Emily Jane Hilscher

• Age: 19
• Class: Freshman
• Major: Animal and Poultry Sciences
• Hometown: Woodville, Va.
• High School: Rappahanock County
• Parents: Eric and Elizabeth Hilscher
• Blacksburg resdence: 4040 Ambler Johnston West

Related

• Sign Emily's guest book
• Virginia Tech shooting victims

Emily Jane Hilscher is believed to have been the first person killed in the massacre. She lived on the first floor of the coed Ambler Johnston dormitory and next door to resident advisor Ryan Clark, who was also slain Monday.

Hilscher was a keen horseback rider. Trainer Moody Aylor recalled that she began riding at age 9 on her bay pony, Sude, at Old Mill Stables in Woodville.

She quickly began fox hunting with the Warrenton Hunt Club. She also rode her pony in the Gold Cup Races in Plains, Va.

A lithe girl — roughly 110 pounds and 5-foot-6 — Aylor said he tapped Hilscher to “breeze” or exercise his Thoroughbred race horses.

She also rode Hunter/Jumpers over fences and began showing her next mount, a Thoroughbred gelding named Slow Jack.

“She was a beautiful, grown-up person,” Aylor said. “She was the most mature person I’ve ever knew at that age.”

He regarded her as one of his daughters and called her several times at Tech to see how she was faring.

Aylor said Hilscher had qualified for the “B” equestrian team at Tech.

“Making the B team was really good for her first year,” he said. “She was a nice, sweet and wonderful person. Everybody here just loved her.”

A friend, Will Nachless, also 19, told The Associated Press that Hilscher “was always very friendly. Before I even knew her, I thought she was very outgoing, friendly and helpful, and she was great in chemistry.”

John McCarthy, administrator of 7,000-population Rappahannock County, and a family friend of Hilscher’s, described her as an animal lover. He said she worked in a veterinarian’s office and cared passionately about animals.

“She was a wonderful kid — warm, sensitive, outgoing and happy,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said he had no information about whether Hilscher and the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, were acquainted.

“I do not know at all why she was targeted or if she was targeted,” he said. “None of that is within my ken.”

He said her family was declining interviews. She has a younger sister, Erica, who attends Longwood University in Farmville, Va.

“The family is wrestling with their grief and planning for their memorial services for their daughter. It has caused them a fair amount of pain to see their daughter’s pictures on newsstands or on televisions, ” McCarthy said.

Rappahannock County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Chappell said grief counseling was offered Tuesday at the school. Hilscher graduated in 2006.

“We extend our thoughts, prayers, and sincere condolences to the family of 2006 RCHS graduate Emily Hilscher, her many friends and her teachers as we all mourn the loss of this bright, talented young lady,” he wrote in an e-mail. “No words can completely express our collective community sorrow upon the untimely, tragic passing of this child.”

— Pam Podger