Search and rescue divers from the Virginia State Police waded through waist-high muck at the Virginia Tech Duck Pond on Tuesday, but authorities won't confirm if they're looking for evidence from the April 16 shootings.
About 11 divers entered the water just after 8 a.m. Tuesday and spent the day scouring the half-drained pond with their hands and metal detectors. A state police spokesman said he couldn't provide any details about their hunt and joked that it was "top secret."
"I'm not sure how long they're going to be here," Sgt. Bob Carpentieri said.
"I guess they'll stay out here until they get tired," he said.
Carpentieri said he suspects that most people already know why the divers are at the pond. Many people among a deluge of onlookers Tuesday suggested that divers were looking for the hard drive of shooter Seung-Hui Cho's laptop. It was reported last week that the device had yet to be retrieved.
A panel appointed by the governor to investigate the Tech shootings was told that a witness told police that Cho was near the pond between 8:10 and 8:20 a.m. the day of the shootings. Police searched the area for evidence after the shooting but did not reveal why at the time.
Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski said he didn't know what investigators expected to find.
"I guess they'll know what they're looking for when they find it," he said.
After investigators are finished, the university will assess the pond, including its dam, for repairs, Owczarski said. The pond, created in 1937 by the damming of a creek, has not been fixed in 18 years, he said.
State police approached the university about searching the pond about a week ago, and most of the pond was drained Monday. No one knows how long it will take the pond to empty.
The divers, covered in grime and falling into quicksandlike mud, searched both the drained areas and those that are still underwater. Another trooper recorded their efforts on a laptop, but Carpentieri would not say what, if anything, they found.
"They might have found a little walkie-talkie," he said, adding that the device would likely be turned over to Virginia Tech police.
The investigation, complete with yellow crime tape surrounding the pond, attracted passers-by who took time to snap photos of the effort.
Velma Thompson, a longtime employee at Tech, said she was shocked to see the water draining when she went to work Tuesday morning. She tries to stroll around the pond most afternoons at lunch. This time, though, few ducks waddled around her.
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is working with Tech to help safely move the animals living in and around the pond.
