Post by Graveyardbride on Sept 21, 2014 11:43:26 GMT -5
Person of interest in Hannah Graham disappearance
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The disappearance of Hannah Graham has taken a new turn, as police questioned a "person of interest" in the case. The 18-year-old University of Virginia student is the target of an intense search by authorities, and her parents fear foul play.
On Friday, September 19, police searched an apartment and automobile, in what is being described as a major breakthrough in the investigation. Search warrants were issued based on a number of tips from people who claimed to have information concerning the missing teenager.
Graham, who is 5'11" tall with light brown hair, blue eyes and freckles, was last seen leaving a party at the Camden Plaza Apartments Saturday, September 13. According to police, she was heavily intoxicated. A surveillance video showed the teenager visited a downtown pedestrian mall before texting friends that she was lost. The video shows an African-American male approaching the teen and putting his arm around her as the two talked. The man is believed to be between in his late 20s or early 30s, and was wearing a white tee-shirt and black pants.
Person of Interest. The person of interest to whom police talked is Jesse “L.J.” Matthew (above), an African-American nursing assistant at the University of Virginia Hospital. He admits he bought Graham drinks at the Downtown Mall, but denies he drove off with her in his car. He is almost 6' and weighs between 250 and 285 pounds with a slightly protruding gut. Matthew is 32-years-old and has lived in Charlottesville his entire life. Three males were present at the apartment when police executed their search warrant, but no one was detained or arrested. The vehicle was seized and police were observed removing three evidence bags from the apartment.
Charlottesville is a college town with a population of 45,000, more than 800 of whom signed up to help search for the missing girl.
More than 1,000 people attended a campus vigil for Graham, held September18. Organizers handed out pink Starburst candies, Graham's favorite sweet treat. A letter read out loud at the ceremony read, in part, "You make things good, Hannah Graham. Where are you?"
In a statement released through police, John and Susan Graham said: “Hannah is beyond precious to us, and we are devastated by her disappearance. It is totally out of character for us not to have heard from her, and we fear foul play.”
Similarities to 2009 Case. The mother of Morgan Harrington, a UVA student who was abducted and slain in 2009, sees eerie similarities between her daughter's death and the current disappearance of Hannah Graham. Gill Harrington knows the agony that Graham's parents are enduring. Her daughter, Morgan, was a Virginia Tech student who disappeared from a Metallica concert in Charlottesville in 2009. Her body wasn't found until months later and the murder remains unsolved.
What is also upsetting are the similarities to her daughter's death. "Hannah was seen for some of the time fairly close to where Morgan’s shirt was found maybe three weeks after her abduction," she told ABC News. She said there are other "coincidences" between the two students. “College town, same town, same kind of look of a girl, same time of year," she said. "Is this a pattern?"
Harrington said it would be "too speculative," but she wondered whether the time of year is a trigger for a "predator" in the Charlottesville area "to go out and hurt somebody. We know there's one predator who killed Morgan.” Harrington said DNA discovered in the 2005 abduction and rape of a woman in Fairfax City, Va., has been linked to her daughter's killer. The suspect in the murder of Morgan Harrington is a black male (composite sketch above).
Gil and Dan Harrington have helped create an organization called Help Save the Next Girl. It offers advice and tracks the disappearance and unsolved murders of girls. The group's site lists five girls, including her daughter and Graham, from the Charlottesville area who have disappeared or have been killed since 2009. It also lists the cases of seven other Virginia women who disappeared or were killed in unsolved murders. "Obviously they are not all connected, but it doesn’t seem normal. There's either some connection of a serial predator or a crime spree gone crazy," she said.
Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo conceded earlier this week there are similarities between the death of Morgan Harrington and Graham's disappearance. "Both of them occurred within the proximity of the University of Virginia. Both of them are young girls,” the chief said.
Charlottesville police Capt. Gary Pleasants today would not admit any connection to the deaths or disappearance of the other women. "We said all along there is no criminal activity yet. At this moment we still don't know that there is any [criminal activity] ... because we don't know what happened yet.”
Sources: James Maynard, TechTimes; The Daily Mail, and ABC News.
