I still can’t get Nicole Lovell out of my head. While her case is different in the sense that she was not fleeing an abusive home (al though she was being bullied at school), there are some similarities which I think are worth noting.
“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.“
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“Like millions of teens, Nicole spent a lot of her social time online. So Weeks feared she might have left to see someone she'd met on the internet.“
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“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.“
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“Weeks says Nicole not only had trouble fitting in, she also had a difficult relationship with her father, David Lovell. He did prison time on a drug charge and he's had other problems with the law.
"She wanted his attention," Weeks said. "She wanted his love."“
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“But Nicole was leading an unsupervised life online through the social media apps on her smartphone.
"It's like a loaded gun," said Pamela Casey, a district attorney in Blount County, Ala., who is on a national crusade warning people about the dangers of social media.
"This is the new crime of our time," she said.
Pamela Casey PSA: If you pick up your child's phone and you don't know the password, that's a problem. If you don't know…
Casey began speaking out long before Nicole Lovell disappeared in Virginia. Her online safety videos have been seen by millions across the country.
Pamela Casey PSA: I can actually go live on Periscope and post updates to you guys… if I can do that live sitting in my office, then your child can do that live in their bedroom.
"Years ago, you had to worry about your kid getting snatched. Parents don't realize that essentially your kid could get snatched -- their life taken by somebody they meet in their own bedroom," said Casey.“
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“FBI computer forensics experts traced Nicole's account information and quickly established that she'd regularly used Kik – a popular chat app attractive to teens, in part, because they can communicate anonymously without their parents knowing.”
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“So the FBI put in what they call an emergency disclosure request to Kik. They wanted to see Nicole's personal account, and they make a startling discovery. It turns out that in the last two days of her life, she'd been messaging with a person who had a chilling username: "Dr_Tombstone."
Using an IP address provided by Kik, investigators traced the Dr_Tombstone screen name to David Eisenhauser, 18, a freshman engineering student at Virginia Tech.”
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District Attorney Pamela Casey said Eisenhauer and Keepers may represent a new kind of predator.
"Sometimes it's usually the people we least expect," Casey warned.
"They could be your next door neighbor," she said. "…they can stay behind their phone and hide behind their phone -- just like your child is doin'."
Casey said criminals often use apps like Kik. Why? Because it's where kids hang out online. In fact, Kik -- a Canadian company -- claims that millions of American teens use their app every month.
"You can be anybody…" said a convicted predator we'll call "Steve."
He should know. "Steve," 38, said he used the Internet to groom kids and spent 10 years in prison for molestation. He told "48 Hours" he now feels a new urge to sound the alarm about anonymous chat apps like Kik.
"Kik … is a predator's paradise," he said.
"Pedophiles, do they go on Kik, pose as a 13, 14, 15-year-old in order to hopefully strike up a relationship with a child?" Van Sant asked.
"Yes, that's quite common on there," "Steve" replied.
"Steve" demonstrated just how easy it is for an adult to use the Kik app to begin a conversation with a child.”
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“My message is: 'I'm sad and lonely,'" said "Steve".
After hitting send, it took just 44 seconds for the first response to arrive. Another girl, apparently a teenager, responded less than three minutes later.
"In two days max, I could have her sending me nude pictures," "Steve" said. "Once you make 'em happy, you got their heart, once you got their heart, everything else follows."”
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“But her parents did become suspicious when Elizabeth, then 15, suddenly started acting strangely.
"She would be going to bed earlier than normal," her father said.
Elizabeth seemed distracted -- less interested in family activities, in church, and even in friends. Her parents took her smartphone away and asked to see her social media accounts. She refused.
"At that point you're like, 'OK, something's really wrong here,'" said Brandy Syrotchen.
They were stunned to learn just how wrong.“
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“Elizabeth was angry and evasive, but her parents finally got her passwords and soon discovered the truth. She had been communicating with a stranger: a 30-year-old Seattle-area man named Jason.“
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“ "This guy's evil. She's fooled. She's lured in," said Branden Syrotchen.”
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“The horror continued as the Syrotchens realized that within hours, Jason would be driving the 280 miles from Seattle to Spokane to pick up their daughter. They locked Elizabeth in her room with no phone or Internet access and called police.
"'This guy wants to kidnap my daughter tonight. He's planning to kidnap my daughter tonight,'" said Branden Syrotchen.”
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“Gritting her teeth, Brandy Syrotchen went online -- impersonating her own daughter.
"For seven hours, I sat there and listened to him, 'Oh baby I can't wait to see you … I can't wait to get you in my arms …lay in the same bed together, wake up in the morning,'" she said in tears. "And for seven hours I communicated back, 'Oh baby, I love you too …I can't wait.'"“
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“District Attorney Pamela Casey says far too many internet predators are turning to apps like Kik, and their alleged crimes are making headlines across the U.S.—more crimes than Facebook and Instagram users combined.”
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“"Kids are going to use a messenger. If we were to shut down Kik tomorrow, there'll be 10 right behind it," said Livingston.“
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“Nicole Lovell's death is a dark reminder of how social media has profoundly changed society.
"I hope … everybody learns from this. Hold their kids tight. 'Cause it can happen to you," said Weeks.
Today, our children have a host of new ways to live… and new ways to die as well.“
Killer App
JUNE 4, 2017 / CBS NEWS