Heidi Lynn Childs – Virginia Tech students, Heidi Lynn Childs, pictured below with boyfriend David Metzler, were shot and killed in a double murder that was “brutal and ugly” according to Montgomery County Sheriff Tommy Whitt.
The two students Virginia Tech students shot and killed, Heidi Lynn Childs, 18, of Forest, Va. and David Lee Metzler, 19, of Lynchburg, Va., were found next to and in his car parked near the gun shooting range at Jefferson National Forest.
Montgomery Sheriff’s Lt. Brian Wright says that bodies of Virginia Tech students 19-year-old David Lee Metzler of Lynchburg and 18-year-old Heidi Lynn Childs of Forest were found by a passerby around 8 a.m. Thursday morning at the Caldwell Fields campgrounds.
Both students had been shot in a seemingly random act of brutal violence, but Wright wouldn’t say how many times or where.
Wright says Metzler’s body was found inside a car and Childs was found outside. Both students bodies were taken to the medical examiner’s office in Roanoke for autopsies.
The deaths are being considered a double homicide, but a suspect has not yet been identified.
Police said both students who were shot lived off campus. David Lee Metzler was a sophomore majoring in industrial engineering and Heidi Lynn Childs was a sophomore studying biochemistry.
Police believe the most recent crime may be random, according to the Norfolk, Virginia Crime Examiner.
“We are going to step up our patrols in that area even though we think it was a random act of brutal violence,” the Examiner quoted Montgomery County Sheriff Tommy Whitt as saying.
Whitt said the double murder was “brutal and ugly,” according to the paper.
“We feel like possibly an intruder came in and subsequently both of the persons are now deceased,” he said.
Investigators are searching for several persons of interest spotted in the vicinity, but haven’t released descriptions, the Examiner said.
“They were found early this morning by a passerby near the Caldwell Fields area of northern Montgomery County, a popular day use area within the Jefferson Forest, about 12-15 miles from campus,” said Virginia Tech President Charles Steger in an open letter to the university.
“Trauma like this is deeply painful to us all,” Steger wrote. “Once again, this community is visited by senseless violence and tragedy upon aspiring young minds from our campus.”
“I know that many of you likely have complex feelings about now. How can this happen in this area, at this time, to this community?”
The Jefferson National Forest campground where the students bodies were found is about 15 miles from Virginia Tech’s campus in Blacksburg.
And that’s the latest news on the two Virginia Tech students shot, David Lee Metzler and Heidi Lynn Childs.
Tags: David Metzler, Heidi Lynn Childs, shooting, virginia tech, virginia tech shooting
August 28th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
[...] good for the university. …Greenwich Diva – http://theoriginalgreenwichdiva.com/|||Heidi Lynn ChildsHeidi Lynn Childs – Virginia Tech students, Heidi Lynn Childs, pictured below with boyfriend David [...]
August 28th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
[...] good for the university. …Greenwich Diva – http://theoriginalgreenwichdiva.com/|||Heidi Lynn ChildsHeidi Lynn Childs – Virginia Tech students, Heidi Lynn Childs, pictured below with boyfriend David [...]
August 30th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
i want to send my thoughts and prayer to the familes. i didn’t know heidi or david but i know it is hard when some one loses some one so young. i hope they catch the person or persons involved.