The Collegian
Tuesday, December 03, 2024

Suspect in Hannah Graham case arrested in Texas

The wanted poster for Jesse Leroy Matthew, Jr, the person of interest in the missing UVA student case.
The wanted poster for Jesse Leroy Matthew, Jr, the person of interest in the missing UVA student case.

A suspect in the disappearance of a University of Virginia sophomore was arrested by police Wednesday afternoon on a Texas beach, police announced, and is being sent back to Virginia.

Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr., 32, was charged Tuesday with abduction with intent to defile in connection to the disappearance of Hannah Graham, 18. Police reported that Matthew was the last person seen with Graham on the night she went missing, according to The Associated Press. Matthew was not captured in the widely publicized surveillance footage of Graham walking and running toward Charlottesville's Downtown Mall in the early morning hours of Sept. 13, but witnesses saw the two together at a bar there, according to police.

"This is nowhere near over," Timothy Longo, Charlottesville police chief, told reporters at the press conference Wednesday night. Searches for Graham in and around Charlottesville will continue, he said, and Texas police will search the area around Gilchrist Beach, where Matthew was found camping.

Check back for additional reporting.

Contact reporter Ben Panko at ben.panko@richmond.edu

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