Hannah Elizabeth Graham (February 25, 1996 – September 13, 2014) was an 18-year-old second-year British-born American student at the University of Virginia who went missing on September 13, 2014. She was last seen early in the morning that day, at the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, Virginia. Five weeks later, her remains were discovered on an abandoned property in nearby Albemarle County. Jesse Matthew pleaded guilty to murdering Graham and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was also found guilty and given three additional life sentences for other, previous crimes.
Background
Hannah Graham's friends last heard from her via text message at about 1:20 am on September 13, 2014, after she told them she was on her way to a party, but was lost. She had attended another party before disappearing.
According to surveillance footage and witness testimony, among the last places Graham was seen was at Tempo Restaurant with Jesse Leroy "LJ" Matthew Jr., a 32-year-old man and person of interest. A witness also said that Matthew was seen in the restaurant holding an arm around Graham, and that she looked drunk. The last witness to see Graham alive says that she was with a man who "did not look friendly." As Graham was standing by a vehicle identified to be Matthew's orange 1998 Chrysler Sebring, the witness heard her say, "I'm not getting in that car with you!"
Over a decade earlier, Matthew was twice accused of sexual assault at two separate Virginia colleges Liberty University in Lynchburg and Christopher Newport University in Newport News and left each school immediately after each allegation. The reported assaults occurred within an eleven-month period of each other. Police investigated each report, but in neither incident was a criminal case brought against him. On July 7, 2021, Matthew was named in class action lawsuit against Liberty University alleging that he had sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl while at Liberty University.
Search
Volunteer search
On September 20, a volunteer search for Graham took place throughout Charlottesville. Over 1,000 volunteers were reported to have been involved in the search.
Search efforts
On September 25, Charlottesville police chief Timothy Longo said he believed that Graham was either in Charlottesville or one of the surrounding nine counties, and asked property owners to search for her on their own land. The Department of Emergency Management organized two-person search teams in the search for Graham and estimated that as of September 26, those crews spent 44 hours in the field since the volunteer search.
Remains found
On October 18, 2014, human remains were found at an abandoned property in Albemarle County, by searchers from the Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office. At a press conference later that day, Chief Longo stated that the remains had not been positively identified as Graham; however, authorities informed Graham's parents of the discovery. The remains were sent to the Chief Medical Examiner's office in Richmond for identification. On October 24, the remains were positively identified as Graham. That same day, Graham's parents visited the property where she was found.
On November 18, The Washington Post reported that a cause for Graham's death was determined but was withheld at the request of law enforcement. Later that day, the Albemarle County Police Department reversed course, releasing that Graham died of homicide by an "undetermined etiology".
Suspect
On September 19, the local police identified a man they described as a "person of interest" whom they saw on surveillance cameras leaving a bar with Graham. The police have concluded that Graham may have gotten into a car with this man. They also searched the man's car and apartment, but declined to arrest or identify him at that time. The police identified the "person of interest" as Matthew the following day, in an effort to make contact with him for further questioning.
Police again searched Matthew's apartment on September 22; during the search, they took items of clothing from his apartment, but would not elaborate on the importance of these items. Police described the searches as a major break in the case and offered a $100,000 reward for information relating to Graham's disappearance.