The suspect arrested in connection to the disappearance of missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham has been linked to the 2009 murder of a 20-year-old student, Virginia police revealed.
Virginia police have never stopped an investigation into the death of Virginia Tech student Morgan D. Harrington, who disappeared in October 2009 while attending a Metallica concert in Charlottesville near the University of Virginia, Fox News reported. She was found dead three months later on a farm 10 miles outside Charlottesville.
On Monday, police said forensic evidence linked 32-year-old Jesse Leroy Matthew, who has been charged in connection to Graham's disappearance, to Harrington's murder.
Matthew's arrest last Wednesday "provided a significant break in the case with a new forensic link for state police investigators to pursue," Virginia State Police Spokeswoman Corrine Geller said in a statement.
"There is still a great deal of work to be done in regards to this investigation and we appreciate the public's patience as we move forward," Geller said.
Not many details were released about the manner of Harrington's death. In 2010 her family said the Roanoke native was abducted, raped and murdered, according to Fox News.
DNA found on Harrington five years ago connected the unknown assailant to the abduction and rape of a woman in Fairfax in 2005, which means there is a possibility Matthew could be linked to another case, ABC News reported.
State police did not specify what evidence linked Matthew to Harrington's case. He was arrested on a beach in Galveston, Texas, after he fled the state while he was under police surveillance.
In the meantime, investigators said they are still focusing their efforts on finding Graham, 18.
Graham was last seen around 1:20 a.m. Sept. 13 on surveillance cameras with Matthew at an outside mall in downtown Charlottesville. The sophomore left an off-campus party that night alone when she somehow came into contact with the suspect, the last person beleived to have seen Graham.
Matthew arrived in Virginia on Friday after agreeing to be extradited from Texas, ABC News reported. He is being held at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail until his bond hearing Thursday.
