stabbing death last month marks the latest in what seems a disproportionate number of high-profile slayings in a bucolic region anchored by a university known for its engineering and veterinary programs and its Hokies football team.

Tech freshman David Eisenhauer is charged with abducting and killing Nicole, and classmate Natalie Keepers is charged with helping plan the crime and illegally disposing of the victim's body.

Malik Harmon, a materials science and engineering major from Roanoke who works with Nickle at a small convenience store in the Tech student center, said the incident "doesn't define our community at all."

The spotlight on Virginia Tech was brightest in 2007 when a mentally disturbed student shot and killed 32 people on campus before killing himself — the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

The year before the mass shooting, an armed robbery suspect shot and killed a hospital security guard and a Montgomery County deputy sheriff near the campus, which was locked down during a manhunt.

Montgomery County chief prosecutor Mary Pettitt said most students fall in the age range for people most likely to commit murder and to be first diagnosed with mental health issues.

Nicole's mother, Tammy Weeks, said the teenager had endured bullying online and at school — a factor that experts said made her particularly vulnerable as she sought affection and acceptance on social media.