281. The Murder of Nicole Lovell

In this episode, Payton and Garrett explore the chilling case of a teen whose online curiosity led her to trust a stranger, ending in her mother’s worst nightmare. Links: Chewy: https://prf.hn/click/camref:1011l3Huc8/creativeref:1101l165968 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: TeenVogue.com - https://www.teenvogue.com/story/kik-app-dangers-nicole-lovell People.com - https://people.com/crime/sociopath-in-training-who-helped-college-boyfriend-lure-kill-13-year-old-girl-gets-40-years/ 29News.com - https://www.29news.com/2020/12/28/were-gonna-meet-again-family-nicole-lovell-speaks-out-keepers-denied-appeal-upcoming-anniversary/ WSet.com - https://wset.com/news/local/latest-ex-vt-student-believed-killing-nicole-lovell-was-fantasy-evidence-found-in-dorm NBCNews.com - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/former-virginia-tech-students-indicted-murder-13-year-old-nicole-n617341 CollegiateTimes.com - https://www.collegiatetimes.com/news/two-years-after-nicole-lovell-s-death-a-recap-of-the-findings-that-have-gripped/article_b819a48c-0a13-11e8-a8b9-977823406c1c.html ABCNews.com - https://abcnews.go.com/US/virginia-tech-student-trial-allegedly-killing-13-year/story?id=52872061 Vocal. Media - https://vocal.media/criminal/the-murder-of-nicole-lovell FindAGrave.com - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/157650608/nicole-madison-lovell WSLS.com - https://www.wsls.com/news/2018/06/27/david-eisenhauer-to-serve-50-years-in-prison-for-murdering-nicole-lovell/ CNN.com - https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/04/us/virginia-tech-girl-killed-keepers-bail-denied WDBJ7.com - https://www.wdbj7.com/content/news/Defense-rests-its-case-in-Natalie-Keepers-trial-493860711.html WHSV.com - https://www.whsv.com/content/news/David-Eisenhauer-pleads-no-contest-in-killing-of-Nicole-Lovell-473572983.html CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nicole-lovell-murder-killer-app-smartphone-stranger-danger/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

  Great meeting. Who took notes? Anyone?

• 0:35Speaker 02

  With Monday Note Taker, nobody has to take notes again. It joins your call, transcribes it, and turns the whole conversation into a clear plan. Action items, owners, deadlines, all right there on your monday.com board, ready for the team. So the meeting ends and the plan already exists. Meetings aren't just talk anymore. Go to monday.com, the AI workspace platform.

• 0:59Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Payton Moreland.

• 1:07Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 1:08Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 1:09Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband.

• 1:09Payton Moreland?

  Thank you so much to everyone who decided to get a coloring book. I know they were just small and simple, but really it means so, so much to me that you guys were as excited about those as I was. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

• 1:22Garrett Moreland?

  Peyton worked really hard on them. So I was pretty excited to see them launch. Thank you for buying them and supporting us.

• 1:30Payton Moreland?

  Also, I did just want to clarify, I did work with someone on the book. I didn't make the book like online by myself. I paid someone to help me make the book.

• 1:40Garrett Moreland?

  Yes.

• 1:42Payton Moreland?

  Want to clarify that I did pay someone to help me. Also, we did get some questions about some of the merch that was up on this last time. I actually stream alone on Twitch basically almost every single day. And so the throaty merch that was on Murder with My Husband was for my personal Twitch stream. So if you had no idea what that was when you got on, that is for my personal Twitch stream. You can go follow me. Honestly, the link is in my bio in my personal Instagram. But yeah, we just hang out. We have a fun time over there.

• 2:14Garrett Moreland?

  All right, I guess we'll jump into 10 seconds here. Just a reminder for everyone, if you are interested in bonus content and ad free content, you can check out our Apple subscriptions. Right now, there is a free trial, so you can see if you like the bonus episodes. I promise you will. They are two full bonus episodes every single month and all the shows are ad free. You can also check it out on Patreon.

• 2:37Payton Moreland?

  Low key, a lot of the shows I listen to, I subscribe just for that ad free content.

• 2:41Garrett Moreland?

  But we also appreciate you guys supporting our ads. So thank you. I don't have much for my 10 seconds. I had a migraine this morning and I was thinking about that big cyst that's in the back of my head. I think I'm gonna go to a neurologist and double check it because every time, I don't even know if they're migraines. Basically, what happens is it starts on the right side of my eyes and my vision slowly starts going and I can see like particles in the air, really weird. And then one eye will go completely just gone. I can't see out of it. And then it moves to my other eye. And then after about like 45 minutes, I can see again. So I don't know. I'm gonna go get this cyst checked out. It's in the back of my head.

• 3:21Garrett Moreland?

  Make sure I'm a-ok and good to go. So yeah, I just thought I would update everyone. And on that note, let's hop into this week's episode.

• 3:31Payton Moreland?

  Our sources for this episode are teenvogue.com, people.com, 29news.com, wset.com, nbcnews.com, collegiatetimes.com, abcnews.com, vocal.media, findagrave, ws ls.com, cnn.com, wdbj7.com, whsv.com, and CBS News. Disclaimer, before we begin, this episode talks about the murder of a minor, so please listen with care. Okay, so bullying has been a problem for kids probably since the beginning of time. But nowadays, with how connected we are to one another through the internet and social media, bullying has seriously leveled up. Now, it doesn't have

• 4:12Payton Moreland?

  to be done in person or by someone you even know. Bullying can be faceless, anonymous, it can hide behind a screen and say horrible things through many different outlets. Which is why it is only natural for kids who are being bullied through the internet to turn to the same place for some kind of validation.

• 4:32Garrett Moreland?

  Side note, adults can bully too. You guys see social media?

• 4:36Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, it's a breeding ground.

• 4:38Garrett Moreland?

  It's a wild place.

• 4:40Payton Moreland?

  So at the same time, social media, chat forums and messaging apps have also become a safe space for some kids, a place to connect with others who they feel are just like them for them to speak their minds. But that also poses a different sort of danger because now kids don't have to be out in the real world to meet someone dangerous. They can do it from the comfort of their own bedroom. And the scariest part is that person could be disguising themselves as a true friend when they are anything but. So let's dial back the clock to 2016. We are heading to the town of Blacksburg, Virginia. So 2016, Virginia,

• 5:21Payton Moreland?

  where 13-year-old Nicole Lovell is living with her mother Tammy Weeks. Now, for most of Nicole's life, it has just been her and her mom Tammy. She's never really had a relationship with her father. He was in and out of jail for a lot of Nicole's 13 years of life at this point, which must have been really hard on Tammy, who was working as a nurse trying to support her daughter as a single mother. Now thankfully, Nicole had wonderful grandparents who lived close by and who were always willing to help out. Growing up, Nicole took a real interest in music, singing and dancing. She actually had dreams of one day going on

• 6:02Payton Moreland?

  American Idol. And while Nicole brought this bright light, this breath of fresh air with her into every room she entered, her 13 years on earth had been anything but easy thus far. As a baby, Nicole was diagnosed with a rare tumor in her liver. When she was just 10 months old, she went through a terrifying liver transplant surgery to save her life.

• 6:29Garrett Moreland?

  Something about babies. Having cancer is really gets me.

• 6:34Payton Moreland?

  Which obviously meant that every single day since then, Nicole was on an anti-rejection medication for the transplant, and this was something she couldn't live without. But the medical problems continued from there. When Nicole was just four years old, the universe threw her another curve ball when she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. Following more complications, Nicole ended up in a coma for six months, where she then developed a staph infection. So needless to say, Nicole had spent a lot of her life in and out of doctors' offices and hospitals. Though when it came to school,

• 7:18Payton Moreland?

  Nicole had no interest in being there either, mainly because she was constantly getting bullied, particularly over the scars that her surgery had left her as a baby on her stomach. Which is why she often had her mom writing her notes to get her out of gym class. So when she was changing in the locker room, the other girls wouldn't see the scars. But this bullying took a toll on Nicole, who began posting things on her social media pages indicating that she didn't feel loved, that nobody cared about her. Nicole's mom, Tammy, felt a big part of those feelings also came from the fact that Nicole never really had a relationship with her father. But Tammy seemed to be well aware

• 7:59Payton Moreland?

  of the challenges Nicole was facing at school and online. She seemed to tell her all about the bullying and that she was feeling down on herself. So Tammy made sure that if she wasn't home, Nicole's grandparents were, so she would never be left home alone. That Nicole was always supervised. She had someone there to love and support her, even if she was feeling down. Which is why January 27, 2016, came as such a shock to Nicole's family. That Wednesday morning around 7:00 a.m. Tammy went into Nicole's room to get her up for school. Now, remember, she's 13 years old at this point.

• 8:41Payton Moreland?

  But when she went to open Nicole's door, she noticed it was stuck. Nicole had pushed her nightstand in front of the door, so Tammy couldn't get in.

• 8:50Garrett Moreland?

  Whoa.

• 8:51Payton Moreland?

  Now, obviously, knowing that at this point in her life, her 13-year-old daughter was struggling, this, of course, sent Tammy's heart racing. When she finally got the dresser moved out of the way and into Nicole's room, Tammy saw that the window was open. And a blanket Nicole always used, one with the Minions characters on it, was also missing.

• 9:14Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 9:15Payton Moreland?

  Tammy had last checked on Nicole the night before at around midnight, when she came in and kissed her goodnight. So she knew she must have snuck out sometime between midnight and 7:00 a.m. But the question was, where did she go? And more importantly, did she actually sneak out on her own? Or had someone forced her out? Had she gone out with someone else? Tammy spent the day calling Nicole, but her phone was going straight to voicemail. So Tammy started calling Nicole's friends. They all said they hadn't seen or heard from her either. Same thing happened when Tammy went door to door around the neighborhood. No one had seen Nicole. But there was one thing that told Tammy that Nicole was probably planning to be home by that afternoon.

• 10:00Payton Moreland?

  She was like, I just need to wait for afternoon to come. That was the fact that Nicole had left her medication at home, the one that she needed to take every single day for her liver transplant. This was life or death. So Tammy goes to the police later that afternoon and tells them, hey, my daughter is missing. I'm hoping that she's going to come home to get this medication. But if she doesn't, this is bad. Like, it's bad. She's going to get very, very sick. And so the police immediately take Nicole's disappearance very seriously. So they begin searching the area and scanning Nicole's house for clues that same day. And that's when Tammy gets a tip from one of Nicole's friend's parents.

• 10:45Payton Moreland?

  So one of her friend's parents calls and says, "When your daughter was over the other day, she mentioned that she was going on a date with someone, but I don't know who." So at this point, Tammy panics. Nicole had never mentioned dating someone to her before. She's only 13. She had no information to provide the police with about this beyond the fact that a friend's mother had called and shared this. Now, at the same time, they decide to ask for the public's help in finding Nicole. Now, I'm not sure if you picked up on this, but Blacksburg, Virginia, where Nicole lives, is where Virginia Tech is. And it's where they had a mass shooting back in 2007. So the community has dealt with heartbreaking crimes before,

• 11:31Payton Moreland?

  and they're pretty good at stepping up when the rest of the community needs it. And Nicole's case is no different. By the following day, more than 1,200 people are out looking for Nicole. And yes, I said the following day, which means she didn't come home to take her medication.

• 11:47Garrett Moreland?

  Do you know anything along the lines of how long she can survive without her medication, or are you not sure?

• 11:52Payton Moreland?

  She will start getting very sick. There's not like a definite timeline, but she's gonna get pretty sick within hours of when she was supposed to be taking it.

• 12:02Speaker 05

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• 12:28Payton Moreland?

  All right, guys, we're jumping into an ad. And if you are like me, protecting the people inside your home is a top priority. I have Daisy at home, I'm about to have a baby at home, and Garrett and me. And there are a lot of times where I've thought about our safety, but that is where Simply Safe comes in and has had my back, honestly, for years. Unlike traditional security systems that only alert you after a break-in is already underway, Simply Safe is built to stop it before it starts, which is exactly what I'm looking for. I don't even want someone in my home. I want it stopped before the alarm has even gone off. Smart AI-powered cameras watch for potential threats

• 13:11Payton Moreland?

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• 13:55Payton Moreland?

  So 1,200 people show up to look for Nicole. Volunteers bring drones to help with the search. And two days after that, local police finally get a call, and that call is saying Nicole has been found, but not in the state anyone had hoped. 90 miles away.

• 14:14Garrett Moreland?

  Whoa, that's far.

• 14:15Payton Moreland?

  Along a highway in Surrey County, North Carolina, right on the border of Virginia, someone found Nicole's lifeless body. She, 13, had been stripped of her clothes and left on the side of the road. An autopsy determines she had been stabbed 14 times with a fatal blow to the neck. Now, despite not having clothes on, there are no signs that Nicole was sexually assaulted. But I can't imagine how Nicole's friends and family must be feeling when they get this news.

• 14:50Garrett Moreland?

  It's interesting because she, it seems like she wanted to leave her room.

• 14:57Garrett Moreland?

  So I'm curious if she was lured out, if something went wrong when she snuck out, right? I mean, yeah.

• 15:03Payton Moreland?

  I think this is just especially heartbreaking because Nicole is someone who's already been through so much in her life. She's already fought so hard for her life by the time she's 13 years old.

• 15:18Garrett Moreland?

  And then now it's just taken away.

• 15:19Payton Moreland?

  Yeah. And now something like this happens devastating is an understatement. But what this means for police is Nicole's missing persons case is officially a homicide investigation. And luckily for them, they actually already have someone in custody. So I want to back up a bit just to three days earlier, the day Nicole was reported missing because local police were so on top of the investigation, starting from day one, they actually had the FBI and the state police working with them on the case right away. And they quickly found something interesting in Nicole's bedroom. Now, inside her closet, Nicole had actually etched something into the door.

• 16:01Payton Moreland?

  It was a message that said, I love David. Now, of course, the name of the crush isn't enough for the police to act on. But this isn't the only thing they find written inside the closet door. Nicole has also scribbled down all of the usernames and passwords to her online accounts. Now, this is important.

• 16:21Garrett Moreland?

  That's interesting.

• 16:22Payton Moreland?

  Because Tammy had mentioned to police that in 2016, Nicole had spent a lot of time online, like most teenagers, but recently it had seemed to be ramping up a little bit more.

• 16:34Garrett Moreland?

  Did you ever write down your usernames and passwords?

• 16:37Payton Moreland?

  I don't think so, but I was like a teenager that had the same username and password for everything.

• 16:42Garrett Moreland?

  But that's just, I find that interesting.

• 16:44Payton Moreland?

  I think if I had like multiple accounts and accounts that my parents didn't know of, then maybe I would have written passwords down.

• 16:51Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I guess I'm trying to figure out if she did it because she thought she might have been in danger or if she did it just to memorize them.

• 17:00Payton Moreland?

  Right. I do also think though, like 2016 was still a little bit early social media days for teenagers and parents. And so Tammy tells police, since she knew Nicole was being bullied at school, she suspected that whoever she snuck out to meet that night, probably to go on a date with, was someone she most likely met online and not from school. So immediately, police log into Nicole's accounts to see if they can track her messages. And they find one app that Nicole had been using a lot in the days before her disappearance. It was an anonymous messaging app called Kik. Now, if you don't remember Kik.

• 17:39Garrett Moreland?

  I don't think.

• 17:40Payton Moreland?

  It might have been before your time. And I think you were obviously already graduated.

• 17:46Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I don't.

• 17:47Payton Moreland?

  So you were probably just texting.

• 17:48Garrett Moreland?

  I've heard of Kik, but I, I don't know much about it, to be honest.

• 17:52Payton Moreland?

  Kik was definitely popular for me in like middle school, high school. It was like a.

• 17:55Garrett Moreland?

  People, you, you used it?

• 17:57Payton Moreland?

  It was a way for people to message without their parents knowing. Cause parents at that point were still so oblivious. They didn't realize that you could like find apps to message and not use text messages.

• 18:07Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 18:08Payton Moreland?

  They were just aware of like texts and snap and some people, some parents weren't even aware of Snapchat.

• 18:12Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 18:13Payton Moreland?

  But like WhatsApp, Kik, that was used to message people without your parents snooping through it if they took your phone.

• 18:20Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 18:20Payton Moreland?

  So the FBI puts in an emergency disclosure request with Kik to try and get Nicole's messaging history. And what they find is that over the last several months, Nicole had been messaging a lot with a user that was going by the name Dr. Tombstone. And when they get more information about the person behind Dr. Tombstone, they find that it matches with what Nicole had written in her closet, the I love David, because it turns out Dr. Tombstone is actually an 18 year old Virginia Tech freshman named David Eisenhower.

• 18:57Garrett Moreland?

  How disgusting. He's 18 and he's going after 13 year olds. That's disgusting, man.

• 19:02Payton Moreland?

  So on paper, David definitely doesn't seem like a guy who would cause trouble. He was a big high school track star. He was a straight A student with a lot of charisma. Most people just saw him as the cocky jock who thought he was hot stuff. David even continued his cross-country career when he went to Virginia Tech in the fall of 2015, while he was also earning his engineering degree. But still, police know he's a person of interest, considering in the two days before Nicole went missing, their correspondence was at its peak. So, Virginia State Police and the FBI pay a little visit to David's dorm room the day after Nicole is reported missing. And while he isn't there, his roommate, Jeremy, is.

• 19:47Payton Moreland?

  So they sit down with Jeremy and they ask him a few questions. And what they learn is that on the night Nicole snuck out and disappeared, Jeremy noticed David putting on these big rain boots, even though it wasn't raining outside, and he left. And he didn't come back to the dorm until after 2:00 a.m. that night. Jeremy also tells police David actually has this knife that he would leave out on top of his desk, though police notice it's not there at the moment. Now remember, this is all happening before Nicole's body is found. So they don't even know if a knife is a murder weapon yet,

• 20:28Payton Moreland?

  but they have a real sneaking suspicion that David is involved in Nicole's disappearance some way, somehow. So obviously, the next step in the investigation is tracking David down. And they actually find him and bring him in for questioning later that day. Now during that interview, David admits he was talking to Nicole on kick, and he did go meet up with her at her home the night she went missing. But he says, the second she snuck outside her window and he saw her... He realized that she had been lying to him about her age. He did not know that she was a 13 year old seventh grader.

• 21:08Garrett Moreland?

  Oh.

• 21:09Payton Moreland?

  So when she comes outside and he sees her, he claims he left immediately before they even hung out. At least that's what he claimed. But Nicole's kick app actually told an entirely different story. Now, as I mentioned, it showed that she and David had been speaking for months. And at this point, David doesn't know that they have the entire history of their messages.

• 21:31Garrett Moreland?

  I think probably at that time, he didn't realize that was even possible.

• 21:36Payton Moreland?

  Like once something's deleted, it's not deleted.

• 21:38Garrett Moreland?

  Thought he could say what he wanted to try to get away with it, but not going to happen.

• 21:42Payton Moreland?

  But as I mentioned, it showed that she and David had been speaking for months and that they had met at least one other time before that night.

• 21:50Garrett Moreland?

  Hmm.

• 21:51Payton Moreland?

  Meaning David's story about showing up and seeing her for the first time and realizing she lied and leaving. It didn't track because he came over a second time to see her. Plus, when Nicole's body was found on January 30th, police realized it was just four miles away from David's grandparents' house in North Carolina, which means they believe they have more than enough to arrest the 18 year old David for Nicole's death. He himself has admitted he went to her house the night she disappeared. He lied about her lying about her age. And then also the body was only four miles away from where David could have been.

• 22:30Payton Moreland?

  But really, even though they just arrested him, investigators had only just started building their case. So the day after Nicole's body was found on January 31st, police searched David's 2008 Lexus. And in the trunk of that car, they discovered blood stains on the carpet, blood on a snack wrapper.

• 22:52Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 22:53Payton Moreland?

  And a package of cleaning wipes. And perhaps the most damning in the car, a shovel with blood on the handle. Now, after examining David's computer, they found he had performed several searches online recently for how to burn a body.

• 23:11Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 23:13Payton Moreland?

  And he had searched for how bodies were disposed of on the TV show Dexter.

• 23:19Garrett Moreland?

  I'm confused. Like, was he always planning on killing her? That he just wanted to kill her? Was he just scared because he knew she was underage? And then he was going to kill her after he had? I don't know. After he had sexual relations with her, with her, like I don't.

• 23:35Payton Moreland?

  Motive.

• 23:35Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, motive.

• 23:36Payton Moreland?

  We'll get there. So, following Nicole's autopsy, investigators also learned David's DNA was found under Nicole's fingernails. So, the case against David Eisenhower was really, really strong. But, there was something else found on the shovel. It was a bloody handprint that didn't belong to David or Nicole. They realize, oh, someone else is definitely involved in this. And they find prints that also matched that handprint on a bleach container found in the backseat of David's car. So, this just went from like, an older guy targeting a younger girl, to possible group of people targeting a younger girl, which just brings

• 24:21Payton Moreland?

  this case to a whole nother level. So, when they discover these prints, they actually find the owner of them very easily, because they belonged to someone David had actually mentioned a few times in his interview with police. He claims that this person was with him the night that he had bought that shovel that was found in his car, and it was another Virginia Tech freshman, 19-year-old Natalie Keepers. Now, Natalie was also an engineering student who had dreams of following in her father's footsteps and working for NASA one day. But, when she met David Eisenhower, who was in her same program, everything changed for her. While they appeared to be nothing more than friends, it seemed like Natalie

• 25:06Payton Moreland?

  had kind of fallen under David's spell a little bit. After David mentioned Natalie's name and hinted at the possibility that she was with him the night Nicole disappeared, police executed a search warrant for Natalie's dorm room as well. And it's there that they find a gray suitcase that's sounding some alarm bells for them. So, they open it, and inside, they find it has a blue gym bag with bloodstains on it.

• 25:36Payton Moreland?

  So they open up the gym bag that was inside the suitcase and inside of that, they find that minion blanket that belonged to Nicole that her mom said was missing out of her bedroom. The one she most likely took with her the night she snuck out and that blanket has blood stains on it. So the day after Nicole's body is found on January 31st, Natalie Keepers is now arrested too, because there is now physical evidence tying the crime to both of these freshmen. So she is charged with improper disposal of a body and accessory after the fact. But with David Eisenhower not sharing very much with police, there was still the question of what had actually happened that night and why?

• 26:21Garrett Moreland?

  And someone will crack. I feel like when you have

• 26:27Garrett Moreland?

  young kids or young teens, um, people who are 18 to 25, whatever. I feel like they crack. I feel like they, the fear starts to set in and they'll all start routing on each other pretty soon.

• 26:39Payton Moreland?

  Right. So police keep digging. They want a motive and they want to figure out exactly what happened that night. So they find some witnesses who say everything that happened that night was actually not a spur of the moment decision, which is the question you were wondering. It seemed like as police began digging, David had actually been planning on killing Nicole for some time now.

• 27:04Garrett Moreland?

  Holy crap. That is so wild to me.

• 27:07Payton Moreland?

  So one of the girls that police talked to that kind of helped lead them to this theory is an 18 year old girl named Bailey Browning, who had also met David in an online chat room. Now, the two of them were communicating between December 2015 and January 2016. But in that short period of time, David had confided in Bailey that he had plans to murder a girl.

• 27:33Garrett Moreland?

  Would you tell somebody that?

• 27:34Payton Moreland?

  Now Bailey says David never mentioned Nicole Lovell or Natalie Keepers by name, but he did say he had someone who would help him in this murder plot.

• 27:47Garrett Moreland?

  Did she not think that was a little weird, by the way?

• 27:49Payton Moreland?

  Yes, but I want you to keep in mind that sometimes when people talk online, it feels like fantasy world and not real life.

• 27:56Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I can understand.

• 27:56Payton Moreland?

  Like although that's weird, relationships can be created online that just like, don't actually make sense in real life. And people don't realize that they're like.

• 28:06Garrett Moreland?

  If someone ever told me they were gonna kill someone, I'd be like, oh, I gotta go, bye.

• 28:11Payton Moreland?

  Same, but I don't know.

• 28:13Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 28:14Payton Moreland?

  It's not the first time that someone has like, talked about murder online or confessed about murder and people don't go to the police.

• 28:21Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, if you go on Reddit, there are some insane things on there that shouldn't be on there, but here we are.

• 28:27Payton Moreland?

  Yeah. Bailey also tells police that he referenced a friend that had, quote, "military knowledge." Now, whether he was talking about Natalie or someone else, it's unclear, but it was proving that this was not second degree murder. If he had clearly talked about committing murder, it's premeditated. Something that was confirmed further when police spoke to another one of David's friends. So this was not some little dirty secret David was keeping. He was talking about this to people. They talked to a guy named Bryce Dustin and the 21-year-old Bryce had met David six years ago back on a gaming site. And even though the two had never met in person, they did get extremely close over the years, playing games online, talking about life, giving each other advice.

• 29:13Payton Moreland?

  Specifically, David would go to Bryce with his girl problems. Now Bryce told police that a few months before Nicole disappeared, David had begun talking to him about his problems with one particular girl who David was seeing that was underage. And David was worried because she was threatening to expose him if he didn't agree to date her.

• 29:35Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 29:36Payton Moreland?

  So Bryce said he gave some interesting advice. He told David, "Well, just let this 13-year-old think you're together and that he should just be a bad boyfriend and wait for her to break up with him." Now, clearly David did not take this advice. Instead, David texted Bryce one day and asked if he had any idea where he could hide a dead body and said something like, "Yeah, the original plan failed." Now, what that original plan is, is obviously unclear. One thing was certain, however, David had been planning this out for a while and with David refusing to talk, there was only one other person who could offer up the details of what happened that night, and that was Natalie Keepers.

• 30:20Payton Moreland?

  All right, guys, we are jumping into an ad and it is one of my favorites, Quince. If you've listened to the show at all, you know how much I love Quince. Quince is not just a clothing store, okay, guys? They have quality, everything at this point. I actually just ordered some skincare from Quince because here's the one thing about Quince. I love that they have kind of just excluded the middlemen and so they pass those savings on to you. So you're getting really good, quality, luxury pieces at a more affordable price. Again, like I just said, they have so much on there. I have shoes, I have bags, I have luggage, I have scarves. I just ordered skincare.

• 31:04Payton Moreland?

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• 31:45Payton Moreland?

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• 32:30Payton Moreland?

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• 33:15Payton Moreland?

  So after a bit of pressure, Natalie starts to open up to police about the conversations between her and David. She says that David had confessed that there was this 13-year-old girl he had met online and he had a relationship with. He also said he quote, "Might have had sex with her at a party, but he couldn't really remember." But come January 2016, he wasn't just afraid she was gonna expose him for statutory rape. He was afraid she might actually be pregnant. So that's when Natalie and David started talking about ways to solve this problem. And they decided the only way was to kill the 13-year-old girl and move her body across state lines to North Carolina and hope no one would find her.

• 34:00Garrett Moreland?

  The only way. No other solutions. That is the only solution we got.

• 34:04Payton Moreland?

  So police are like, okay Natalie, why would you help David? What do you, what does this get you? And she's like, well, um, I'm pretty sure David's a sociopath and I think I'm a sociopath in training.

• 34:19Garrett Moreland?

  What?

• 34:19Payton Moreland?

  So she's like, well, we're just two little sociopathic friends. What else would we do besides murder? So the night before Nicole disappeared, they started plotting. They went to a restaurant called Cookout and over some burgers and shakes, talked about how they would execute this plan.

• 34:36Garrett Moreland?

  This is crazy.

• 34:37Payton Moreland?

  Absolutely devastating and disgusting.

• 34:40Garrett Moreland?

  People like this exist in the world.

• 34:44Payton Moreland?

  And like find each other and are like, yeah, let's just have some ice cream and talk about murdering a child.

• 34:49Garrett Moreland?

  Like right now, for sure. There's two people at McDonald's just talking about how much they want to kill someone and that blows my mind and is pretty scary.

• 34:57Payton Moreland?

  It is so interesting how many cases we have covered where two random people meet and then murder.

• 35:06Garrett Moreland?

  And I think when you meet someone else like that, it both elevates.

• 35:11Payton Moreland?

  Oh, yeah.

• 35:11Garrett Moreland?

  Their thoughts, right? It takes it to a new level.

• 35:14Payton Moreland?

  Probably would have taken some time to come forward, but.

• 35:16Garrett Moreland?

  Saying they wouldn't have killed, but it, I think it speeds it up, elevates things.

• 35:20Payton Moreland?

  Yes, I would agree with that. So they decide that David would lure Nicole out of her home later that night. That night, like as they're planning this, later that night, he would drive her to a remote location and then he would use a knife to kill her. And so after they paid the bill at dinner, Natalie and David got in his car and drove to Walmart to buy a shovel. Then they went driving around looking for a remote location for David to take Nicole to. Then he dropped Natalie off at campus and went back out later that night to carry out their plan. What's helpful is police are able to confirm most of what Natalie says about this encounter

• 36:05Payton Moreland?

  through David's GPS on his car and security footage from inside all of these locations. The GPS confirms they went from Cookout to Walmart. Footage at both shows the two of them inside, first sitting and plotting over dinner and then purchasing the shovel at Walmart. Then the GPS showed them driving near Nicole's house to a location off of Craig Creek Road, which was believed to be the place David killed Nicole.

• 36:32Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, this is open and shut.

• 36:33Payton Moreland?

  Then the GPS showed them back at Virginia Tech campus that morning at around 2:12 a.m. on January 27th. But then, obviously, just like Natalie said, David left again. Presumably, this is when he dropped Natalie off because she insists she was not present for the kidnapping or the murder. Instead, Natalie said that David came back to get her the following morning. They went back to Walmart this time to buy cleaning supplies and gloves, and then she went with David to dispose of the body not far from his grandparents' place on the border of North Carolina and Virginia. So with this confession from Natalie Keepers, prosecutors feel they have a strong enough case against both her and David,

• 37:15Payton Moreland?

  though it takes two more years for David to go to trial. It is February 2018 when David finally gets his day in court. And the defense works really hard to try and pin a lot of the crime on Natalie Keepers by making this seem like it was her idea. They point to evidence that suggests maybe she was more involved because Nicole's blanket and phone charger were found in her dorm room. But they also point to her bloody handprint on the shovel as an indication that how is her handprint bloody on the shovel if she wasn't there when Nicole was murdered and died?

• 37:53Garrett Moreland?

  Actually, a good point, not gonna lie.

• 37:54Payton Moreland?

  But if she helped bury the body, she might have got blood on her hand while using the shovel.

• 37:59Garrett Moreland?

  Wouldn't, I guess I don't know enough about the, because she said it was the next morning, though. Wouldn't a lot of the blood be dried at that point? I mean, there's more to it, but just, just thoughts out there.

• 38:11Payton Moreland?

  They said David was actually easily influenced, and it was Natalie who was the mastermind behind this, that he never would have done this on his own. They also called a psychiatrist to the stand, who despite never having met Natalie or David, said they didn't believe David showed signs of psychopathy, but Natalie did. Okay, expert. They said there was evidence that David had a hard time making decisions on his own without guidance or clearly defined objectives, and that's why they thought Natalie was the mastermind. There was, however, a clinical Neuropsychologist who had three sessions with David and somewhat agreed as well. They testified that David had autism spectrum disorder and would have been easily influenced by someone like Natalie Keepers.

• 38:55Payton Moreland?

  But during cross examination, the prosecution pointed out that David certainly wasn't influenced by police officers who interviewed him right after his arrest. As he lied to them a bunch of times about how he interacted with Nicole that night. Now regardless of who pressured who, all of the evidence indicated that David was the one who committed the crime, which is why during his trial. David actually changed his plea from not guilty to known contest for those first degree murder charges and he was sentenced to 50 years. In prison for his crime.

• 39:26Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 39:26Payton Moreland?

  Natalie was obviously up next. Her trial began seven months later.

• 39:31Garrett Moreland?

  This is so sad, by the way, like, I don't know.

• 39:34Payton Moreland?

  She was pleading not guilty to accessory. And Natalie's lawyers argued that the only reason she participated in the discussion about killing Nicole was because she was afraid to lose her friendship with David. They also said Natalie was in love with David and that the murder would have happened whether Natalie had discussed it with him or not. But text messages exchanged between David and Natalie after the fact showed there was more to it. After the murder, Natalie congratulated David and said, quote, "Get some sleep because you deserve it." However, Natalie's trial played out a lot like David's did before he changed his plea. Psychological experts, lot of disorders.

• 40:16Payton Moreland?

  There was one big reveal at Natalie's trial, though. The medical examiner testified that there was no evidence Nicole was pregnant when she died. Still, that didn't change the vicious nature of this crime. The jury took barely an hour to come back. And in the end, they found her guilty of being an accessory to murder and she was given 40 years in prison for her role in Nicole Lovell's death.

• 40:38Garrett Moreland?

  It's so sad because as a mom too, like it's just heartbreaking. Like she fights her whole life to keep her. Her girl, her child alive, who's already had such a hard life.

• 40:51Garrett Moreland?

  Only to be murdered. That's a lot to process.

• 40:54Payton Moreland?

  Well, and along with this, Tammy Weeks also just really struggled with the motive. She's like, why would two pretty smart, like academically smart college kids target my 13 year old daughter?

• 41:05Garrett Moreland?

  Which is, I mean, it's a good question.

• 41:07Payton Moreland?

  They're like, why would they have so much hate in their heart for her when they barely knew her?

• 41:12Garrett Moreland?

  And it's, it's one of those things that it's almost unexplainable. I mean, I mean, there's reasons behind it, but.

• 41:17Payton Moreland?

  I think this is the thing about bullying, though, whether in person or online. It's typically a reflection of how someone else sees themselves, not actually the other person. Because most of the time bullying comes from a place of someone's own insecurities, someone's own unhappiness with themselves, someone's own fears and doubts. But the most dangerous bullies are the ones in disguise, the people that mask themselves as friends, as confidants, as you know, a boyfriend online. They hide behind the anonymity of a computer screen. So next time you chat with a stranger, just keep that in mind. You never know who could be on the other end.

• 42:00Payton Moreland?

  If you or someone you know is being bullied, you can text CONNECT to 741741 for free confidential 24/7 mental health support.

• 42:12Garrett Moreland?

  I didn't know this.

• 42:13Payton Moreland?

  Amazing.

• 42:14Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 42:15Payton Moreland?

  And honestly, that is the case of Nicole level, but I just, the motive actually makes no sense. I really do think that there's just something wrong in their brains.

• 42:28Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, no, they are killers and.

• 42:31Payton Moreland?

  I think they're just bad people.

• 42:32Garrett Moreland?

  They never get out of prison and they're there for the rest of their lives because, and maybe some people would disagree, but I feel like if you are doing that type of stuff at that age, I think it just escalates. Like I think as they get older, like I think it starts getting crazier and crazier. I don't know. I mean, I think some people would disagree and be like, well, their brains aren't fully developed and yada, yada, yada, but. Planning to kill someone at 18 is pretty wild.

• 42:57Payton Moreland?

  But they also didn't just kill another 18 year old.

• 42:59Garrett Moreland?

  That's the thing too.

• 43:00Payton Moreland?

  They killed a child.

• 43:01Garrett Moreland?

  13 year old.

• 43:02Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 43:03Garrett Moreland?

  That's young. That is so young.

• 43:05Payton Moreland?

  And him being, ooh, so scared because she's gonna tattle on me. You shouldn't have slept with a 13 year old.

• 43:10Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, that's the other thing. He was also sleeping with a 13 year old.

• 43:13Payton Moreland?

  Let me reiterate. You shouldn't have raped a 13 year old.

• 43:16Garrett Moreland?

  What a, yeah, he'd get out of here.

• 43:18Payton Moreland?

  Like, I, there's just, you can't even, like,

• 43:21Garrett Moreland?

  No, there's no, there's no.

• 43:22Payton Moreland?

  It's disgusting. It's gross. And also, just keeping in mind that at 13 years old, you see the good in people. You don't have enough, like, dating experience in life to think that, that people could be so horrendous to you. So there was no reason for her not to believe that he didn't love her or care about her, especially if there had been a physical connection. It's actually heart wrenching. All right, you guys, that was the case and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

• 43:54Garrett Moreland?

  And I hate it.

• 43:55Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.

• 44:04Speaker 01

  Great meeting. Who took notes? Anyone?

• 44:09Speaker 02

  With Monday Note Taker, nobody has to take notes again. It joins your call, transcribes it, and turns the whole conversation into a clear plan. Action items, owners, deadlines, all right there on your monday.com board, ready for the team. So the meeting ends and the plan already exists. Meetings aren't just talk anymore. Go to monday.com, the AI workspace platform.