The man accused of abducting missing UVA student Hannah Graham and connected through forensic evidence to the 2009 disappearance and death of Morgan Harrington now faces charges stemming from a 2005 sexual assault in Northern Virginia. Jesse “LJ” Matthew, 32, has been indicted on attempted capital murder, abduction, and sexual penetration with an object charges for the September 24, 2005 assault on a 26-year-old woman in Fairfax.
At a press conference announcing the charges this afternoon, Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the Charlottesville-based Hannah Graham investigation “was of value to this department,” but he declined to elaborate on the evidence that led to the indictment
“We’re still collecting evidence,” he said.
As detailed in a 2010 story in The Hook newspaper, the victim was walking along Jermantown Road from the Giant grocery store in the City of Fairfax around 10pm when she was attacked from behind as she passed the Oxford Row Condominium complex on her way to a nearby apartment. The assailant carried her to a grassy area near a playground and pool at the rear of the complex, where he raped her and choked her to the point of unconsciousness. He was startled by a passerby and fled, according to a police release soon after the assault. Beaten bloody and disoriented, the woman made her way to a nearby unit, where the residents called 911. The Fairfax victim’s description of her attacker as a large, black male dressed in light-colored pants and a dark pullover sweater provided a forensic sketch.
For nearly five years, that case yielded no leads until DNA from the same unidentified assailant was discovered on the T-shirt worn by Morgan Harrington on the night she disappeared. The shirt was found by a UVA student spread on a bush in early November 2009, just a few weeks after Harrington vanished after leaving a Metallica concert at the John Paul Jones Arena on October 17 of that year.
Soon after Matthew was captured in Galveston, Texas on September 24 and charged in the September 13 disappearance of Hannah Graham, police announced a forensic link between Matthew and the Harrington case. Morrogh declined to elaborate on that link or any other evidence in the case.
“I can’t comment on that based on rules governing prosecutors,” said Morrogh, who explained Matthew will likely be transported to Fairfax to begin the process of hearings on these new charges.
The indictments come just two days after the discovery of human remains on an abandoned property on Old Lynchburg Road. The remains, discovered during the search for Hannah Graham and located just five-and-a-half miles from the location where Morgan Harrington’s remains were found in 2010, have been sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Richmond for identification and further forensic testing.
Matthew is due to appear in Charlottesville District Court for a preliminary hearing on the abduction with intent to defile charge on December 4.