People always like to say, “you shouldn’t get into a serious relationship in college”, and for 22 year old Yeardley Love, this couldn’t have been more true.
Yeardley had the typical college experience in 2010 as a very talented athlete. She was doing everything right, academics, sports, friends, fun, but this was all taken away from her one night by someone she once loved and trusted.
She was bright young woman, with a promising future right ahead of her. However, her jealous ex-boyfriend couldn’t seem to let her go. He was obsessed with her, and not in the way a typical boyfriend should be.
Since Yeardley’s tragic murder in 2010, she has become the face for domestic abuse awareness across college campuses in the United States. Her death was a wake up call for the higher education system to put more resources in place for other young people in the same situation as her.
But what really happened to Yeardley? And how did her promising life end so early in this tragic way?
Yeardley Love was born on July 17th, 1987 in Maryland to her parents John and Sharon Love. Yeardley grew up in Cockeysville, Maryland and was loved by everyone around her.
Yeardley attended high school at the Notre Dame Preparatory School where she a member of the varsity lacrosse team for all four years. She had always loved the sport of lacrosse, and she was extremely talented at it from a very young age.
Her love for the sport came from her father, John, who had taught her how to play basically from when she first began walking. Yeardley’s father sadly passed away in 2003 from cancer and she vowed that she wouldn’t give up on her love for lacrosse, and she wanted to make her father proud by continuing to pursue it.
Yeardley excelled in high school, not only academically and socially, but also in athletics. Her senior year of high school, college athlete scouts began taking an interest in her due to her success with lacrosse. She not only played on her high school’s varsity team, but also an All-County team her senior year.
She was eventually recruited by the University of Virginia (UVA) during her senior year in 2006 to attend their college on an athletic scholarship and play for their lacrosse team. Yeardley was so excited about this opportunity because she knew that UVA had an extremely successful team, and she also just fell in love with the college itself after visiting.
She began attending the University of Virginia in the fall of 2006 and majored in political science with a minor in Spanish. Yeardley immediately felt like she fit into the college lifestyle, and she made so many new friends from the lacrosse team and from joining the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority on campus.
Her very first lacrosse game as a college athlete playing for the university, she scored her first goal in a game against Virginia Tech’s team. She was immediately considered to be one of the best by her fellow teammates and her coaches, and she seemed happier than ever.
The University of Virginia is known as being a relatively large party school, and Yeardley began partaking in this like most college students do. She was very busy trying to balance schoolwork, lacrosse, her sorority, as well as having fun but she was eventually able to manage it.
Yeardley loved going out and partying on the weekends with her friends, but her friend said she would never let this affect her focus. She has been described by her family and friends as being extremely determined and hardworking.
She was always able to manage her time effectively, and she was always working towards various new goals she set for herself. She was also described as being extremely kind and caring. She always lit up a room when she entered, and she was extremely loved by anyone that knew her personally.
After starting college at the University of Virginia, Yeardley quickly met a young man that would soon become her boyfriend.
George Huguely was also a freshman at UVA and he was on the men’s lacrosse team as he was also recruited to play for them in high school.
The women’s and men’s lacrosse teams at the University of Virginia were very close to one another. They would all hang out with each other and have parties together frequently.
Yeardley and George met almost immediately after college started, and within just a few months their friends said they were inseparable.
Yeardley’s teammates recall her always hanging out with him when they were at lacrosse events and parties, and they eventually made it official and became a couple.
According to everyone that knew the couple, they seemed really happy together. People around them did say that they seemed to spend a lot fo time together, but this made sense to everyone since they were both on the lacrosse teams and had similar friend groups.
Yeardley and George were dating for nearly two years by the Spring of 2010, and moody could have ever imagined what their relationship was actually like behind closed doors.
George Huguely was born on September 17, 1987. George grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland and attended the all boys Landon School during his high school years.
During high school, George played both lacrosse and football, however; he excelled in lacrosse and it’s what he enjoyed most. During his senior year of high school in 2006, just like Yeardley, he was recruited to play lacrosse for the men’s team at the University of Virginia.
He chose to commit to this college, and also began attending school there in the fall of 2006 and majored in anthropology.
George had also really enjoyed the party environment that UVA had to offer, but maybe a little too much at times.
In 2007 George was arrested and charged for underage possession of alcohol in Florida where his family had a vacation home. He was also arrested in 2008 for public drunkenness and resisting arrest outside of a party at the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity house at Washington and Lee University.
For his 2008 arrest he was fined, ordered six months of probation, community service, and had to attend a drug treatment program. George didn’t disclose his arrests to the University of Virginia, and somehow they didn’t find out about it so he was still able to keep attending the college and playing lacrosse as normal.
Yeardley and George’s relationship from the outside seemed to be loving and happy. However, what those around them didn’t know it was that it had actually been very on again off again over the two years of them dating.
According to very close friends of Yeardley’s, George had a serious problem with his anger when he was drinking. He would also drink all of the time, so this anger was constant and it would usually be taken out on Yeardley.
When George was drunk, friends would say they would often hear him and Yeardley screaming at each other and they would be arguing constantly. However, what friends didn’t know, was that behind closed doors George would often get very violent with Yeardley. He could be very abusive towards her both emotionally and physically.
During their senior year in 2010, just weeks before graduation, Yeardley became fed up with George’s drunken violent outbursts. She had decided that it was time for her to break things off with him for good.
Yeardley told her friends after she broke up with George that she was sick of his drinking, and that he didn’t take anything seriously and she couldn’t see a real future with him. When Yeardley broke up with George, he couldn’t take no for answer.
She blocked his number and he would continue to send her threatening emails on a daily basis trying to get her to get back together with him. But Yeardley seemed serious about the break up this time unlike in the past. She didn’t want to be with him anymore, but George couldn’t accept this.
On Sunday May 3rd, 2010, George spent the day with his father on the golf course and then joined his family for dinner later on where he had been drinking. George then returned to his apartment later that day and according to his roommate when he saw him around 11 p.m. that night he was “very drunk”.
This is when George made the decision in his drunken state to go to Yeardley’s apartment to try to change her mind once again about the break up. He entered Yeardley’s apartment at around 11:15 p.m. that night where he found her bedroom door locked with her inside.
George proceeded to kick down Yeardley’s bedroom door, and according to downstairs neighbors who heard what was happening, there was a lot of screaming and arguing followed by silence.
The neighbor’s just assumed it was drunk college students upstairs so they didn’t think much more of it. However, when Yeardley’s roommate arrived home that night around 2 a.m. she found her bedroom door kicked in and her laying face down on her pillow in a pool of blood.
When Yeardley’s roommate tried to wake her up she wasn’t responding. Her roommate immediately called emergency services, and when they arrived they pronounced Yeardley Love deceased.
Authorities were quickly able to determine that Yeardley was murdered that night in her bedroom by being beaten to death. Police quickly arrested George Huguely after speaking to her roommate, and he quickly confessed to what he had done but he was adamant that he never meant to kill her.
That’s exactly what happened that night though. George Huguely forcefully entered 22 year old Yeardley Love’s bedroom and in a drunken rage he began beating her. He beat her to death and left her there in a pool of her own blood.
George was charged with second degree murder and eventually received a 23 year prison sentence for her murder.
Months after Yeardley’s tragic murder, her family decided to create a foundation in her honor called “One Love”. Yeardley wore the number 1 on her lacrosse jersey so this is where the name came from.
The purpose of this foundation is to educate young people about the signs of a toxic relationship and how to handle domestic abuse situations.
One love has partnered with many schools, including colleges, across the United States in an effort to raise awareness of domestic violence within relationships.
Yeardley’s family have said that they don’t even think Yeardley herself fully noticed the signs that George was displaying that ultimately led tot his tragedy.
They hope to continue educating young people all over the world, especially college students about the dangers of toxic relationships so situations like this stop happening as often as they do.
You can read more about the One Love Foundation here.
Sources:
Learn about relationships. One Love Foundation. (2023, February 17).