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Molly Donohue

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Before climbing into bed well after midnight, Molly Donohue locked her dorm room door.

That simple act, which differed from her routine at Virginia Tech's West Ambler Johnston Hall, might have saved Donohue's life on a day when 32 others lost theirs to gunman Seung-Hui Cho.

So said Tony Arnold, national media relations director for Campus Crusade for Christ. Donohue, 18, is a member of the organization's Virginia Tech ministry. Arnold became her media spokesman after April 16, the day the freshman, sleeping behind a locked door, was awakened by a scream.

"A person close to Molly likened the event to Passover. The angel of death passed over her room," Arnold said.

Later that day, as news spread of additional horrors wrought by Cho at Norris Hall, reporters swarmed the Tech campus. Journalists overwhelmed students like Donohue who had experienced key events firsthand. Arnold arrived at 9:30 a.m. on April 17 and met Donohue later that day.

At West Ambler Johnston, Donohue's dorm room was next to the room of Emily Hilscher, 18, and one room removed from resident adviser Ryan Clark, 22, Arnold said. Hilscher and Clark were Cho's first victims.

Police said Wednesday they believe Clark responded to Hilscher's room after hearing unusual commotion there. To date, investigators said they have no evidence of previous contact between Cho and Hilscher -- which could mean the gunman randomly selected her room.

On Thursday, state police Sgt. F.L. Tyler declined to say whether investigators have fingerprinted Donohue's door to see if Cho tried the lock.

When Arnold spoke to The Roanoke Times this week, he said the Donohue family and Molly Donohue would not consent to a direct interview. Instead, he shared her recollections:

Donohue stayed up until about 4:30 a.m. on April 16 before finally going to bed. (Less than three hours later, at 7 a.m., Cho lingered outside West Ambler Johnston. He appeared to be waiting, police said this week.) Donohue's alarm was set for 6:50 a.m., but she didn't rouse.

On the Saturday night before, Donohue had been startled when a male friend of her roommate darted in their dorm room to retrieve a backpack. On Sunday night, Donohue's boyfriend insisted she lock her door, something she had not done in about a month.

A loud scream woke Donohue just after 7 a.m. that Monday. Rattled, she wondered whether she had been dreaming. Then came another scream and noises Donohue thought suggested the collapse of a loft-style bed. In a pajama top and long pants she had pulled on, Donohue left her room to investigate.

In the hall, she saw bloody shoe prints. The prints led from Hilscher's room toward a nearby elevator or stairwell. (The four rooms near the elevator are somewhat isolated from the rest of the floor.) At Hilscher's door, Donohue asked whether everything was OK. No response. She tried the door. A man's body blocked entry. Donohue wasn't sure whose body it was. She learned later that it was Clark's, something she feared after hurrying from Hilscher's door to Clark's and discovering he was not inside.

Arnold said a national Internet news outlet has inaccurately described Donohue's actions immediately after discovering the first hints of the tragedy next door. He said her family has worried that the article makes Donohue sound callous.

After being roused by a chilling scream, after hearing strange noises next door, after seeing bloody shoe prints, after fighting to push her way into Hilscher's room, Donohue did not immediately dress, fetch a book for her 8 a.m. chemistry class and meet her boyfriend for breakfast, as has been reported, Arnold said.

Donohue did meet her boyfriend and go to class soon after discovering the crime scene, he said. But that was only after several minutes passed and others, including a female resident adviser, had gathered. It was the female adviser who actually discovered both dead bodies. A 911 call had been made, too. Someone told Donohue, "There's nothing you can do here, Molly."

"She's 18 years old. She was in shock," Arnold said.

Police said Wednesday they still do not know how Cho entered West Ambler Johnston, where doors are locked from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. each day. An electronic swipe card key system allows dorm residents at Tech to enter their specific residential halls.

Perhaps someone from the trusting South simply held the door open for Cho as a courtesy.

"All of our parents taught us good manners, to hold the door for people," said Mark Owczarski, a Tech spokesman.

Less than three hours after killing Hilscher and Clark at Ambler Johnston, Cho chained doors shut at Norris Hall and started killing again.