2 Va. Tech students found slain. Third tragedy in past two years

[Liberal_in_LA]

2 Va. Tech students found slain in Va. forest

Thursday, August 27, 2009
(08-27) 15:18 PDT Blacksburg, Va. (AP) --

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.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/08/27/national/a143036D35.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0PQzrTv9n