A whirlwind of events happened recently in the missing University Of Virginia student Hannah Graham case following Jesse Matthew’s arrest on charges of abduction and intent to defile in Charlottesville. Unfortunately those events include finding skeletal human remains which may be those of Hannah Graham. The State Medical Examiner’s office in Richmond, VA has the remains and will determine the cause of death and the identity of the remains. Jesse Matthew now faces a new indictment handed down on Monday, October 20 in a 2005 attempted murder, abduction and sexual assault case for a then 26 year old woman in Fairfax County. And there still remains an unsolved 2009 case of Morgan Harrington who went missing and was found dead in 2010. Police have confirmed the forensics in the Harrington case match those of the 2005 and Hannah Graham case. No indictment has been issued in the Harrington case.
Forensic evidence has now linked Jesse Matthew to three cases, Hannah Graham, Morgan Harrington and the 2005 sexual assault abduction. Once Jesse Matthew’s DNA was in the criminal justice system’s crime database, the police were able to link his DNA obtained in the Hannah Graham investigation to Morgan Harrington’s murder and the 2005 case identified only as “RG” due to the sexual assault nature of the case and the victim. And now, the police may be looking to see if Matthew’s DNA is involved in cases when he was a juvenile. The earlier charges of rape and sex assault while he attended two separate colleges were not pursued in the criminal justice system. He has been ruled out as a suspect in two 2003 Newport News cases.
The next stage in the Matthew’s matter will be an arrest warrant or bench warrant to bring Matthew from Charlottesville in Albermarle County to Fairfax County to face the charges there and enter an attorney’s appearance. It is too early yet to determine which jurisdiction will be the first to prosecute him at a trial. Matthew’s next court appearance in Charlottesville will be on December 4. On Thursday, October 22, the bench warrant will be issued to bring him to Fairfax county to face charges there.
On Tuesday, October 21, 2014, I provided legal analysis on the case as seen on Fox 5 News. More updates will be provided as the cases and investigation continues.