They Were Being Watched… For Years | True Crime Documentary

“Hi, I’m James from Metallica. Back in 2010, our band offered $50,000 to help catch the person responsible for murdering Morgan Harrington. Since that time, authorities uncovered new evidence linking her killer to a similar assault on a woman in Virginia. If you’ve seen the person in this sketch or have any information about this case or any others, please contact your local police or submit your information online.”

“I have always known that he was the one who did it, and that’s one reason why I have been at every motion’s trial hearing. Every time he’s in court, I want my face there, ’cause I want him to see me, ’cause I want him to know that I know.”

20-year-old Morgan Dana Harrington was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. Bright and intelligent, loving art and music, she had dreams of becoming a teacher. She completed high school early at the top of her class and was given early admission into Virginia Tech to major in education. Morgan was described as a homebird, and although she was now at university, she made sure to see her family once a week and talked to her parents everyday on the phone.

On October 17th, 2009, 20-year-old Morgan and three of her friends drove to the John Paul Jones Arena at the University of Virginia to watch one of her favorite bands in concert: Metallica. Morgan couldn’t wait for the concert, having had the tickets pinned to her refrigerator for the last 6 months. One of her friends drove the group there in Morgan’s car, and during a warm-up act, Morgan told her friends she was going to the bathroom.

20 minutes later, with Metallica about to start, her friends called her at 8:48 p.m. to see where she was. Morgan said she had been locked out of the arena due to its no re-entry policy. It remains unknown how or why Morgan ended up outside of the arena, but she told her friends that she would find her own way home and they didn’t need to worry. Morgan had no cash on her, having left it all with her friends, and her car keys were also with the group inside.

Just after 9:00 p.m., she was spotted in the University Hall West parking lot and then again in the Lanigan track parking lot. Several of the witnesses saw her at around 9:30 p.m. walking on Copley Street Bridge with her thumb sticking out, seemingly trying to seek a lift. People that saw her noted she seemed disoriented and freezing cold, with an abrasion on her chin. After this, there were no other reported sightings of her.

The following day, Morgan was supposed to be having her weekly visit with her parents, Dan and Jill. Dan was going to be helping her revise for an upcoming maths exam, but Morgan didn’t show up and wasn’t responding to messages or calls. Dan and Jill contacted the friends that Morgan had been with the night before. To their horror and anguish, they discovered they had been separated and none of them knew where she was.

Earlier that morning at around 7:00 a.m., a big discovery had been made by a lacrosse player. Morgan’s purse was found. It contained her student ID, driver’s license, debit card, and hip flask. The area the purse was found in was typically used by taxi drivers waiting to pick up fares during large events. Soon after this, her cell phone with the battery removed was also discovered a short walk away.

Morgan’s friends from the concert started receiving some backlash for what had happened that night, but Morgan’s parents spoke out. Dan said,

“They are not to blame. Everyone wants to make them out to be the bad guy, but they are not the bad guy. I wish they had, but I don’t know that it would have changed anything. She’s not a 7-year-old; they wouldn’t have put out an Amber Alert.”

Morgan’s mother, Jill, added,

“This is not about let’s find who’s to blame, let’s find her.”

Searches were conducted by over 1,600 people, and the community was desperate to help find Morgan. 3 weeks after Morgan was last seen on the bridge, a student was returning from class when he found a bloodied t-shirt. It had been discarded in some bushes at the front of his apartment. The apartment was a short walk away from the arena, and the student, knowing that Morgan was missing, reported this finding to the police.

Jill and Dan Harrington are sleepless as they search for their daughter Morgan. Before she left here, she said,

“Dad, you’re going to be home tomorrow afternoon, because when I get back, I… I need some help, uh, preparing for a math exam.”

“I have had many goodbyes. I don’t take goodbyes lightly. I always walk her to the car, and she gets in the car, and as she’s pulling out, she’s always flashing those fingers at me: 2-4-1. In fact, that was the last thing she said to me. That was the last thing she said to me when she left, because that’s just our little, you know, your little code: I love you too much forever, and once more than forever.”

The fears of everyone were realized on January 26th, 2010. A farmer was passing through his 700 acres of land when he saw some remains that he assumed were those of an animal. As he drew closer, he realized what it was: there was a human skull on the ground. There were no clothes, shoes, or jewelry near the remains, and the farmer stated he felt in his gut that those were the bones of the missing 20-year-old. He said,

“I looked down and saw what looked like a human skull, and my first thought was that it was Morgan Harrington.”

The farm was around 10 miles away from the arena and was over a mile away from a main road with no public access point. The farmer’s gut instinct was tragically proven right when it was officially confirmed, after 3 months of searching, they had found the remains of Morgan Harrington.

Morgan’s father, Dan, would find out about the discovery via a reporter that had phoned him asking for a statement. Due to decomposition, an exact time and cause of death were unable to be determined. The autopsy listed her cause of death as homicidal violence of undetermined origin. Her bones were shattered, and her parents said they believed she had suffered immensely in her last moments. She endured a fracture on her upper left arm, two rib fractures, and a skull fracture. Morgan’s mother, Jill, also confirmed that her daughter had been raped.

A few months later, the shirt that was found outside of the apartment block was confirmed to be the shirt that Morgan had been wearing on the night she had last been seen. It wasn’t long before the police announced they had made a big break in the case: DNA evidence had been recovered from her shirt, and it matched a cold case from 2005.

5 years before Morgan was murdered, a lady identified only as RG had reported to police that she had been horrifically beaten and sexually assaulted. RG was 26 at the time and living in Fairfax. On September 24th, 2005, she was walking back from a local grocery store at around 8:30 p.m. when she reached the stairs of her home. Someone grabbed her from behind and carried her to a patch of grass at the end of her neighborhood. Her head was then slammed off the ground, and she was punched in the face. The attacker then started to choke and sexually assault her. She cried out for help, but her attacker told her that he would kill her if she screamed again. He said she needed to let him do what he wanted to do, and then he would let her go.

“Think perhaps today proved their worth. Sometime before noon today, a search team from the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Department was searching an abandoned property along Old Lynchburg Road in southern Albemarle County when they discovered what appears to be human remains.”

 

Tragically, 6 days after this conference, these remains were positively identified as Hannah Graham. It was confirmed that Hannah had died of homicide by an undetermined etiology. Hannah’s remains were found just 5 miles from where Morgan Harrington had been discovered.

2 days after Hannah’s remains were found, Jesse was indicted on charges of attempted murder, object sexual penetration, and abduction with intent to defile in the Fairfax case of RG from 2005. He pled not guilty. Shortly before the trial in RG’s case began, Jesse was also indicted on a first-degree murder charge in Hannah Graham’s case. The charge was then increased to a capital murder charge, meaning the death penalty was potentially now on the table.

On June 10th, 2015, Jesse entered the Alford plea in regards to the 2005 case of RG and was subsequently convicted of all charges. An Alford plea means that the defendant still denies any guilt, but they acknowledge that the evidence presented may be strong enough to convict them.

3 months later, Jesse was also formally charged with first-degree murder and abduction with intent to defile in the case of Morgan Harrington. Police believe that the night Morgan was abducted, Jesse may have lured her into his taxi as she was looking for a lift home.

During one of the pre-trial hearings, Morgan’s mother, Jill Harrington, walked over to Jesse’s mother and held her hand. She said,

“It was the right thing to do. I hold no animosity towards his family; they did nothing wrong.”

In October 2015, at the end of the trial in RG’s case, Jesse was sentenced to three life terms.

“This afternoon, prosecutors say that Jesse Matthew Jr. will plead guilty to the murders of Graham and Harrington to avoid the death penalty. Prosecutors said they plan to seek the death penalty if Matthew was convicted in the Graham case.”

The trials of Jesse in the cases of Morgan and Hannah would never take place. In March 2016, Jesse struck a plea deal. He pled guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abduction with the intent to defile in both cases. This meant he avoided the death penalty but received four life sentences without the chance of parole. Both families said they supported the deal and were grateful they wouldn’t have to endure a painful trial. Jesse Matthew Jr. received seven life sentences in total.

It is thought that there are many other victims linked to Jesse Matthew Jr. and that his crime spree was never fully determined and will likely never be known. In May 2019, it was reported that Jesse had been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. He transferred prisons to begin treatment, and both the Harrington and Graham families were notified of the transfer.

Help Save the Next Girl is a national nonprofit organization set up by Jill and Dan Harrington. It is committed to being a presence on campuses, in clubs, and in violence prevention forums across the country. It develops relationships with the media and law enforcement to help spread awareness and information about cases. They also provide outreach support to victims’ families.

John Graham, Hannah’s father, said,

“Hannah’s enduring gift to all of us is that she enabled this wicked man to be apprehended and convicted. She did change the world, but at a terrible price.”