Austin Cloyd
Cloyd was an international studies major from Blacksburg, Va., according to Terry Harter, senior pastor at First United Methodist Church in Champaign, Ill., where Cloyd and her family lived before moving to Blacksburg. According to the New York Times, Austin Cloyd grew up in Champaign, Ill., where her father, Bryan Cloyd, taught accounting at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; she excelled in volleyball and basketball and was active in the First United Methodist Church in Champaign, sometimes going on missions to Appalachia to help renovate homes, said Terry Harter, senior pastor.
Cloyd's mother served as an administrative assistant and director of youth ministries at First United, Harter said according to the Times, until the family moved to Blacksburg in 2005 when Cloyd's father took a position as professor of accounting and information systems at Virginia Tech.
—AP