The Other McCain

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Jesse Matthew: Serial Killer?

Posted on | October 10, 2014 | 9 Comments

Left to right: Hannah Graham, Jesse Matthew, Morgan Harrington

Evidence is beginning to indicate that the suspect in Hannah Graham’s disappearance was a one-man crime wave:

The prime suspect in the September 2014 disappearance of U.Va. student Hannah Graham had been interviewed by police five years ago in connection with another missing young woman, NBC29 in Charlottesville, Virginia, reported Thursday.
Jesse Matthew, 32, who was arrested in connection with Graham’s disappearance last month, has been linked to the 2009 unsolved murder of Morgan Harrington. Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student, was last seen at a rock concert in Charlottesville. Her body was found several months later.
Matthew had worked as a cab driver in the Charlottesville area the night Harrington vanished, according to NBC29’s Henry Graff. Two weeks ago, as the search for Graham intensified to areas outside Charlottesville, police found Matthew’s abandoned cab on a farm.
Following Harrington’s disappearance in 2009, police had interviewed dozens of cab drivers, including Matthew. . .
Graham, 18, was last seen during the early morning hours of Sept. 13 with Matthew on Charlottesville’s downtown mall. Matthew was arrested in Texas Sept. 21 and charged with abduction with intent to defile in Graham’s disappearance.
Two years ago, the FBI said DNA evidence showed that Harrington’s killer also was responsible for a 2005 rape in Northern Virginia, so Matthew could be linked to that assault as well.

More from the New York Daily News:

Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, 20, was last seen getting into a cab after attending a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena on Oct. 17, 2009, the same night Matthew was on duty for Access, a now-defunct yellow cab company. . . .
Harrington went to the restroom during the concert and was never seen by friends again. Security guards barred her from re-entering the campus arena at the University of Virginia. Police believe she hailed a taxi instead. She was found brutally murdered, her body discovered at a farm 10 miles from the arena on Jan. 26, 2010.
“Everything is starting to add up,” Melvin Carter, a local cab driver who knew Matthew, told WTVR.

In the two weeks since Matthew was arrested last month, police have looked at him in connection with other unsolved crimes:

It is the latest in a series of mysteries involving young people who have disappeared or been killed in the area, which includes the Route 29 corridor and its frightening reputation for vanishing young women.
In August 2009, Heidi Childs and her boyfriend of four years, David Metzler, were shot dead with a rifle in a national park about 10 miles from the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg. . . .
Sheriff’s Capt. Robert New confirmed . . . that “they are following this case (of Jesse Matthew) closely” to see whether it is connected to the killing of Childs, 18, and Metzler, 19.
The area is two hours from Charlottesville and 90 minutes from Liberty University in Lynchburg, where Matthew once attended college more than dozen years ago. . . .
Cassandra Morton, 23, was reported missing in October 2009 in Lynchburg. About seven weeks later, her body was found off a hiking trail at the bottom of Candlers Mountain. . . .
A spokesman for the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office said Morton was found under brush as if someone tried to hide the body.
Officials believe she was killed elsewhere, the station reported.
Her body was discovered by a hiker.
Campbell County Sheriff Steve Hutcherson said . . . his office never closes homicide cases. “We follow up on any leads, we have to do due diligence, and we have to leave no stone unturned,” he said, while telling CNN they will investigate to see whether there is a connection to Graham’s disappearance.
The sheriff noted that Morton was reported missing by her parents the same day as Morgan Harrington, a Virginia Tech student whose body was found in January 2010.

Matthew has not been convicted of any of these crimes yet. Real life is not like TV dramas where murders are solved in an hour.

UPDATE: Also, unlike TV crime dramas, where the suspect is always an evil genius mastermind, Jesse Matthew isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. A Lynchburg TV station interviewed a woman who knew Matthew when he attended Liberty University:

“I would help him with his school work, we’d eat breakfast in the mornings before going to our first class, I knew then that he, I was honestly shocked that he was able to attend college.” . . .
During their years together at LU, she says she helped him with his class work and it was then she realized his intelligence level was not up to par.
“When I was looking over his work, it was truly at the age of Grammar school. It was see spot run, with handwriting to match.”
That’s one of the reasons this woman says she’d be shocked if he committed these crimes. She says she doesn’t want people to jump to judgment.
“It was almost as if you were going to school with a little kid, but he was a sweet kid, and he was fun to be around, but maybe that was only one side I saw.” . . .
“My basic concern is that he doesn’t understand the boundaries when it comes to women or other people.”

He “doesn’t understand boundaries”? How hard is it to understand, “Thou shalt not kill”? Stupid people can be evil, too, you know.

 

Comments

9 Responses to “Jesse Matthew: Serial Killer?”

  1. Matthew W
    October 10th, 2014 @ 8:54 am

    Very few one timers out there

  2. Richard McEnroe
    October 10th, 2014 @ 10:04 am

    Looks like another ‘gentle giant’ to me…

  3. kilo6
    October 10th, 2014 @ 10:23 am

    “It was almost as if you were going to school with a little kid, but he was a sweet kid, and he was fun to be around, but maybe that was only one side I saw.” . . .
    “My basic concern is that he doesn’t understand the boundaries when it comes to women or other people.”

    Yeah about that “little kid” thing, psychopaths can be viewed as little kids in adult bodies. They want what they want and they want it NOW, if you deny them what they want you are an enemy.

  4. Matt_SE
    October 10th, 2014 @ 2:06 pm

    Shades of Willie Sutton: maybe he was at college because that’s where the pretty, young girls were.
    It’s also impossible NOT to notice the affirmative action tie-in.

  5. Kirby McCain
    October 10th, 2014 @ 6:47 pm

    He was also investigated for 2 sexual assaults at 2 different universities according to one report. Since DNA has connected him to a murder and a brutal attack I’m done with the alleged stuff. BTW has Senator Gillibrand been contacted for her expert commentary?

  6. Jesse Matthew: Serial Killer? | That Mr. G Guy's Blog
    October 10th, 2014 @ 6:57 pm

    […] Jesse Matthew: Serial Killer?. The guy might not have the smarts for college, but I’d bet he has animal cunning next to none. […]

  7. pabarge
    October 10th, 2014 @ 10:26 pm

    White women + Black men == death

  8. djpala
    October 11th, 2014 @ 5:38 am

    No, shades of OJ ! What’s the thrill & attraction to a ultra ugly skunk head. You don’t raise your ‘liberal’ daughter properly this is the result !

  9. Joseph Shmeau
    October 13th, 2014 @ 1:35 am

    Didn’t he play on the football team at LU?