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in: Virginia, 2009, Murder,
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Morgan Harrington

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Morgan Harrington

Real Name: Morgan Dana Harrington
Nicknames: No known nicknames
Location: Charlottesville, Virginia
Date: October 17, 2009

Case[]

Details: Twenty-year-old Morgan Harrington was a sophomore at Virginia Tech. On October 17, 2009, she and three friends drove to the John Paul Jones Arena at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville for a Metallica concert. During it, she left to go to the bathroom and ended up outside of the arena. However, she was not allowed back in because of their "no re-entry" policy. She called her friends and told them that she would get a ride home. Witnesses reported seeing her hitchhiking on a nearby bridge at around 9:30pm. She was never seen alive again.
Morgan's purse, containing her identification and phone, was later found in an RV lot on the campus. Three months later on January 26, 2010, her remains were discovered by a farmer in a remote area on the Anchorage Farm, about ten miles from the arena. Although the cause of death was not released to the public, her parents, Gil and Dan, were told that it was very violent and that bones were broken. Gil later confirmed that she had been raped as well.
In April 2010, forensic tests confirmed that a Pantera t-shirt found about a mile from the arena was Morgan's. DNA testing also connected her murder to the unsolved abduction and sexual assault in Fairfax in September 2005.
Suspects: DNA evidence connected Morgan's murder to a 2005 rape wherein the victim survived. She described her assailant as a twenty-five to thirty-five-year-old African-American male, 5'9" to 6'0", 180-220 lbs, with a beard and mustache. He remains unidentified.
Extra Notes:

  •  This case was uploaded to the Unsolved Mysteries website on August 29, 2014. The people interviewed in the video are Gil and Dan.
  • It was also profiled on Disappeared.
AP uva suspect Jesse Matthew mugshot mj 140926 4x3 992

Jesse Matthew

Results: Solved. In September 2014, a University of Virginia student named Hannah Graham went missing after going to a restaurant outside the campus with friends. A few weeks later, police identified a suspect in her case, an African-American male named Jesse Matthew. He was identified on surveillance video as the last person to be seen with her. He was arrested a week after she vanished and charged with her kidnapping.
On September 29, 2014, it was announced that DNA evidence linked Matthew to Morgan's murder and the 2005 Fairfax rape. In October 2014, Hannah's remains were located on an abandoned property in nearby Albemarle County. In February 2015, he was charged with her murder. In June 2015, he was convicted of rape in the 2005 case. In September 2015, he was also charged with Morgan's abduction and murder. In March 2016, he pleaded guilty to both murders. He was sentenced to life in prison.
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