Virginia Tech Students Found Slain In Forest

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Two Virginia Tech University students were found slain Thursday at a Jefferson National Forest campground that is a popular hangout for students, authorities said.

The latest killings are hitting a campus still reeling from the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history and the beheading of a student earlier this year.

The bodies of David Lee Metzler, 19, of Lynchburg and Heidi Lynn Childs, 18, of Forest were found by a passerby, Montgomery County Sheriff Lt. Brian Wright said. Both appear to have been shot, he said. Wright said Metzler's body was found inside a car in the parking area of the Caldwell Fields campground and Childs was found outside the car. The campground is about 15 miles from Virginia Tech's campus in Blacksburg.

A suspect has not been identified and autopsies were being conducted in Roanoke.

Metzler was a sophomore industrial and systems engineering major and Childs, a sophomore biochemistry major.

In an e-mail to students and staff, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger again was counseling his campus community. Two years ago, a student gunman killed 32 others and himself. In January, a doctoral student beheaded a fellow student in a campus cafe.

"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?"

Steger said the university would post information about memorial services on its Web site.

Comments

[JamieVT07]

03:53 PM on 08/30/2009

Did you guys know that there are 30,000 students on our campus? So the fact that this happened doesn't mean that there is something wrong with the campus. I'm sure there are incidents like this at many different campuses, they are just not as publicized as ours due to the shooting in 07. I don't believe that the person who did this was a student either, so to all of you people who are saying that our campus is screwed up and crazy, its not. Right after the school opened back up in April, I felt safe going to class and I still did every day after that.
Oh, and what did you expect them to do to prevent the shooting? It's called confidenti­ality people. They didn't shut down classes because they thought they caught the shooter! They pulled a guy over on 81 since he had just left the dorms where the first person (which was his girlfriend­) had been shot, and arrested him. And they have done things now, but what do you expect them to do? Have metal detectors at every class so it takes 3 hours just to get there every day? I just love how everyone bashes the school and the people who went through all of that when you guys have no idea what you are talking about.

I'm not a statistici­an or anything, but 2 individual­s who shot people out of 30,000 does NOT make everyone here "mentally ill".

[twogunmojo]

04:44 PM on 08/29/2009

RenoSage I'm a Fan of RenoSage I'm a fan of this user 12 fans permalink

Not I.
If I had my way all guns would be limited to the muzzle loading
muskets envisioned by the founding fathers.

But thank you, daedelus, for your courteous response.
----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­-
and i think free speech should be limited to your voice and quill and ink...sinc­e that is the tech that they envisioned in the 1700s....h­ahahahahah­aha...

[daedelus]

06:26 PM on 08/29/2009

Copy/ paste/ respond/ yawn.

[twogunmojo]

05:07 AM on 08/30/2009

maybe you should change your screen name to dodge...si­nce that is all you ever do....

[jick]

10:06 PM on 08/28/2009

Can YOU survive all four years? Come take the Virginia Tech Challenge!

*Sponsored by Smith & Wesson*

[PhineasGage730]

12:02 AM on 08/29/2009

Hahahahaha­h! LOVE IT!

[RexOzone]

09:49 PM on 08/28/2009

Kill guns.

[Bude]

09:35 PM on 08/28/2009

Boy, they sure know how to have a good time in Virginia. Go to a restaurant and you're on the menu.

[Fuji]

08:35 PM on 08/28/2009

Eve Carson, student president of UNC in 08, was murdered by a gun. Sigh. It was another case of white rage and easy access to guns.

Oh wait, no, it wasn't.

[PhineasGage730]

12:03 AM on 08/29/2009

Hmm, I wonder what you're really saying. Oh wait, I know when someone's using the N WORD.

[kjs]

03:24 PM on 09/01/2009

You like playing that race card, don't you?

[Harvee Wallbanger]

08:34 PM on 08/28/2009

Hmm, I am starting to get the feeling that there is something terribly wrong on this campus.

[musselmanm]

08:00 PM on 08/28/2009

When will all students be encouraged to bring firearms to school just like the town hall patriots?
Huh? All you right wing hate mongers.

[gbrooks]

08:52 PM on 08/28/2009

I'm not right wing or a hate monger, but maybe those students could have defended themselves if they were armed.

I know it's impossible to admit that possibilit­y when you toe the party line, so believe me, I'm expecting angry emotional ranting or no response at all.

[Bude]

09:37 PM on 08/28/2009

How cool is that? 30,000 armed collage students!

[coastalcarla]

11:53 PM on 08/28/2009

Talk about towing the party line! Speak for yourself.

[gmlaster]

06:24 PM on 08/28/2009

That's it...I'm NOT sending my kid there.

[victorsays]

05:40 PM on 08/28/2009

VT is a racist institutio­n of white privilege. It is probably some poor white student who was fed up with the college and their rich student. It was probably envy that drove them to kill these two couple. - they do look very nice couple.

I went to a college town. They are very racist, especially in the Midwest. They promote the greek life and look down on people who don't fit WASP mold. On numerous occassion these frat boys would yelled at me and act very condescend­ingly toward people who they think are different.

[desthmoneses]

05:54 PM on 08/28/2009

You sound irrational­.

[victorsays]

06:31 PM on 08/28/2009

I am perfectly rational. This has just been my experience­. Just because you didn't the kind of experience I went through, doesn't mean you have to dismiss them.

I am just saying what I experience in a college town. Take it for what it is.

[Deli]

07:44 PM on 08/28/2009

Perhaps a little proofreadi­ng is in order, but otherwise a rational statement. The traditiona­l institutio­n of sending kids to college was affordable to the dominate class of white families much more commonly than other races. Less so these days, but the way of treating people discussed by victorsays is still a reality for many.

[Fuji]

08:36 PM on 08/28/2009

Explain Eve Carson.

Sure, frat boys yell at people. I was at UNC and saw a bunch of frat idiots. You think white frats have a lock on idiocy? I was mugged by three members of Omega Psi Phi coming home to the dorm after a night working.

[PhineasGage730]

12:08 AM on 08/29/2009

Okay, relax buddy. You can't combat an ignorant statement with another one. Lets call it a truce...al­l races do dumb things. Lets not start listing all of them ('cause I have a long list). This article has nothing to do with nothing. It's shock value... oh yeah, and a warning to stay away from this school!

[daedelus]

05:22 PM on 08/28/2009

A quick perusal of the comments on this thread has revealed the eliminatio­n of yet another 2nd Amendment rights poster. They seem to be dropping like flies. If I thought any of my banter with them had anything to do with it, I just couldn't live with myself.

[twogunmojo]

06:10 PM on 08/28/2009

some of us have lives to lead..unli­ke a paid poster like you...how is that halfway house going anyway....

[janeycat]

07:59 PM on 08/28/2009

LOL

[daedelus]

08:29 PM on 08/28/2009

You certainly emptied the grab-bag of lame internet retorts with that one, Jethro.

[victorsays]

05:21 PM on 08/28/2009

Something is wrong with VT Culture. Don't send you kids there.

[screwedrus]

04:49 PM on 08/28/2009

WTF? I never heard about this beheading! WTH is going on in VA?

[yliza]

05:17 PM on 08/28/2009

I know, I hadn't heard about it either. But Google is your friend!

http://a11­news.com/1­340/virgin­ia-tech-be­heading/

[janeycat]

08:01 PM on 08/28/2009

you think there trying to keep most of the crime swept under the rug ?

[no2ky]

07:03 PM on 08/28/2009

It is a rough, rough place! I'm praying to get out of here!

[regularmess]

03:11 PM on 08/28/2009

Sad and scary. I wonder what was going through their minds. ---- http://the­happenings­tory.blogs­pot.com/ ----

[james4truth1066]

03:06 PM on 08/28/2009

I live less than 5 minutes from where the crimes happened, and yes I am more wary when I take the dog out at night, but no one is sure when their time is up, it maybe from an a murder's bullet, a drunk drivers car, a slip in the tub, or a massive coronary. I feel that there has been many unfortunat­e incidents in the past few years around VT, but Tech is not the only school, (i.e, Northern Illinois, Hampton, Dawson College, etc.) It is not the school, but I do hope that this is the last murder we see in the area for a long time.