Hannah Graham case: Jesse Matthew charged with 2005 attempted capital murder in Fairfax County
Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr., the man suspected in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, has been charged with abducting and raping another woman in 2005.
Jesse Leroy Matthew, 32, was indicted on charges of attempted capital murder in Fairfax County, Virginia, on October 20.
The suspect is being held in connection with Hannah Graham’s disappearance on September 13.
On October 18, authorities discovered a body which may be Hannah Graham’s in Albemarle County.
In the newest charges, Virginia officials have thus far declined to offer further details regarding the investigation and victim, a 26-year-old woman abducted from suburban Washington DC in 2005.
Hannah Graham’s abductor Jesse Leroy Matthew was also indicted on charges of attempted capital murder in Fairfax County (photo AP)
“The victim… is grateful that the case will go forward,” Fairfax County commonwealth attorney Raymond Morrogh told reporters on October 20.
Jesse Leroy Matthew is currently being held in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he has been charged with abduction with intent to defile.
Hannah Graham, 18, was last seen on September 13, when she disappeared after an evening of drinking and socializing with friends.
She had been in her second year of study at the University of Virginia, where she was described as a bright student who got top marks in her exams.
Hannah Graham was born in Reading, southern England, and moved to the US with her parents at the age of five.
On October 18, a body was discovered in an abandoned property in Albermarle County.
Charlottesville police chief Timothy J Longo earlier said officers had contacted Hannah Graham’s parents shortly after a search team found the body and made a preliminary identification.
Positive identification will only be made after a post-mortem is conducted by the state medical examiner, Detective Sgt James Mooney of the Charlottesville Police Department told local media.
Jesse Matthew, a nursing assistant, was identified as a suspect soon after Hannah Graham’s disappearance. He was taken into custody by police in Galveston, Texas, 1,300 miles from where Hannah Graham was last seen.
Authorities say Jesse Matthew’s arrest had also provided a “forensic link” to the case of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, 20, who went missing from Charlottesville in October 2009.
Her body was found on a farm in Albemarle County three months after she went missing.
Morgan Harrington’s case has been linked by DNA evidence since 2012 to the rape of a woman in Fairfax, Virginia, who survived after a passer-by startled her attacker, the FBI says.
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