Hannah Graham: Stalked by Evil (Part 2)

Straight up is the Friday podcast that takes the week's most talked about stories seriously. This is what the internet does best. It turns speculation into entertainment. But not too seriously. This is all fake. Shut up. You got a double cancel, bro. Every week. Join me, Vladimir G. Tiff. And me, Kelly O'Grady. As we ditch the anchor desk. After hours. To break down the story, the internet just can't stop talking about it. With a cocktail to match the mood. What do we call the show? Straight up. It's available wherever you get your podcast. There is a developing story out of Charlottesville. It was just a few hours after this picture was taken. That Hannah Elizabeth Graham went missing. Hannah Graham had just started her second year at the University of Virginia. Going to continue to work relentlessly until we find Hannah Graham. The first thing that came to my mind was the name Morgan Harrington. Police are again desperate for details in the case of missing Morgan Harrington. Morgan was another college student that had gone to a concert on October 2009 night. The FBI is in day three of its search for Alexis Murphy and there's still no sign of her. Here you have a high school student who leaves for the day to get some hair products. Alexis, if you can hear me, this is your dead. I'm letting you know that I won't give up. I want you home. Hannah Graham, Morgan Harrington, Alexis Murphy. Why in this nice area are these young girls going missing? If Morgan is out there and here's us, please come home. If anybody knows anything, please let us know. We are trying to find you. We will never stop. All we want to do now is to bring Hannah home safely. They could track through the various video cameras where she had gone. They knew that she had been at the University of Virginia at a bar. Then she had been walking around a bar a mile away. Then she had been downtown. Then she just vanished. Somebody listening to me today either knows where Hannah is or knows someone who has that information. They didn't know if she was alive or dead. Everybody had their fears, but nobody knew. Let's put them up a couple of guys on the right. You are basically swinging on a pendulum between hope and despair. If you attend the University of Virginia, if that young lady's touched your life in any way, you have the responsibility to help us find her. When Alexis was missing, I wanted the whole world looking for her. Over the weekend, 1,200 volunteers covered 85% of the city searching for additional clues. This is probably one of the greatest coordinated search efforts in the history of the Commonwealth. Now we have reason to believe she was inside of a bar on this mall with an individual. Having done a little bit more investigating, that is when they started learning the name Jesse Matthew Jr. Jesse Matthew was the last person she was seen with before she vanished all the face of the earth. People have been trying to learn more about Jesse Matthew since they first heard his name. They search his apartment. They seize his car. So certainly he is the focus of our investigation. They're coming out with evidence. Police say forensic evidence also connects him to the death of Morgan Harrington. And I think that's when they started thinking could this be the same person. Several hours later, while police were following Jesse Matthew, he took off from his grandmother's house. And they lose him. Excuse me? They lose him. They really thought they had their suspect. And he's gone. We want to talk to Jesse Matthew. We want to talk about where Hannah Graham is. I'm Susan Spencer. Tonight, on 48 hours, Hannah Graham stalked by evil. The disappearance of Hannah Graham left the audience across the country hungry for every detail on Twitter. September 21, 2014. A week after Hannah Graham went missing. And Jesse Matthew, the one person who may hold the key to her whereabouts, is missing as well. Matthew was last seen Saturday, speeding away from police who were following him. I hope and pray that we might have an opportunity to talk Jesse Matthew again, because I think you can help us find Hannah Graham. It was tense. It was already tense and it was even tensor, because now we don't know where he is. WTVR reporter and 48 hours consultant Laura Frinch wasn't the only one speechless to learn that police had let their only suspect slip away. So Jesse Matthew is gone. Jesse Matthew is gone. I even joked with one of the investigators and said, you guys really know where he is. You're watching him, surely. Here are some serious accusations against this individual. And you don't know where he is. He fled and he fled far. Police have released this wanted poster of Jesse Lee and Matthew. He is the last person who was with Hannah, so certainly he is the focus of our investigation. Remarkably, four days after he fled, Jesse Matthew is spotted. And of all places, Galveston, Texas, on a near empty beach, 1300 miles from Charlottesville. Fast forward to September 24th. We have a woman out on the beach looking just for a peaceful afternoon to watch the water. That woman was Karen Monk. His tent was about right here, close to the grass, and his car was parked on the other side. She's sitting in the back of her car and she sees this man. In a tent, you know, a few yards down from her, doesn't think much of it until he drives by her. This car came in front of me and stopped, and the fella that was sitting in the driver's seat, his windows were down and he leans over and looks kind of glares at me. Monk suddenly found herself face to face with one of the most wanted men in the country. When I looked up and I saw him, I mean, his facial features are unmistakable. I just held my breath, just hoping he would just keep going. My heart literally probably stopped beating because I knew that was him. You mean to tell me that she recognized him on the beach from a wanted poster that she'd seen on television or what? From a mug shot. And she's like, "Okay, do I leave?" Because I'm probably in danger. Or do I stay here so I can tell police exactly where he is? She not only stayed, she called every law enforcement agency she could think of. Finally getting a response from the Galveston County Sheriff's Office. They found Jesse Matthew on the beach and arrested him without incident. How does she view what she did? She's very humble. She views it as being in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing. We're here tonight to announce if Jesse Matthew was in custody in Galveston, Texas. And apparently he had bigger travel plans than Texas. A map of Mexico was found in his car. Now in custody, he was headed not south, but north, back to Charlottesville, Virginia. He was locked up in Galveston for 40-some hours. Charlottesville authorities came and flew him back here and they had him by their side at all times. But Matthew quickly dashed any hope police had that he'd give them information about Hannah Graham. He never cooperated with anybody as far as answering questions voluntarily. Never has, never has. We have a person in custody but there's a long road ahead of us and that long road includes finding Hannah Graham. Now the search expanded out from Charlottesville and the University campus here to the surrounding countryside. And despite the growing odds against this having a good outcome, no one was giving up. In fact, the volunteers just kept on coming. I got three more for your team. It wasn't clear whether she was alive or dead at this point. Neil Ogginstein covered this story both for WTOP radio and online. He's also a 48 hours consultant. As time went on, people were thinking more and more that she probably had died. This specialized team of trackers searched for Hannah Graham on Friday afternoon. The team, which includes a navigator, a dog and a handler, is directing the dog off trail to find any trace of a human scent. Feeling it? Nice job. People wanted answers, people wanted closure, people wanted it now. But no one wanted the news that came on October 18th. 35 days after Hannah disappeared. We're following a developing story out of Albemarle County. Sometime before noon today, a search team from the Chesterfield County Sheriff's Department was searching an abandoned property along Old Lynchburg Road and Southern Albemarle County. When they discovered what appears to be human remains. where the human remains were found was behind a home that nobody was living in at the time and this was within a few miles of a home where Jesse Matthew had grown up and spent time with his family. How far was this from Charlottesville? So this house was five, six, seven miles out of downtown Charlottesville. What also intrigued investigators, the site where Morgan Harrington's remains had been found four years earlier was only a few miles away. With the discovery of Hannah's body, the community that had searched so long and hard with John and Susan Graham now could only grieve with them. As a parent, my heart sank because it was final. There were fears that come to light, but at the same time, they were able to bring her home. The focus turns now to the suspect in custody and charged with her abduction, 32-year-old Jesse Matthew. The next challenge, building a solid case against Jesse Matthew. He wasn't talking, but science was about to do the talking for him. I obtained a search warrant from Mr. Matthews for his DNA. It was a gruesome discovery off a dirt road in Georgia. Hunters had found a body. Was it immediately clear to you that this woman had been murdered? Yes. But who was this mystery woman in the woods? That looks like Mindy. I'm Aaron Moriardi, and from 48 hours, this is the woman in the woods. I've never wanted to be wrong, like this in my whole entire life. Binge, the full series, the woman in the woods, wherever you get your podcast. I have a lot of friends that go to UVA. My initial reaction was, how could this be? After a month of vigils and hopes and prayers for Hannah Graham, the reality of her murder was a horrific shock. This is our opportunity to create a civil line in the tremendous cloud that will represent us. When it comes to these sort of girl-gun-missing stories, there's always this barrier of ignorance where you don't know the person. Who's on the other side of the screen? And I did this time. Hannah's friend, Lila Nasser. It's something that's so overwhelming and so powerful and you can't understand or fathom why anybody would do this. Law enforcement wanted to ask that very question to Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr., who now sat in jail, formally charged with abduction, with intense to defile Hannah Graham. He was not charged with murder. People have been calling for the death for Jesse Matthew before Hannah Graham's body was even found. This is showing the power of Twitter and not necessarily for good. People were convinced of his guilt. While Matthew was behind bars in Charlottesville, a case 100 miles away in Fairfax, Virginia, ice cold for nearly 10 years was about to heat up. I was getting ready to leave Gotta Town to Georgia to a funeral. I was watching the video of Hannah Graham going through the mall down there. Detective Michael Boone had never stopped working that unsolved rape case from 2005, involving the victim known only as RG. He'd had little to go on, but the composite sketch of her rapist. Hey, we're searching for Hannah. But then one day, he happened to glimpse news coverage of the Graham case. The person Charlottesville police most want to question is this man, Jesse Matthew. I saw the picture of Jesse Matthews and I saw the picture of the composite drawing. So I mean, I knew they had the right person. You knew the second you saw his picture? Yeah. He had been looking at that composite for almost 10 years and has got told him that without question, his rapist and Jesse Matthew were one in the same. That Matthews DNA would match the unidentified DNA in his rape case. So Boone gets a search warrant and speeds off to Charlottesville to meet with his suspect. So you take this sample and what did you do with the sample? I drove it to the partner of forensic science to the Citro-Live in Richmond. A quick turnaround got an answer in a week. So the word was, look, you know, we need this. Well, they knew they knew what we were dealing with. Yes. What do you think you were dealing with? Very violent sexual offender. The results? A bombshell. Boone was right. Jesse Matthews DNA matched that of the Fairfax rapist. I held out hope every year that he was going to get identified. It's just like finally. But there was more because remember, the rapist DNA matched DNA found on Morgan Harrington's t-shirt after her murder. Now, investigators knew whose DNA it was. Breaking news. We were able to confirm today that Jesse Matthews Jr. has been linked, forensic evidence, has linked him to the Morgan Harrington case from 2009. Wow. You broke this? I did. We know that Jesse Matthew at some point made contact with Virginia Tech student Morgan Dana Harrington. The night she disappeared and three months later was later found murdered. That's what we do know. It doesn't mean he did something. Fast forward to 2014 to Jesse Matthew and the Hannah Graham case. We know that police have forensic evidence that places her with him. What that is, we don't know. We know she was with him. We know she was on tape with him. But the question is, did she leave in his car? That's what's not been made public. The key would be evidence showing what happened to Hannah after she was last seen at the restaurant with Matthew. Police searched his car within days of her disappearance and will say only that no blood was found. The state has in its possession a digital record from a cell tower from Hannah Graham's phone. We also know that there's digital records from her Facebook account, Skype, Snapchat, Twitter, all those different social media venues. But there's about 50 plus search warrant. So half of those we don't know about. But on October 20, 2014, two days after Hannah Graham's remains were discovered, authorities indict Jesse Matthew, not for Hannah's murder, nor for Morgan's, but for the attempted capital murder, abduction, and sexual assault of the anonymous RG back in 2005. Apparently feeling that the rape case was the strongest. It was bittersweet news for Jill and Dan Harrington. Why have there been no charges filed in Morgan's case? I think they're trying to, they want to finish prosecuting the Fairfax case. So you fully expected there will be? Yes I do. To show their support, the Harrington's will be front and center at Jesse Matthew's upcoming rape trial. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, prosecutors are scrambling to build a solid case against Matthew for the murder of Hannah Graham. And pressure is building. [whooshing] Suspected killer Jesse Matthew was safely behind bars, but each passing day brought the question. When would he be charged with Hannah Graham's murder? On Monday, February 2, 2015, Jesse Matthew Jr. was indicted in Albumoral County for abduction and murder of Hannah Graham. It was five months after she vanished before prosecutors had the evidence they needed. What we don't know is what they found in his apartment. We can report this much though. In the second search of his apartment, police went in there for something very specific. And when asked if they got what they went in there for, they said yes, we did. Those details presumably will come out in court. But relief that the Graham case was moving forward mixed with disappointment, especially once again in the Twitter sphere. When Jesse Matthew was first charged with first-degree murder, people were outraged. Why were they gonna go for the death penalty? Jesse Matthew Jr. was served that new indictment. That all changed three months later. When the Commonwealth Attorney announced she would seek the death penalty after all. The Commonwealth received some additional forensic information in like February that led to this increased and charged. Was upping the charges to Capitol murder a strategic mover? Was that based on some bombshell evidence they may have had? They haven't told us. Charlottesville Attorney Lloyd Snook has been following the Graham case. Some other evidence, maybe there's some DNA evidence that hadn't come back from the lab yet. In addition, there is a second analysis, and that is to weigh aggravating and mitigating circumstances. So what would those be? Well, that's a long way of saying that it was a really, really awful crime. Not just awful because all murders are awful, but something really, really bad. I want to see what happens when evil intercepts with justice. It's an extreme country. Jill Harrington was at a pretrial hearing in Hannah Graham's case. The day the change to the death penalty was announced. She supports the move. I really don't know what the justification for changing the, the charge is, but some bad things happen. Lives were lost. As the years have gone by, her daughter's case has seemed to be stalled, despite that T-shirt DNA linking Matthew to Morgan. A trial for Morgan, we do want to have that day, but it really changes nothing in our lives. Our lives are as empty, the pain that we'll have after a trial is the same pain that we have today. By spring of 2015, Matthew faced two trials for the murder of Hannah Graham and for the 2005 abduction sexual assault and attempted capital murder of the woman known as RG. And questions were raised about a Matthew connection to the Alexis Murphy case. Questions generated by attorneys for her convicted killer Randy Taylor. They demanded evidence be tested for Matthew's DNA just in case. We're fine with that. Let's say by the off chance they do find Jesse Matthew's DNA in her car. It just means that he was also involved. It doesn't make Randy Taylor any less guilty than he is now. What do you think the odds of that are? Honestly, I think it's pretty slim. Treena Murphy, Alexis's aunt was right. No DNA link with Matthew was found. You Jesse Leroy Matthew June. Meanwhile, after nearly a decade, RG's case was moving forward. Attempt to kill RG in the commission. With hearings, how do you plead to that charge? Not guilty. And finally, in June 2015, a trial with Jesse Matthew's fate depending on the DNA and on testimony from the anonymous victim, RG. She was hesitant. She was worried. Commonwealth attorney Ray Morrow. She is a very dignified woman from a different culture, very well educated. I might say brilliant. And she wanted her privacy. But at the same time, we tried to make sure she had the opportunity to get her voice heard. Since the rape, RG had moved back home to Asia to a new life. Seeking justice met not only traveling halfway around the world, but publicly, reliving perhaps the most terrifying moments of her life. What do you think the specific impact was on her? The trauma, the trauma of it. It's just so violent. Detective Boone had always kept in touch with her, contacting RG with any news about the case. I picked her up at the airport. You know, I had seen her in such a long time. She was nervous. She's going to see him in court. And that's very stressful for her victim. Very stressful. She did not want to be victimized again by some who might blame the victim. She didn't want people around her to know about it, and she didn't want it to define her. She did nothing wrong? No, no. Here, we understand that, but some people don't. And the composite sketch, RG, helped put together back in 2005, posed a problem. The attack was at night. She was traumatized, and predictably, the defense insists that neither it, nor an updated version, looks anything like Jesse Matthew. So going into this then, you have the sketch, and you've got a victim. You don't know how she's going to testify. Right. You're a little nervous as it starts. I try not to be nervous, but it's always a risk to have a jury trial. I was concerned. Justifiably so. It was a move, not many saw coming, including the outcome of this trial, like everything else in these tangled cases would defy everyone's predictions. I'm kind of reeling. Hey, I'm Tony DeCouple, anchor of the CBS evening news. On my new daily podcast, Great Question with Tony DeCouple, we go deeper on the one big question you haven't heard answered, or maybe haven't even heard asked. Follow and listen wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Nisi Nash, and I'm Dianash, her daughter. Most nights, you'll find us in bed chatting, watching Two Crime. So on our new show, Mother Knows Murder, a crime house original, we're letting you in on our hand. Each week, one of us brings a case, and the other one hears it for the first time. And once justice is served, baby, we drag the murderer. Listen and follow Mother Knows Murder, available wherever you get your podcasts. I know that's right. Uh-huh. This wasn't just a rape case. This was a rape case that was tied to the Hannah Graham case. The trial of Jesse Matthew, for attempted murder, abduction, and sexual assault, takes place in the shadow of the Hannah Graham case. Although unlike Hannah, this victim, not only as RG, does survive. In June of 2015, she travels from her home in Asia, here to Fairfax, Virginia, for Matthew's trial, hoping to help put him behind bars, and not just for herself. We thought about our victim in our case, and Hannah, and Morgan, pretty much every day, from the day that we found out that this was our man. It strikes at your heart, you know, as a father myself, but just as a human being, I mean, I can't think of anything worse than attacking a woman or a child. Hopefully we'll be out of court soon. Commonwealth Attorney Ray Murrow was happy to have his case against Matthew go first, hoping to pave the way for future prosecutions for Hannah and for Morgan. I think every bit of testimony that was heard in this case, you were listening with the thought that could this somehow be related to these other cases. The judge allowed no cameras, but sketches and Neil Oganstein's tweets painted a vivid picture from the first moment RG walked into the courtroom. This was the first time that she was in the same room with Jesse Matthew in 10 years. I and everyone else in the courtroom was looking to see who was making eye contact with who. Did she ever look at him? I never once saw her look at Jesse Matthew. Did he look at her? He looked at her the whole time. I think there was some expectation that at the trial she would sit there and go, you know, that's him. Yeah, that was an issue, but she hadn't seen it in 10 years, so I wasn't going to press her on that. She came just a whisper from being murdered and there in the courtroom, 20 feet from her, sits the man who tried to murder her. In a hushed voice, RG testified about that horrible night, saying her attacker picked her up from behind, like a baby, and then she went on. He put me on the ground and he sat on my legs and he banged my head on the grass on the ground. He hit my face, beat me. I was screaming and yelling. I think in first she was extremely nervous and admitted certain parts that she put in a part of her mind that she didn't want to bring back out, but she knew she had to. I was punching him. I was trying to kick. He sealed my nose and my mouth with his hands and he choked me. He was pulling my pants down. I was still struggling. She told the story. She didn't seek vengeance on the stand. He said, "I will kill you. If you scream again, I'll twist your neck. Let me do this. I'll let you go." The nightmare only ended, she said, when he dragged her into a ditch and ran off. RG was a very good witness. I didn't see anybody but you know. Also testifying was Mark Castro, the passerby who heard RG's cries that night. He found her confused and covered in blood. He got a neighbor to call 911 and stayed until the ambulance arrived. What did you feel was the most important thing that you needed to get across to the jury? Her condition. It was not just a typical assault. This is a tempted murder. She looked like somebody that wasn't yet dead. You wanted to be sure they understood how badly heard she was. That's right. Well, look at the defendants. You just see if there's any emotion, expression. There wasn't any from him. Unlike RG, Michael Boone did look Jesse Matthew in the eye. As the lead detective testified about how he got the vitally important sample of Matthew's DNA. I went through and explained to him how I collected it, put on gloves and swab the inside of his mouth and took that back and submitted it to the Department of Forensic Science. DNA was pivotal to the trial. Experts testified that the sample from Matthew matched what was found under RG's fingernail. How strong was the DNA evidence? What were the numbers? It was one in seven days. billion that it could have been anyone else but the defendant. So one in greater than the world's population. Now one in seven billion is pretty clear. That's a pretty good number. After two and a half days the prosecution rested and attention turned to the defense. The defense asked for a brief recess. The brief recess lasted longer and longer. What are you thinking during all this? At first I just thought we were trying to decide whether they were going to put on a defense or not. Then you see Jessie's family good taken in the back. Then you see them go back and forth. But then you see prosecutors just sitting in there so you're thinking there can't be a deal going on. Then you see his mom and tears. What's happening? It was at that point that Neil Ogdenstein who at over six feet tall has a rather good vantage point noticed something else. I watched the the prosecutors walking down the aisle and I looked at the paperwork it said Alfred play. So I went on Twitter and started tweeting that the defense and prosecution were handling printed copies of an Alfred play. Neil's tweets broke the story that there would be no jury verdict. Jesse Matthew would plead guilty. I'll be at a slightly qualified guilty. It kind of threw the towel in on it made a decision to plead out for which is a type of guilty plea where the defendant is allowed to say the evidence against me is overwhelming. I'm pleading guilty but I do not admit that I committed the crime. You did not offer this? No I never offered any plea agreement. You know we wanted the jury to decide it. The only thing that he's gaining by doing an offered plea here is not having to look at his mother in the eye and say this is what I did. The plea stunned everyone including Jill Harrington who attended the trial to show support. RG is one exceptional human being. I applaud her courage and determination in finding her justice in this court building today. The trial didn't end as expected but the result was all that mattered. He's convicted so we've done our job he's off the street we gave him no breaks this is a good thing. In the end the judge gave Matthew the maximum in this case. Three life sentences for RG it was a difficult but triumphant trip and before flying home she had some business to attend to with a man she had not seen since the night of the attack. She said thank you I for saving my life. Did you say anything else? I said you're welcome I just did what I thought was the best thing to do. RG also thanked Detective Boone whose business card she kept in her wallet all these years. We went back into a conference room and she pulled it out and she said I guess I should give this back to you now and I told her to keep it. The RG case was closed but suddenly justice for another victim was moving with shocking speed. In your heart did you think you'd be standing here today. In 1986 a man named Scott McLean was killed in broad daylight. Police quickly found their suspect prosecutors convicted him but now almost 40 years later I'm re-examining this case. I really didn't believe any of it was real and I was like well they're gonna figure out this is not me they're they're gonna do their police job. Has the wrong man been in prison this whole time? Listen to examined the backfire effect wherever you get your podcasts. Reporters were still on. He was sitting really close to the Harrington family and looked right at them as he left the courtroom. They're coming out right now. I got to go. Perhaps no one was more shocked than the Harrington's themselves at the Commonwealth Attorney's blockbuster announcement. Missing died at four first degree murder and abduction with the intent to defile Morgan Harrington it has been such a long journey. The charge is coming finally nearly six years after Morgan's death. It makes more real the fact that Morgan is dead and yes was murdered. He needs to know that justice is coming. To drive the point home the Harrington's resolutely locked eyes with Jesse Matthew as he walked past them in court. I wanted him to see this is the face of justice for Jesse Matthews because I've known and believed for some time that he killed our Morgan. Trina Murphy is there for support. The trial was set for October 2016 in the Harrington case. The maximum sentence in Harrington's murder is life in prison if convicted for Hannah Graham's murder Jesse Matthew could face the death penalty. The Hannah Graham murder trial was scheduled for July of 2016 a capital case with plenty of time for a plea. He can plead at any time up until he's found guilty. What's he got to lose? He's facing the death penalty. That's a hard call. I will say he's got some good lawyers. I think they'll fight it out. And with much of the evidence in the Hannah Graham case sealed it's unclear how strong a case the state really has. We don't know what the evidence is and they've actually been very careful in many ways to not put a lot of stuff out there. Based on what you do know would you be surprised if this ever went to trial? Let's think about some of the the circumstantial evidence issues here okay. What we think we know is that they were seen together say one thirty at night and the night that she was last seen. Supposing the defense argues there's no evidence that he did anything to actually hurt her. That's a problem. Hannah's family has grieved in private leaving comments about the case to others. Hannah's coach Craig Moniglia. They're strong and they will figure out a way to get around this. They won't get over it but they'll go forward. I can tell you the Gramps want justice. As do friends like Lyla Nasser. When you send your kids to college you send them there to chase their dreams. Hannah didn't get that chance. Her last moments met the mercy of a murderer monster. Hannah's dreams were on everyone's mind this past summer. When several of her UVA classmates took to the mountains, pausing on the majestic French Alps and the peaks of Tanzania to remember her. We had dreamed of going to a hike mom blog talked about this. 3800 meters in there. So we figured in a symbolic measure we'd do this bring her memorial there. This was on Kilimanjaro. A simple tribute says Alan Q to an unquenchable spirit. She loved hiking she loved skiing so I always imagined her skiing through the clouds. Learning from these tragedies is of great importance to Jill Harrington. I think we are at a critical time. There's a critical number of girls who have been killed or are missing from our area. To increase awareness the Harrington's founded an organization helped save the next girl. Jill believes that what happened to Hannah, Morgan, Alexis and RG, it's close to home for many young women. That was always my intent was to save the next girl. Unfortunately we couldn't save Hannah Graham. Jill Harrington's crusade to protect young women continues. And as usual, Trina Murphy is at her side. From the day we found her story while following the Hannah Graham story, we have not ceased to grieve and pray for you. Alexis's body still has not been found. It's now become bigger than just Alexis. And it's not about any one case or any one girl or guy. We have to unify. She is out there somewhere and until we are able to bring her home, we don't have any closure. It's been 720 days, 1 million, 51,000 minutes since the last time we got to see her beautiful face. In August 2015, the Murphy's gathered for the second anniversary of Alexis' disappearance. For her mother, it felt like yesterday. Just getting started in life. I never got pitches. I always wanted to see I dress them to go to prom. I never see that. All right guys, it's 7-16 really. Families need to understand that you really have to work at keeping their story alive. You just have to beat the drum and it's the only way that we're going to ever affect change. This column, it's called metallic. Morgan Harrington's friend Lindsay Crisp found her own way to keep memories alive. I see she was supposed to. to be at the mentality of concern. In a raw and emotional piece, she wrote and shared at an open mic event. "Do not let your girlfriends go out alone." A few days after her video hit social media, Lindsay was reunited with Jill Harrington. "I love you so much. I'm sorry it came to this lady." On the Coply Bridge for the first time since Morgan's death. "Last place where she was of her own volition, it's become kind of a memorial spot for us." "So now the bridge is full of color and pictures and a sign that says justice, it felt good to be able to do something for her." And on the sidewalk, words of thanks to RG, the anonymous rape victim whose testimony and courage helped take a predator off the streets. "She's the one that got away and I'm sure she didn't feel like the lucky one, but thank God she did." "She is the hero, I mean she came back from far, far away and relived this thing. She didn't have to do it, but at the end of the day this was something she had to do for the next woman and also for herself as a woman and we're all just so proud of her. But for those left behind, without resolution, memories are tinged with heartache and with questions of what might have been." "I really sort of thought Morgan would be an artist." "I mean she was just chock-a-block full of potential." "I mean she could just roll out a bit and be gorgeous." "Love to lay her, she was really really funny." "She achieved everything she could at the highest level, she could achieve it." "She was very smiley and silly too, which is what I want people to remember most of all, this warm, sunny, smiley girl, full of life." We start tonight with breaking news in the Jesse Matthew case, a plea agreement reached. On March 2nd, 2016, just a few months before the Hanna Graham murder trial was to begin, Jesse Matthew accepted a deal. "Today Jesse Matthew Jr. pled guilty to the first degree murder of Hanna Graham, guilty to the first degree murder of Morgan Harrington." In exchange for pleading guilty, Matthew no longer faced the death penalty. He will serve four consecutive life terms with no possibility of ever being released. Both the Harrington and the Graham families supported the plea agreement. "I would say the primary emotion is relief. Finding justice for Morgan has been a burden on our family for six and a half years." "Today's events do not bring Hanna back to us of course. We miss her every day, but times like this one has to draw comfort where one can." After the announcement, the Harrington's returned to the Copley Bridge. This time to tie green ribbons on the railings as a symbol of new growth and going forward. Jill said it would be their final visit to the bridge where Morgan was last seen. "You don't get over your daughter being murdered, but you can get past it and we want to do that." Hanna's enduring gift to us all is that she enabled this wicked man to be apprehended and convicted. She did change the world but at a terrible price. In 2020, Alexis Murphy's remains were found in Lovington, Virginia, 35 miles from Charlottesville. Shelly Jensen was about to retire early after selling her veterinary practice for millions. But a moment of vulnerability became a way to take away her rights. "Don't you see how destroyed I am as a person?" Her husband fought to save her before Shelly lost her freedom forever. "This is a life or death matter. My wife's life is at stake." From Sony Music Entertainment and Novel, this is free Shelly Jensen, available now on the bench. "I'm always planned on dark trips." Now streaming, Sylvester Stallone returns. "It's your dirty business and everyone gets a little staked." And the Paramount Plus hit series, Tulsa Kang. "I want you to listen up. I'm not ready to fall." When everything's on the line, the King does it back down. "You can't get rid of me." Tulsa Kang, new season, now streaming only Paramount Plus.