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Posted at 12:52 p.m., Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Dorm victim's roommate a key figure in investigation

By Greg Miller
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — They were roommates and best friends and they were planning to meet in their dorm room Monday morning to go to chemistry class together. Emily Hilscher got there first and was killed. Heather Haugh arrived minutes later and became a key figure in the chaos unfolding on the Virginia Tech campus.

Even before she entered the building, Haugh said Tuesday, she was pulled aside by police desperate for clues. The information she gave was accurate, but it inadvertently led police to pursue Hilscher's boyfriend while the real shooter was setting up for another attack.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Haugh said she knew of no connection between the killer and her roommate, or any reason why Cho Seung-Hui would have launched his deadly rampage on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston Hall.

"I've never seen him," she said. "I don't know his name. Emily didn't know him, as far as I know."

Haugh said that speculation that the killing spree was triggered by a domestic dispute likely stemmed from the fact that Hilscher's boyfriend was an avid gun user. She said that when she was first questioned by police, "they asked if her boyfriend had a gun or something."

She said she told the authorities that the boyfriend, Karl Thornhill, did have guns and that she and Hilscher had gone to a shooting range with him just a few weeks earlier. But she said she also told police that Hilscher and Thornhill got along well.

"The police asked if they had any problems, and they definitely don't," Haugh said. "He's just torn apart by all this. He's not a violent person at all."

SOME ANSWERS, MORE QUESTIONS

Haugh's account helps to fill some gaps in the events at Virginia Tech — in particular why police may have thought they had the situation under control — but it leaves other gaping holes, including why Hilscher was one of the first victims and what Cho's motive was.

"I have no idea," said Haugh, 18, a nutrition and exercise major from New Jersey. "I was asking myself the same question."

Haugh described her roommate as "a sweetheart. Definitely the best friend I ever had here. She has good friends, a perfect relationship with her boyfriend. She loved her family and talked to her mom all the time, every day. I'm going to miss her so much."

Haugh said she and Hilscher typically spent Sunday nights with their boyfriends but met at their dorm on Monday mornings to head to their 9 a.m. chemistry class. Hilscher typically arrived shortly after 7 a.m., while Haugh tended to make it back an hour or so later.

When she returned Monday, "I noticed all these police cars outside. They told me something happened on the fourth floor. I asked if I could call my roommate and they said no, that they would have a detective come talk to me."

INITIAL FOCUS ON ROOMMATE'S BOYFRIEND

Haugh said the first round of questioning focused on Hilscher and her boyfriend. When police asked if Thornhill owned firearms, she asked whether her roommate had been shot and "they said yes. I asked if she was going to be OK, and they said they didn't know."

Haugh said she was allowed to leave, only to be summoned back later that afternoon when police were pursuing a different suspect. "They didn't know who (the shooter) was, and they just asked me if (Hilscher) had any fights with Asian people and I said no and that I don't know anyone who would want to hurt her," she said.

She said the dorm room she shared with Hilscher was in an out-of-the-way location behind the elevator bank in the residence hall, an unlikely place for somebody to wander into at that hour of the morning.

"Maybe he followed her up," Haugh said, noting that Hilscher would have been arriving at the dorm around the time Cho is believed to have entered the building. Haugh said she had no evidence that this was what happened and noted that police did not share any theories with her about Cho's choice of that dorm.

Haugh said Hilscher, an animal- and poultry-sciences major, loved riding horses and was on the equestrian team at school. On her MySpace.com profile, Hilscher called herself "the pixie," which family members said was a reference to her diminutive size. She also had a tattoo of a pixie, Haugh said.

Haugh said Hilscher's side of the dorm room was decorated with photos of her boyfriend and her family. She said she had not been allowed back into the room since the attacks and that she would rely on others to retrieve her belongings.

"I'm never going back," Haugh said.