Hunting the predator
For years, he stalked the streets, waiting for the opportunity to pounce
Pulling on a black skirt and rock t-shirt, Morgan Harrington, 20, excitedly got ready. ‘Do you think I can dance in these boots?’ she asked her mum Gil.
Then, grabbing the Metallica concert tickets from the fridge door, she slicked on some lippy, told her mum she loved her, and set off to meet her mates.
It was 17 October 2009, and time for a few drinks, and a break from her studies at Virginia
Tech university.
Morgan, a music fan, was a gifted artist, with dreams of becoming a teacher.
At the John Paul Jones Arena, in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, Morgan and her three friends danced to the opening act.
Only, then Morgan went to the toilet.
And never returned. Her mates called her, and Morgan said she’d somehow ended up outside the arena.
Due to the ‘no re-entry’ policy, she wasn’t allowed back inside.
Morgan told them not to worry, she’d make her own way home. And vanished. The next day, her frantic parents reported her missing.
A team of sniffer dogs, helicopters and volunteers searched day and night.
Reports came in of sightings of Morgan.
Alone outside the arena, confused, with blood on her chin, perhaps from a fall.
Then seen on a nearby bridge at 9.23am – possibly hitchhiking.
Two days later, officers found her purse and phone, discarded in a car park.
‘If Morgan hears this, please come home,’ her father Dan told a press conference.
Even Metallica donated money towards a reward.
Three weeks later, Morgan’s distinctive rock t-shirt was found laid out on some bushes, a mile and a half away from the concert.
Presented like some sort of sick trophy.
Tests on the t-shirt found unknown DNA, which was also connected to an attempted murder and sexual assault 100 miles away in 2005.
The victim had described her attacker, a sketch made of his face. Yet the man had not been found.
Three months after Morgan vanished, a farmer checking his fences stumbled across human remains.
Tragically, tests confirmed that it was Morgan. She’d been horrifically attacked, her bones snapped, her skull brutally fractured.
A post mortem found the cause of death to be homicidal violence of undetermined origin.
The local community was terrified as stories of a violent sexual predator haunted the neighbourhood.
But years went by without an arrest.
Then, five years later, in September 2014, another bright young woman found herself wandering the streets alone.
Hannah Graham, 18, was in her second year at the University of Virginia.
Born in the UK, she’d moved to America aged 5, becoming a top student. She was a talented athlete and gifted musician, played saxophone in a jazz band.
On the night of 12 September 2014, Hannah went to a ski-club party at a local bar.
At 6ft tall, with auburn hair and a face full of freckles, she cut a striking figure dressed in a glittery crop top.
But as the night wore on, Hannah started to feel unwell.
One friend offered to walk her home, but Hannah turned them down and set out alone.
At 1.20am, she sent a text to a friend saying that she was lost. Disorientated and vulnerable. Exactly as Morgan Harrington had been. And
Her t-shirt was presented like some sick trophy
just like Morgan, Hannah had vanished into the night.
This time, drones were also used to search for the missing student.
CCTV had picked up Hannah outside a local Irish bar.
Unsteady on her feet, she was seen walking, sometimes running.
Witnesses told police they’d seen a tall man with dreadlocks approaching vulnerable Hannah, putting his arm round her shoulders.
Taking her to a bar for a drink.
The police soon identified the man as hospital worker and former taxi driver Jesse Matthew, then 34.
At 6ft 2in, he was described as a ‘gentle giant’ by friends.
But there was another side to Jesse...
A night owl, he was often seen along the stretch of bars in Charlottesville city centre.
With a habit of being touchy-feely with the ladies there.
Seemingly, he was a hard-to-miss character.
A search of his flat found Hannah’s DNA on a pair of his shorts, and in his car. Police arrested him. And DNA results then linked Matthew to the
2005 attack, and Morgan’s murder.
The final piece of the puzzle?
On the night that Morgan had vanished, Matthew had been driving his taxi.
He must’ve spotted her desperately trying to flag down a cab home, and he pounced.
Five weeks later, Hannah’s remains were found at an abandoned property in a remote area, 10 miles away from where she had gone missing.
Her glittery crop top and jeans were found nearby.
Hannah had come to a brutal end, suffering suffocation or strangulation.
Her cause of death was ruled as homicidal violence.
Both girls had been snatched off the street, their bodies dumped just six miles apart.
In court in March 2016, Jesse Matthew pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, and two counts of abduction with intent to defile. He’d agreed to plead guilty in order to avoid the death penalty.
Showed no emotion as the judge handed him four life sentences.
It was added to three life sentences he’d already been given for attempted murder, sexual assault and abduction in the 2005 attack.
Hannah Graham’s parents hailed their brave daughter, who’d helped to capture a vile murderer hiding in plain sight, and given closure to a family left haunted for years.
There could be no more victims at the hands of predatory Jesse Matthews, but innocent girls had already paid the ultimate price.
He was called a ‘gentle giant’, but had another side