http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3428605/Girl-13-murdered-met-Virginia-Tech-student-Kik-anonymous-messaging-app-bane-law-enforcement.htmlHow anonymous messaging app Kik is a law enforcement nightmare and may have been used by Virginia Tech student to ‘lure girl, 13, to her death’
Nicole Lovell may have met her alleged murderer on messenger app Kik
David Eisenhauer, 18, is charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder
Authorities have confirmed he knew Lovell, but have not elaborated how
App allows users to register without a phone number, granting anonymity
This makes it popular with pedophiles and the bane of law enforcement
A 13-year-old girl who was found dead may have met the Virginia Tech student charged with her murder on anonymous messaging app Kik.
David Eisenhauer, 18, is charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder in the death of seventh-grader Nicole Madison Lovell.
Another student, Natalie Keepers, 19, is charged with improper disposal of a body and accessory before the fact in the commission of a felony.
Today, investigators revealed Lovell was stabbed after she climbed out of her bedroom window in Blacksburg, Virginia, last Tuesday. Her body was found after a four-day search just over the state line in North Carolina.
But they still haven’t clarified exactly how Lovell and Eisenhauer’s lives intersected – but have confirmed that the pair knew each other.
Blacksburg police said they have evidence showing Eisenhauer, of Columbia, Maryland, knew the girl before she disappeared but did not elaborate how.
‘Eisenhauer used this relationship to his advantage to abduct the 13-year-old and then kill her,’ a police statement said. ‘Keepers helped Eisenhauer dispose of Nicole’s body.’
But the Washington Post reports that police told the child’s mother Tammy Weeks that she met him online – possibly on Kik, a messaging app that grants anonymity to its users.
‘It was some off-the-wall site I never heard off,’ Weeks said.
The app allows users to only be identified by their usernames. However, third party websites allow users to search for others by age and gender – making the app particularly attractive to pedophiles and predators and the bane of law enforcement.
In February last year, one convicted sex offender spoke about the app to WTNH, and said it is ‘getting dangerous.’
‘The first thing I thought was ‘Wow! I can be whoever I want to be. I can get anybody I want. I can achieve my sexual glorification through this app’,’ he told the station.
He explained that predators could simply download the Kik messenger app for a mobile phone, make up a fake username, and through Kik, download another app called Hit Me Up.
'With the combination of both of those apps, you go on and say ‘I like little boys between this age and this age,’ and people would start sending you pictures,' he added.
The app is also popular with social media savvy teenagers, including Lovell.
According to the Post, she led ‘an active, imaginary life online’ – a world away from her reality.
The youngster bore emotional and physical wounds, suffering from bullying over the scars from the liver transplant she had at five.
Weeks said her daughter didn't like going to school because girls called her fat and talked about the scars from her transplant.
But on Kik as well as other social media platforms, including Instagram and Facebook, she found the self-confidence boost she desired, reportedly flirting with strangers and sharing flirty pictures.
She was also a member of several 'teen dating' Facebook groups.
However, the app’s anonymity makes it a minefield when it comes to solving crimes, such as child exploitation, bomb threats and terrorism.
In 2014, a former teacher, Gregory Bogomol was sentenced to 60 years in prison for preying on children via social media sites, including Kik.
The Fairfax County Police Department’s child exploitation unit caught Daniel Rosen, a State Department counter-terrorism official, attempting to arrange a meeting with a child.
He admitted to stalking and voyeurism and was sentenced to 32 months in prison.
