VA VA - David Metzler, 19, & Heidi Childs, 18, fatally shot, Montgomery Co, 26 Aug 2009

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I know one of Heidi's sisters and I am completely broken for their family. Heidi and David were cream of the crop- they were beacons in their communities and strived to live a life of purpsose serving the Lord and other people. As soon as I heard the news I was reminded of the other camp site killings of young couples...I think in Oregon and some in CA. David and Heidi weren't camping but they were hanging out at a campground area...I think I heard it was like a scenic overlook area within the park. I don't know if they went there routinely, but it was very close to their hometowns (Forest & Lynchburg) so I assume they went there somewhat often.

IMO it seems like this is either the work of a serial killer or that perhaps Heidi and David happened to witness some kind of crime taking place and were killed for it. I am praying that they find the murderer SOON.
 
justathought said:
This tragedy reminds me of that case in Oregon where the Christian camp counselors, who were engaged, were found shot to death at a remote camp site on a beach. I was never solved I don't think....I wonder if the balistics are being checked. I hope so..unlikely.....but so eerily similar.
Click to expand...
That was Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen. No, it hasn't been solved. They were shot with a .45 caliber rifle.
 
Info and Timeline (based on what I've read – apologies for length)

Victims

David Lee Metzler

  • 19 years old
  • Campbell County
  • Sophomore, Virginia Tech – Major: Industrial and Systems Engineering
  • Belonged to Virginia Tech's chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ
  • Worked at Mountain Frost Creamery in Lynchburg

Heidi Lynn Childs

  • 18 years old
  • Forest, VA - Bedford County
  • Sophomore, Virginia Tech – Major: Biochemistry
  • Daughter of Sgt. Donald Childs, of the Virginia State Police
  • Belonged to Virginia Tech's chapter of Campus Crusade for Christ
  • Worked at Mountain Frost Creamery in Lynchburg
  • The last thing Heidi Lynn Childs wrote on her Facebook page was a bible passage, from Colossians. “To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

Timeline

Wed, Aug 26


  • 8:30PM or 9PM – When the couple was last heard from
  • Childs’ father said his daughter had called him on Wednesday to tell him she was going to start taking pre-med classes. She also said that her and Metzler had set up a special campfire date.

Thurs, Aug 27


  • 8:00AM - The bodies of Heidi Childs and David Metzler were discovered by a man walking his dog. Metzler's body was inside his 1992 blue Toyota; Childs' was outside the car, Whitt said. Both had been shot to death.
  • Sheriff Tommy Whitt said both victims appeared to have been shot where they had parked in a day-use area of Caldwell Fields (Montgomery County).
  • Speculation/Rumor: Dave was on the driver’s side and was shot through the car window, based on shattered glass found outside the car.
  • The area where Metzler and Childs were found is a wildlife viewing area overlooking a field full of wildflowers, birds and often deer.
  • LE did not say how many times or where on their bodies they appeared to have been shot. No weapons were found.
  • According to a search warrant affidavit filed Thursday in Montgomery County Circuit Court, deputies were searching the car for "firearms, weapons, shell or bullet casings, fingerprints, DNA and the identification of the people involved." A list of any items seized had not yet been filed with the court.

Fri, Aug 28


  • The parking lot and campground reopened.

Mon, Aug 31


  • Funerals held
  • Virginia Tech students returned to classes

The Area (from various articles)

  • They were found near the Caldwell Fields area of northern Montgomery County, roughly 12-15 miles from Virginia Tech's campus in Blacksburg. They were in a day-use area known as Addison, Milton and George.
  • The area is a large group campground in the Jefferson National Forest more than eight miles down Craig Creek Road, where a shooting range and Camp Tuk-A-Way are located, off U.S. 460.
  • A parking area near where the bodies were found was closed from sunset to sunrise.
  • Caldwell Fields is a popular weekend hangout spot for Tech students, authorities said.
  • Teddy Mullins, a law enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service, said a permit is required for overnight use of the campground. He said he gets about 60 camping requests per weekend night from students.
  • Permits are required to use the group campground at Caldwell Fields, and Mullins said there were no permits issued Wednesday night to camp there.
  • Teddy Mullins, a law enforcement officer with the U.S. Forest Service, said there likely would have been no one else around at the time. The nearest home is a few miles from the site.

http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/216886
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,544306,00.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a4:g4:r5:c0.000000:b0:z5
http://www2.wsls.com/sls/news/local...here_virginia_tech_students_found_dead/44513/
http://roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/217366
http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/...oting_victim_had_strong_ties_to_region/31439/
http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/14069
http://jbcook.blogspot.com/2009/08/sadness.html
http://www.camptukaway.com/index.php?sAction=location
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou....388186&spn=0.007474,0.01929&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A
 
My prayers go out to the family's and friends of these victims...Va Tech has faced more than it's share of heartache.
 
Saw the dads of Heidi and David on Nancy Grace last nite, I think it was. Heartbreaking. Just absolutely heartbreaking. I pray for all of them.
 
"The area is a large group campground in the Jefferson National Forest more than eight miles down Craig Creek Road, where a shooting range and Camp Tuk-A-Way are located, off U.S. 460."


I can't help but wonder if somehow this is related? Does anyone know how far they were found from the shooting range? Could it have been a stray round? Is the shooting range monitored? Do people have to sign in to use it? Is there an attendant on duty? I am sure this has all been checked out but I have not seen anything about it.
 
cloudajo said:
Info and Timeline (based on what I've read – apologies for length)

  • 8:00AM - The bodies of Heidi Childs and David Metzler were discovered by a man walking his dog. Metzler's body was inside his 1992 blue Toyota; Childs' was outside the car, Whitt said. Both had been shot to death.
  • Sheriff Tommy Whitt said both victims appeared to have been shot where they had parked in a day-use area of Caldwell Fields (Montgomery County).
  • Speculation/Rumor: Dave was on the driver’s side and was shot through the car window, based on shattered glass found outside the car.
Click to expand...

This immediately reminded me of the opening scene of The Zodiac (2007) movie about "the Zodiac" killer. Real reports of the serial killer's spree read like this:

At 11:10 p.m., David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen were parked in the same place when they were shot to death near Faraday's brown Rambler. Having told Betty Lou's parents that they were going to a Christmas concert, they had instead driven to the isolated lover's lane and had been there for less than an hour when someone pulled in with them, exited his vehicle, and began firing into their car.

The killer was armed with either a .22 caliber rifle or, more likely, a handgun loaded with .22 LR ammunition. From light footprints and ballistic evidence, it appeared that the killer started from behind the car, shooting out the right rear window, then the left rear tire, then coming around to the front left. The two teenagers scrambled out the passenger's side door.

Jensen, 16, left the car alive and must have started to run toward the road; her body was found less than 30 feet from the rear bumper. The shot pattern — five rounds along the right side of her back, ranging from the space between the fifth and sixth ribs all the way down to the pelvis —suggested that the killer was either competent with firearms or had fired into her body as she lay wounded by a previous shot, as a coroner's report states that the shots had come from no more than 10 feet away. In any case, the grouping does not indicate marksman-like accuracy, or even the great degree of skill that is often attributed to the killer due to this particular murder, especially considering that two rounds missed the wounded girl as she fled.

Faraday was killed by a single close-range bullet to the head; researcher Mike R. of NJ points out that the position of Faraday's body, with the boy's feet by the rear wheel and his head pointing away from the front of the car at an angle of about 45 degrees, suggests that he was not killed while climbing out of the door but rather while standing by the right rear wheel. All told, 10 shots were fired, but only eight rounds were accounted for.

The entire episode was over in a few heartbeats, and the killer left the scene immediately upon its conclusion. This was determined by an almost minute-by-minute time line put together from the statements of several witnesses driving by the area between 9:00 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. One of these witnesses, Stella Borges, may even have seen the killer's car, described as a light-colored Chevrolet, headed toward Benicia just before she discovered Jensen's and Faraday's bodies.

Despite the best efforts of Solano County Sheriff's Det. Sgt. Les Lundblad, assistance from half a dozen local law enforcement agencies, and a reward fund set up by students at the victims' high schools, no killer was ever identified. As author Robert Graysmith grimly noted in his seminal book, ZODIAC, "There were no witnesses, no motives, and no suspects".

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/zodiac/vallejo_2.html
 
I wonder if anyone else knew they where going on a campfire date? I had thought no one knew why they where there. I just do not understand this case at all. Did either one of them have a my space which would of made mention of that public? Maybe we should use reverse seach on LE to see if the know more then they are saying.
 
What a good idea using reverse speech on the LE. I would have never thought of that but it is a possibility and should prove interesting.
 
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/wb/217869

snip: More than a week after two Virginia Tech students were shot to death, investigators are still quiet.

snip: Many questions remain unanswered more than a week after the slayings of two young Virginia Tech students, as investigators continue to chase leads in attempts to develop a suspect

snip: What investigators have said is that the crime appeared to be brutal, violent and random -- words that have alarmed many people in the community.

more at the above link
 
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U....299968,-80.300016&spn=0.375792,0.617294&z=11

According to the map Blacksburg Shooting Range is 7.6 miles from the campground. Gene is right, don't think that a bullet is going to travel that far and then kill 2 people. I still think that the it is a good possibility that there is a connection with the shooting range. I would think that LE is looking at who used the range on the day of the shootings.
 
Shadow205 said:
"The area is a large group campground in the Jefferson National Forest more than eight miles down Craig Creek Road, where a shooting range and Camp Tuk-A-Way are located, off U.S. 460."


I can't help but wonder if somehow this is related? Does anyone know how far they were found from the shooting range? Could it have been a stray round? Is the shooting range monitored? Do people have to sign in to use it? Is there an attendant on duty? I am sure this has all been checked out but I have not seen anything about it.
Click to expand...

Could be a serial killer on the loose. They tend to commit "random acts" as the police described it, sometimes..
 
oops i qouted the wrong thing.. where's my coffee lol =)

Isn't there more cases of couples being killed in campground areas? I know the 2 counselors one someone had mentioned, wasn't there also 2 women killed while on a camping trip in VA somewhere awhile ago?
 
What is a reverse search?



Soulmagent said:
I wonder if anyone else knew they where going on a campfire date? I had thought no one knew why they where there. I just do not understand this case at all. Did either one of them have a my space which would of made mention of that public? Maybe we should use reverse seach on LE to see if the know more then they are saying.
Click to expand...
 
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Parkway_Killer[/ame]

[ame="http://officialcoldcaseinvestigations.com/showthread.php?t=5269"]Colonial Parkway Serial Killer 1986-1989 - Cold Case Investigations[/ame]

This is interesting reading. The Colonial Parkway suspect has never been caught. Could he have relocated and after 20 years began his killing spree again? There are some similarities in the cases. Might be worth looking at.
 
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