Black Suspected of Abducting White Woman is Indicted for 2005 Rape of White Student

WTKR
October 22, 2014

Morgan_Harrington_courtesy_photo
Morgan Harrington was another victim of the Black rapist, she was found dead in January 2009.

As investigators are determining whether a skull and bones discovered behind an abandoned Central Virginia home on Saturday are those of Hannah Graham, the lone suspect in her disappearance has been indicted in an assault from almost a decade ago — a case that police say forensically links him to another female college student who vanished from the same area as Graham.

Jesse Matthew was indicted by a grand jury in Fairfax, Virginia on Monday for the 2005 sexual assault on charges that also included attempted murder and abduction.

According to the indictment, Matthew, 32, “did feloniously, willfully, deliberately, intentionally and with premeditation attempt to kill (the victim) in the commission of or subsequent to an abduction with the intent to defile.”

AP_uva_suspect_Jesse_Matthew_mugshot_mj_140926_4x3_992
Jess Matthew is the prime suspect for the abduction of Hannah Graham, whose possible body has recently been found.

The then-26-year-old victim in that attack was able to provide enough of a detailed description to yield a police sketch, one that years later would link Matthew to the case of Morgan Harrington, the Virginia Tech student who vanished in Charlottesville in October 2009.

Harrington was found dead the following January. Police at the time said “forensic evidence” linked the two cases.

Fairfax County prosecutor Ray Morrogh said Monday that he could not comment on how this investigation and indictment relates to the Harrington or Graham cases, but said “the facts and details will be revealed in the judicial process.”

Jim Camblos, Matthew’s Charlottesville attorney in the Graham case, declined to comment when reached by CNN on Monday.