Middle east. Thats what a group of local National Guard soldiers is preparing for. Its their first major deployment in almost six years. Wdbj7s tim saunders is live at the National Guard armory in campbell county. Handling weapons is a big departure from the civilian life Douglas Harris lives in lynchburg. In that world he manages insurance policies, but hes putting his career on hold to serve his country. Spc. Douglas harris virginia National Guard im actually excited. I have a great group of leaders to deploy with and fall under. Harris is one of 450 soldiers in the 1st battalion, 116th infantry who are preparing for deployment. Theyll be serving in the persian gulf country of qatar, where theyll be protecting other members of the military. It will be the fifth deployment for sergent first class James Bartels. Sfc James Bartels virginia National Guard each one presents its challenges and its fun working through those challenges. Perhaps the biggest challege, personally, is preparing his wife and children for his time away. Bartels making sure call if the sink breaks. I also want to make sure my children, as much as they can be, are prepared emotionally and physically as well. Giving up a year of civilian life is a personal sacrifice, but soldiers say it isnt without benefits. Spc. Taylor redmond virginia National Guard its going to be a Good Opportunity to progress my career, learn a lot, and develop myself. Qatar is not a combat zone, but soldiers say every mission carries its own unique risks. Lt. Col. Christopher samulski virginia National Guard as you see in the news, there are plenty of ways for anybody that wants to do ill will to the United States forces. And thats exactly why these soldiers are serving; to protect their fellow members of the military as they fight to protect our freedom. Redmond what were doing is participating in something that is a lot bigger than us, so while it may not be glorious i dont think anyone is questioning the importance of it. This mission will include about 450 soldiers from our region. They serve in units based in bedford, lexington, and christiansburg. For some it will be their first time on active duty. Soldiers will undergo more than 30 days of in texas before their active duty begins may 13th. Genworth financial is laying off 200 people in lynchburg. Those employees were notified today. The company says it will still have nearly onethousand employees in lynchburg. Last year Genworth Financial reported losses of 615 million dollars. The comapny is based in richmond. A spokesperson says genworth deeply regrets the impact this will have on its employees and families. Most employees will be paid for at least 60 days. Happening right now in danville people are gathering for a prayer and a community walk. This is a live picture of the event. Danville Regional Medical centers c eo organized the walk after a doctor was shot walking home from the hospital on monday night. A neighbor was also shot. Community leaders hope this walk will be a catalyst to stop crime in the city. A 30thousand dollar reward is being offered for information about the shooting that leads to murdering Nicole Lovell remains in jail tonight. David eisenhauers next Court Appearance is scheduled for next month. He was known at Virginia Tech and at his high school in maryland as a competitive and focused Cross Country runner, someone much different than the person described in court. Wdbj7s justin ward met another runner who says eisenhauer was helpful on the course. It was David Eisenhauers success as a track star in maryland that first caught the eye of alex malycke. Alex malycke runner i liked his attitude. He was very upbeat, very knowledgeable, very personable, very accomodating, almost like an ambassador from Virginia Tech. The two bonded on the course, first meeting in september. Malycke says he replaced eisenhauer in the november 6, 2015 hokie open after eisenhauer hurt his ankle. He says eisenhauer taught him where to pickup speed and slow down before the race. Alex malycke for about an hour he showed me how to negotiate the turns, how to get around the duck pond quick. I think he did a good job explaining how to get malycke ran unattached from any college team and came in last. He says eisenhauer was a humble leader and someone who was a good sport. Alex malycke you could always count on him at the very end of the race to be a great sportsman and give high fives to every single competitor all the way to the last runner. But the news of eisenhauers alleged involvement with Nicole Lovells death caught him off guard. Alex malycke i absolutely didnt believe it. His description of his encounters with eisenhauer dont match the man weve learned about in the courtroom. Eisenhauer is charged with first degree murder and the abduction of lovell. Prosecutors say he planned the murder with natalie keepers after talking with lovell on social media. Investigators were able to track the last messages on lovells phone to eisenhauer. He watched her climb out of her bedroom window and gave her a side hug, prosecutors say, and left to go to keepers dorm. Keepers told investigators she saw him kill lovell and put her in his lexus. Lovells body was later found in surry county, north carolina. Malycke says the he says he and several other people have pitched in to help eisenhauer post bail. No bond hearing has been set. In christiansburg, justin ward, wdbj7 weve been covering the investigation into lovells death all week. We found out in court yesterday, that the woman whos charged in that investigation, natalie keepers, has a history of cutting and anxiety. Wdbj7s nadia singh joins me tonight to talk more about this issue that impacts more people than you might realize. Jean, cutting is a form of selfharm that some use to deal with anxiety and other problems. Psychologists say cutting and anxiety can go handinhand. There are many misconceptions about selfharming, cutting and Mental Illness and crime. Wed like to address some of them. Dr. Lyn day its a stigmatizing concept to think that if youre mentally ill then youre more prone to violence or violent behavior, which is not true. Its a myth. Dr. Lyn day is a psychologist whos dealt with patients like in the Nicole Lovell death investigation. She also has a history of cutting. Cutters are internalizing their pain and internalizing their anger. They use the physical act of pain to distract them from the psychological pain. Keepers told a judge on thursday that she had a history of self harming. She even got this tattoo as part of a pact to never cut again. But self harm doesnt always mean violence to others. We worry about what their potential for suicide might be, for other acts of self injury or injury to others, not that cutters are necessarily homicidal human beings. Another aspect of cutters surrounds suicide. Keepers said that she did suffer from suicidal thoughts but its different for everyone. Most cutters are not suicidal, most cutters just want to mask their psychological pain with physical pain. Pain without dealing with it can be dangerous. Its a behavior that left untreated because of all the psychological dynamics under it can really blossom into a full blown personality disorder or other Serious Mental Health issues. Another misconception is that those that self harm struggle. In the case of natalie keepers, she had a packed resume which included an intership at nasashe wanted to follow in her dads footsteps and go into aerospace engineering. Nadia, what should parents and guardians be watching for . Withdrawn behavior, unexplained wounds or scars, a collection of sharp instruments, covering up and needing to be alone for long periods of time six some medical emergencies can now be handled by police if they arrive on scene before an ambulance can get there. Its no mystery whats going on in roanoke this weekend. A preview of animecon coming up. Hi im Dezarae Brown and im this weeks kidcaster. The space station will be flying overhead in just a few minutes at 6 12. You will want to look to the west. And make sure you bundle up because it after one Emergency Team made a major donation to another. Wdbj7s eamon omeara explains how the Christiansburg Police department obtained new tools for each of their cars. Nearly 50thousand dollars. Thats what christiansburg rescue spent to donate 35 new automatic external defibrilators, or aeds, to the police department. officer james belcher, Christiansburg Police department were very excited about it. Its another resource for us to cooperate with the rescue squad and help our citizens when theyre at their most need. joe coyle, christiansburg rescue chief its kind of a best practice in high performing ems systems to put aeds in police cars. It allows for Rapid Deployment of those devices to somebody whos suffering an out of hopital cardiac arrest. Now each marked vehicle in the force will have its own aed, something the Department Says they need several times per year. officer james belcher, Christiansburg Police department its a pretty frequent occurance. Anytime theres an unresponsive, possibly unbreathing, person in addition to rescue being dispatched a Police Officer is immediately dispatched as well. The rescue squad made the donation using funds from need for their own department. joe coyle, christiansburg rescue chief we issue a bill for ambulance transport, just like if you go to the hospital, we do the same things. We bill the Insurance Companies and those funds come in and theyre dedicated to enhancing the delivery of Emergency Services in the town of christiansburg. These new aeds are meant to help many more people than just someone who may be riding in the back of one of these cruisers. officer james belcher, Christiansburg Police department obviously if we had an in custody situation where we needed to use it that would make that a priority but it is more for on scene response. Having an officer beat an ambulance by just a minute or two with an aed could literally mean does that person walk out of the hospital in a week or do they go to the grave. Christiansburg it really makes the theyre already allows us to very quickly get those having an emergency. In christiansburg, eamon omeara wdbj7. Its one of the busiest days of the year for pizza delivery, restaurants and bars im talking about super bowl sunday at the Buffalo Wild Wings at valley view preparations for the big game started a couple weeks ago. Besides game day successful super bowl sunday means a lot of prep work and planning. Matt walters general manager sunday is typically the busiest take out day of the year for us. Weeks of preparation go into it. Well start planning and getting ready two weeks out, a lot of storage in the back to make room for all the extra product that we bring in. Remember to catch all the super bowl action right here on wdbj7. Coverage starts at 11 sunday morning. Kickoff is at 630. If you see some people dressed as furry animals or storybook heros and villans around town dont be alarmed. Star city anime is hosting the Second Annual roanoke animecon this weekend. Anime is a japanese style of cartoon, while regular comics are more americanized. The weekend includes classic videogaming, handmade items and plenty of cosplay. Con organizers are expecting upwards of 15hundred attendees, and say some drive four to six hours to get here. Bear star city anime board chairwoman were one of quite a few cons, star city is just one of our first ones, and weve built up a strong fan base in the sense of being family friendly, people knowing theyre going to bring their kids here and be safe, and theyre going to be able to have a good time, its a loyalty in a sense. Star city anime con runs through the end of the weekend at the holiday inn valley view. Have you made your weekend plans. It looks like the weather will cooperate nicely. Meteorologist robin reed has details. Here is a look at the highs, lows and precipitation at the regional airports. We are back with the complete first alert forecast after this locationsto jeans and a giving me a hard time all week about what im cooking for the super bowl this weekend and the answer to that is im not cooking anything but look at the cake i got today it richfield did they notice an extra effort there are Courses National weather persons Appreciation Day and they appreciated with his cool urges or just cake which tasted as good as it look out its not actually the correct matter at every town or whether possible we really appreciate the effort they went to haveresidents there about all the things they were interested in the weather. I can tell you that the ayres, super dry right now its only 38 and moneta but the main thing is the dewpoint only 13 against the relative humidity of very dry 37 . Also the dryer. We get the split in the temperatures much, much colder to the west and then when she traveled to the east. Its just a touch warmer but now tonight with the winds die down more uniform temperature profiles are expected so there will be a huge range between six hot springs in danville and that shows up here but at ingles fielded twenty danville at twenty three about twenty two and galax metalwork for bluefield is well under mainly clear skies are weekend planner is all about our friend High Pressure here to the south he put it in this position and you get a good block england they continue to be storms hugging the Coastal Region partly sunny skies expected and then on non sun they were in between two systems a cold front of the west and low pressure to the esa will go a partly sunny and about fifty 50 or so corona or sunday and met forecasts been holding pretty true just about all week long weve got ten numbers that are range from forty four to forty two to forty nine this is saturday now im not much change if he had up 81 the lexington i head over west to covington may all about the same forecast model it takes is all the way through super bowl sunday and as you can see what gets clouds hugging Central Virginia and thats about it everything to the west is looking a pretty clear and pretty good so its pretty done for you the next seven days and as we do you can see the saturday sunday profile looks pretty good with fair weather and good weather for the super bowl on monday now into a bit of a dicey dropping fromthe 40s down into the 20s and while thats happening. We think there will be an impact on that day with the possibly of some morning snow showers and then turning partly khadi on wednesday mostly sunny on thursday right up front is good for america but thats no big deal its pretty chilly, so weekend of those seven days i think were looking perfectly as amazing as i did it here or i know all Richfield Oil so we enjoyed it host clemson tomorrow in acc hoops action, 9th ranked virginia will be on the road at pittsburgh. The last time they played the panthers on the road two years ago, Malcolm Brogdon hit a buzzer beating three pointer to beat the panthers. Now the hoos go back for another big road test. Malcolm brogdon virginia senior guard loud, the fans seem right on the court. And pitt is just a very tough place to play in so its a good environment. Its crazy. Its crazy for sure. Tony bennett virginia head coach its been hard to get to this point. Weve got a tremendous opportunity and challenge coming up here at pitt but again, we know when were not right we can fall flat. Weve defensively the last few games. Weve taken good shots and weve had a level of patience. Weve rebounded better and thats the path that we need to be on and thats what we have to and its been hard to get here. Staying in the acc, louisville has self imposed a post season ban on its Basketball Team because of ncaa violations that allegedly occurred from 2010 to 2014, including some involving dancers and escorts that were provided to recruits. The ban means that transfers and leading scorers damion lee and trey lewis will miss out on the ncaa tournament. The school will also not participate in the acc tournament. Rick pitino louisville head coach damion and trey have nothing, nothing to look forward to future wise right now. They were hit over the head with a sledgehammer and theyre devastated as well as the rest of the team for actions that they werent involved with. They came her to go far in the tournament. Theyve done their jobs. Theyve captured the imagination of our fans and theyve led a Basketball Team with an attitude home games is all they have left and its up to our fans, our university, our administration to lift them up as high as they can me lifted along with rest of the members of this Basketball Team who have given me so much personal satisfaction and happiness. We are now just two days away from super bowl 50 between the broncos and panthers. Tonight our countdown to the big game continues with magna vista high schools number 2 jac hairston, the electrifying tailback, who was a huge part of the warriors back to back state titles. Earlier this week he signed a National Letter of intent to play at Coastal Carolina next season in the big south conference. Dont forget you can catch super bowl 50 right here on