Saturday, August 29, 2009
Students' deaths: Neighbors did not hear shots
The investigation: Ongoing coverage
From today's paper
- Few clues, many tears in the deaths of Virginia Tech students
- Dan Casey: Neighbors shaken after meadow becomes killing field
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Heidi Childs and David Metzler, seen here in a photo from her Facebook profile, were inseparable.
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Investigators continued for a second day on Friday to try to find any evidence or bit of information that might lead them to whoever was responsible for the deaths of two young Virginia Tech students.
The bodies of David Lee Metzler, 19, of Lynchburg and Heidi Lynn Childs, 18, of Forest were found by a passer-by about 8 a.m. Thursday in a day-use area in Caldwell Fields, a group campground in the Jefferson National Forest in Montgomery County.
Both appeared to have been shot, the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office has said. Their bodies were taken to the medical examiner's office in Roanoke for autopsies, but reports hadn't been completed by Friday afternoon, the sheriff's office said.
Officials have not said how many times or where on their bodies they were shot, or what type of gun may have been used. No one reported hearing gunshots between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, when investigators believe they were killed.
Deputies asked some neighbors near the Craig Creek Road site Friday about an older-model Chevrolet Caprice or Ford Crown Victoria that had recently been seen driving through the area.
Neighbor Jeff Caldwell said he had seen the car go back and forth along the rural road for the past two months or so.
"That is one of many we're trying to make contact with," Lt. Brian Wright with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said. "We're trying to reach out to folks who may have been in the area."
Wright said investigators were also trying to find anyone who may have had contact with Metzler and Childs.
No suspects or a suspect vehicle have been identified, he said.
"Right now we just don't have anything solid enough to put out there," he said. He urged anyone with any information to call police.
"It's always possible that someone may have seen something that may be helpful even if they don't know it may be helpful," he said. "There's going to be folks working around the clock just trying to follow any leads or anything."
Little new information about the deaths was released Friday, and a list of items seized during a search of Metzler's car had not been filed.
Addison Field, the site of the killings, was cordoned off all day Thursday by investigators. They finally left in the early morning hours on Friday.
By the afternoon, neighbors had tied a bouquet of chrysanthemums and alstroemeria lilies to a post on the short wooden fence at the back of the lot, just a few feet from a pile of shattered vehicle glass and a patch of bloodstained grass.
Several deputies patrolled Craig Creek Road, partly to give residents some peace of mind, Wright said. A few residents, scared by the killings, asked deputies to search their homes before they would go inside.
Though investigators wrapped up their on-scene investigation Friday morning, others were still combing the area in the late afternoon.
An inmate work crew from the Montgomery County Jail picked up trash along Craig Creek Road for most of the day, checking for anything of interest. A class of 13 students from the New River Valley Criminal Justice Training Academy performed a grid search of the thick fields of tall mustard weed surrounding the lot.
"Just a fresh-eyes sweep on any evidence that may have been left behind," Sgt. D.R. Link said.
Caldwell Fields, a popular weekend camping site for Tech students, will remain open, an official with the U.S. Forest Service said.
Groups that reserve the two fields used for camping will be notified of the killings, said Cindy Schiffer, a district ranger for the Eastern Divide. It will be up to them whether they want to camp there.
One of the two fields remains reserved for this weekend, she said.
She said there is no apparent reason to believe people using the site would be in any danger.
Columnist Dan Casey contributed to this report.
