Update: Human Remains Identified As Missing Coed Hannah Graham
The Inquisitr reports that the search is over for missing University of Virginia student, Hannah Graham. The medical examiner’s office has officially declared the remains as those of Ms. Graham.
Hannah Graham, of Alexandria, Virginia, was last seen on several surveillance cameras around 2 a.m. on September 13 in Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall area.
Graham left the Tempo Bar and appears to have been followed by a man believed to be the prime suspect responsible for her disappearance. Video shows the 18-year-old Graham, a sophomore, being followed by a man believed to be Jesse Matthew Jr., 32, of Charlottesville.
On October 18, Sgt. Dale Terry of the Chesterfield Sheriff’s Department and his small search team were wrapping up for the day when they found a skull and bones scattered across a creek bed behind an abandoned home. The remains were only eight miles from where Hannah Graham was last seen.
The New York Daily News writes that the parents of the missing student spent about 30 minutes at the crime scene with police on Friday.
Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo Sr. said a police official reached out to Hannah Graham’s parents, John and Susan Graham, with “a very difficult phone call to share this preliminary discovery.”
The discovery now changes the disappearance of Hannah Graham to a murder investigation. Clothing found near the area matched the description of what Ms. Graham was wearing the night she disappeared.
The remains were found in the same area where police found the body of 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, three months after she vanished in 2009.
CNN reports that Jesse Matthew has been indicted by a grand jury on a 2005 sexual assault that includes abduction and attempted murder.
Jesse Matthew Jr., 32, of Charlottesville, who was the last person seen with Graham, has been charged in her disappearance. He voluntarily went to the police station and then ran.
The Inquisitr also reveals that Matthew was arrested on September 24 in a tent outside of Galveston, Texas, about 1,100 miles away from the University of Virginia campus. The arrest came a day after a warrant was issued in connection with Hannah Graham’s disappearance. Matthew has been extradited back to Virginia to face charges of abduction and intent to defile.
Police have now linked Matthew’s DNA to the investigations of two other crimes. A 2005 violent sexual assault in Fairfax City, and the abduction and murder of Virginia Tech University student, Morgan Harrington.
[Image Charlottesville Police Department]
