The bodies of two young Virginia Tech students from central Virginia were found today in a remote area of Montgomery County, and authorities are considering their deaths to be a double homicide.
The victims are David Lee Metzler, 19, of Lynchburg and Heidi Lynn Childs, 18, of Forest, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff?s Office.
In the Virginia Tech student directory, Metzler?s major is listed as industrial and systems engineering. Childs is listed as a biochemistry major. Both were sophomores.
Sheriff Tommy Whitt said both victims appeared to have been shot where they had parked in a day-use area of Caldwell Fields. 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.
Caldwell Fields is a popular weekend hangout spot for Tech students, authorities said. ?We are going to step up our patrols in that area even though we think it was a random act of brutal violence,? Whitt said.
He said investigators, who spent today combing the site for evidence, had identified and were trying to locate persons of interest who had been seen in the area. He offered no details. The bodies were discovered about 8 a.m. by a man walking his dog. Metzler?s body was inside a car; Childs? was outside, Whitt said.