The father of a 13-year-old Virginia girl who was found murdered has revealed that he found out about his daughter's death on TV.

David Lovell said authorities forgot to tell him before they told reporters that his missing daughter Nicole had been found dead.

But he added that he did not blame officials, saying that it was a 'screw-up' and they had apologized for the oversight.

During an episode of Dr. Phil that aired on Wednesday, Lovell also questioned whether the tragedy could have been avoided if he was more involved in his teenage daughter's life.

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David Lovell (pictured talking to Dr Phil) said authorities forgot to tell him before they told reporters that his missing daughter Nicole had been found murdered

Nicole Lovell, 13, vanished after sneaking out of her bedroom window in Blacksburg, Virginia, on January 27

Police say Nicole vanished after sneaking out of her bedroom window on January 27. Her body was found after a four-day search just over the state line in North Carolina and authorities say she was stabbed.

Virginia Tech student David Eisenhauer, 18, has been charged with abduction and first-degree murder in Nicole's death.

Another Virginia Tech student, Natalie Keepers, 19, is charged with accessory before and after the fact and with illegally dumping Nicole's body just across the state line in North Carolina.

Lovell told host Phil McGraw that police have not explained a possible motive for his daughter's death.

He also said he had raised concerns about his daughter's online conversations with older men, but partially blames himself for not putting an end to it.

'If I would've been there, maybe she wouldn't have went looking for acceptance from older guys,' said Lovell, who gripped a stuffed panda bear and wore a blue ribbon on his jacket in his daughter's memory throughout the hour-long episode.

'There's regrets that I have that I'll never get over.'

David Eisenhauer (pictured left) has been charged with abduction and first-degree murder in Nicole's death. Natalie Keepers (right) is charged with accessory before and after the fact

When shown a picture of Eisenhauer, David Lovell told MGraw that it's difficult to look at the man's face.

'I would like to get locked up in the same cell with him,' he said. 'I'm pretty sure I could get answers out of him. He took my little girl.'

Now, Lovell has pledged to make it his mission to ensure that parents know the dangers of social media.

He said he found out about his daughter's conversations with older men online before Christmas and her phone was taken away, but she later got it back.

'How can it go from being my wonderful, happy daughter to she was murdered a few days later? I talked to her about a week before she went missing and everything was normal. She was my little baby girl,' he said.

He said he wishes he could have done more.

'I wasn't there for her when she needed me,' he said, his voice quivering and tears in his eyes. 'There's no way to roll back the time.'

Clutching a stuffed panda, Lovell told Dr Phil that he knew about his daughter's online conversations with older men and had previously grounded her from her phone and all social media

Lovell and Nicole's mother Tammy Weeks are no longer together. His wife - Nicole's stepmother - Terri Lovell also appeared on Dr. Phil.

Authorities believe Nicole met Eisenhauer on anonymous messaging app Kik. Sources close to the investigation have revealed that the pair had an 'inappropriate relationship' and that he may have killed her to prevent her from revealing it.

A neighbor told The Associated Press recently that Nicole had told her eight-year-old friends before she vanished from her mother's home that she planned to sneak out to meet her 18-year-old 'boyfriend', a man she said was named David.

A friend and classmate told The Washington Post that Nicole had talked about running away and starting a family with Eisenhauer.

Natasha Bryant, 13, said she was unaware of his age at the time, but that Nicole had described Eisenhauer as 'funny and really nice' shortly before her disappearance in Blacksburg.

'She always talked of running away with him,' she said. 'She used to talk to a lot of older guys. A lot of people told her not to. I told her it's not safe. I told her she was going to be hurt or kidnapped or something.'

Nicole used social media to seek validation from strangers, said her father, after suffering years of bullying over the scars from a liver transplant she had at the age of five.

'You could tell these older guys had fake profiles,' Lovell told Dr. Phil. 'Some of the things they said were way too grown up for the picture they had.

Nicole's mother Tammy Weeks (left) leaves the Montgomery County Courthouse on Thursday, February 4

Meanwhile, more than 100 people gathered Monday evening in Blacksburg for a vigil in Nicole's memory. Weeks spoke to the crowd about her daughter, whom she called 'Coley'.

'As I stand here tonight, my family and I are broken,' Weeks said. 'God, I miss you, Coley.'

Friends and others who know Eisenhauer and Keepers have described them as motivated young people who seemed to have a bright future before their arrests.

But at a bond hearing last week for Keepers, Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Mary Pettit said the defendants met at a fast-food restaurant and carefully plotted Nicole's death.

Eisenhauer and Keepers, who both are from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, are being held without bond.

Their next court appearance is set for March 28. Neither the spokesman for the Blacksburg Police Department nor an attorney for Keepers immediately responded to an email seeking comment on Wednesday.

An attorney for David Eisenhauer said in an email this week that he is not commenting on the case.

Tim and Sara Keepers (left), the parents of Natalie Keepers, leave the Montgomery County Courthouse in Christiansburg on February 4