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Police Investigating Whether App Used To Lure Slain 13-Year-Old

BLACKSBURG, Va. (WJZ) -- Investigators are searching for answers after a 13-year-old is stabbed to death. The suspects in the case are both from Maryland.

Police are looking into whether an app, popular with teens, was used to lure the girl.

Ava-joye Burnett with the latest on the college students charged with the young girl's murder.

The two suspects were college students from Maryland. They are now locked up with no bond.

On Thursday morning, Natalie Keepers--a Virginia Tech student with ties to Maryland--will stand before a judge. The charges--an accessory to the brutal murder of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell.

Also charged in the case--another teen from Maryland--David Eisenhauer.

Police believe the fragile teen reached out for a connection online and may have met Eisenhauer on a popular app called Kik. Days later, Lovell was dead.

Some 240 million people use the Kik app--many of them are minors, who still need supervision.

"If that's where all the kids are, all the predators are going to gravitate to those locations and they will find a way to exploit the app, so to speak, or to use it to their advantage so that they can take advantage of the children," said Det. Sgt. John Linton, Maryland State Police Computer Crime.

"Kik or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram isn't the enemy," said Adam Rosenberg, Baltimore Child Abuse Center.

At the Baltimore Child Abuse Center, the message to parents--you need to keep up with the changing world of social media.

"We wouldn't let little kids go to the mall by themselves, we won't let little kids go to a playground by themselves. Tthis is that digital, virtual playground, that digital, virtual mall and we have to be able to know what's out there," Rosenberg said.

For Lovell's parents, they're now adjusting to the sad, new reality without their little girl.

"This is awful. This is tragic. And it all could have been prevented," Lovell's father said.

A viewing was held for Lovell on Wednesday. Her funeral is Thursday.

While Natalie Keepers is charged with accessory to the murder, her classmate, David Eisenhauer is charged with kidnapping and first-degree murder.

Wee Chic and Baltimore Child Abuse Center are teaming up to bring parents and children together with a three-part speaker series about online safety.

For more information, CLICK HERE.

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