Arrest in Missing UVA Student Has Cops Checking Cold Cases

Charlottesville Police Department(CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.) — At least two additional sheriffs’ offices in Virginia are reviewing old murder cases to see if they are connected to the suspect in the disappearance of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham.

Virginia State Police have already confirmed that they found “a new forensic link” between the 2009 murder of Morgan Harrington and Jesse Matthew, 32, who has been arrested and charged with abduction with intent to defile in the case of Graham’s disappearance last month.

Virginia State Police investigating Harrington’s death found a DNA link in 2010 between her murder and the 2005 sexual assault of a woman in Fairfax, Virginia. The woman survived the attack.

Now, investigators in the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office are checking if two open murder cases have any connection to Matthew.

Cassandra Morton, 23, was reported missing in Lynchburg on the same night that Harrington, 20, vanished in Charlottesville in October 2009. The two young women were approximately 60 miles apart. Morton’s remains were found on Candlers Mountain in November of that year, while Harrington’s remains were not found until January.

Campbell County Sheriff Steve Hutcherson told ABC News that the investigator in Morton’s case will now be checking to see if Matthew has any connection to her death “like any other lead.”

“If any leads come in, of course they follow up on them,” Hutcherson said.

“It’s way too early to say that someone’s a suspect in the case,” he said.

Investigators 70 miles further east in Montgomery County are checking to see if there is any connection between Matthew and a double homicide that occurred near Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

The murders of Heidi Childs and David Metzler, who were shot near a camp ground in August 2009, are also considered an open investigation by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office and they are looking to see if there is a connection to Matthew.

“Our investigators will certainly follow up and look at the facts surrounding the Hannah Graham case to see if there is a connection. However, at this time we have nothing to lead us to believe that there is a connection,” Capt. Brian Wright of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office told ABC News.

Attempts to reach Matthew’s attorney, Jim Camblos, were not immediately returned.

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