The Tragic Cases Of Morgan Harrington & Hannah Graham

i have always known that he was the one who did it and that's one reason why i have been at every motions trial hearing every time he's in court i want my face there because i want him to see me because i want him to know that i know twenty-year-old morgan dana harrington was born in charlottesville virginia bright and intelligent loving art and music she had dreams of becoming a teacher she completed high school early at the top of her class and was given early admission into virginia tech to major in education morgan was described as a home bird and although she was now a university she made sure to see her family once a week and talk to her parents every day on the phone on october 17 2009 20 year old morgan and three of her friends drove to the john paul jones arena at the university of virginia to watch one of her favorite bands in concerts metallica morgan couldn't wait for the concert having had the tickets pinned to her refrigerator for the last six months one of her friends drove the group there in morgan's car and during the warmer pack morgan told her friends she was going to the bathroom 20 minutes later and with metallica about to start her friends called her at 8 48 pm to see where she was morgan said she had been locked out of the arena due to its no re-entry policy it remains unknown how or why morgan ended up outside of the arena but she told her friends that she would find her own way home and they didn't need to worry morgan had no cash on her having left it all with her friends and her car keys were also with the group inside just after 9pm she was spotted in the university hall west parking lot and then again in the lanigan track parking lot several of the witnesses saw her at around 9 30 pm walking on copley street bridge with her thumb sticking out seemingly trying to seek a lift people that saw her noted she seemed disorientated and freezing cold with an abrasion on her chin after this there were no other reported sightings of her the following day morgan was supposed to be having her weekly visit with her parents dan and jill dan was going to be helping her revise for an upcoming maths exam but morgan didn't show up and wasn't responding to messages or calls dan and jill contacted the friends that morgan had been with the night before to their horror and anguish they discovered they had been separated and none of them knew where she was earlier that morning at around 7am a big discovery had been made by a lacrosse player morgan's purse was found it contained her student id driver's license debit card and hip flask the area the purse was found in was typically used by taxi drivers waiting to pick up fares during large events soon after this her cell phone with the battery removed was also discovered a short walk away morgan's friends from the concert started receiving some backlash for what had happened that night but morgan's parents spoke out dan said they are not to blame everyone wants to make them out to be the bad guy but they are not the bad guy i wish they had but i don't know that it would have changed anything she's not a seven year old they wouldn't have put out an amber alert morgan's mother jill added this is not about let's find who's to blame let's find her searches were conducted by over 1600 people and the community was desperate to help find morgan three weeks after morgan was last seen on the bridge a student was returning from class when he found a bloodied t-shirt it had been discarded in some bushes at the front of his apartment the apartment was a short walk away from the arena and the student knowing that morgan was missing reported this finding to the police jill and dan harrington are sleepless as they search for their daughter morgan before she left here she said dad you're going to be home tomorrow afternoon because i when i get back i need some help preparing for a math exam i have had many goodbyes i don't take goodbyes lightly i always walk her to the car and she gets in the car and as she's pulling out she's always flashing those fingers at me two four one in fact that was the last thing she said was the last thing she said to me when she left because that's just our little you know your little code i love you too much forever and once more than forever the fears of everyone were realized on january 26 2010 a farmer was passing through his 700 acres of land when he saw some remains that he assumed were those of an animal as he drew closer he realized what it was there was a human skull on the ground there were no clothes shoes or jewellery near the remains and the farmer stated he felt in his gut that those were the bones of the missing 20-year-old he said i looked down and saw what looked like a human skull and my first thought was that it was morgan harrington the farm was around 10 miles away from the arena and was over a mile away from a main road with no public access point the farmer's gut instinct was tragically proven right when it was officially confirmed that after three months of searching they had found the remains of morgan harrington morgan's father dan would find out about the discovery via a reporter that had phoned him asking for a statement due to decomposition an exact time and cause of death were unable to be determined the autopsy listed her cause of death as homicidal violence of undetermined origin her bones were shattered and her parents said they believed she had suffered immensely in her last moments [Music] she endured a fracture on her upper left arm two rib fractures and a skull fracture morgan's mother jill also confirmed that her daughter had been raped a few months later the shirt that was found outside of the apartment block was confirmed to be the shirt that morgan had been wearing on the night she had last been seen it wasn't long before the police announced they had made a big break in the case dna evidence had been recovered from her shirt and it matched a cold case from 2005. five years before morgan was murdered a lady identified only as rg had reported to police that she had been horrifically beaten and sexually assaulted rg was 26 at the time and living in fairfax on september 24 2005 she was walking back from a local grocery store at around 8 30 p.m when she reached the stairs of her home someone grabbed her from behind and carried her to a patch of grass at the end of her neighborhood her head was then slammed off the ground and she was punched in the face the attacker then started to choke and sexually assault her she cried out for help but her attacker told her that he would kill her if she screamed again he said she needed to let him do what he wanted and then he would let her go at some point she lost consciousness and when she regained it she saw a car's headlights the attacker ran away leaving rg on the ground the man that got out of the car ran to help rg and then attempted to find the attacker but to no avail after the assault she completed a rape test kit rg also had dna under her fingernails but this did not match anyone in their database terrified and fearing for her life argy returned to her home country of india and sadly the case went cold rj said of the attack you're thinking this is a bad dream and this is not happening to you i was black and blue my nose was bleeding i had trouble walking everything was hurting over the coming year rg said she spent days unable to get out of bed you're suffering so you don't want to get up you find yourself in this vicious cycle of self-hatred following the link between the dna found on morgan's t-shirt and under argie's fingernails police were now able to release a composite sketch of the man behind both attacks james hetfield of the band metallica released a video appealing for any more information hi i'm james of metallica back in 2010 our band offered fifty thousand dollars to help catch the person responsible for murdering morgan harrington since that time authorities uncovered new evidence linking her killer to a similar assault on a woman in virginia if you've seen the person in the sketch or have any information about this case or any others please contact your local police or submit your information online up to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was offered as a reward with the band metallica putting in fifty thousand themselves but it would be a further five years until the 2005 and 2009 cases of r.g and morgan harrington were finally solved and tragically another life would be taken eighteen-year-old hannah elizabeth graham was a british american second year college student studying at the university of virginia born in reading england in 1996 she moved with her family to virginia at the age of five she was a talented athlete and high achieving student on the night of september 12 2014 hannah attended two parties she and some friends headed off to around 11 pm to go to the first party of the night after bumping into another friend at this party hannah and this friend left together to head to another gathering however hannah was not at this party long before she told people she wanted to leave saying she felt unwell according to some sources hannah was very intoxicated by this point a friend offered her a lift home but she declined and headed off herself on foot at around 1 20 am hannah sent a text message to a friend saying she was lost and trying to find her way to another party but after this no one heard from her the next day was saturday and hannah was set to meet up with some friends but she never turned up the following day and with still no word from her concern amongst her friends began to mount they contacted hannah's parents who reported her missing just after 4 pm links to morgan's case were immediately made and concern within the community began to grow cbs 6 news at noon i'm sheryl miller and we begin with breaking news this hour from charlottesville police there are heading up the search for a missing university of virginia student hannah elizabeth graham seen here was last heard from on saturday when she texted friends around one o'clock in the morning she is 18 years old 5 feet 11 inches tall with a slim build blue eyes light brown hair and freckles anyone with information on the whereabouts of hannah graham is asked to call crime stoppers at 434-9 fortunately for the police there was a lot of cctv and they quickly managed to piece together hannah's last steps during the early morning hours at 12 45 am she was seen walking alone past a pub called mcgrady's [Music] ten minutes later hannah was spotted again running past a shell gas station at 106 a.m hannah was captured at sal's pizza on east main street at some point a man was spotted following behind hannah during the investigation he told police he was following her because she seemed distressed and he wanted to make sure she was safe further analysis of the same cctv picked up something else of interest hannah was now being closely followed by another man this man was originally on the opposite side of the mall he then crossed over and started walking behind hannah [Music] so [Music] a witness said this man who in their words did not look friendly put his arm around hannah he then took her to the bar tempo and bought her a drink later the same man was seen standing by an orange car with hannah and she could be overheard saying i am not getting into that car with you and then at 1 20 am she sent the text to a friend saying she was lost the man spotted in the surveillance footage was officially declared a person of interest on september 20th morgan harrington's mother jill knew the pain the graham family were going through all too well and offered her support for hannah bringing back painful memories for morgan harrington's family the 20 year old college student was abducted and murdered in charlottesville in october 2009. joining us now morgan's mother jill harrington founder of help save the next girl joe good morning good morning you know you lived this nightmare yourself and you've been living it for so long you had to be heartbroken to hear that here we go again it looks like yeah there are so many young women from our part of the country are part of virginia um missing and or murdered just since morgan was killed and it it is gut-wrenching to think that another family is going through that anguish we just are sick about it it's unfathomable dan and i keep keep looking at each other and thinking how did we get through it and then we realized we're not through it you never get through it it never goes away and i hate to think that hannah's family has that um path ahead of them for the rest of their lives we really are hoping the community can band together give more information and we can have a good resolution for the graham family we're praying for that the man in the cctv turned out to be a 32 year old nursing assistant and occasional taxi driver jesse matthew jr the same night hannah went missing jessie had been seen lurking in different bars approaching various women and behaving inappropriately police conducted a search of jesse's home and took several items to be examined on september 21st jesse visited a charlottesville police station and spoke briefly with officers before asking for a lawyer when he was released he drove away from the police station at such a high speed that it prompted officers to charge him with reckless driving and obtain a warrant for his arrest hundreds of volunteers were helping hannah's family and the police search for her charlottesville police chief timothy lango said he believed that hannah was either in charlottesville or in one of the nine surrounding counties he asked property owners to search for her on their land on september 22nd jesse matthew's apartment was searched again several items and some clothing were taken away for examination a day later police had gathered enough evidence to charge jesse matthew jr with abduction with intent to defile a charge in virginia that means kidnapping with the motive of sexual assault but by this point jesse had withdrawn all the money from his bank account and fled he was found a few days later camping out on a texas beach 1 300 miles away and was arrested that afternoon are you jesse matthew jr yeah mr matthew my name is judge henry you have two charges this morning you have got a fugitive from justice warrant out of virginia for abduction of a person with intent to defile you have got a galveston county charge of false information to a peace officer your bond is denied on the fugitive from justice warrant okay you're not entitled to a court appointed attorney on the fugitive from justice warrant accept a fight extradition and sir i got a question for you um okay like they took all my clothes and they got me sleeping on a hard thing i don't feel like i'm uh should be able i should be able to have some kind of clothes uh you appear to me to be dressed in a jumpsuit well once they once i get back they're going to take my jumpsuit off and tell me i have to take my jumpsuit off medical medical has to clear you out of medical that's the requirement of medical so once medical sees you and clears you and they move you to another cell then they'll give you the jump suit back is this for virginia yes so what is the virginia one again the virginia warrant is a fugitive from justice warrant the underlying charges abduction of a person with intent to file now he's going to have you signed two times saying that you're not requesting a court appointed attorney this morning what i'm sorry if i signed it where i'm going to ask you to sign either way either requesting a court appointed attorney or declining consideration for a court of appointment attorney if you request one the only thing that attorney can do for you is challenge the validity of the warrant and fight your extradition back to virginia on september 29th a forensic link was made evidence taken from the investigation into morgan harrington had been linked to jesse matthew the results from the items taken from jesse's apartment also revealed hannah's dna on a pair of his shorts her dna was also found in his car jesse's dna matched the cold case of rg from back in 2005. police had finally found the man responsible for almost a decade's worth of horrific crimes as a student jesse had been twice accused of sexual assault at two separate colleges he attended each occurred within an eleven-month period he left each school immediately after each allegation and although police did investigate these reports no criminal case was ever brought against him i'm chief longo the charlottesville police department it was some 35 days ago some five weeks since 18 year old university of virginia student hannah graham disappeared from our downtown pedestrian mall thousands of hours have been spent by literally hundreds of law enforcement and civilian volunteers in an effort to find hannah we think perhaps today proved their worth sometime before noon today a search team from the chesterfield county sheriff's department was searching an abandoned property along old lynchburg growed in southern albemarle county when they discovered what appears to be human remains tragically six days after this conference these remains were positively identified as hannah graham it was confirmed that hannah had died of homicide by an undetermined etiology hannah's remains were found just five miles from where morgan harrington had been discovered two days after hannah's remains were found jesse was indicted on charges of attempted murder object sexual penetration and abduction with intent to defile in the fairfax case of rg from 2005. he pled not guilty shortly before the trial in rg's case began jesse was also indicted on a first degree murder charge in hannah graham's case the charge was then increased to a capital murder charge meaning the death penalty was potentially now on the table on june 10 2015 jesse entered the alford plea in regards to the 2005 case of rg and was subsequently convicted of all charges an altered plea means that the defendant still denies any guilt but they acknowledge that the evidence presented may be strong enough to convict them three months later jesse was also formally charged with first-degree murder and abduction with intent to defile in the case of morgan harrington police believe that the night morgan was abducted jessie may have lured her into his taxi as she was looking for a lift home during one of the pre-trial hearings morgan's mother jill harrington walked over to jesse's mother and held her hand she said it was the right thing to do i hold no animosity towards his family they did nothing wrong in october 2015 at the end of the trial in rg's case jesse was sentenced to three life terms this afternoon prosecutors say that jesse matthew jr will plead guilty to the murders of graham and harrington to avoid the death penalty prosecutors said they plan to seek the death penalty if matthew was convicted in the graham's case the trials of jesse in the cases of morgan and hannah would never take place in march 2016 jesse struck a plea deal he pled guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abduction with the intent to defile in both cases this meant he avoided the death penalty but received four life sentences without the chance of parole both families said they supported the deal and were grateful they wouldn't have to endure a painful trial jesse matthew jr received seven life sentences in total it is thought that there are many other victims linked to jesse matthew jr and that his crime spree was never fully determined and will likely never be known in may 2019 it was reported that jesse had been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer he transferred prisons to begin treatment and both the harrington and graham families were notified of the transfer help save the next girl is a national non-profit organization set up by jill and dan harrington it is committed to being a presence on campuses in clubs and in violence prevention forums across the country it develops relationships with the media and law enforcement to help spread awareness and information about cases they also provide outreach support to victims families john graham hannah's father said hannah's enduring gift to all of us is that she enabled this wicked man to be apprehended and convicted she did change the world but at a terrible price you

Channel: Truly Criminal

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Length: 23min 38sec (1418 seconds)

Published: Sat May 29 2021