One year ago today, Heidi Childs and David Metzler drove to Caldwell Fields to build a campfire and talk about the future.
The Virginia Tech sophomores, both Lynchburg, Va., natives, were found dead the following morning, victims of a crime that extinguished two bright stars of the campus ministries.
The crime, which is being investigated by a special task force, remains unsolved.
The community, spread across a remote corner of Montgomery County, remains unsettled.
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A passerby found Childs and Metzler shot dead Aug. 27, 2009. By mid-September, authorities assembled a task force to investigate the crime.
Last week, the task force of 15 investigators from eight law enforcement agencies, which have been investigating the case for the past 11 months, held a press conference asking for continued help from the public in the pursuit of solving the case.
Thus far, the task force has followed more than 1,100 leads and traveled more than 500 miles on one occasion to conduct interviews.
FBI Special Agent Kevin Foust, a member of the task force, praised local residents for their reaction to the case.
“Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the Childs and Metzler families and the entire Virginia Tech community,” Foust said. “You have embraced them as if they were your own children, your own family.”
The community will once again embrace the memories of Childs and Metzler tonight in a vigil at Caldwell Fields, the site of the murders.
Blacksburg native Lisa Gardner organized the vigil, which is not affiliated with the university or the Childs or Metzler families. Instead, she said the community wants to pay its respects.
“When this happened it touched our community in a personal way,” Gardner said. “I felt a sense of responsibility or obligation to the kids and their families.”
In the days following the crime, Gardner set up a Facebook page to help solve the case, but is now using it in an attempt to unite the community in remembrance of Childs and Metzler.
She said the vigil, which is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., would attempt to create a positive atmosphere. Gardner said attendees should bring LED battery-operated candles to avoid using an open flame.
“It’s a good thing to remember them and celebrate their lives, have more of a celebratory remembrance rather than a mourning remembrance,” she said.
However, despite the positive tone of the vigil, the question of who murdered Childs and Metzler still looms over the community.
“It’s a tragedy, for sure,” Gardner said. “There’s a sense of paranoia in my mind, because between Caldwell Fields, the Appalachian Trail, the Cascades and Pandapas Pond, all of these have traditionally been safe, local, recreational areas.”
Task force investigators have not focused on any strong suspects, but offered a description of the potential suspect. One of the major characteristics of a potential suspect would be knowledge of the area.
According to police, the person or persons who committed the murders were likely familiar with the area, with a good reason to be there that night.
They would not likely be recognized as “a monster” or a sociopath, according to Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office investigator Dennis Rakes.
The description has left many in the area fearful that the perpetrator may be living nearby.
“To have something like this happen and suspect that it may be someone from our community — who’s familiar with those recreation areas — it’s like a sense of community and safety in our community has been violated,” Gardner said. “It’s just not ever going to be the same.”
In the months following the murders, residents of the area held several community meetings to discuss the safety of the region.
The task force, meanwhile, continues to investigate the case, still looking for what Rakes called “that one bit of information” that produces a breakthrough in the case.
Police say the perpetrator may have exhibited signs of distress after the murders.
Among other possible behaviors mentioned were missing work, taking an unusual interest in the case or making major life changes.
A $70,000 reward is being offered for information that helps solve the case. Any information given to investigators will remain anonymous.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office at 540-382-2951 or any other member of the task force.
Other agencies involved include the Virginia State Police, FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s office.