96: Hannah Graham - Part 1 - Killer Queens: A True Crime Podcast

On the night of September 12, 2014, 18-year-old Hannah Graham was just another college student. She was getting ready and then going out to a couple of parties to do some good old-fashioned underage drinking, dancing, laughing, and probably beer pong or cornhole. At 9:30 pm, Hannah left the Camden Plaza Apartments which is a few blocks from her own apartment in the GrandMarc Apartments. She was caught on the security camera video in the hallway while walking out of the building. Hannah went back to the Camden Plaza Apartments at 11:50 pm and met her friends. They weren’t aware of this at the time, but this would be the last time they saw their friend.

September 13, 2014

Almost an hour later at 12:46 am, Hannah went to McGrady’s Pub on Grady Avenue where she is seen looking visibly intoxicated. Not fall-down drunk, but it is apparent that she’s been drinking. At 1 am, Hannah is seen on the surveillance video at a Shell gas station near the UVA campus and in the video she runs into view and then before she goes off the other side of the screen, she starts walking.

At 1:06 am, Hannah walked by Sal’s Pizza on East Main Street where she was once again caught on surveillance video. In the video, a white man walks into view, looks over his shoulder and then steps into the doorway. When Hanna walks past him, he starts walking behind her. Later, this man tells the police that he started following her because she seemed to be distressed, and he simply wanted to make sure she was safe.

At one point you can see Hannah walking and a tall, well-built African American man with dreadlocks walking in the opposite direction of her. He makes a u-turn and begins to walk in her direction.

At 1:08 am, Tuel’s Jewelers catches her from their in-store security camera walking outside and the white man walking a short distance behind her. Then Hannah and the man with dreadlocks go into Tempo Restaurant and Bar on 5th Street Southeast. The man buys alcohol and they stay for about 15 minutes before he and Hannah are seen leaving the restaurant together. Hannah texts her friends at 1:20 am saying, “I’m coming to a party…but I’m lost.” This would be the last time Hannah contacted anyone.

some Background on Hannah

Hannah Elizabeth Graham was born on February 25, 1996 in Reading, England. When she was 5-years-old, her parents moved the family to America. At the time of her disappearance, she was a sophomore at the University of Virginia studying Global Public Health. Hannah was described as optimistic and happy, bright, personable, trusting, extremely loyal, and “without prejudice.” Hannah loved to help others and did volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where she helped rebuild after a tornado. Hannah loved learning French and was musical; playing the piano as a kid and later, alto saxophone. She was also athletic, playing softball and ski-racing.

Her friend Lindsey told 48 Hours that Hannah was “like the moon. She reflected the light in the world.” Her parents said that she was into art and music and she did not like math. Same, girl. People who knew her just knew that one day she was going to change the world. Unfortunately, she would do that, but in the worst way possible by helping put away a serial rapist and murderer.

A Suspect Emerges and Hannah is Found

When the police are looking over the surveillance videos and talking to witnesses, they find that Hannah was talking to a man named Jesse Matthew, Jr. He is seen on surveillance footage walking past one camera, apparently crossing the outdoor mall, turning back, and following Hannah. Matthew had been witnessed that night grabbing and touching women in other bars without their consent. He had been turned town by numerous women at other bars that night before he was seen with Hannah.

Matthew was the man seen in the restaurant with her and had been witnessed putting his arm around her. She was obviously drunk and witnesses said that he “didn’t look friendly.” Matthew’s credit card report shows that he bought 2 drinks and closed a tab at Tempo around 1 am. They left that restaurant and after that it’s unknown what happened. However, witnesses reported that they did hear her say, “I’m not getting in that car with you. What is it, stolen?”

It actually took police a week to identify Matthew, but he became a person of interest quickly because he was most likely the last person to have seen Hannah alive. Coworkers and friends of Matthew’s reported that after the date of Hannah’s disappearance he was acting odd. They said that he was late for work and then wouldn’t acknowledge his coworkers. When asked how he was doing, he told them he was not okay. He also had a swollen jaw and complained of tooth pain. After Hannah disappeared Matthew rarely left his apartment and was not answering phone calls.

On September 19th, police showed up at Matthew’s home where he told them that on the night in question he was drunk and didn’t remember talking to Hannah that night. On September 21st, a warrant for Matthew’s arrest was issued for reckless driving. On September 22nd, police searched Jesse Matthew’s apartment. In it they found a cellphone that hasn’t had service since September 13th, a pair of shorts with Hannah’s DNA on them, and another sample of Hannah’s DNA on the passenger side door of his car.

Matthew agreed to meet with police the next day but then changed his mind. Unfortunately, Matthew had fled the day after he decided not to meet with police. He had gotten a new driver’s license and withdrew all the money from his bank account. FORTUNATELY, on September 24, 2014 a super vigilant woman in Galveston, Texas spotted Matthew on the beach and called the police who promptly arrested Jesse Matthew.

Since he was in Texas, the police there “Skyped” with a judge in Virginia who read him his rights and charges. During this video conference, after the judge has gone over the charges, Matthew has the audacity to complain that the police took all of his clothes from him and he has to sleep on a “hard thing” and “I feel like I’m a…like I should…I should be able to have some kind of clothes.” To which Judge Sassy-Pants says, “You appear to me to be dressed in a jumpsuit.”

5 weeks after she disappeared on October 18th, police were alerted to remains found in an abandoned property. On October 24th, these remains were confirmed to belong to Hannah Elizabeth Graham. An autopsy confirmed that she was either choked or smothered and her nose had been broken in the struggle. After his arrest, Matthew’s DNA was linked to 2 other cases. One assault and one murder.

5 Years Earlier

On October 17th, 2009, Morgan Harrington and her friends went to John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia for a Metallica concert. During the opening acts, Morgan told her friend that she had to go to the bathroom, but when she didn’t come back, her friends called her cellphone. Morgan answered the phone and told them that she had gotten locked out of the arena because they apparently had a no re-entry policy. According to witnesses at the show, it appears that she had fallen or somehow hit her face, because she had an injury to her face which was bleeding.

At 9:30 pm, she was seen hitchhiking and witnesses saw her talking to a man. She was never seen again. The next day, her purse and cell phone were found on the UVA athletic field, but after 3 days there was still no sign of Morgan. On November 11, police found a bloody Pantera t-shirt like the one Morgan had been wearing at the concert. The blood on the t-shirt was tested and found to contain Morgan’s DNA. Other than the pieces of evidence they found, there were no leads to help direct police to where Morgan could be.

At 9:53 am on January 26, 2010, a farmer reported to police that he had found human remains on his vast farm. The remains were confirmed to be Morgan Harrington and her parents told news outlets that, while they couldn’t disclose much about the condition of the body, they could confirm that Morgan had been brutally attacked. She had broken bones and was then left in a field exposed to the elements. Her parents said they only had bones left of their only daughter.

Metallica offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the murderer. They actually made an appeal to the public and used their star power the day after Morgan went missing. Meanwhile, police get a hit on DNA. It wasn’t linked to a suspect, but to ANOTHER case from September 2005.

On September 24, 2005 in Fairfax, Virginia at around 8:30 pm, a woman was coming home from the grocery store when she was attacked from behind on the stairs outside her home. She was dragged to a grassy area just feet from the safety of her home where her attacker beat her severely, choked her, and sexually assaulted her. She fought hard, and then he told her, “I’ll kill you if you scream again. Let me do this and I’ll let you go.”

The woman lost consciousness, and when she woke up she saw headlights and her attacker left. She immediately got a rape kit and when the DNA was tested it couldn’t be matched to any known perpetrators at that time.

FOR PART TWO, CLICK HERE!