UPDATE: Investigator says Tech student slayings random act

FACEBOOK: Prayer Group for the Metzlers and Childs

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Department says today that the slaying of two Virginia Tech students in the Jefferson National Forest appears to be a random act of violence.

Lt. Norman Croy says investigators have spent the day fielding leads and running down information.

Croy says the killings appear to be a random act.

Law enforcement agencies increased patrols today in the area near Caldwell Fields in the Jefferson National Forest following the shooting deaths of Heidi Childs, 18, and David Metzler, 19, both from the Lynchburg area.

Their bodies were found by a passer-by around 8 a.m. yesterday in the parking area at Caldwell Fields - a campground popular with Tech students located about 15 miles from campus in northern Montgomery.

Earlier, the Roanoke Times reported that Montgomery investigators had identified and were trying to locate persons of interest who had been seen in the area. Sheriff Tommy Whitt, however, offered no details

Whitt said both victims appeared to have been shot, but he declined to identify where or how many times. Metzler's body was found inside a car; Childs' body was found outside the vehicle.

"It's brutal. It's ugly," Whitt said.

No weapon was found at the scene, and authorities are investigating the shootings as a double homicide.

(This has been a breaking news update. The story below was published this morning in the Richmond Times-Dispatch)

By JIM NOLAN
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

The fragile calm of a Virginia Tech community still traumatized by the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history was shattered again yesterday when two students were found dead, apparently shot, in the Jefferson National Forest.

The bodies of Heidi Lynn Childs, 18, and David Lee Metzler, 19, both of the Lynchburg area, were found by a passer-by around 8 a.m. in the parking area at Caldwell Fields - a campground popular with Tech students located about 15 miles from campus in northern Montgomery County.

Montgomery Sheriff Tommy Whitt said both victims appeared to have been shot, but he declined to identify where or how many times. Metzler's body was found inside a car; Childs' body was found outside the vehicle.

"It's brutal. It's ugly," Whitt said.

No weapon was found at the scene, and authorities are investigating the shootings as a double homicide.

Metzler was a sophomore at Tech majoring in industrial and systems engineering. Childs, also a sophomore, was an honors student and biochemistry major attending Tech on full scholarship, said her father, Donald Childs.

"She was supposed to be at an honors meeting at 8 this morning," Childs said last night during a brief phone interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

"She was a fine young lady. . . . I have eight children, and you know, the number of children you have has no bearing on your loss," said Childs, an aviation sergeant with the Virginia State Police. "A wonderful, wonderful girl."

Childs said his daughter and Metzler were friends who had "known each other for years" and attended the same church. He called Metzler "a fine young man."

Both students lived off campus.

Metzler, a 2008 graduate of Brookville High School, was a good soccer player and enjoyable to coach and teach, said John Vasvary, a retired assistant principal and athletic director at the school.

"He just stood out because he had such a good personality," Vasvary told The Lynchburg News & Advance. "He was from a good family all around."

A friend who answered the phone at the Metzler home last night said the family would not make a statement.

Childs said his daughter and Metzler were part of a group of about 30 local students who were going to Tech and active in Campus Crusade for Christ.

"It is a great loss for our community, for our church," Childs said. "She wanted to go into pre-med, so who knows what we lost there. Horrible."

State police Col. Steven W. Flaherty issued a statement of sympathy last night. "I extend my most heartfelt condolences and deepest sympathies to [Donald Child's] loved ones, along with all members of his state police family," Flaherty said.

In a letter to the Tech community early yesterday evening, University President Charles W. Steger urged those who are suffering to seek the comfort of friends or counselors.

"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. "

In January, Tech graduate student Haiyang Zhu attacked and beheaded a fellow Chinese student, Xin Yang, with a kitchen knife at the university's Graduate Life Center.

On April 16, 2007, Tech student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty members before taking his own life. An investigation revealed that Cho had practiced with his weapons at a firing range in the Jefferson forest.

In his remarks, Steger said: "We extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to the families and will assist in any way possible.

"No amount of words can counteract their grief, but know that the university administration and everyone within this community intensely feels this pain."

Investigators worked into last night trying to develop leads on a killer. And the greater Tech community grieved again, this time with the Metzler and Lee families, searching for answers.

"She was just, in my mind still, just the sweetest, nicest person," Sue Jones, who coached the home-schooled Childs in cross-country, told the News & Advance.

"And I can't imagine why somebody would want to do this."

Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or jnolan@timesdispatch.com.

The Associated Press and Lynchburg News & Advance contributed to this report.