32-year-old Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr., left, was originally charged with abduction with intent to defile Hannah Graham, right-top, whose body police now say they’ve found and will file murder charges.
Virginia prosecutors reportedly filed first-degree murder charges against Jesse Matthew, the suspect in the death of University of Virginia student. Hannah Graham, 18, disappeared this past September, and her remains were later found and identified on Oct. 18 in a heavily wooded area on a horse farm.
The charges were reported by WVIR-TV in Charlottesville. The Albemarle County Police and Commonwealth Attorney’s Office have scheduled a press conference to discuss the case at 11 a.m. local time Tuesday.
Matthew, a former hospital worker, was initially charged with abduction with intent to defile after Graham disappeared from a mall in downtown Charlottesville early on the morning of Sept. 13. Surveillance video showed Graham alone as she quickly walked past a bar and a service station, making her way to Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall. A text message thread sent to friends claimed she was lost after leaving an off-campus party.
Witnesses later told detectives she was seen with Matthew at a bar, who later fled police questioning before being apprehended in Texas.
Matthew has also been charged in connection with a 2005 sexual assault in Fairfax, Virginia and has been forensically linked to the death of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, whose body was found in 2010, located just a short distance from where Graham’s remains turned up.
Harrington had disappeared after leaving a rock concert at the University of Virginia’s basketball arena. When friends later called her cellphone, Harrington said she’d been locked out of the arena and would find a ride home. Witnesses later reported seeing a woman matching Harrington’s description walking along a bridge not far from the arena.
