UVA Lacrosse Death: More Details on George Huguely and Yeardley Love

The University of Virginia community continues to deal with the Monday death of lacrosse team member Yeardley Love and the allegations that mens lacrosse player George Huguely killed her.

There are new allegations of past troubled behavior between Huguely and Love and a fuller picture of Huguely's pampered lifestyle and privileged upbringing.

But on campus, the bulk of the attention today is in giving Love a proper goodbye.

We'll start with the latest developments and then get you caught up on the entire case.

UNC Players Recall Troubling Incident

The Washington Post reported Thursday night of another story in a pattern of violence between Huguely and Love. This one was two months ago.

Two University of North Carolina players said they intervened to separate Huguely from Love at party on the UVA campus in Charlottesville.

The UNC players were in town visiting friends.

Recent Violence

The New York Daily News reported Friday of a recent incident, this one more violent, where Huguely blacked out after attacking Love.

A former Virginia student who was friends with both Love and Huguely told the Daily News of a night where Huguely attacked Love, then had no memory of the incident the next day.

"He was really messed up and punched a window of a car on the way over to her apartment that night," the friend said, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of consideration for Love's family.

The friend said Huguely had been seen breaking bottles at another party before Love's death and had told people he was going to her apartment to get Love back.

Love Tells Family

A member of the Love family said that Love told them during a talk in March that Huguely was "aggressive," according to the Washington Post.

"But she said nothing more," he said. "I didn't think anything of it."

A Life of Pampering and Privilege

More information is coming to light on Huguely's past, even as the family closes ranks.

The Washington Examiner reported Thursday that Huguely is the fifth generation member of a family that helped build the upper-class Chevy Chase community.

The Huguely's have supplied lumber and construction supplies to area builders, homeowners, and government agencies for close to a century.

George W. Huguely, Sr., co-founded Galliher & Huguely in Northwest Washington in 1912 and bought out his partner in 1929.

The family was very private but enjoyed the trappings of their wealth. They once owned an estate on the South River in Annapolis, but sold the land that was developed into the exclusive Fishing Creek Farm.

The family also owns a home in the beachfront community of Manalapan, Fla.

Huguely's father, George IV, is a real estate developer and property manager.

George V reportedly had a job lined up at one of Washington's top real estate development firms.

He was the first of the family to attend the ultra-exclusive Landon School in Bethesda.

Honoring Yeardley

The UVA community is rallying together today to attend a wake for Love in Baltimore.

Both the men's and women's lacrosse teams will attend the wake today and the funeral Saturday.

Meanwhile, two memorial funds have been set up to honor Love—one at her high-school alma mater, Notre Dame Prep in Baltimore, and one by the UVA Lacrosse Alumni Network through the Virginia Athletic Foundation.

The hope is to build a $500,000 endowment for the UVA fund to give a yearly scholarship to a deserving student athlete.

Officials say the UVA fund is already over $100,000 and building.

How Did This Happen?

Police responded to Love's apartment three blocks away from the UVA campus at 2:15 a.m. Monday, where they found Love already dead, her body bloodied after an apparent struggle.

Three hours later, the trail of evidence led to Huguely's apartment, where he was arrested at 6 a.m.

Huguely appeared by videoconference Tuesday, at a court hearing, wearing a gray-striped jail uniform.

He was silent during discussions between his lawyer and the judge and there was no discussion of bond for him.

The Investigation Begins

When Love's roommate first discovered the 22-year-old, she called 911 fearing that Love was suffering from alcohol poisoning. Her face was, reportedly, head down in her bed.

When police arrived and turned the body over in Love's bedroom, they quickly saw signs of foul play.

The arrest affidavit said Love was found with chin scrapes, a large facial bruise, and an eye swollen shut—as she lay in a pool of blood on the pillow.

Police questioning of Love's friends and family led them to Huguely, who went to the police station voluntarily for questioning.

The First Clues of a Volatile Relationship

The reason police zeroed in on Huguely so quickly is that the two have reportedly been dating on and off for the last 12 to 15 months.

ABC News reported that friends told investigators that the duo first appeared to be the All-American athlete pairing, but that the relationship soured and became more yoyo—on-again, off-again—toward the Fall.

Part of the evidence uncovered by police reportedly includes a death threat made to Love via e-mail.

New Evidence of a Struggle

Huguely has told investigators that a struggle occurred at the apartment, that he kicked in the door to her bedroom, that he did grab her head and hit it repeatedly against the wall.

That led Charlottesville police chief Tim Longo (pictured) and attorneys to feel confident enough to charge Huguely with first-degree murder.

Documents released Tuesday describe, " ... the door to Love’s bedroom had been forced open and had a hole in it that appeared to have been made by a fist.”

He admitted to stealing Love’s laptop and trying to dispose of it. Police found the laptop with Huguely’s help and are searching the hard drive for evidence.

Police reportedly also found a crimson-stained lacrosse jersey and a letter to the victim in Huguely’s apartment.

The Charlottesville Daily Progress reports the items were taken from George Huguely's apartment during a search on Monday by Charlottesville police.

Attorney: This Was an Accident

Huguely's attorney, Francis McQ. Lawrence (pictured) told reporters Tuesday that the incident was an accident and that his client did not mean to kill Love.

"We are confident that Ms. Love's death was not intended, but an accident with a tragic outcome," Lawrence said outside the Albemarle County Courthouse in Charlottesville.

A Vigil to Start the Healing

The University of Virginia community held a vigil to honor Love’s life Wednesday night in the campus amphitheater.

Friends and family told stories of their love and affection for Yeardley to an overflow crowd of grieving students.

President John Casteen urged students to speak out and be aware of their surroundings.

"My hope for Yeardley and for you is that her dying inspires an anger, a sense of outrage that no woman need ever fear for their safety," Casteen said.

UVA Student Council President Colin Hood echoed Casteen’s wishes.

"Help one another. The person to your left, the person to your right everyone in this amphitheater and beyond. Leave tonight with knowledge that the blows and the abuse that somehow ended Yeardley's life threaten all of us," said Hood.

Who is George Huguely?

Huguely is a former All-American lacrosse player from Chevy Chase, Maryland.
He graduated from the Landon School in Bethesda.

Teammates were mostly quiet Tuesday, but according to ABC News, friends of Huguely told reporters that the 22-year-old is a popular and gregarious kid.

Another side of his personality became clear as well, as some students said Huguely had a bad temper, that the relationship with Love had gotten volatile lately and that Huguely was a vulgar and obnoxious borderline alcoholic.

A History of Alcohol-Induced Idiocy

Huguely has shown an alarming history of abusing alcohol.

Court documents obtained by reporters Tuesday from Rockbridge County, Va., show Huguely was convicted of resisting arrest and public intoxication in 2009 stemming from an incident in November 2008.

Huguely was tasered and arrested during the incident outside a frat house.
The punishment was six months probation and a $100 fine.

Huguely threatened to kill everyone at the police department after the 2008 arrest, and was "by far the most rude, most hateful and most combative college kid I ever dealt with," the arresting officer told the New York Times.

Oddly enough, Huguely has a connection to the last big national scandal involving lacrosse.

Several of the players involved in the Duke scandal attended Landon.

“They’ve been scrutinized so hard and no one knows what has happened yet. In this country, you’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty,” Huguely told the Washington Post in 2006. “I think that’s the way it should be.”

More Drinking Problems

The Washington Examiner reported Thursday that Huguely (No. 11) also had issues with police in Florida.

He was charged with possession of alcohol by a minor in 2007 in Palm Beach County, where his family has a home in Manalapan.

A year later, he was in trouble again.

A 2008 Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office report details an incident in which Huguely got into a "very heated," argument with his father and cousin on a 40-foot fishing boat.

Deputies said Huguely tried to go back to the beach and actually dove off the boat and tried to swim the quarter-mile of choppy Atlantic Ocean water back to shore.

A passing vessel picked him up. No arrests were made.

UVA: We Didn't Know

The Washington Post reported Thursday that UVA officials had no clue of Huguely's past arrests and problems with alcohol.

Current policy relies on students to report arrests themselves, but UVA officials said Thursday they will now start screening students against public records.
Huguely likely would have been sent for counseling and been suspended from the lacrosse team.

According to The Post, Huguely is among eight of 41 students on the lacrosse team with alcohol-related arrests on their records.

The team has a no-tolerance policy against alcohol abuse, but, "alcohol and lacrosse have gone hand-in-hand since my days at Brown in the 1970s," the team's coach told The Post.

Casteen said Thursday he wants to change UVA's screening process immediately, but the idea has met resistance from local law enforcement officials.

Yeadley Love: The Victim

The victim here, the 22-year-old Love, was born in Baltimore in July 1987.
Her uncle, Granville Swope, was an All-American lacrosse student-athlete at Virginia.

Friends say that the game and UVA became a goal very early on in her high school days.

Swope spoke to CBS News Wednesday.

"She liked to call me Uncle Granny. That was as good as it gets,” said Swope, who said he last saw Love six weeks ago at one of her games.

"We enjoyed the game, we enjoyed everything about it. She loved the University of Virginia, which I do too."

She was a four-year member of the varsity lacrosse and field hockey teams at Notre Dame Prep before heading off to UVA.

Love made a big splash, scoring a goal in her first collegiate game with the Cavaliers.

Working for the Dream

Love was far from the star of the team, but according to ABC News, recently told the UVA athletics website that playing for the Cavaliers was the realization of a childhood dream.

She was one of the most gentle, compassionate, kind, and loving people I have ever known,” said Drew Jordan, a friend of Love in an interview with FoxNews.com.

Mary Bartel, who coached Love at Notre Dame Prep, told FoxNews.com that Love was a “great athlete and a pleasure to coach.”

“Yeardley was fun-loving, happy-go-lucky,” she said. ”There was not a mean cell in her body.”

“She was a beautiful girl,” added Catherine Meredith of Cockeysville, Md., a neighbor of the Love family and a former substitute teacher at the preparatory school where she once attended.

Kathy Solomon, Yeardley's aunt, told the Washington Post that Love was a hard worker with strong morals and a tireless desire to excel.

"She worked during the summer. She babysat," Solomon said. "She earned her own spending money all the way through school."

The Teams Prepare to Carry On

Huguely played in 15 games this season for the top-ranked Cavaliers, registering four goals and three assists.

Love also played in 15 games this season, starting three for the fourth-ranked UVA women.

Both teams are favorites in the upcoming NCAA tournaments. School officials said late Tuesday that both teams are expected to begin play May 15-16.

The coaching staffs met Monday and decided to continue with the remainder of the season, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Both teams are likely to receive first-round home games in the tournament.
“We’re moving slowly and taking small steps,“ mens coach Dom Starsia told reporters Tuesday in what he said would be his only comment on the tragedy.

This is not the first tragedy the mens team has dealt with. Senior Will Barrow committed suicide in November 2008. Teammates still write Barrow's number 23 on their eye black in tribute.

The Next Step of the Grieving

While the case appears to be open and shut, the investigation continues.

First degree murder carries a sentencing range of 20 years to life in Virginia, Alexandra, Va., criminal defense attorney Chris Leibig told the New York Daily News.

Huguely is currently being held in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.

Love’s funeral is scheduled for Saturday.