VT gunman's mental health records found

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - WAVY.com is following a new development in the investigation into the Virginia Tech shootings.

On Wednesday, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine announced officials found gunman Seung Hui Cho's mental health records.

Cho's mental health treatment prior to the April 2007 shootings, remains a gaping hole in the investigation.

Governor Kaine told WAVY.com Cho's records were removed from the Virginia Tech campus counseling center months before the shootings happened.

Kaine says the records were found in connection with a pending civil lawsuit, and that investigators found Cho's file at the home of a former counseling center employee.

For the next week, a team of case workers will be trying to figure out how and more importantly why those records disappeared.

"Obviously the panel that did the review at my direction did not have that file. Family members of those injured or killed have not seen that information. Seung-Hui Cho's parents have not seen that information. So it is important that information be shared with all," Kaine told WAVY.com

Seung-Hui Cho killed thirty-two people and himself on the Virginia Tech campus April 16, 2007, including Nicole White from Smithfield and Lauren McCain from Hampton.

Governor Kaine says the file release can happen two ways: either voluntarily by the Cho family or by subpoena.

Cho's family voluntarily released similar information earlier in the investigation, so the hope is that will happen again.

The Governor said he realizes these mental health records represent a critical component in not just understanding what happened that day, but also how to prevent it from ever happening again.