WRIC
November 10, 2014
New details have emerged about DNA found from the man accused of abducting University of Virginia student Hannah Graham.
A forensic analysis shows DNA recovered from underneath the fingernails of a 2005 sexual assault victim in Fairfax is that of Jesse Matthew.
Authorities had already announced a forensic link between Matthew and the Fairfax case, but these are the first details released.
Matthew has been indicted on attempted capital murder, abduction, and sexual penetration with an object in connection with the rape on which happened on September 24, 2005.
The indictment claims Matthew “did feloniously, willfully, deliberately, intentionally and with premeditation attempt to kill R.G. in the commission of or subsequent to an abduction with the intent to defile.”
In the 2005 Fairfax rape, a man grabbed a 26-year-old woman from behind, forced her into a wooded area and sexually assaulted her. The alleged assailant fled after being startled.
Virginia State Police announced weeks ago that Jesse L. Matthew, Jr., a suspect arrested in connection to Graham’s disappearance, had some physical connection to the death of Morgan Harrington.
Investigators in Harrington’s case in 2009 determined that DNA in the case connected the perpetrator to a 2005 abduction and rape of a woman in Fairfax.
Matthew has not been charged in connection to the 2009 Harrington abduction and murder, even though the suspect in that case was previously linked to the 2005 case, and the Virginia State Police have already said that there is a forensic link between Harrington’s murder and Matthew.
Matthew, 32, is being held without bail in Charlottesville for the alleged abduction of Graham with intent to defile.