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Author Topic: Morgan Dana Harrington #2 7/1/10 -  (Read 726809 times)
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akmom
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« Reply #20 on: July 02, 2010, 01:48:06 AM »

I  pray every day that the perp will be found and brought to justice.   2 4 1
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« Reply #21 on: July 02, 2010, 06:21:09 AM »

http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/article.cfm?ID=24289
Police: Unsolved cases may be linked     

Friday, July 2, 2010

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS -

RICHMOND (AP) — Forensic evidence gathered in the investigation into the slaying of a Virginia Tech student matches that from an unsolved 2005 abduction and sexual assault in Northern Virginia, state police said Thursday.

State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller refused to identify the type of forensic evidence that was found in the case of Morgan Harrington, 20, of Roanoke. Harrington’s remains were found on an Albemarle County farm Jan. 26, more than three months after she disappeared from a rock concert at the University of Virginia.

Police released a composite sketch of the suspect in the 2005 case based on the victim’s description of her attacker but warned that he may have changed his appearance.

In that case, a 26-year-old woman was walking home from a grocery store in Fairfax when a man grabbed her from behind, carried her to the pool area of a townhouse complex and sexually assaulted her.

Police are trying to identify the suspect and are attempting to determine what kind of contact he may have had with Harrington the night of her disappearance, and what his role he may have been in her disappearance and death, Geller said.

“Before today, there was the abstraction of a murderer that killed our daughter, but now that you see a face with it, it makes you very angry,” Dan Harrington, Morgan’s father, said. “The anger that I have has kind of been multiplied because I now see a face of someone who did this to another human being.”

In comments posted by Harrington’s mother Gil on the family’s website Wednesday, she warned the killer that his luck would run out.

“That corpse will not rest. Morgan wants justice,” she wrote to the “monster” who killed her daughter.

The chief medical examiner’s office has determined Harrington’s death was a homicide, but officials have said they have no further information on how she was killed. Her parents have said her bones were shattered.

Dan Harrington said there was “no doubt” that his daughter also was sexually assaulted.
Police have said the person who killed Harrington likely knew the area where her body was found in a remote hayfield 10 miles southwest of Charlottesville, where she was separated from her friends Oct. 17 while attending a Metallica concert. Investigators said only a person familiar with the farm or the immediate area would have dealt with the property’s obstacles, including streams, fences and changing terrain.

The suspect is described as a black male, 25 to 35 years old, approximately 6 feet tall with a medium build, with black hair, a beard and a mustache.

There is a $150,000 reward in the case.

“We have to continue this story,” Dan Harrington said. “This story is not over with today. The murderer is still out there.”
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cece
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« Reply #22 on: July 02, 2010, 08:47:10 AM »

Today Show video:

 http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/38053770#38053770
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« Reply #23 on: July 02, 2010, 08:20:42 PM »


Thank you so much Cece!
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« Reply #24 on: July 02, 2010, 08:53:07 PM »

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20009532-504083.html
July 2, 2010 11:15 AM
Morgan Harrington Update: Police Link Va Tech Slaying to Unsolved Assault

RICHMOND, Va. (CBS/WDBJ/AP) Eight months after Morgan Harrington's murder, police have announced a new development in the case.
PICTURES: Morgan Harrington Missing http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2009/10/21/crimesider/photoessay5405683.shtml

Forensic evidence gathered in the investigation into the slaying of the Virginia Tech student matches that from an unsolved 2005 abduction and sexual assault in northern Virginia, state police said Thursday.

State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller refused to identify the type of forensic evidence that was found.

Harrington's remains were found on an Albemarle County farm on Jan. 26, more than three months after she disappeared from a Metallica rock concert at the University of Virginia.

Police released a composite sketch of the suspect in the 2005 case based on the victim's description of her attacker, but warned that he may have changed his appearance.

In that case, a 26-year-old woman was walking home from a grocery store in Fairfax when a man grabbed her from behind, carried her to the pool area of a townhouse complex and sexually assaulted her.
Police are trying to identify the suspect, and attempting to determine what kind of contact he had with Harrington the night of her disappearance, and what his role may have been in her disappearance and death, Geller said.
PICTURES: Morgan Harrington Missing http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2009/10/21/crimesider/photoessay5405683.shtml
Before today, there was the abstraction of a murderer that killed our daughter, but now that you see a face with it, it makes you very angry," Dan Harrington said. "The anger that I have has kind of been multiplied because I now see a face of someone who did this to another human being."

On comments posted by Harrington's mother Gil on the family's website on Wednesday, she warned her daughter's killer that his luck would run out.
PICTURES: Morgan Harrington Missing http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2009/10/21/crimesider/photoessay5405683.shtml
"That corpse will not rest. Morgan wants justice," she wrote to the "monster" who killed her daughter. "A day of reckoning is coming!"

The chief medical examiner's office has determined that Harrington's death was a homicide, but officials have said they have no further information on how she was killed. Her parents have said her bones were shattered.

Police have said the person who killed Harrington likely knew the area where her body was found in a remote hayfield 10 miles southwest of Charlottesville, where she was separated from her friends Oct. 17 while attending a Metallica concert. Investigators said only a person familiar with the farm or the immediate area would have dealt with the property's obstacles, including streams, fences and changing terrain.

The Harringtons said "a wealth of physical evidence" was found at the scene.

Dan Harrington said he hopes the sketch, despite its age, will register with someone who knew the suspect.

The suspect is described as a black male, 25 to 35 years old, approximately 6 feet tall with a medium build, with black hair, a beard and a mustache.

There is a $150,000 reward in the case.

Anyone with information about what happened to Morgan Harrington are asked to call the police at 434-352-3467.


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cece
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« Reply #25 on: July 03, 2010, 10:22:27 AM »


Thank you so much Cece!

You're welcome Trimm Smile  [monkey waving]

http://www.nbc12.com/Global/story.asp?S=12750673

Composite sketch generates more than 50 tips in 24 hours


RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - This will be a working holiday weekend for state police investigators after a sketch sparks a flood of new tips in the Morgan Harrington case.

That composite sketch was released just 24 hours ago, but it's already generated more than 50 tips. Investigators are combing through dozens of new leads in the abduction and murder of Harrington.

NBC12 broke the news to Morgan's mother Friday night about the number of tips sparked by this sketch alone. Police say leads are still coming in. This was Gil Harrington's first reaction to the new tips in her daughter's brutal death last fall.

"I'm glad to hear it's shaking something loose out of the tree. That's great," said Gil Harrington.

Calls and emails have poured in from Fairfax to Charlottesville and well beyond Virginia's borders ever since the sketch made headlines again and went national.

"It pretty much runs the gamut people who think they may know, the person people who are adamant they know this person, which is great," said Virginia State Police spokeswoman, Corrine Geller.

State police released the drawing Thursday after revealing the man, wanted for a Fairfax City abduction and sexual assault, is linked through forensic evidence to Harrington's abduction and murder. Investigators spent Friday vetting and prioritizing the leads.

"Hopefully, in the end, that tip is among those fifty we've received so far, or continue to receive over the holiday weekend, we will bring not only the Morgan Harrington case to a resolution but also the 2005 abduction and assault," said Geller.

Harrington says she's now wondering how many more women have fallen victim to this mystery man.

"Perhaps this amount of media attention will give someone who might be sitting on the sidelines the courage to come forward. I'd be surprised if that weren't the case," said Harrington.

If you recognize this person or see some kind of resemblance -- don't hesitate to call state police at 434-352-3467.

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« Reply #26 on: July 03, 2010, 12:46:14 PM »

http://www.newsplex.com/home/headlines/97683674.html

Police: 50+ Harrington Tips Received after Release of Sketch

Virginia State Police have received more than 50 tips from both Virginia and across the country since releasing a sketch of a potential suspect in the Morgan Harrington case.

Police said their job now is to go through all the tips and prioritize them.

Police released the sketch on Thursday. They say forensic evidence links the Harrington case to an unsolved 2005 sexual assault that happened in the City of Fairfax. They say the evidence does not necessarily declare him as her killer, but it just links the two cases.

The sketch is based off the victim's memory and was drawn shortly after the attack. At the time, the suspect was described as between 25 and 35 years old, but police said adults' appearances don't change much over five years, so they don't expect his current appearance to be dramatically different.

They say they still believe that the suspect is a person who is very familiar with the area of Anchorage Farm, where Harrington's body was found in January. Officials are looking at many possibilities, such as if he grew up in the area, if he fled to Charlottesville after the Fairfax attack, and others.

Laura Tiezza lives off Grady Avenue in Charlottesville, where detcetives found Harrington's Pantera T-shirt.

"It's kind of scary, considering my apartment is right across the street from where her shirt was found, so it would be nice to have an idea of who actually did this," she said.

Following the release of the sketch on Thursday, many people said they haven't seen the wanted poster.

"This should be plastered all over those places, everywhere," said Matthew Hines, referencing key places in the Harrington case.

In North Garden, where Anchorage Farm is located, no posters have been posted, but police are hoping people in Albemarle County will pay close attention to the picture, as investigators remain confident the suspect is familiar with the North Garden area.

Police said their priority is to get the person identified and figure out what contact he had with Harrington the night she disappeared on Oct. 17.
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« Reply #27 on: July 03, 2010, 01:44:40 PM »

http://www2.dailyprogress.com/cdp/news/local/crime/article/new_evidences_leads_to_slew_of_harrington_tips/57869/
New evidences leads to slew of Harrington tips
By Brandon Shulleeta
Published: July 2, 2010
Police phone lines lit up following Thursday’s announcement of a break in the Morgan D. Harrington death case.
Investigators had received more than 50 tips from the public by 5 p.m. Friday, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said.
Police had announced the discovery of forensic evidence linking a man who sexually assaulted a Fairfax City woman in 2005 to Harrington’s remains.
The bones of Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student who disappeared in October, were found in a southern Albemarle County pasture in January.
Geller said police spent much of Friday shuffling through the tips, figuring out which leads to follow first. They will spend coming days and perhaps weeks tracking those leads, as well as new ones that are still flowing in.

Police have not said specifically what forensic evidence they have gathered that connects the two cases.
Investigators also have not identified a suspect in the 2005 Fairfax abduction. Authorities are circulating a sketch of the abductor, based on a description by the 26-year-old woman who was attacked from behind in a neighborhood while walking home from a grocery store. The woman was taken to a park, where she was sexually assaulted, according to Fairfax police.
Geller said police are turning to the public for help.
“We know it’s going to be public input that’s going to help us solve this case,” she said. “Solving a complex case like the Morgan Harrington one, where you have a disappearance and you have a homicide, there are multiple components that go into solving a case like that.”
“Somebody out there knows something. Somebody out there recognizes the individual in the picture,” Geller said.
Though the sketch is five years old, Geller said people should focus on the man’s eyes, nose and facial structure, to look “for some recognition.”
The 2005 perpetrator was described as a black man, about 6 feet tall, with a medium build, who had black hair with a beard and mustache five years ago.
People with information should call Crimestoppers at 977-4000 or the state police at 352-3467. The state police are available via e-mail at bci-appomattox@vsp.virginia.gov . A reward of about $150,000 is being offered.
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« Reply #28 on: July 03, 2010, 07:33:24 PM »

Thank you for the updates.

Finally a face to the unimaginable ..one of the monsters has a face.

I still believe there is atleast one other person involved.  Two guys..in a car..one girl needing assistance..a dark rainy night..a fairly desserted parking lot..a purse found in the morning..a cell phone with no battery..a T-shirt on a bush..her body in a very unique destination...and DNA.

Someone knows this guy..I don't care if he shaves his head now and his face..he is who he is..someone knows...someone helped.

The clock is winding down...game over! 

If I were the helper..I'd be turning on him on a dime to save my a$$ and plea bargain for his ID.

Tick Tock..Tick Tock..the mouse has run down the clock..the time is now.
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« Reply #29 on: July 03, 2010, 07:45:35 PM »

I'm with you Gypsy DD.
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« Reply #30 on: July 03, 2010, 07:46:26 PM »

http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/252445
Police sketch of potential suspect in Harrington death begets flurry of responses

State police say the sketch they released Thursday of a man forensically linked to both Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington's death and the 2005 sexual assault of another woman in Fairfax has elicited 50 tips from all over the nation.

State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said the tips have come in the form of e-mails and phone calls, and investigators are now prioritizing them.

Harrington, a 20-year-old resident of Roanoke County, disappeared from a Metallica concert in Charlottesville on Oct. 17. Her body was found in a field of an Albemarle County farm in January.

On Thursday, police disclosed that forensic evidence found at the farm links her death to the 2005 abduction and sexual assault of a 26-year-old woman in Fairfax.

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call Jefferson Area Crime Stoppers at (434) 977-4000, state police at (434) 352-3467 or Fairfax police at (703) 385-7959.

-- Rex Bowman
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« Reply #31 on: July 05, 2010, 06:42:13 AM »

http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/04/july-4-is-for-speed-traps/
  July 4 is for… speed traps
by Hawes Spencer
published 6:11pm Sunday Jul 4, 2010
Despite sunny skies and temperatures nearing the triple-digit mark combining to create the clear visibility and bone-dry pavement evident on July 4— not to mention a new law that has already begun giving drivers more leeway on the highway— Virginia State Police appear to have targeted Interstate 64 for undercover enforcement action.

As this photo taken the afternoon of July 4 indicates, unmarked vehicles are part of the dragnet that is hauling in drivers along Interstate 64. While the reporter who snapped the photo didn’t get a ticket, he witnessed four traffic stops in the westbound lanes of I-64 between Richmond and Charlottesville— including this one just east of mile marker 132.

Ironically, for actions that are usually touted as safety-driven, such stings typically disappear with the arrival of rain. It’s as if drivers know their own safe speed and then moderate it when they realize that traction and visibility have become diminished. (The Atlantic once published a story, “Distracting Miss Daisy,” suggesting that speed limits cause more havoc than they prevent.)

In other Virginia State Police activity, the force recently announced, nearly eight months after a t-shirt belonging to Morgan Harrington was discovered, that they have used forensic evidence to link Harrington’s slaying to the unknown suspect in a 2005 rape in Fairfax.

One hopes they’re spending more time working the Harrington case than turning I-64 into a blue light district.
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« Reply #32 on: July 05, 2010, 05:18:47 PM »

http://findmorgan.com/category/family-blog
Gil Harrington’s thoughts from July 5th, 2010
  On July - 5 - 20101 COMMENT

We are at the beach in North Carolina, a long standing tradition; 31 years for Dan, and a chance to reconnect with family, both biologic and chosen.

It is early yet; we have only been here for 24 hours.  Our friends still feel a bit awkward with us.  They do not quite know how to interact with our triangulated family; to speak of Morgan or not?  Which action would bring the most pain?  There is no definite answer.  Both choices bring pain and so we perform a funny dance wandering around the place where our shiny golden girl would have been, lighting up the room.

We are indebted to those who love us and who loved Morgan, to enter into this sorrowful, uncomfortable place with us.  They help us find our way to a new normal, and new traditions.  Synthesis is tough.

We want what we had, but it is no more.  We have been forced to move on; sometimes kicking and screaming, and occasionally with eager anticipation to move forward and make a life.  At least we           still have a life- unlike our precious Morgan.

2  4  1
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« Reply #33 on: July 05, 2010, 05:24:54 PM »

Continued prayers for the Harrington family.
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« Reply #34 on: July 06, 2010, 07:07:04 AM »

http://www.c-ville.com/index.php?cat=11101808092903167&ShowArticle_ID=11800207100846050
Issue #22.27 :: 07/06/2010 - 07/12/2010
Harrington homicide tied to 2005 NoVa assault

Forensic link to Fairfax crime improves arrest odds
BY BRENDAN FITZGERALD

A drawing from a “Wanted” poster for the suspect sought in connection with a 2005 abduction and sexual assault in Fairfax, Virginia—100 miles from the site where Morgan Harrington’s remains were found in January.

 “It seems strange to say we are thrilled—I mean, how can you be thrilled about such an obscene thing?” said Gil Harrington, reached last Thursday at her family’s home in Roanoke. Roughly an hour before, Virginia State Police (VSP) released news of a forensic link between the death of her daughter, 20-year-old Morgan Harrington, with an unsolved 2005 abduction and sexual assault.
“But the likelihood of arrest and conviction has increased exponentially,” added Harrington. “We’re very thrilled about that.”

The 2005 incident took place in Fairfax, more than 100 miles from the 750-acre Anchorage Farm in Albemarle County, where Morgan Harrington’s remains were discovered in January. The Virginia Tech student disappeared on October 17, 2009, during a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville.

Law enforcement say that Harrington was last seen hitchhiking for a ride on the Copeley Road Bridge near the arena. Massive searches by both law enforcement and civilian groups followed, including a three-day search led by the Harrington family and the Texas-based Laura Recovery Center that covered 2,600 acres of land around Charlottesville. On the morning of January 23, and following heavy snowfall, David Bass found Harrington’s remains while checking fences on his 750-acre Anchorage Farm property.

Gil Harrington, who described the time between the discovery of her daughter’s remains and last week’s investigation announcement as “hellish,” said the family had known of the link to the Fairfax incident for a few weeks.

The press release from VSP states that “forensic evidence recovered during the course of the Harrington investigation has confirmed the link to the City of Fairfax assault.
In September 2005, a Fairfax woman was abducted and sexually assaulted and City of Fairfax Police detectives were able to create a composite sketch based on the victim’s description of the subject,” according to the release. The suspect is described as a black male between 25 and 35 years of age, roughly 6' tall and with a medium build. He was described in 2005 as having black hair, a beard and mustache, and was described wearing a “black colored pullover sweater with a zipper, white t-shirt underneath and light colored pants.”
Reached for comment, VSP Public Relations Manager Corinne Geller told C-VILLE that police are unable to release specific details about the nature of the forensic evidence at this time. She also said that no additional criminal cases have been linked to the Harrington homicide investigation or the 2005 Fairfax assault.

VSP asks that anyone with information about the suspect described contact Fairfax police officer Mike Boone at (703) 385-7959. Anyone with additional information concerning the Harrington investigation should call the Jefferson Area Crimestoppers at (434) 977-4000 or the VSP at (434) 352-3467. There is a $150,041 reward for information that helps lead to the resolution of the Harrington investigation.

For now, Harrington said she is pleased that Charlottesville-area residents have a description for a suspect wanted in connection with her daughter’s death. “It’s a lot easier to be careful of this guy than being careful in general,” said Harrington.

Morgan Harrington’s remains were discovered three months after her disappearance during a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena. David Bass located the remains on a remote section of his 750-acre Albemarle County farm.

C-VILLE welcomes news tips from readers. Send them to news@c-ville.com.
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« Reply #35 on: July 07, 2010, 07:41:49 AM »

http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/06/is-this-morgans-killer-fairfax-case-connection-offers-hope-fresh-fear/
  Is this Morgan’s killer? Fairfax case connection offers hope, fresh fear
by Courteney Stuart
published 10:29am Tuesday Jul 6, 2010
Crape myrtles bloom in the small front yards of Oxford Row Condominiums. It’s a tidy assemblage of about 50 brick duplexes in the city of Fairfax, and now it has a grisly connection to Charlottesville.

Off busy Jermantown Road, the complex plays home to a diverse collection of retirees, immigrants, and young professionals. It’s a place where neighbors greet each other by name and, they say, feel safe. But it’s also the scene of a brutal assault that took place nearly five years ago, a crime that was beginning to fade from their memory until July 1 when police revealed that the Oxford Row rapist may have killed 20-year-old Morgan Dana Harrington.

The Virginia Tech student disappeared near the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville in October, and her skeletal remains were discovered three months later on a remote Albemarle County farm.

“I can’t believe it,” says Gladys Pena, a grandmother who has lived in Oxford Row for over a decade.

Pena recalls all too well the attack that took place on the night of September 24, 2005. After returning on foot to the complex from the Giant grocery store just a quarter of a mile up Jermantown Road, a 26-year-old woman was brutally raped.

According to the report from Fairfax police, the young woman reached the neighborhood carrying her groceries at approximately 10pm that night, when she was grabbed from behind and dragged to a small grassy area near the complex pool and playground.

Startled by a passerby, the assailant fled on foot. His traumatized victim then made her way to one of the closest units where the residents called 911 and comforted the young, dark-haired woman as she waited for medical care.

When resident Stephen Hannan arrived home that night at around 10:30pm from his job cooking at a nearby restaurant, he says seven police cruisers were already on the scene and an ambulance parked on the grass near a wooden gazebo, where the victim— whose identity has not been released— was being treated inside.

“I didn’t know what happened,” says Hannan, noting that the next day the neighbors who had offered her assistance by calling 911 described the horrifying sight that greeted them when they opened the door to find the traumatized woman asking for help.

“She was beaten bloody,” he says.
That victim’s eyewitness account of her assailant, along with his DNA recovered at the time and put into Virginia’s DNA databank, now offers the best hope for an arrest in the Harrington case. Unfortunately, as anyone who remembers the Charlottesville serial rapist case can attest, a DNA match isn’t always enough to solve a crime, and eyewitness accounts can carry troubles of their own.

Town on alert
From 1997 to 2007, women in Charlottesville had plenty of reason to fear. A violent predator hid inside homes and subdued female victims with a swift punch to the face before raping them. And while he left behind DNA evidence— allowing investigators to tie the cases together— his identity remained unknown even as the attacks increased in brutality.

It wasn’t until one of the victims recognized an employee in the Harris-Teeter meat department that police were able to put the man under surveillance— and tighten the dragnet.
Nearly three years ago, the butcher stopped for a meal at a fast-food restaurant and left behind his DNA profile via saliva on a soda straw. Before long, Nathan Antonio Washington, a married father of four, and previous stranger to any serious arrest record, was named the Charlottesville Serial Rapist. Washington pleaded guilty to four sexual assaults and received four consecutive life sentences.

Along the way to the conviction, the case triggered a scandal of sorts that Virginia State Police may be hoping to avoid in the Morgan Harrington investigation. In 2003, after eight of his victims described their assailant as a black man, and after a composite was released— which would later prove to look almost nothing like Washington’s mugshot— Charlottesville police began asking African American men in Charlottesville to voluntarily submit to a “buccal swab,” in which a DNA sample is collected from inside the mouth.

More than 500 men eventually got swabbed, such a broad net that critics cried foul— including one man who sued a Charlottesville detective for $15,000— claiming it was impossible to know for sure whether the attacker was actually African American, or if he might have some other dark-skinned ancestry, such as Middle Eastern or Latino, among others.

After all, eyewitness accounts, particularly when an attack occurs in the dark, are notoriously inaccurate. In response to the accusations of racial profiling, Charlottesville Police undertook the unusual step of having the perpetrator’s DNA analyzed for ancestry and making those results public: indeed, the then-still unknown attacker’s DNA was 85 percent of sub-Saharan African descent— a virtual guarantee that he appeared black.
With only one eyewitness, the rape victim, in the 2005 Fairfax assault, are police worried that the public may now exclude viable suspects if they’re told the perpetrator must be African American?

“It’s a possibility,” concedes State Police spokesperson Corrinne Geller, who says police would have actually preferred to withhold the information and the composite sketch from the public even longer than they did in order to collect more information and finish pursuing investigative leads with the Fairfax police department.
Geller says the timing of the release was prompted by a crime blog, which announced that investigators had discovered a link between the Harrington case and another recent Fairfax case— the wrong one. When news outlets began contacting her for confirmation, Geller says, police feared widespread misinformation would damage the investigation by prompting a flurry of false leads.

“It pressured us to get this information out there,” says Geller, admitting that the decision was so rushed that police hadn’t even shown the composite to David Bass, the man who found Harrington’s remains and who might have recalled seeing someone fitting the description on his 742-acre farm.

A reporter shared the image with Bass, who says the man is not familiar to him.

If police are piqued by the expedited release of information, bereaved parents Dan and Gil Harrington say they’re grateful that the connection they’ve known about for “some time” has finally been made available to members of the public, who might be able to help.

“It’s why I’ve been pushing them to release it,” says mother Gil Harrington, via telephone on July 1, the day police announced the connection. “It’s better to be able to make a statement to be alert and be cautious of someone who looks like this,” she says. “It’s much more likely to keep people in the community safe.”

Indeed, Harrington has long asserted that her daughter was the victim of a violent predator who would very likely strike again. On June 17, the eight-month anniversary of Morgan’s disappearance, Gil and Dan Harrington were increasingly vocal in their criticism of State Police and UVA officials, whom they said had not done enough to remind the public that a vicious predator was on the loose, quite likely right here in Charlottesville.
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« Reply #36 on: July 07, 2010, 07:45:24 AM »

continued from article..........
At that time, Harrington compared Morgan’s killer to Joran van der Sloot, the Dutchman widely believed responsible for the 2005 death of American high school student Natalee Holloway  and who is now charged with the May murder of a Peruvian woman on the fifth anniversary of Holloway’s disappearance. Harrington’s death and the Fairfax assault are separated by almost exactly four years— but Gil Harrington is convinced they are not the only attacks the unknown perpetrator has committed.

“These people don’t stop,” she says.

Why eight months?
Why did it take so long to get a DNA match? Geller has long said DNA testing can take up to six months for the overburdened Virginia state crime lab to complete, even in a high profile case like Morgan Harrington’s. She declines to say exactly when police received the results or even what type of forensic evidence was tested.

Ralph Barfield, a retired Charlottesville police sergeant and founder of Blue Ridge Forensic Services, doesn’t doubt her explanation.

“In Virginia, there’s such a huge backlog,” says Barfield. And the complexity of DNA testing can slow things down even more, he says, especially if the sample is small or of poor quality.

For the first three months of the Harrington case— prior to the January 26 discovery of her remains— investigators had little to go on other than the witness accounts that placed Morgan at various points ending with her hitchhiking on the Copeley Road Bridge at 9:30pm, about an hour after she somehow ended up outside the Arena during a Metallica concert and was denied reentry. Her purse and battery-less cell phone, which were discovered the next day in the RV lot by Lannigan Field by a men’s lacrosse player, yielded no clues, police have said, but a t-shirt, discovered in mid-November on a bush outside an apartment building at the corner of Grady Avenue and Fifteenth Street, would provide a bizarre twist in an already confusing case.
In April, five months after its discovery, police announced that forensic evidence revealed that the Pantera t-shirt— which some believed was a lookalike shirt placed by someone unrelated to the case as a twisted joke— did, in fact, belong to Morgan. That forensic evidence, says Barfield, was most likely DNA— and, he says, a likely source for the match with the Fairfax case since extracting an assailant’s DNA evidence from Morgan’s decomposed remains, which were exposed to the elements for three months, would have been very difficult. (Like farm owner Bass, the UVA student who discovered the t-shirt had not yet been shown the composite sketch when a reporter showed it to him.)

Barfield also points out that there are other tests that police may still wish to conduct on the assailant’s DNA, if enough was obtained. In addition to a test of his ethnicity, which could confirm or refute his Fairfax victim’s description of him as a black male, another test could determine whether he has any relatives in the DNA databases of solved or unsolved crimes, further narrowing the search.

And Barfield agrees with Gil Harrington’s assessment that finding Morgan’s killer only becomes more urgent every day.

“It sounds like he’s gone from a sexual assault to a homicide, and criminals tend to graduate,” says Barfield. “He’s going to keep killing.”

Terror on the doorstep
At Oxford Row, residents were so frightened after the 2005 attack that they prevailed upon the neighborhood association to install increased lighting in the parking areas.

Diane Jenkins, mother of the young man who opened the door to the victim, remembers all too well the terror she witnessed in the young woman who she says was visiting neighbors the night of the attack.

“You could tell she’d been assaulted immediately,” she says, recalling the woman’s disheveled clothing, hair matted with sticks, and the blood on her face. Although the young, dark-haired woman was dazed, she had gathered some of her groceries, which she was carrying when she reached the door.

“She was very disoriented,” says Jenkins. “She didn’t realize she was knocking on our door— she thought she was knocking on someone else’s door that she knew.”
enkins sent her teenaged son to summon the devout Muslim family the young woman was visiting, as she and her husband spoke with the woman so frightened that she refused to come inside the strangers’ home and instead accepted their offer of a chair on the front steps.

“She told us she’d been coming back from Giant, had been walking along a back path along different apartments,” says Jenkins, who then recalls perhaps the most chilling detail of all— particularly in retrospect, since it may offer some hint of Morgan Harrington’s fate.

“We both noticed marks around her neck,” says Jenkins, who says the woman told them her assailant had choked her until she lost consciousness. “She thought she was going to die, then all of a sudden, she came to, and he wasn’t there,” says Jenkins, mentioning the passerby who scared the attacker away— perhaps in the nick of time.

Jenkins says her son returned with a man and a woman who comforted the victim, and the three communicated in what she believes was Urdu— a language primarily spoken by Muslims in India and Pakistan. The young woman “felt more comfortable speaking in her language,” says Jenkins, who says she never saw the young woman again but heard she had moved in with family somewhere nearby.

Jenkins says the news that the assailant appears to have struck again in Charlottesville, and this time with a deadly result, has her revisiting the night of the first attack and, once again, worrying about the young woman she assisted.

“I hope they get him,” she says, “before he attacks someone else.”
First 24 hours

In the first 24 hours after the release of the composite and description, State Police received about 50 new tips, says Geller, and Fairfax police received another dozen. Geller says police still believe the suspect had intimate knowledge of Anchorage Farm, but they now know he is a darker skinned male, likely African American, who also has Fairfax and Charlottesville connections. These additional leads, she hopes, will prompt the tip that will help solve the case.

Those with information about the man featured in the attached “Wanted Poster” may contact City of Fairfax Police Detective Mike Boone at (703) 385-7959. Anyone wishing to provide information in the Morgan Harrington case is encouraged to call the Jefferson Area Crime Stoppers at (434) 977-4000 or Virginia State Police at (434) 352-3467 or email State Police at bci-appomattox@vsp.virginia.gov. A reward of $150,041 is still available for anyone with information that leads to a resolution of the Harrington crime.
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« Reply #37 on: July 07, 2010, 12:47:14 PM »

Gil Harrington’s thoughts from July 7th, 2010

Walking on the beach in North Carolina,

Blue crabs,

Snake skin seaweed,

Horseshoe crab fragments

Cicada’s split – celluloid shells,

Many things change their skin, not because the skin is worn out, or they want a different color but because of growth.  Those organisms got bigger and had to transform and accommodate for change.  It is a painful, slow, unfailingly difficult process, struggling out of your carapace. Once you wiggle out of the bonds of old skin, you are fragile, naked and soft; vulnerable to injury from even slight handling.

This is where we are.

Unsteady and unsure of our surroundings after the transformative journey we have been thrust into because of Morgan’s murder. These new skins function to hold us together well enough.  Over time they will toughen and harden and protect us as well.  Until then we must be cautious knowing that even inadvertent slight impacts can injure us in our softened weakened stage of transformation.

We are fearful and reluctant of the many changes Morgan’s death has created in our lives – but have faith and determination that we are in fact growing and will be alright, eventually.

2 4 1

http://findmorgan.com/category/family-blog
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« Reply #38 on: July 07, 2010, 02:08:16 PM »

http://www.wtop.com/?sid=1997259&nid=25
No connection between Pham, Harrington murders
July 7, 2010 - 11:54am
FALLS CHURCH, Va. - As Fairfax County Police conduct a wide search to find Vanessa Pham's killer, investigators have ruled out any connection to the murder of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington and to another unsolved, 2005 sexual assault.

"We have found no connection to those two cases," says Fairfax County Officer Don Gotthardt.

Police say Pham, 19, was stabbed to death between 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Sunday, June 27.

Pham, a freshman at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, was found dead in her car on an access road off Route 50 about a half hour after leaving the Fairfax Plaza shopping center.

Police are warning drivers to be on guard while on the road.
Investigators have not ruled out a connection to the unsolved Route 29 stalker case involving Alicia Showalter Reynolds, 25, of Baltimore.

Reynolds, a native of Harrisonburg, was a graduate student who vanished along U.S. Route 29 in Culpeper, Va., back in March 1996.

Her body was found two months later off Route 3 in Lignum, Va.

Her case has never been solved.

Police are asking anyone with information related to Pham's murder to contact Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS/8477 or to call Fairfax County Police at 703-691-2131.

Pham was laid to rest Wednesday.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the following fund:

Vanessa Pham Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 3100
Merrifield, Va., 221119-3100.

WTOP's Hank Silverberg contributed to this report.
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« Reply #39 on: July 08, 2010, 07:48:53 AM »

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~ Peter Frampton
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