Virginia Tech student's classmate 'appalled' he was charged with killing a 13-year-old girl
High school classmates of David Eisenhauer - a Virginia Tech freshman charged Saturday with killing a 13-year-old girl - are reportedly in disbelief that he could be responsible for her death.
"All of my friends that knew him, that graduated with him, as well as everyone on the team, we're just in total shock about this entire thing," Joe Keating, a high school classmate of Eisenhauer's, told the Baltimore Sun.
"We would never have seen this coming," said Keating, who was the co-captain of the track team alongside Eisenhauer. He went on to say he was "appalled" by the news, according to The Sun.
Keating was responding to reports that Eisenhauer, and another Virginia Tech student, were in custody on Sunday in connection to the death of 13-year-old Nicole Madison Lovell.
The arrests followed a four-day search for the missing girl, whose remains were found 90 miles south of her home and the university campus, both located in Blacksburg, Virginia.
Eisenhauer has been charged with first-degree murder and abduction, and Natalie Keepers has been charged with improper disposal of a dead body and accessory after the fact, according to The Sun.
Virginia police have indicated that Eisenhauer knew Lovell before her abduction and murder, but declined to provide any additional information on how they met.
Eisenhauer and Lovell may have met on a social media website, according to Lovell's mother, Tammy Weeks, who said that was what police told her.
"It was some off-the-wall site I never heard of," Weeks told the Sun.
Details about Keepers and Eisenhauer have started to emerge.
Keepers volunteered in her free time at a Lutheran Church in Laurel, Maryland, according to Reuters, which cited a LinkedIn profile that appeared to match Keepers' background.
"I was a Junior Guide for three years, which entailed me being in charge of four to six middle school girls," the LinkedIn profile read. "I would help in making sure they are safe, being appropriate, and being where they needed to be."
A stellar athlete on the Wilde Lake cross country and track teams, Eisenhauer previously attracted the attention of local news after stand-out running seasons. He won the 2015 Howard County boys indoor track Athlete of the Year.
"He's been very coachable, and I've been delighted to have him," Cross Country coach Whitty Bass told the Sun in 2013.
The Sun article described Eisenhauer's good sportsmanship, explaining that his trademark move was to shake every runner's hand at the finish line of a race he'd competed in.
Another student, Chris Heydrick, who competed against Eisenhauer last year interpreted the action differently, saying it seemed like an exaggerated gesture of sportsmanship, according to The Sun.
"He was a little bit on the cocky side," Heydrick said.
Business Insider has reached out to lawyers for Eisenhauer and Keepers. A lawyer for Eisenhauer declined to comment, and an attorney for Keepers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.