Her smile shines out of the pictures posted on the Facebook website under the title of “Why Emily Hilscher was cooler than me”.

The girl who is believed to have obsessed the Virginia Tech killer, Cho Seung Hui - and may have been his first victim - had a lot of friends. More than 200 had posted tributes on the website today.

Ella Miller, an old class mate, wrote: “I remember her untieing my shoes with a fork, when we played in the woods around her house in the club house, going to the beach with her and her family. Spending the night at her house and staying up late playing cards, her teaching me how to play the saxaphone, summer crab feasts, swimming in the river, jumping on trampolines in the rain, backstreet boys concert, her putting worms on her nose lol...and it wasn’t just her personality - she was gorgeous!!”

Photographs on the same website show a pretty young woman, preparing for a toga party, going on an 8th grade field trip, and arriving at her high school prom. Described as a straight “A” student, Ms Hilscher, 18, spent most of her free time horse riding and hoped to become a vet.

”I’m interested in pretty much everything,” she wrote on her MySpace page, in which she refers to herself as “The Pixie”.

She added: “My friends are what keeps me smiling. I’m into snowboard, riding and music. Give me something I can bang my head to or dance like crazy, and I’m all over it.”

Ms Hilscher had met a new boyfriend, about whom she gushed about on her page. “I live, love and get booted but eventually that will change...I now have a wonderful guy who is hopefully going to change all of that.” College friends said her new boyfriend had just dropped her off before the massacre.

Ms Hilscher, a first year student who was studying animal and poultry sciences and equine science, was the next-door neighbour of Ryan Clark, a residential adviser at the dormitory where the shooting started.

It is believed that a morning argument in the dormitory at the Virginia Tech campus led Cho to kill the teenager and Mr Clark who had attempted to come to her aid.

Her grandmother, Merle Hilscher, 71, described the tight bond Emily had with big sister Erica, 21, who attended a nearby university. “They were very close all their lives,” she said.

“Now one of them is ended, but we have to carry on.”

On her Facebook tribute page today, Cody Yager wrote: “Emily was one of my first friends here at [Virginia] Tech. How could such a beautiful soul be removed from our lives?”

Will Sonnett from Rappahannock County High School in rural Virginia, said: “Emily Hilscher was cooler than me because she could make friends with a glance and a smile. She never hesitated to make someone, anyone feel at home with kindness and an open mind. Thanks for being awesome to lame little 8th graders, and for making stupid computer classes unforgettable.”

Times Recommends

• Heed the great stabiliser’s words
• How a voice for everyone led to stalemate
• Bakara market becomes a slaughterhouse