Police link Morgan Harrington case to ’05 rape, release composite sketch

The disappearance of Morgan Harrington from the campus of the University of Virginia after a Metallica concert piqued interest nationwide, as the college student had appeared to vanish into thin air.

Harrington’s body was found months later in a field in Albemarle County, and up until recently, there were few leads in the 20-year-old’s death. Police in Fairfax, Virginia have just announced that a link between the abduction of Harrington and the abduction/rape of another woman in 2005 has been established, and a composite sketch of a possible suspect has been released. The identification of a possible suspect has been both encouraging and upsetting for the Harrington family, who say a “wealth of physical evidence” was found with Morgan’s body despite advanced decomposition:

“Before today, there was the abstraction of a murderer that killed our daughter, but now that you see a face with it, it makes you very angry,” Dan Harrington said. “The anger that I have has kind of been multiplied because I now see a face of someone who did this to another human being.”

Harrington’s family initially offered a $100,000 reward for her safe return, an amount boosted by an additional $50,000 posted by the band Metallica to help find her. There is currently a $150,041 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect in Harrington’s murder.