UPDATE, noon Thursday, September 25: An employee of the Galveston Sheriff’s Office confirmed this morning that Jesse Matthew was apprehended there after someone spotted him and called in a suspicious person report.
Texas news website Click2Houston has reported that Matthew was camping on a beach on the Bolivar Peninsula when an observer reported him to authorities. A deputy sheriff then arrested Matthew after running the plates of the Nissan Sentra he was driving and discovering he was wanted for abduction in the Hannah Graham case.
The Galveston Daily News reports that Matthew appeared in front of a judge in county court Thursday morning, where he said he would not fight his extradition to Charlottesville.
Law enforcement is searching the Galveston area for Graham, according to an ABC reporter there.
The original report on Matthew’s arrest was posted at 8pm Wednesday, September 24:
Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo announced Wednesday night that Jesse Matthew, charged yesterday with the abduction of missing UVA student Hannah Graham, has been taken into custody in Galveston, Texas.
“This case is nowhere near over,” Longo told a room full of reporters at the department’s second hastily called evening press conference of the week. “We have a person in custody, but there’s a long road ahead of us, and that road includes finding Hannah Graham.”
Richmond FBI Special Agent Adam Lee spoke briefly about the arrest, calling a sheriff’s deputy in Galveston “the hero of the day,” but declined to share details of how officials there captured Matthew.
“It’s a positive close to this chapter in this very important case, and we look forward to more positive developments,” Lee said.
Longo said the process of extraditing Matthew to Charlottesville has begun. He said he may not be able to share many more details of the investigation going forward, but stressed that the search for Graham is ongoing. The reward for information leading to her location is now $100,000.
Matthew had last been seen by police on Sunday, September 21, when he walked into the Charlottesville Police Department with members of his family. The day before, he had been named a person of interest in the disappearance of 18-year-old Graham, who has been missing since the early hours of Saturday, September 13. Matthew retained a local former prosecutor as his attorney, then sped away from the department, losing police and leading to a reckless driving charge.