Hannah Graham Suspect Charged in Old Sex Crime

Jesse Matthew is indicted by a grand jury on 3 counts
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 20, 2014 3:40 PM CDT
Hannah Graham Suspect Charged in 2005 Rape
This undated file photo provided by the City of Charlottesville, Va. shows Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr.    (AP Photo/City of Charlottesville, File)

Sitting in a Virginia jail, the suspect in Hannah Graham's disappearance is about to face three new counts—linked to another case dating back nine years, NBC 12 reports. Jesse Matthew, who's been charged with abduction with intent to defile in the Graham case, was indicted by a grand jury today on three counts in a 2005 rape: sexual penetration with an object, abduction, and capital murder. Authorities had already said that forensic evidence indicated Matthew's involvement in a third case, of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, who was last seen hitchhiking outside Charlottesville after a Metallica concert in 2009, CNN reports. Harrington turned up dead on a farm in January 2010.

Meanwhile, remains discovered in central Virginia this weekend haven't yet been identified as Graham's. The chief medical examiner's office in Richmond will likely take its time to make sure they get it right, a forensic psychologist tells WTVR. A sheriff's search team found scattered bones, a skull, and a pair of black pants that looked like Graham's, on an abandoned property about 8 miles from where she was last spotted five weeks ago. "I do believe God wanted us to find what we found," a sheriff's sergeant says. He adds that the body was "not buried, and its location was not far from the road. There was not any crushing of any bones. As far as skull, everything looked to be in tact to me." (More abduction stories.)

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