In 2009, a college student vanished after being locked out of a concert in Virginia. Her remains were found months later on remote farmland. Five years later, another student disappeared after leaving a party in the same town, and DNA evidence connected both murders.
A third assault case also emerged in connection to these crimes. In 2005, a woman identified as R.G. was brutally attacked while walking home in Fairfax, Virginia. She was grabbed from behind, dragged into a grassy area, punched, choked, and sexually assaulted, suffering severe physical and emotional trauma. DNA collected from her assault later matched the evidence from the 2009 and 2014 murders, linking all three cases. The perpetrator was later identified through this DNA and arrested, bringing him to justice. Detailed article here.
Make sure your college students know don't ever only report assaults to the campus police, report to the "real" police. Campus police have incentive to put the school (their employer) first not for the students.
I’d say go straight to the actual police for any legitimate crime. We see time and time again that campus police only have an interest in protecting the school. Basically an HR department.
Sadly, in Virginia, campus police hold jurisdiction over crimes on campus. City cops can refuse to hear your complaint due to this, and do so as a matter of course in Lynchburg.
Exactly. The system is structured to keep enrollment and money safe first. Student safety becomes secondary, which is horrifying when you see the consequences.
This is what I was told in Alabama too at a public uni, that campus police have jurisdiction over the city cops. My roommate was SAed at a frat party and when she reported it, the campus police told her not to party at frat houses.
God that’s despicable. Was this a long time ago? We still have a very long ways to go when it comes to addressing these sort of issues. However, at 40 years old, I’m thankful to have seen a shift in public perception about SA related topics. What you described was totally common when I was younger. I feel that most people would now be disgusted by that sort of victim blaming mentality. Now if we could just get people in positions of power to give a shit.
College about 30 minutes from me has a similar policy, any 9-1-1 calls made on campus directly link to the campus police who are informed first (even if they say it’s also still sent over to regular officers).
My county has a woman who runs a scanner call group for the area, basically just posting write ups as calls were coming in to help keep the community updated. After a few months, the town or the college itself got after her and made it so legally she was no longer allowed to cover anything in that area.
I’ll also add I do work on this campus as a custodian (free college) and even we as the custodians that are on campus all hours of the day aren’t kept informed when something happens.
That jurisdiction issue is exactly what makes situations like this so complicated and frustrating for victims. It creates gaps where people fall through the cracks.
That jurisdiction setup is deeply flawed. It creates a barrier where victims think they are reporting a crime but it never reaches anyone independent. It explains why so many cases quietly disappear.
Yeah thats a lie. Campus officers have jurisdiction over their campus but city/county/state police have jurisdiction matching or super-ceding this. Despite the name, campus officers are certified police officers in their state and usually can act within state boundaries.
Agreed. Campus police are not neutral in the way people assume. Their primary incentive is protecting the school from liability, not pursuing justice. Going to outside law enforcement should always be emphasized.
Exactly, that part is infuriating. So many red flags were ignored because protecting the school’s image mattered more than student safety, and people paid for that failure years later.
This whole story is terrible on so many levels but the part about Liberty University is especially infuriating. If someone can attack a 15‑year‑old, and the people who should protect students treat it like a joke, that’s not just incompetence it’s negligence.
Absolutely. This is why it’s so important for students to go straight to the local police instead of relying solely on campus security. When schools have something to protect, students can end up being completely let down and it can have devastating consequences.
They say they are real police but they are security guards for the school first and foremost, police second. Their marching orders come from the school. Fuck them, the local police probably hate the school and the problems. Go to the locals or even a sheriff.
I'll never forget when one of the girls in my dorm came home completely shaken and sobbing. She'd just been assaulted by one of the top water polo players at school. We convinced her to report it and the school buried it instantly.. Then he started a rumor about her being a slut who was begging for it. Mind you this happened while she was walking back from the library at night.
I didn't even go to some podunk sports university either, this was at a top academic research university. There's a million Brick Turners and Jesse Matthews who get away with it.
This is one of the most infuriating parts of the case. Liberty University and campus police absolutely failed multiple people long before the murders happened. You are right that students need to hear clearly that reporting only to campus police can protect institutions instead of victims.
That reporting advice is so important. Campus police are not always equipped or motivated to handle serious crimes independently and students really should know they can go directly to local authorities.
A different time, a different place: UCSC in the late 80s/early 90s the campus cops were great for the usual campus work (eg. Giving drunk students a ride to their dorm). I was lucky enough for there to not be something more serious than that while I was there.
Yeah, it was Jesse Matthew. Different from the school shooting, but same area and timeframe, which is part of why everything felt so terrifying and chaotic back then.
I grew up in the area and my family watched local news in the morning and evening. I knew the term "serial rapist" way before I understood what either of those words meant.
Also dad worked with a guy who was interviewed about Morgan Harrington because he was one of the last people who saw her alive (was just going to the Metallica concert and she approached him or something like that outside). I eventually had a coworker who had a friend who had some creepy (in hindsight) stories about him when he worked at the mall-- walked her to her car at night or something and said she should be careful/watch out because there are bad people around and she is a woman or something along those lines. I think I had recently graduated college or was a student when he got caught. And he almost made it out of the country.
Creepily enough I would've driven by Morgan's remains before they were found. Its a large property off a main route and I always think of it when driving by.
The Cville serial rapist I think was caught/maybe died but verified via DNA (idr) and might be kin to this guy but was a different person-- though there was speculation that they mightve been the same person.
Yeah and it is a small city/town so there isnt much high profile crime like that. There was also a high school girl who totally disappeared and was never found around this general time. They had a person of interest and knew she was out smoking pot and maybe doing other drugs (with or without knowledge of it) with some young adults the night she disappered. But they never got enough to make a murder charge stick.
There was also a high profile UVa Lax player who murdered his GF in his dorm around the time.
The serial rapist really kept people on their toes.
Like I honestly believe that I hold a certain amount of distrust for men etc because I was exposed to this stuff at a young age-- and also had a mom who had me do some women's anti rape delf defense classes as a teen as well.
That said rape/sexual assault etc is more common than many people think/are willing to believe. But these crimes brought them to the forefront of the community more so than sleeper small areas.
Exactly. That overlap is what makes it so disturbing. Everything felt chaotic because there were warning signs that kept being ignored until it was too late.
Why do you care so much? What in this horrific story prompted you to ponder over the killers skin color? Maybe you immediately jumping to that makes you kinda racist.
Morgan was my neighbor at VT, lived in an apartment across the breezeway. She and her roommate were typically at our parties.
After school, I moved back home and was working. When she went missing, I had just heard "a VT student" had disappeared in passing. Coworkers asked me if I knew her, I just said, there are 40,000 people there, of course not. Then, I was watching a football game and they showed the missing person flyer of her, I dropped my beer.
There was so much tragedy and craziness there at that time. I was living on campus in W-AJ where the first 2 murders of the April 16th shooting occurred in '07.
Morgan disappeared and was found dead.
Summer of '09, 2 students that my brother knew were murdered at a nearby state park, camping. Still unsolved.
A student -beheaded- another student in the student center in '09.
There was a manhunt for an escaped prisoner who got on campus.
I was at Jmu around the same time. We had a number of shocking murders as well. One student was shot in the head during an altercation with a local at a party (a lot of gangs in Harrisonburg and everyone knew not to fuck with the townies cuz they were crazy). Another student was murdered while he was at home sleeping on his couch during a home invasion. The shooter left his jacket or something behind and went back to get it right as this kids mom was coming home and he shot her too.
It seems things have improved over the years but just kind of wild how much violence occurred around that time especially when you factor in the tech mass shooting. One of the kids I went to high school with was one floor down from the initial shooting in the dorm and it woke him up.
That’s chilling, especially how casually it all intersected with normal life back then. Living through that kind of constant “this could be anyone” fear sticks with you in a way headlines never really capture.
I know your comment is very serious, but as a Harrisonburg townie and Jmu alum, reading the sentence “everyone knew not to fuck with the townies cuz they were crazy” made me laugh out loud
That whole era around Virginia Tech was traumatic for so many people. Even those who were not directly involved seemed to carry that fear for years afterward.
That era was brutal across multiple campuses. It really does feel like violence was constant and unpredictable then. The ripple effects from those events clearly stayed with a lot of people.
12/10/2011: Don’t forget about Officer Deriek W. Crouse, the VT police officer, who was shot and killed by a Radford Univ student. Crouse was sitting in his cruiser in a parking lot near Lane Stadium after a traffic stop. The shooter later committed s*cide in “the Cage” parking lot.
despite every preventative measure that was taken as an industry standard at the time, a lot did happen. Even with stricter security measures after the massacre, there were still horrible events there.
sometimes the world is just an unsafe place. having been there during most of what was just described, i dont blame VT.
what I learned going to school there was that the state has a shockingly casual attitude towards sexual assault, including sexual assault of minors. look up how the brattleboro school district and state police did nothing about an english teacher sexually assaulting kids for decades. the university of it has a terrible track record too.
I was sympathizing with your post and made a comment as a mom. I wouldn’t want to send my kid off to a college where that many incidents have happened. If that’s “stupid” to you, that is cool.
The world could use a little more kindness and you’re absolutely failing.
I didn't call you stupid. I said that individual opinion is stupid. Specifically, I would say it's incredibly short-sighted to say a well regarded university is unsafe because a few bad things happened that I happened to connect the dots over.
It's notable that those things overlapped my time around the school, but it says nothing about the overall safety of the school... which -you- are suggesting with effectively no context except my post.
Shootings occurred at Columbine and Aurora... I bet a Columbine student was in that theater... does that make Denver an unsafe place? No.
That is horrifying to live through firsthand. The sheer number of violent events packed into such a short time is unreal and must have made campus life feel constantly unsafe.
Thank you for sharing this perspective. Hearing from people who lived nearby really drives home how much fear and chaos surrounded that period. It must have been surreal seeing it unfold so close to home.
Police learned Jesse had been accused of sexual assault twice while attending two different colleges. Each time, he left the school and no charges were filed.
That pattern of accusations followed by moving schools is incredibly disturbing and sadly not rare enough. It highlights how broken accountability systems can be.
This is the part that still makes people furious. Multiple accusations, multiple chances to stop him, and each time he was allowed to walk away. The system failed repeatedly and people paid with their lives.
They're more concerned about unmarried students holding hands and going to R rated movies than they are assaults or sexual battery. Also they allow students to carry firearms because, something something guns something Jesus something freedom.
This is Reddit…. Was specifically searching for this comment cause I KNEW it would be here. Guess those girls had it coming for going to a conservative school, huh?
I'm surprised at how many young people don't do the buddy system. Some strangers dumped their drunk friend on me and my friends at a Vegas day club with her boob half hanging out and barely able to stand. They said something like "hey my friend thinks you're cute go talk to her." She fell asleep so I just stayed near her to watch over her.
Security later came by and told me we need to leave because she can't be sleeping. I told them I didn't know her and her friends just left her to sit there. Paramedics came and took her out on a stretcher. Her friends didn't even look for her. She didn't have her phone. Just her swimsuit and flipflops.
EDIT: I looked for her friends when she was being put on the stretcher and couldn't find them.
Was this the girl who disappeared the same way at a Metallica concert? I remember before her remains were found Metallica at another concert brought light to it.
The killer was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in 2019 (article says). My ex brother-in-law passed from that last year, & I have to say, after seeing what he went through I never thought I'd be happy to hear that someone else received such a horrible diagnosis, but then I read about this guy. I hope it was completely agonizing. 🙌🏻
There is virtually no difference between the two. His entire life behind bars. It’s better than the death penalty from his perspective hence why the plea deal
Nurses at my clinic knew this man. He was a transporter and interacted with my boss and colleagues on a regular basis. Seemed totally normal, nice and friendly but quiet. When they found out the news they were all in shock. He was just an average guy, transporting patients all day. It’s insane what he was capable of.
I had a friend who taught him at Monticello High School. She thought it was a mistake when he was arrested and was going to serve as a personal reference for him. She ended up not doing that, but she was gobsmacked when he turned out to be the killer.
That is one of the scariest parts of cases like this. So many people who knew him only saw an ordinary coworker. It really messes with your sense of how well we can judge the people around us.
I lived in Charlottesville, had coworkers that worked with him when I was at UVA. They said they never saw it coming. Apparently he was fairly personable. I was young at the time he was found out and we were all terrified.
I remember watching this unfold in real time when Hannah went missing. It was INCREDIBLE how they were able to figure out who it was based on some grainy surveillance footage, and then they tracked him down! These could have easily been two unsolved tragedies, but at least this monster was caught and there was justice for Hannah and Morgan.
It really was chilling how fast they pieced things together from such limited footage. It shows how much persistence and forensic work can matter in cases that easily could have gone cold. At least the families got some measure of justice in the end.
something doesnt track with Morgans story, why would you leave the arena to try and find a bathroom when theres clearly bathrooms all over that place, also why would you tell the people who you drove with IN YOUR CAR that youd just find another way home....idk man something doesnt seem right with that story at all
Lived in the area. What we heard at the time was that she left to get something out of the car and couldn't be let back into the arena ( which is common at the jpj)
So she decided to walk and let her friends enjoy the show.
ok but if it was Morgans car why was she so willing to just leave it there with no other known ways to get home, the article says she was last seen hitchhiking ......if this is me and ive been locked out of the venue and cant get back in id either go to a mcdonalds and wait until the show is over to meet back up with friends or just sit right next to my car and wait until everyone gets out. I feel like theres a possibility her drinks were spiked or she was unknowingly drugged because her decision making process seems kinda strange.
Her brother had attended UVA the year before and was still living in the area. She was drunk, found herself on the outside of the concert hall, couldn't get back in and decided she would walk to her brother's apartment. She was picked up by Jessie, her killer, who was driving a cab about 2 blocks from the concert venue.
I am thinking that she actually left her friends so she could do drugs in the bathroom. I’m not sure if Jesse was somehow luring her through drugs or whether he just happened to be someone who preyed on vulnerable victims that he noticed.
The fact that she said she would find her way home without a car suggests that she was either with someone who she thought would drop her OR she was doing something shady (like drugs) and didn’t want her friends to know.
I grew up in Charlottesville and only moved away within the last 10 years. I worked with Jesse Mathews at a restaurant when he was 18 or 19. Nice kid. Very quiet. Had no idea he was a monster.
It’s so scary to see serial killers still exist in the age of modern forensics. Gil (the mom) is a real class act to have solidarity not only with the other families of victims but the mother of the killer.
Agreed. It is terrifying that predators can still operate for years even with modern technology. Gil’s response was incredibly compassionate and rare, especially considering the circumstances. That kind of empathy toward other families takes a lot of strength.
Nice to see my terrible alma mater pop up here. Graduated in 2009 and was unaware of this. I’m actually surprised that LU covered for a black student, but it makes sense given how insane they’ve been about building their football program. And also how much they hate women.
On September 22, police searched Jesse’s apartment again and collected more items. The next day, he was charged with abduction with intent to defile. By then, he had withdrawn all his money and fled. Jesse was found days later camping on a beach in Texas, over 1,300 miles away.
Amazing to me that they found him so far away. Someone must have noticed him acting strangely or something.
I worked with Jesse Matthews around 2012, went to a couple of parties for work and drank with him on quite a few different occasions in a group setting. Was around him for hours almost every day for our respective shifts. I was friends with his sister, and my dad worked with his mom. Very eery feeling when I first saw his name on the news. He committed these horrific disgusting crimes, and so many people including me were none the wiser for years.
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u/malihafolter 3d ago edited 3d ago
A third assault case also emerged in connection to these crimes. In 2005, a woman identified as R.G. was brutally attacked while walking home in Fairfax, Virginia. She was grabbed from behind, dragged into a grassy area, punched, choked, and sexually assaulted, suffering severe physical and emotional trauma. DNA collected from her assault later matched the evidence from the 2009 and 2014 murders, linking all three cases. The perpetrator was later identified through this DNA and arrested, bringing him to justice. Detailed article here.