Slain 13-year-old was caught between childhood, adulthood

Associated Press

BLACKSBURG, Va.

Nicole Madison Lovell was, by all accounts, at that awkward stage of growing up that all kids go through: clinging to childhood ways while beginning to venture into the adult world.

The 13-year-old still played in the snow with much-younger children, a neighbor said. Her mom said she loved pandas and kept toys from the “Minions” movies in her bedroom – the same room where she apparently blocked the door and climbed out a window after telling 8-year-old friends she would sneak out that night to meet her 18-year-old “boyfriend.”

Nicole was believed to be carrying a blue blanket with yellow Minions on it when she vanished, police said.

Like others her age, Nicole was tech-savvy, posting on Facebook and chatting in other social media.

Unlike her peers, she had to take medicine every day to keep her transplanted liver from failing, and survived other harrowing health problems earlier in life that left her with a tracheotomy scar in her neck and made her a target of bullies.

Police say preliminary indications show Nicole was stabbed to death soon after she was discovered missing last week, but they’re revealing little else. David Eisenhauer and Natalie Keepers, both engineering majors at Virginia Tech, are jailed on charges that could imprison them for life.

Friends and relatives are gathering to say goodbye to “Coley,” who’s been called sweet, energetic, outspoken and friendly – “an angel,” according to longtime friend Davy Draper. Both today’s funeral and visitation Wednesday night at McCoy Funeral Home in Blacksburg are private, they said.