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

[JohnTate90210]

I'm aware Orly isn't being accepted as a source on the Nicole Lovell thread but this is a video of his showing police along Craig Creek Road, so it would seem okay to me.

https://www.facebook.com/402587629921206/videos/508576502655651/

Here it is five years after the murders and police seem to be searching along Craig Creek Road. I'd guess it's more likely in regards to the Nicole Lovell murder due to the location and it being five years after the Childs/Metzler murders, but who knows? The video states the search was near the shooting range which is at the western end of the road. This is about 8.5 miles from Caldwell Fields.

Caldwell Fields has always seemed like a remote place for Heidi and David to go after dark. I'd have much more thought of them going to Pandapas Pond which is very close to the shooting range. Pandapas is just off of the highway and easily accessible. Caldwell Fields is way off the highway and even down a part that is gravel/dirt. I wonder if there's been any thought that the couple may have gone elsewhere and were forced to go to the remote spot. There were a couple of similar cases ages ago in a nearby county where the assailant forced a couple to drive to a remote location. It would seem to make some sense but mostly only if the assailant had a partner in another vehicle or lived within walking distance of the crime scene.

 

[December]

The fact there were two other students shining a light in the field the night before changes everything to me. How could the murderer know it was purely coincidence that Heidi and David show up the next night? How could he know neither pair was interested in anything other than their own plans? Maybe he thought someone was watching him?

Let me add, no one deserved being killed over this. I am just saying maybe that is the murderer's motive?

 

[JohnTate90210]

Great post dctrgreen and welcome to Websleuths! Thank you for sharing your insight and thoughts. I wish there was more info on the case. I check every week or so to see if anything new has been released or any progress in solving. Sadly, I think it's at a standstill and that investigators are stumped. I agree with all of your speculations listed above.

Your experience when you returned a few years later is spooky and alarming. Maybe, it was just a curious amateur or who knows even an unmarked police patrol, especially since when you reported it, the dispatcher wasn't alarmed. Maybe, he already knew who it was. Then again, who knows?

Quote:

6. The DNA. I know that this was believed to be a dramatic break in the case and once this piece of information was released, many thought LE was hot on the trail and that it wouldn't be long before a suspect was apprehended. I wonder if the DNA evidence was just that...drama...something to keep the news story current and to spark fear into the perpetrator who may begin to act differently in the ways that the sheriff emphatically described to the public...this may be a stretch, but it wouldn't be the first time LE has resorted to dramatic techniques in crime solving to flush out potential suspects, until someone's altered behavior and paranoia catches someone's eye.

I remember that this DNA is fingerprints. It makes me wonder if it's really the killer's or just unknown DNA found in the vehicle. I don't recall it ever having been mentioned what these fingerprints were collected from. If indeed there is DNA and it belongs to the killer, this article that I'm sharing about new DNA testing, Snapshot, could prove helpful. Since it doesn't provide age, perhaps, digital age progression could be applied to the image created. Like maybe, ten years over a twenty to thirty year period. Not sure just how it would work or even how accurate it would be. It is a new hope, though for more info maybe?

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/01/19/new-dna-technique-could-put-face-on-unsolved-double-murder/

Would the rifle have ejected a shell that could carry the touch DNA?

 

[geojeffrey]

DNA for this case has already been identified and tested in CODIS. Police are still trying to find a match ...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Essbee]

If the Nicole Lovell killer David E is now 18, in 2009 he would have been 12...? He did have ties to the area, though. First thrill killing at 12 years old is probably too far-fetched, right? Plus, he wouldn't have had a vehicle.

 

[aspyingmachine]

I will always believe that a hiker from the AT killed these students, as it was within a foots path from Caldwell Fields. I hope one day the DNA is a match.

God bless their families.

 

[December]

Do hikers on this foot path carry rifles? This is a serious question, I know nothing of the area.

 

[JohnTate90210]

Do hikers on this foot path carry rifles? This is a serious question, I know nothing of the area.

No, hikers don't carry rifles. I've hiked a whole lot on the trail in the area and have never seen a hiker with a rifle. Plus the Appalachian Trail is way up at the top of the mountain. There is no easy access from the trail to the murder site. Plus, you'd have to believe a hiker decided to make a very tough out-of-the-way walk to visit a site he didn't know existed after dark on the slight chance there might be a victim. Hikers go for light loads and that certainly wouldn't include a rifle. I don't think it was hunting season so even a hunter walking with a rifle wouldn't seem very likely.

The trail does come down and cross Craig Creek Road but that point is five miles from Caldwell Fields. It just seems highly unlikely that somebody left the trail, walked to a site they didn't know existed in hopes of finding a victim, and then returned to the trail carrying a rifle and possibly encountering vehicles.

The murder site is pretty remote. It had to be somebody in a vehicle or they lived nearby.

I hope this link will work. It shows the walk from where the Appy Trail crosses the road all the way to Caldwell Fields.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/37..../@37.3567018,-80.3163016,15764m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

[JohnTate90210]

Here is the view from Caldwell Fields looking at the road opposite. The Appalachian Trail is way up on top of that mountain.



At the point you can see that road disappear in the photo, it turns right. Then it slowly creeps up the mountain but never reaches the top. From the far end, where it is closest to the trail, it is five miles from Caldwell Fields. Even at that point, it's still about 900 feet through woods to the trail. Anybody on the trail wouldn't even know the road was there. The only chance it was a hiker would be if they left the trail where it crosses Craig Creek Road, five miles from Caldwell Fields. It just really seems very unlikely a hiker would carry a rifle and walk for five miles to find a victim and then five miles back to the trail.

 

[JohnTate90210]

These photos were taken Saturday, February 6, 2016.

Caldwell Fields sign. This is right at the entrance to the parking area/murder site:



View from the entrance of the parking lot. The road running left to right is Craig Creek Road, which is now paved. The road opposite makes a right turn at the point to seems to disappear from the photo. The Appalachian Trail is at the top of that mountain. It is about five miles before that road nears the trail. The trail does cross Craig Creek Road but it is about five miles to the right (east).



A view of the parking lot where the murder was committed:



A different view:



There is an informational sign at the site. I think that's its shadow in the third photo. Way up high where you almost miss it is this:



Note the web link it gives is no longer open.

 

[December]

JohnTate, thank you for all the information. I agree it is more likely the murderer drove to the murder site.

 

[Bootsctr]

Thank you for all the pics. Virginia is a gorgeous state. It's sad that this site is marred by the murder of two young people. Not knowing the background on the case, just that they were shot, reminds me of David Berkowitz.

 

[Bootsctr]

Could have been a hunter or poacher since it was night. Who did the couple tell where they were going that night? Sounds like it could have been territorial - somebody felt they were invading their space. Perhaps they were waiting for the couple who had been there the previous night? I don't see robbery as a motive, but the killer did leave with "trophies." A hunter of human prey.

 

[fedmogul89]

If it were robbery, I doubt they would have killed them. With the one major exception, the murders in our area, as few as they are, are personal/domestic. I cannot remember one that was a robbery gone bad. Not ruling it out but maybe Heidi's purse was taken as an afterthought to make it look like robbery?

At first, I thought maybe it was a hunter that had accidentally shot one of the students and then covered it up.

Was Heidi assaulted? Was someone after David?

I'm from the Pulaski area, and I remember 3 murders where a robbery had went foul. There was a robbery gone wrong in Parrott where Elmer Eugene Fisher was stabbed to death by Derek Wetzel, Eddie Gibson, and Joseph Graham around 1997. I think it was 2010 when guy with the last name of Bane had his throat slit with a broken beer bottle in Parrott. You can find the information on that case on Wdbj7 I believe and the one in 1997 you can find it on the digital Pulaski County Archives. There's a lot of interesting crimes in this history of this area that you can find on there

 

[meade]

Hello all,

I was in Blacksburg at the time. This definitely freaked people out. I am familiar with that road up to the shooting range, but haven't gone any further. It's definitely a remote area though, more remote than it looks on maps.

Questions:
1) Do we know how many shots there were?
2) Do we know the distance of the shots?

As far as I know, that info hasn't been released.

I will say, and take this as a grain of salt rumor, but after the murders I heard a "leak" that Heidi's body had been sexually mutilated (IIRC a breast removed). But like I said, this was just word of mouth, no clue if it's true.

My opinion: It was a deranged killer from the area, familiar with the area, with a hunting rifle. The only thing that throws me for a loop is how this one seemingly a one-time thing. If it was sexual, you would think it would be repeated at some time.

 

[December]

Have people stayed away from this field at night since then?

 

[meade]

Have people stayed away from this field at night since then?

I'm not sure about now. Probably. At the time I know people were saying not to go out there and to be careful hiking in the area. I certainly wouldn't go out there alone and/or unarmed. That person a few posts above with that scary story of the car chasing him is enough to freak me out.

 

[December]

I'm not sure about now. Probably. At the time I know people were saying not to go out there and to be careful hiking in the area. I certainly wouldn't go out there alone and/or unarmed. That person a few posts above with that scary story of the car chasing him is enough to freak me out.

Maybe that was the motive?

 

[meade]

Maybe that was the motive?

Perhaps. A local tired of college kids being out there...possible. Doesn't fit with the sexual assault angle though.

 

[December]

Perhaps. A local tired of college kids being out there...possible. Doesn't fit with the sexual assault angle though.

I mean someone worse than that with a nastier motive such as someone doing something illegal in that immediate area.