And her online safety videos have been seen by millions across the country. PAMELA CASEY PSA: If you pick up your child's phone and you don't know the password, that's a problem.Ĭasey began speaking out long before Nicole Lovell disappeared in Virginia. warning people about the dangers of social media.ĭ.A. Peter Van Sant: So she never went unsupervised?īut Nicole was leading an unsupervised life online through the social media apps on her smartphone.Īlabama District Attorney Pamela Casey is on a national crusade. Peter Van Sant: Your parents, did they live at the house? Peter Van Sant: When you would go to work, was there anyone supervising her? He'd left Tammy Weeks before Nicole was born. I feel - you know, what did I do wrong, why wasn't I there for her more often. She wanted his love.ĭavid Lovell: I have regrets that I wasn't there. He did prison time on a drug charge and he's had other problems with the law. Weeks says Nicole not only had trouble fitting in, she also had a difficult relationship with her father, David Lovell. Nicole's social media posts reveal a sadly typical teenage story: so lonely she'd had suicidal thoughts, longing for love and convinced nobody cared about her. Nicole's social media posts revealed a sadly typical teenage story of loneliness She would always make me write her a note for gym because they would pick on her about her scar. Peter Van Sant: So she was being bullied? Weeks says Nicole had emotional scars as well. Her illness and surgical treatment had left Nicole with scars on her stomach and neck. Now a teenager, she still needed her anti-rejection medication every day to survive. Nicole was born with a damaged liver and needed a transplant before her first birthday. Tammy Weeks: I know she wouldn't go nowhere for that many hours without her medicine. Volunteers even brought an infrared drone to aid in the search for Nicole. WDBJ NEWS REPORT: More than 1200 searchers are on a mission to find the 13-year-old… Nicole's disappearance also sent shockwaves through her hometown of Blacksburg Virginia. This afternoon they canvassed from neighborhood … NEWS REPORT: The FBI has now joined regional and state law enforcement in the search. Peter Van Sant: You must be a bit panicked at this point? So Weeks feared she might have left to see someone she'd met on the Internet. Like millions of teens, Nicole spent a lot of her social time online. Tammy Weeks: Nicole had been playing with her … daughters and said that Nicole had said she was goin' out on a date. Before long, a neighborhood mother gave her some chilling news. Weeks called police and began scouring the area. I text-messaged her, everybody was calling her. Tammy Weeks: It'd go straight to voicemail. Peter Van Sant: Did you call her cell phone? Tammy Weeks: That night … I was gonna knock on the wall and tell her to come in … and sleep with me like she usually does … and I didn't do it. Tammy Weeks: I pushed the door open, and the nightstand was up against the door. Sometime in the middle of the night, the 13-year-old had climbed out of her bedroom window taking along her phone and her favorite blue cartoon blanket. The nightmare for Nicole Lovell's mother Tammy Weeks began on the morning of January 27, 2016. I still hope that she would come around the corner when she gets off the bus.
Tammy Weeks : It's just been a nightmare. Tammy Weeks : Every morning … I come out here, sit with her for an hour. "You really need to worry about the stranger your child's meeting on the phone you gave them for Christmas. "It's no longer a situation where you worry about your child meeting a stranger in the park," says Pamela Casey, District Attorney in Blount County, Ala., tells correspondent Peter Van Sant. "48 Hours" investigates the murder of Nicole Lovell, the case against an unusual suspect and his unlikely accomplice, and the hidden dangers of connecting online. With a few swipes on her smartphone, Lovell became a victim of the occasionally dangerous world of anonymous online friending, where predators hunt for victims by using fake names and profiles. Nicole Lovell, 13, may have thought she was communicating with a friend on the Kik chat app.
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