FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — The suspect in the disappearance of a University of Virginia student was charged Monday with abducting and raping a woman in suburban Washington, D.C., in 2005.
The indictment against Jesse L. Matthew Jr. was handed up by a Circuit Court grand jury in Fairfax County. Matthew was also charged with attempted capital murder, according to the indictment.
Matthew, 32, is being held in Charlottesville, Virginia, on a charge related to the Sept. 13 disappearance of Hannah Graham, an 18-year-old from northern Virginia.
Law enforcement officials who have been searching for Graham found human remains over the weekend and they were taken to the Virginia Medical Examiner’s office in Richmond. A spokesman in the office could not say Monday when the results of the forensic examination would be completed.
Matthew’s attorney has repeatedly refused to discuss his client, and a message on his law office telephone on Monday said he was not taking questions in the case.
Monday, state and local law enforcement officials continued to search an area about 12 miles southwest of the Charlottesville campus of U.Va. where the remains were found on Saturday after an extensive search in the city of 40,000 and in Albemarle County.
Police let Graham’s parents know about the discovery before they publicly released the information. They are looking for clues and evidence in a heavily wooded area that is dotted with farms.
Matthew has been charged with abduction with intent to defile Graham. He is being held in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.
The remains were discovered roughly 6 miles from where the body of 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington was found after she vanished in 2009. Police have said forensic evidence connects Matthew to Harrington’s killing, which in turn is linked by DNA to the 2005 sexual assault in northern Virginia. He has not been charged in the Harrington killing.
Graham hasn’t been seen since after a night out with friends. She had met friends at a restaurant for dinner before stopping by two off-campus parties. She left the second party alone and eventually texted a friend saying she was lost, authorities said.
In surveillance video, she can be seen walking unsteadily and even running at times, past a pub and a service station and then onto a seven-block strip of bars, restaurants and shops. On Sunday, the area was buzzing with people having brunch at outdoor cafes on a brisk, sunny day. Graham’s disappearance and the discovery of human remains was a frequent topic of conversation.
“Everybody was rattled. Everybody knew it was coming, but you still hope for the best. As much as you can prepare for it, you can never prepare for it,” said Claire Meyers, a University of Virginia nursing student who has friends who knew Graham and Matthew.
Matthew was an operating room technician at the university’s hospital, where Meyers works as a patient care assistant.
Albemarle County resident Bill Gnas, a retiree who lives a few miles from where the remains were found, said he suspected the worst.
“Truly, I was saddened by it. After three or four days you had to anticipate it was going to be another Harrington event where they were going to find the body, and the only thing you could hope for at that point was that there be some closure for the parents that it was in fact discovered,” he said.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.