Police have arrested 22-year-old UVA men’s lacrosse player George Huguely and charged him with first degree murder in the death of Yeardley Love, a fellow UVA fourth year and a member of the women’s lacrosse team. Love was discovered in her apartment at 222 14th Street at around 2:15am by one of her two roommates, who called 911.Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Police Chief Tim Longo says that while emergency responders initially believed they would be dealing with an alcohol overdose, upon arrival they realized the situation was more serious.
There was “obvious” trauma to Love’s body, Longo says, and efforts to revive her failed. Longo says he doesn’t believe a weapon was involved, and says a cause of death will be determined following an autopsy.
Love and Huguely had been in a relationship, Longo says, however the nature of that relationship and its status as of last night are focal points of the investigation. Longo says he does not believe Huguely has a criminal record and says Love had not sought a restraining order against Huguely— nor had police been called to the apartment for previous domestic disturbances.
The crime has stunned the university community, which for the past week had been celebrating the men’s lacrosse team’s ACC Championship victory.
“We’re torn apart by the news of Ms. Love’s death,” says UVA athletic director Craig Littlepage, who joined Longo and UVA’s Leonard Sandridge at the press event.
“That shock and disappointment and concern is magnified by the fact she could have been murdered by one of our own,” added Sandridge, who promised investigators the school’s full support and expressed gratitude that an arrest was made so quickly.
“Uncertainty and not knowing is very difficult,” said Sandridge, perhaps thinking of Morgan Harrington, who disappeared after attending a concert at John Paul Jones Arena in October and whose death remains an unsolved crime more than three months after her body was discovered on an Albemarle County farm.
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