Sordid details emerge, although motive not clear.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Sordid details are emerging in the tragic case of 21 year-old pre-med senior Samanata Shrestha, a student at Virginia Tech who was found murdered this past weekend.
Search warrants were issued on Wednesday that have uncovered some of the events that led to Shrestha’s demise on Saturday, February 8.
According to investigators, Shrestha and her roommate, Jessica Michelle Ewing, 22, were friendly and got along quite well, but had a very heated argument of some kind over the weekend. They were last seen together at 11:30 PM on Friday night.
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Another roommate of Shrestha, Gayathri Cheran, told investigators later on that she had returned to the apartment she shared with Shrestha and Ewing and found several things strange. There were several objects missing, including wine glasses and a notebook, along with a sleeping bag.
In the hours leading up to Ewing’s arrest on Monday, she allegedly told people that she had “done something terrible,” but wouldn’t reveal exactly what that was. A friend of hers told investigators that Ewing asked her “If I tell you what I did last night, would you still love me?”
The friend then said that Ewing confessed to her, saying rather simply “I killed that girl.”
Although a motive is still not entirely clear, it appears that the argument led Ewing to shoot Shrestha, killing her. She then called up two young men – Keifer Kyle Brown and Michael Christian Heller, both 23 and under arrest as well – to help her hide the body. They did this by stuffing Shrestha’s corpse into a sleeping bag and taking it off-campus, where they hid it in Shrestha’s black 2004 Mercedes-Benz.
Brown was a recent graduate in interdisciplinary studies from Virginia Tech, while Heller was simply a local townie from Blacksburg. The latter was released from jail on a $3,000 bond, while Brown and Ewing are being held without bond. Brown is at Montgomery County Jail, while Ewing is at Western Virginia Regional Jail.
Brown allegedly was requested by Ewing to help her get Shrestha’s car keys and other personal effects, apparently to make it seem like she had decided to leave somewhere with her boyfriend. Heller was then involved and was the one who drove her car to where police found it – by the side of a nearby road, abandoned.
Police documents also reveal the disturbing fact that Shrestha’s phone was apparently in use on Tuesday, with several people getting text messages from Shrestha’s mobile number. Investigators have been granted access to her phone records, and are looking into this development.
The Virginia Tech community is ravaged by the loss of Shrestha. She was a popular, studious girl, who was in a sorority and had a boyfriend at the time of her passing. Just days before she died, she found out that she had gotten into medical school, taking her one step closer to her life’s ambition of becoming a doctor.
Shrestha’s family, who also tragically lost their older daughter in Nepal in 2008, is putting together arrangements for a funeral in northern Virginia. A vigil was held at Virginia Tech this week for the popular, bright, and beautiful fallen student.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com