A suspect held in the disappearance of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham has now been charged with her death, Albemarle county prosecutors said Tuesday.
Jesse Matthew Jr., 33, was indicted Monday on first-degree murder charges in the death of Hannah Graham, who was missing for about a month before her remains were found in a rural Albemarle county field in early October, Fox News reported.
Matthew, who has other charges pending against him, is not charged with capital murder, meaning officials will not be seeking the death penalty. Albemarle County Prosecutor Denise Lunsford did not say why they are not seeking capital murder, Fox News reported.
The former hospital worker is already charged with intent to defile Graham. Investigators believe he was the last person seen with the 18-year-old before she disappeared near Charlottesville's Downtown Mall before dawn on Sept. 13.
That night, Graham left a party and later sent a friend a text saying she was lost. Surveillance cameras at the mall, an outside strip of bars and shops, show her leaving a restaurant with Matthew. Her remains were found Oct. 18 less than ten miles from where she was last seen.
By that time, Matthew was already arrested for her disappearance. DNA collected from the suspect linked him to the 2005 sexual assault of a woman in Fairfax County. He was charged in that case and has pleaded not guilty.
Forensic evidence also linked Matthew to the disappearance and death of 20-year-old Morgan Harrington, a Virginia Tech student who vanished in Charlottesville in late 2009 and was later found dead in a hay field about six miles from where Graham was located, Fox News reported.
"There are no pending charges" against Matthew in Harrington's case, Lunsford told the station.
Matthew, currently jailed in Fairfax County, is expected to appear in court for the Graham case later this month.
