The mother of a murdered 13-year-old stared down her accused killer in court on Tuesday.
Nicole Lovell’s mother Tammy Weeks sat forward in the public gallery of Montgomery County Circuit Court in Christiansburg, Virginia, as student David Eisenhauer appeared.
Eisenhauer, 18, is accused of murdering Nicole by luring her out of her bedroom window to stab her to death and slit her throat in January 2016.
Tuesday was the first day of his murder trial.
Eisenhauer’s friend, Natalie Keepers, is also charged. She is accused of helping him hide the youngster’s body after killing him.
Tammy Weeks, the mother of Nicole Lovell, stared down her accused killer on Tuesday as he arrived in court
David Eisenhauer, now 20, is accused of murdering 13-year-old Nicole Lovell in January 2016. He is pictured entering court on Tuesday
He and Nicole met through the app Kik. Her death was the result of his fear that they may have had sex at a party but could not remember.
During opening statements Tuesday at the murder trial of David Eisenhauer, Commonwealth’s Attorney Mary Pettitt told jurors that Eisenhauer had been communicating online with Nicole Lovell for months before he killed her in 2016.
Pettitt said the 18-year-old Eisenhauer had met Lovell at least once before she climbed out her bedroom window to meet him in January 2016. She said he left her in the woods, in the snow, to die after he stabbed her.
Nicole’s nude body was found after a four-day search just over the state line in North Carolina and authorities say she was stabbed and had her throat slashed.
The slain girl had told friends before she vanished that she was planning to sneak out to meet her 18-year-old ‘boyfriend’ who she said was named David.
Eisenhauer, 18, is accused of murdering Nicole (above) by luring her out of her bedroom window to stab her to death and slit her throat in January 2016
Eisenhauer and his friend Natalie Keepers are both charged in the murder. Police say he stabbed Lovell then slit her throat and that Natalie, also a freshman at Virginia Tech at the time, helped him cover it up
Nicole’s mother, pictured above with her slain daughter in 2010, sat in the courtroom on Tuesday as the court heard Eisenhauer had been communicating online with Nicole for months
Eisenhauer said Lovell had told him she was 16 at the party, but he later learned that she was only 13.
Bryce Dustin, a friend of Eisenhauer who was interviewed by police, said the accused killer feared the girl would ‘expose’ him for their inappropriate relationship after she said she wanted to be involved with him.
Eisenhauer later asked Dustin via text message if he knew where he could hide a body.
At a preliminary hearing last year, Blacksburg police Detective Ryan Hite said Keepers told investigators she and Eisenhauer discussed several ways to kill Nicole – drugging her, making it look like suicide and knocking her unconscious and leaving her to die of exposure.
They settled on what Keepers called ‘the official plan’: ‘Grab her from behind, cover her mouth and slit her throat.’
Keepers told investigators she was not present for the actual killing.
Eisenhauer had met Nicole at least once before she climbed out her bedroom window to meet him in January 2016. The slain teen is pictured above with her mother Tammy Weeks