Continuing Coverage by:

Tech Town Still Feels Massacre

April 15, 2008

By Darryl Slater

BLACKSBURG, Va. — On April 16, Tommy McDearis was one of the first people at the hospital bedside of Emily Hilscher.

Hilscher, whom Seung-Hui Cho shot in her dorm room that morning, was the first of Cho's victims at Virginia Tech that day.

McDearis had grappled with death for years. He studied grief ministry and worked at a funeral home before becoming the senior pastor at Blacksburg Baptist Church. He had sat at dozens of hospital bedsides.

But never like this. Hilscher was 19, a freshman at Virginia Tech. She had a big smile and loved riding horses.

She was unconscious and unresponsive when McDearis got to her room. He stood over her and prayed as she slipped away.

Tomorrow, McDearis will hold a special worship service before leading a procession from the church onto campus for a candlelight vigil at dusk.

The connection between Tech and Blacksburg always has been strong. The downtown business district abuts the campus, and the town's population balloons during the school year from about 40,000 to 70,000.

Two students who died in the shootings attended McDearis' church — Austin Cloyd and Caitlin Hammaren.

McDearis says that day, April 16, was the most difficult he has experienced as a pastor. A chaplain for the Blacksburg Police Department, he rushed to Norris Hall to counsel officers just as they began removing bodies from the building, where Cho killed 30 people and himself.

McDearis later helped notify about 20 families that their loved ones were dead.

When he got home, about 2:30 a.m., he laid on the couch and cried himself to sleep. He still could hear the screams of the victims' families.

 

A year later, few people in Blacksburg have a better grasp on the town's recovery from April 16 than McDearis. He continues to bridge the gap between the school and the town, counseling officers and victims' families, though not as often as he did immediately after the shootings.

"Some days are worse than others," McDearis said. "The closer we are getting to April 16, the more things are weighing on people."

The town is taking a modest approach to the anniversary. Town offices will be closed, but no official ceremonies are scheduled.

"That's sort of the students' day, Virginia Tech's day," Mayor Ron Rordam said.

McDearis will hold a worship service tomorrow at 6:15 p.m., before the school's vigil, in conjunction with several other downtown churches. Thirty-two U.S. flags, recognizing each victim, will again fly in front of Blacksburg Baptist, just as they did after the shootings when the congregation put the flag poles on the front lawn.

A flag company originally donated them to the police department, hoping it would pass them along to the school.

Neither had the time nor space for them. They flew at Blacksburg Baptist until the last week of August, just before Tech's football season opener. But the weather frayed them, and the church decided to take them down. McDearis wants to give the new flags that fly this week to the victims' families.

 

Around Blacksburg, most prominent reminders of April 16 are gone, though a maroon banner with "WE ARE VIRGINIA TECH" emblazoned on it still hangs above the main entrance to University Mall, about a mile from downtown.

Another banner — WE ARE HOKIES. WE WILL PREVAIL! — hung in front of Cook's Cleaning Center on Main Street until the elements wore it out, and Cook's owner Nancy Alcorn took it down in August.

Alcorn, 51, grew up a half mile from Tech's football stadium and 24 years ago took over Cook's, which her grandfather started in the 1950s.

Alcorn, who has lived through the town's ebb and flow of triumph and tragedy, will hang her banner again tomorrow — but only in her business' front window and only for a day.

"I don't think it needs to be stretched out any more than that," she said. "It needs to be remembered, but you've got to move on."

Contact Darryl Slater at (804) 649-6026 or dslater@timesdispatch.com.