a mystery tonight. investigators have not figured it out. let me tell you. some of the destruction down here, way down underneath the bridge here and that's the bridge where the girls died and where the train cars rolled over. there's a crushed scooter. one of many vehicles that were rushed. the two victims, 19-year-old college students. according to howard county police, rose mayor and elizabeth were sitting on the edge of this railroad bridge in ellicott city with their backs to a passing train when it derailed. their bodies were found today under tons of spilled coal. the derailment was at 12:30 a.m. shortly after mayr tweeted pictures of the bridge. her street dangling over the bridge and a view of ellicott city at night. >> you know, it's really, really sad. i hope that my children learn something that train tracks are

not a place to play. >> national transportation safety board investigators say the three men train crew reported no sightings of people on the tracks and said they did not hit the brakes, but that an automated braking system did kick on. otherwise it's too early to know the cause of the crash. >> if we got some video of the recorder, information that we are down loading and looking a. >> in all 21 cars of the 1.7- mile long coal train derailed. crushing cars in an adjacent parking lot, and killing the two college students on the bridge. and main street here in ellicott city is closed and expected to be for a matter of potentially days f days. let me take you up. again, it was a 1.7-mile long coal train with 80 cars, 21 of them rolled over and it just happened that these two young college students were up there on the bridge sending out

tweets and photos of apparently right when this derailment happened at 12:30 last night. again, the investigation still underway to figure out exactly how and why it happened. reporting live in ellicott city, scott broom, 9news now. one more before i leave for school, you, me, a handful of brunettes and some form of transportation. that's an eerie message elizabeth nass sent to mayr. they were tweeting phot moments before the train hit them. andrea mccarren is on the campus where nass was about to become a junior. >> this everyoning amid grief and sadness, nass's sorority sisters are planning a memorial. the president of alpha sigma alpha. as anny told us, she had a contagious smile, she had a

bubbly energy. she really lit up a room. >> our hearts go out to elizabeth's family and friends. i can't imagine what they are dealing with right now. >> just 18 hours ago, the jmu honor student was tweeting and posting pictures of her last night out with friend, rose mayr. a nursing major. 22 minutes before the csx derailment, nass posted, drinking on top of the ellicott city sign. one day before, nass tweeted their upcoming plans. you, me, handle of brunettes and some form of public transportation. >> this should be an exciting time for students to come back to school, but the loss of elizabeth is tragic. >> on the jmu campus, a sign hangs at nass's store sorority house. >> she was a interdisciplinary

studies major. in harrisonburg, virginia. 9news now. >> we have much more on the lives of elizabeth nass and rose mayr on 9news.com. in honor of a prince georges county police officer killed in the line of duty. tonight, one of the people inside the car that officer was pursuing is under arrest. bruce leshan is following the investigation joining us live now from beltsville with more on the story. bruce. >> reporter: yeah, derek. this prince georges county police station is in mourning tonight. you can see the officers here putting black bunting on the police cruiser right there. sasheses tell us that the suspect here is 24-year-old kenneth mitchell of laurel, maryland. there is a bench warrant out for him in d.c. superior court for possessing one marijuana joint, but he could be facing serious charges. >> absolutely, i have pride in

what he did. >> morris' friends on the force taking sollice that he died doing the dream he loved for years. >> he was going to be the big man on campus one day. >> police say morris and his partner, michael, were out to catch a couple of guys suspected of trying to steal a car at a shell station in laurel. they took off after the suspects who were driving a gray or green acura. the officers chased the acura at up to 100 miles per hour. morris, apparently lost control and ejected as the cruiser rolled repeatedly into a ditch. overnight, d.c. police say they found the suspect acura and they say the man under arrest

was inside. police insist that they are still trying to determine if morris was wearing his seat belt. the other officer survived. also unclear is whether the officers had permission from commanders to pursue the acua. at the 23-year-old's laurel home, police from across the region gathered to comfort his family. his friends say morris was the kind of officer who tried to do everything by the book. >> he loved being the police. now police spokeswoman says that in fact, officer morris was not. was not wearing his seat belt. derek. >> bruce, very quickly. any word on whether that suspect could face any charges regarding the death or the injury to the other officer? >> we don't know, i mean, it is an interesting legal concept because as we understand it, they were pursuing this suspect vehicle and that they were some

distance back. there was some talk early on that they might have swerved into the suspect, the suspect may have swerved and forced the police cruiser into the road. as we understand it, that is not what happened. so what kind of legal construct they can make there, i don't know. we'll have to wait and see what the charges are. >> missouri congress member, todd aiken has decided to stay in the race for the u.s. senate. the republican candidates resisted calls, even from those in his own party leadership to get out, following the comments he made yesterday about rape and talking about abortion and pregnancy. today, aiken released a new campaign commercial in which he says, race is an evil act, i use the wrong words in the wrong way and for that, i apologize. >> after months of speculation, an autopsy of junior seau found that he did not have any drugs or alcohol in his system. he shot himself in his san

diego home. his family request that his brain be studied. it became a prom that night issue for the national football league. >> coming your way tonight at 7:00 on 9news, ruling reversal. maryland's court of appeals is reconsidering its controversial decision on pit bulls and issued a new ruling. we'll tell you what the judge decided at 7:00. >> see you then. still to come in this half hour of 9news, ices isabel did a number on our area nine years ago. >> but good thing we did. we'll show you the numbers, but first, check out the live shot. it just poured at the white house. in fact, it poured downtown. and still raining north of the mall. 86 and 66 goes in the books. pretty close to average. record high today, 100. record low 53. we'll come back and talk about a brand-new tropical storm. it starts with i. isaac. >> president obama hits his

republican rivals on higher education. i'm danielle nottingham in washington. i'll have the story coming up.

education and healthcare, the two big talkers. daniel yell takes us on the campaign trail. >> president obama used this campaign rally in columbus, ohio, to shift his attack on his republican rivals. >> putting a college education within reach for working families, just doesn't seem to

be a big priority for my opponent. >> he warned ohio voters that vice presidential candidate, paul ryan's budget would slash billions of dollars from the education department and cut grants for college students. their medicare plan is better than president obama's. >> campaigning at a steel company outside pittsburgh, ryan went after the president's healthcare reform law. >> a $3600 cut in benefits for current seniors. nearly one out of six hospitals and nursing homes are going to go out of business or stop taking medicare patients. >> ryan spent the rest of the day campaigning in pennsylvania. while romney raised campaign cash in texas. danielle nottingham, cbs news, washington. >> congressman ryan will be back in the battleground state of virginia tomorrow. he is planning a stop in roanoak. cleared the way for the

voter id to be in force. determined the law does not violate the federal voting rights act. under that law, a state resident who wishes to vote must present some identification. the law also makes more kinds of id acceptable, including a utility bill or check that shows the voters name and address. still ahead, nasa is used to keeping its eyes to the skies. find out what its scientists missed on the ground of their own backyard.

our space agency may be looking to the stars, but a recent discovery in its own backyard is bringing it back to earth. ray walks us through his dinosaur discovery at the space flight center. >> what i found here is the back footprint of a large armored dinosaur. they had big nodes and real pointed items across their back and even sometimes up on their shoulders and sometimes even by the side of the head. this is really quite a rare find. notice the tracks aren't often -- in british columbia. but we don't have a whole lot in the u.s. and this is one of st things i have found right here. here can be red, it can be dark colored. it can be yellow and gold. and according to other people doing track work, maryland's tracks are the most beautiful

dinosaur tracks color wise that have been found in the world. the most thrilling thing about finding this one, what really threw me about this one was because i found it at the life center and i love the paradox. here, space scientists may walk along here and walking exactly where this big heavy, armored dinosaur walked 110, 112 million years ago. i feel like what we need, all of us need to be aware of preserving this wonderful past of this blue planet of ours. if we don't look down and spot these things, they could be torn up by machinery and stolen. so, i ask people to consider themselves custodians and do the right thing, notify someone at a museum. someone that would know and help and see that it contributes to scientific knowledge if it has that capability. >> and this isn't the first big find in maryland. 41-acres just south of laurel

are recognized as a dinosaur park, meaning it is rich in fossils more than 60 million years old. pretty much a treasure-trove. experts are also taking a closer look at some photographs they hope to shed light on the mystery. what happened to iowa amelia air earhart. an expedition last month explored the area and found what it believes to be a debris field under water off the coast. they hope it brings closer to finding out exactly what happened to the aviator so many years later, people want to know. >> it's a mystery. >> all right, we have a couple things, a lot to talk about. the hurricane, we now have another eye. tropical storm for the time being. and a heavy little shower popped up. we'll show you that one. take you back to irene, who can remember this one last year. we clipped the number of people. this year with the duracho.

until then, i think it was irene that took out most of the power. irene or isabel in the immediate metro area. what is it about eye storms? they aren't usually super intense, but seem to hit more populated areas and they do more damage and get retired. so a total of 11 storms, started with i, have been retired. we started naming hurricanes in 1950. seven of the last nine since 2004. that was iris and our friend, isabel and ivan. and the last three, ike in '08. igor in 10, and irene last year in 11. i'm going to post this on my blog in just a bit at wusa9.com. okay, here is isaac now. it's a tropical storm. we have hurricane warnings in effect from martin, we have tropical storm warnings in effect and tropical storm watches all the way to puerto

rico. national hurricane center is taking this south of puerto rico and curving it back up into cuba. it goes after that, it could go to continue that path up toward key west or south florida. we'll keep you posted. good time to down load our hurricane tracker. all right, live tracker 9,000. you have to kind of go in a little bit. i mean way in to see this storm. it was pretty hefty downtown and pushing away from the mall and head out 50 and headed out to the north and east. but there's still a fair amount of red, which indicates rain of an inch or so an hour. we'll show you where it's going to go. essentially across fedex and out 50 and out toward prince georges county. but it will weaken as it agains to move. so that's good. right now, the shower has stopped around the white house. a live look brought to you by

michael and son. 63 is the dew point. it is still very comfortable. relative humidity only 54%. pressure rising, oddly enough, 82 downtown. but 79 in arlington. 89 in bethesda. this is a treat. 81 in college park and 78 in vienna. we're looking at should stay dry for the nats. that storm will stay north of them. isolated shower possible. storms mainly south. still comfortable. wednesday, looks okay. temperatures in check. and a slight chance of a shower or storm. next few days, green, green, green. 89 on friday. a little warmer on friday, but a slight chance of a shower. next seven days, i'm going to keep the chance of a shower over the weekend. i have the word nice, because it will be nice. not enough shower activity to change your plans. upper 80s saturday and around 90 on sunday and around 90 on monday and tuesday. more storms late tuesday. this one storm should be okay. >> should be okay. >> here you go.

>> big preseason game coming up, a dapperly dressed dave owens. check out this. tell us about it. g i'm all dapper and ready to go. how to decipher the numbers and the game film when it comes to quarterbacks. that's what i'm talking about. the air waves seem to be a buzz. we'll talk about him. the nats keep on trucking. i'll tell you how coming up after the break.

and now, 9sports with dave owen. the best sports in town. >> you probably didn't see it because you were probably sleeping. nats and braves played into the early a.m. because of rain and each team bats seem to be allergic to the ball. the way in which washington has some thinking it is truly a magical year in nats park. here we are in the 13th inning. he's going to take a swing. cracks this ball down to dan who gets ugly. he freezes and there's your ball game. hustling and scores. for a team that figures out ways to lose, the nats find ways to win. having young guns certainly helps. >> i enjoy these young guys and watching them pitch and watching them, you know, learn

how to get better. >> all right, countdown to stephen strasburg shutdown. he pitches tonight. assuming he pitches 170, he has about 30 to go. at 6 innings per start, that's five more starts. do the math, his lath last start would be around august 30. other teams starters. kirk cousins plays against guys my size. they are backups, which makes it easier for him to succeed and he has. his stats look better than griffin's and some fans said hey, put him in there. even some national figures debated it, but there's no controversy. griffin is the starter. he played well and he says he is ready, if needed. >> you have to prepare like you are the starter. i expect to prepare like i'm the starter each and every day.

and my opportunities in preseason games, the coaches are excited about what they have in me. >> there you go. he is back in practice. london flitcher took a few days off for undisclosed reasons. he says he hopes to play on saturday. the second most productive back in redskins history calling it quits. clinton portis will announce his retirement. he was a heck of a player. second only to john riggins. when you're the king, you can sell shoes for crazy money. lebron james shoe model is for sale for $300. for that, i say forget that, buy yourself a tv or iphone. >> $300 for shoes. >> $315. >> don't let my kids see them. that's all for 9news now at

6:00. derek is back at 7:00. you got me with the shoes.