Virginia State Police: 'Significant Break' In Case Of Murdered METALLICA Fan MORGAN HARRINGTON

September 29, 2014

According to WTVR.com, the man suspected of abducting 18-year-old Hannah Graham from the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month is forensically linked to the 2009 disappearance of Morgan Harrington, 20-year-old METALLICA fan who vanished after leaving one of the band's concerts, only for her remains to be found several months later.

"Last week, the arrest of Jesse L. Matthew Jr., 32, of Charlottesville, Va., provided a significant break in [the Harrington] case with a new forensic link for state police investigators to pursue," Virginia State Police said in a statement. "There is a 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."

Morgan's mother, Gil Harrington, said: "We worked five years to get to this point, so we are relieved."

Gil Harrington previously told Noisecreep about METALLICA: "It has been humbling from the very beginning. Two days after Morgan was abducted, they could have distanced themselves from an ugly occurrence. But [METALLICA frontman] James Hetfield called this house to speak to Dan [Harrington, Morgan's dad], as a father, and asked, 'What can we do?' [More than] three years out, they [still did] things. James participated with the FBI and did public service announcements."

METALLICA also added $50,000 to the $100,000 reward already offered by the Harringtons for information on their daughter's murder, and invested another $50,000 in a scholarship named in her memory.

Morgan vanished while hitchhiking home from the band's show on the Virginia Tech campus on October 17, 2009. Her remains were found on a farm about 10 miles from the venue in January 2010.

METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo told The Pulse Of Radio at the time how he felt when he first heard about the tragic incident. "I mean, I was crushed," he said. "Stuff like this just really, really bums me out, especially when you are a parent and you have children. I mean, it's the worst thing that you could ever imagine."

Pictured below: Jesse L. Matthew Jr. and sketch composite of suspect in Morgan Harrington case

jessematthewsuspectsketch

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