8/4/2019 All-American Murder; The True Story of Two Virginia Lacrosse Players and a College Romance Turned Fatal

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8/4/2019 All-American Murder; The True Story of Two Virginia Lacrosse Players and a College Romance Turned Fatal

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Copyright 2011 by Amber Hunt.

All rights reserved.

For information address St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,NY 10010.

EAN: 978-0-312-54106-4

Printed in the United States of America

St. Martins Paperbacks edition / September 2011

St. Martins Paperbacks are published by St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth

Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

NOTE:If you purchased this book without a cover you should beaware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as unsoldand destroyed to the publisher, and neither the author nor thepublisher has received any payment for this stripped book.

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Chapter 1

The call for help was panicked and vague. Caitlin Whiteley, atwenty-two-year-old University of Virginia student, had re-turned home to her cookie-cutter apartment in Charlottes-

ville to nd her roommate unresponsive. It was early Mondaymorning, the end of a typically hard-drinking Sunday Fun-day on campus, and Caitlin couldnt grasp what was wrong.Shed walked home with Philippe Oudshoorn, a friend andfellow athlete, to nd Yeardley Love facedown on her bed anda hole kicked through her bedroom door. Something about theway Yeardleys hair lay seemed awkward and unnatural, soCaitlin pushed it aside and gently shook her friends shoulder.No response. Then Caitlin noticed some blood.

Oudshoorn hurriedly picked up the phone and told thenine-one-one dispatcher that something was amissa mes-sage that somehow was translated to possible alcohol over-dose when patched through to nearby police carsbeforelifting Yeardleys body from her bed and attempting CPR.By the time detectives arrived to the second-oor apartmenton Charlottesvilles narrow 14th Street Northwest, the bloodyscene looked nothing like the bender gone awry they had an-ticipated. Medics were bent over the battered body of Yeardley,

a pretty and athletic twenty-two-year-old, and were franti-cally trying to breathe life back into her.

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4 Amber Hunt

They were failing.Charlottesville police ofcer Lisa T. Reeves was among

the rst to respond, arriving at the four-bedroom apartmentin an off-white building at about 2:30 a.m. May 3, 2010. Theapartment was on the second oor, the entrance to whichwas reachable by a staircase in the middle of the building.She hunted for unit No. 9 and entered.

The front door to the apartment was open and untam-pered, but the door to the bedroom around which all the ac-

tivity was now centeredYeardleys bedroom, Reeves wouldquickly surmisewas splintered, as though someone hadpunched a hole straight through it. Reeves spotted Yeardleyand immediately saw the blood. A pool had saturated the pil-low and sheets beneath the girls head, and smears of red dis-colored the beds comforter. Even the bed skirt was stainedcrimson.

As the ofcer examined her more closely, she saw bruis-ing on Yeardleys cheek. The young co-eds right eye was

swollen shut, and a large bruise spread down the side of herface. Blunt-force trauma, Reeves would soon describe inher police report, her cop voice kicking in. There is a pool ofblood on her pillow.The girls face was surrounded by longbrown hair sopping with blood. Probable cause exists thatYeardley Love was murdered.

Ofcers arriving at the apartment quickly cordoned offthe area. This was no alcohol poisoning; this was a crimescene. Reeves relayed to her superiors the grisly news: The

victim, a star lacrosse player on the universitys womensteam, was dead, pronounced while still in her apartment,wearing nothing but the panties in which rst respondershad discovered her. The death was clearly violent. Ofcersquickly descended on the scene and began gathering evi-dence. They started by interviewing Whiteley, Yeardleyslongtime friend, roommate and teammate, and Oudshoorn,a player on the UVA mens tennis team who was along forthe gruesome discovery.

Violent crime was rare enough in Charlottesville, withfewer than 250 cases reported in 2009, but violent death was

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All-American Murder 5

rarer still, stirring in the police force a mixture of shock andcuriosity. Reeves tried to tease details from Yeardleys in-consolable roommates, one of whom had rushed to the frontyard and was wailing on a cell phone to a friend. The storythey weaved in between tears was like something out of a

Lifetimemovie: Yeardley had been in a rocky relationship,they said, and things had gotten progressively worse in re-cent days; you need to talk to her boyfriend.

Yeardley had been dating twenty-two-year-old George

Huguely V, a handsome, six foot two midelder on the menslacrosse team, for about two years. Friends knew their rela-tionship had foundered lately, and some felt Huguely wasbecoming unhinged. He texted Yeardley often, keeping tabson her when she was out of town with teammates. Rumorscirculated that he had punched a fellow lacrosse player forwalking Yeardley home one night, possibly offering a good-night kiss, and others had to break up a ght between thecouple that had gotten so ugly, Yeardley had hit Huguely

with her purse.Yeardley had broken off the relationship a few weeks

prior, but to some, it was hard to tell. The two hung out inthe same crowd at the same bars, and when one friend askedYeardley the night before she died how things were withGeorge, Yeardley had replied vaguely that things were thesame as always.

As Reeves set out to nd Huguely, Charlottesville Police Sgt.

Steve Dillon, a forensic detective, took photos of the scene, atypical bedroom in a nondescript apartment building situ-ated about half a mile from the heart of campus. Yeardleysroom largely looked like any other college students, completewith strewn-about clothing. Dillon carefully documented eachangle he could think of, taking special care to photographthe hole in the bedroom door, which Dillon noticed had littlebits of hair clinging to its jagged edges. Reeves, meanwhile,learned that Huguely lived on the same street, just one build-

ing down. The roommates story had been a little hard tofollow, but what the ofcer gleaned was this: Yeardley had

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6 Amber Hunt

tried to call off their relationship because Huguely wouldsometimes drink too much and get violent. Huguely, Reevesgathered, didnt like that plan.

Ofcers had no trouble nding Huguely just a buildingaway, in his apartment inside a brick building on 14th StreetNorthwest, near its T-junction with Sadler Street. It was stilldark outside, still the middle of the night, when he agreed toanswer questions at the police department. He wore a blackT-shirt ironically adorned with a police logo on the front and

back, his brown ip-ops and blue Nike shorts appropriatefor the spring Charlottesville weather. It had reached 82 de-grees the day before; even when bar hopping after sunset, thecollege kids often left their jackets behind and simply woreT-shirts. After reaching the police department less than twomiles from his house, George waived his Miranda rights,saying he was willing to talk. Police secretly set up a videocamera to record the conversation. He acknowledged that hehad the right to an attorney and the right to keep silent; he

invoked neither, Reeves would report. He seemed shakenand distressed, and as he began to tell his story, he admittedthat he had been to see Yeardley. As he described the nightsevents, he used the passive language that cops so often hearfrom culpritsdamning enough to admit some culpability,but distant enough to shirk full blame.

Yes, hed fought with Yeardley, George told Reeves. Hesaid the couple had ended their relationship of about twoyears, and the last few days they had chatted primarily over

e-mail. George said he had gone to Yeardleys apartment andkicked her bedroom door in, but he had just wanted to talk.Things got out of hand. He shook her, and her head hit thewall. He noticed blood pouring from her nose. He pushed heronto the bed and left. He didnt know she was seriously hurt,he said. He had been injured himself, he said, motioning toscrapes along his right legthe type that one would get bykicking in a door. Reeves noticed some other scrapes andbruises on Georges arms and hands. He shook those off

they were from lacrosse, not the ght, he claimed. It wasimpossible for Reeves to know if George was being com-

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All-American Murder 7

pletely forthcoming. When confessing, criminals oftendownplay their crimes, turning intentional acts into acci-dents and using slippery language to minimize their involve-ment. George could have been doing the same. He didntbang Yeardleys head against the wall; rather, her head re-peatedly hit the wall as he shook her. George did, however,admit to stealing an Apple laptop from Yeardleys room andtossing it in a Dumpster. Reeves asked him where, so ofcerscould retrieve it when the interview was over.

Huguely repeatedly asked Reeves how Yeardley was,defense lawyers told a judge months later. An hour into theinterrogation, Reeves nally told him that Love was dead.

Shes dead, George, Reeves said, according to the law-yer. You killed her.

Huguely was shocked, his attorney said, and replied, Shesdead? Shes not dead . . . You guys said she had a black eye.I never did anything that would do that to her.

With his statement, Reeves knew she had plenty of proba-

ble cause to arrest George Huguely V on suspicion of murder.By the interviews end, she likely sensed, too, that the caseseemed tailor made for media consumption. Reporters had al-ready gotten word about the story, and local scribes had gath-ered down the street, trying to interview neighbors overthe sirens and wails that shattered the early-morning calm.Yeardleys friends clutched each other and cried in disbelief.

The rst news release on the death was distributed by theCharlottesville Police Department before sunrise. Its con-

tents were sparse:

On the morning of May 3rd, 2010, at 0215 hours, City

Police were called to 222 14th ST N.W. apartment num-

ber 9 for a possible alcohol overdose. Ofcers arrived

and found a female University of Virginia Student unre-

sponsive in the apartment. Police Ofcers and Rescue

personnel who were called to the scene attempted to re-

vive the victim but were unsuccessful.

Police are treating the case as a homicide investiga-tion at this time.

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8 Amber Hunt

Victim identication is being withheld at this timepending notication of next of kin. Further information

will be released later today. Until such time, no other

information will be made available to the public or the

media.

The release ended with a bolded plea for people with in-formation to either call police or the Crime Stoppers tip line.

Local reporters with Charlottesville outlets got that initial

word and headed straight to 14th Street Northwest. A reporterand photographer from the C-VILLE Weekly, a 24,000-circulation alternative weekly largely dedicated to arts andentertainment in the lively college town, but whose reporterskept readers abreast of breaking news online, were quickly onthe scene. Reporter Brendan Fitzgerald wasnt sure what typeof story the paper would want when he joined the coverage bymid-morning. The sketchy information released by police sofar raised far more questions than answers.

Its hard to predict what kind of coverage youre gearingup for, but it raises a different set of questions that informpossible stories when you hear its a homicide rather than analcohol overdose, Fitzgerald later recalled.

The ambiguity didnt last long. Shortly after noon, themedia received an update: George Huguely V had alreadybeen questioned and was in custody. That news release hadmore informationincluding Yeardleys name and standingat the school:

Regarding the death of a University of Virginia student

occurring this morning at 222 14th ST N.W. Apartment

Number 9, the victim has been identied as 22 year old,

Yeardley Love. Ms. Love was a fourth year University of

Virginia student from Cockeysville, Maryland and is on

the Universitys Womens Lacrosse Team.

Preliminary investigation by detectives revealed that

Ms. Love is the victim of an apparent homicide. She suf-

fered visible physical trauma, however the specic causeof her death is undetermined pending an autopsy.

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All-American Murder 9

George Huguely, 22, a fourth year student at the Uni-versity of Virginia from Chevy Chase MD has been

charged with First Degree Murder and is in custody at

the Charlottesville/Albemarle jail. He is a player for the

Universitys Mens Lacrosse Team.

According to witnesses, Huguely and Love had a past

relationship.

Charlottesville Police are continuing to investigate the

case and will provide more details as they become avail-

able

About 12:30 p.m., an update was posted to C-VILLEsWeb site, including a photo of city police vehicles surround-ing the scene at 14th Street Northwest. Fitzgerald, who hadbeen helping to weave coverage at a desk, left to join col-league Chiara Canzi at the scene soon after. The local me-dia had long been gathered, chit-chatting as they waited forthe scant updates.

There were a few camera crews awaiting across thestreet from Yeardley Loves apartment building, Fitzgeraldrecalled, and we all made a couple of attempts to speak withpeople on the street, people walking by. Not a lot of peoplewere talking.

Fitzgerald didnt know then just how silent the campuswould become.

While reporters awaited word, detectives behind the scenes

were beginning to ll out the obligatory paperwork for searchwarrants, using the stilted language in which ofcers aretrained to write. In a court request asking for permission tosearch Georges black Chevrolet Tahoe, Reeves wrote: Yourafant knows from training and experience that persons in-volved in crimes of domestic violence often view propertythat was given to a partner being forfeited back to the giver atthe termination of the relationship. Reeves wanted to checkinside the SUV to see if George had any of Yeardleys belong-

ings inside. The request was quickly granted. Georges apart-ment was searched, as was Yeardleys bedroom. By days end,

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ofcers had collected dozens of items as evidence, includingswabs of red stains in Yeardleys bedroom, her cell phone,and her digital camera. They bagged a note on Yeardleysbureau in which Huguely apologized for an earlier ght andwrote, You are my best friend. They also recovered herlaptop from the Dumpster where Huguely said he had tossedit, and from Huguely, they took DNA samples, ngernailscrapings, his clothing, and his keys.

Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo and Lieuten-

ant Gary Pleasants tag teamed to eld the dozens of mediaqueries that ooded the police department, a small forcehoused in a brick building connected to the district court onMarket Street. When appearing on television, their updateswere brief and heartfelt. Clearly, the discovery of Yeardleysbattered body was unlike anything the ofcers had seenbefore.

Asked by reporters if he had experienced a death scenelike Yeardleys before, Longo somberly answered, In the nine

years that Ive been privileged to serve as chief of police inthis community, I have not.

The questions reporters posed were predictable: Why hadYeardleys roommate reported that she might have passedout from heavy drinking? Did alcohol play a role in the death?Why would George have attacked the young woman? Werethere any warning signs that went unheeded? Longo andPleasants answered obliquely, citing the early stages of theinvestigation and their desire not to screw it up.

Were not going to go into any specics, Pleasants toldreporters. There are too many accounts, and we have half adozen detectives working on it. Longo, meanwhile, told aBaltimore radio station that he couldnt speculate on whyWhiteley rst reported alcohol overdose when she found thebody. Yeardleys injuries were obvious to ofcers who re-sponded, he said, but he added that by the time ofcers ar-rived, Yeardleys body had been moved. It was no longer facedown in a pillow, and there was no hiding the bruises and

blood on her face.By early afternoon, the story already had reached far be-

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yond Charlottesville. Interview requests came pouring infrom national media outlets, and television personalitiessuch as Nancy Grace and Dan Abrams were beginning toopine about the case. Charlottesville police were inundatedwith questions wanting to know whether Huguely could becharacterized as cooperative, remorseful, or reticent.

He was upset by the situation he found himself in butwas cooperative with police, a department spokesman toldreporters.

Reporters tracked down the phone number for Yeardleysfamily home in suburban Baltimore, where a woman identi-fying herself as a designated spokesman politely repeatedthat the family had no comment. Sharon Love, Yeardleysmother, immediately drove to Charlottesville with daughterLexie, Yeardleys older sister. Longo told reporters that Sha-ron was in a state of shock.

She was very gracious and thankful to investigators, hetold one New Yorkbased reporter. The family wants to be

left alone to grieve and mourn . . . I can only imagine whatMs. Love is going through.

Huguelys parents were also believed to be headed toCharlottesville, so reaching them by phone would be next toimpossible. But the Washington Postmanaged to reach hisgrandfather, George Huguely III, by phone. He was a won-derful child and he was going to graduate, the elder Huguelysaid. Hopefully he will be graduating. Thats all I can tellyou, OK? Im sorry.

John Casteen III, the universitys president, released aheartfelt statement that described the anger welling in manyat the senseless death. He described Yeardley as a studentwith uncommon talent and promise.

That she appears now to have been murdered by anotherstudent compounds this sense of loss by suggesting that Yeard-ley died without comfort or consolation from those closest toher, Casteen said. We mourn her death and feel anger onreading that the investigators believe that another student

caused it.Yeardley didnt deserve it, he continued.

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12 Amber Hunt

However little we may know now about Yeardley Lovesdeath, we do know that she did not have or deserve to diethat she deserved the bright future she earned growing up,studying here, and developing her talents as a lacrosseplayer, he said. She deserves to be remembered for her hu-man goodness, her capacity for future greatness, and not forthe terrible way in which her young life has ended.

By Tuesday, as reporters packed a cramped courtroom tocatch their rst glimpse of a young man charged with rst-

degree murder, this much was clear: Yeardley Loves deathwould impact far more than her family or even just the thou-sands in and around Charlottesville, Virginia. Her name andher story were destined to reverberate throughout the country.

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