Apparently drones aren’t just for wars and Amazon any more. Charlottesville police borrowed Sky Ranger from Va Tech to help them look for missing student Hannah Green.
As crews today followed tips in their search for Hannah Graham, authorities in Orange and Newport News said they were reviewing the cases of four other women who went missing, never to be found.
Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr., 32, of Albemarle County, faces a Dec. 4 preliminary hearing on a charge of abducting Graham with intent to defile, his attorney Jim Camblos said today. Matthew is scheduled to face a bond hearing this morning in Albemarle County General District Court on reckless driving charges.
Christopher Newport University also confirmed Matthew had been questioned in a sexual assault case that occurred on Sept. 7, 2003, on the campus where he was a student.
A swirl of new attention has focused on cases like Graham’s following Monday’s state police announcement that the arrest of the man charged with abducting her provided a forensic link to the 2009 disappearance and death of Morgan Harrington, then 20.
Harrington’s case has haunted the region since she disappeared Oct. 17, 2009, from outside John Paul Jones Arena. Several days after authorities arrested Matthew a week ago in Texas, state police said they’d gained “a significant break” in the Harrington investigation.
Authorities have declined to detail the link, and Matthew has not been charged in the Harrington case. Investigators from Newport News to Lynchburg, meanwhile, are looking at cases anew.
Less than a year after Harrington went missing, Samantha Ann Clarke, then 19, left her Orange home Sept. 14, 2010, and never returned. Investigators working that case had been focused on Randy Allen Taylor, who was convicted earlier this year in the killing of Alexis Murphy, 17, of Nelson County, who went missing in August 2013. She never was found.
Town of Orange police Chief James Fenwick said today that authorities continue to have questions about anyone with whom Clarke had contact in the days prior to her disappearance, including Taylor. Taylor was not charged in that case. Authorities have no reason to suspect Matthew, but they are reviewing the case, Fenwick said.
“We would be derelict in our duties if we did not examine that possibility,” Fenwick said. “So that is something we are going to be working on.”
In Newport News, a spokeswoman said police are reviewing the cases of two women who went missing there in 2003, when Matthew was a student a Christopher Newport University.
We may never find out the answers to some of these questions. It sounds like some of these schools knew more than they are letting on. do colleges have a moral responsibility to blow the whistle on sexual offenders? Can they put someone out of school for suspicion? I have a feeling when we find out the answers to some of these questions we will be e school or the laws that shield sexual predators.
I don’t approve of torture but I am getting close to suggesting that we apply a little pressure to this guy to tell us where Hannah is. DNA doesn’t lie, does it?
Help me understand this information from the Times Dispatch:
“Officials at Christopher Newport University confirmed Wednesday evening that Jesse L. Matthew Jr. was investigated for an unspecified sexual assault that occurred on the campus while he was a student and football player there.
The year before, while a student at Liberty University, where he also played football, Matthew was accused of a sexual assault but never charged or prosecuted and apparently was not charged in Newport News, either.
Matthew enrolled at CNU, but only attended from January through Oct. 15, 2003. He was a member of the football team from Aug. 14 to Sept. 12, 2003. The alleged sexual assault occurred on Sept. 7, 2003.
A Newport News police spokesman said Tuesday there is “no indication” that Matthew is connected to the Sept. 7, 2003 disappearance of a Newport News woman, but added that the case is being reviewed by a special victims unit.
Officials at Christopher Newport University confirmed Wednesday evening that Jesse L. Matthew Jr. was investigated for an unspecified sexual assault that occurred on the campus while he was a student and football player there.
The year before, while a student at Liberty University, where he also played football, Matthew was accused of a sexual assault but never charged or prosecuted and apparently was not charged in Newport News, either.
Matthew enrolled at CNU, but only attended from January through Oct. 15, 2003. He was a member of the football team from Aug. 14 to Sept. 12, 2003. The alleged sexual assault occurred on Sept. 7, 2003.
A Newport News police spokesman said Tuesday there is “no indication” that Matthew is connected to the Sept. 7, 2003 disappearance of a Newport News woman, but added that the case is being reviewed by a special victims unit.”
This is just so messed up. We need new laws. We cannot continue to protect sexual predators.