48 Hours - 48 Hours: The Hannah Graham Story Episode 1: Vanished

Episode Date: September 14, 2015

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Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. I'm Neil Orgenstein for WTOP Radio. Over the coming week, I'll be doing a series of podcasts leading to 48 Hours' season premiere on the disappearance of Hannah Graham. It's the story of how one missing, then murdered college student in Charlottesville, Virginia, leads to other cases of unsolved attacks against young women.

Join us each day as we examine new details of these crimes in this series of podcasts, and also on the two-hour season premiere of 48 Hours on Saturday, September 26th at 9 p.m. Eastern on the CBS television network. Charlottesville, Virginia, a beautiful historic college town. Charlottesville was settled in the 18th century on a hill overlooking the Ravanna River. It was home to two presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. It's an artsy, friendly community with vineyards just a few miles outside of town. And it's home to the University of Virginia with the lawn and the rotunda. It's a campus designed by Jefferson, filled with beauty and tradition.

On a map, it reads Main Street, but for people around here, it's called the Downtown Mall. This is a walking mall. Seven blocks of restored and renovated buildings. It's lined with restaurants. You can dine alfresco with small tables set in the middle of this red brick mall. You can also find cute boutiques, toy stores and ice cream shops. And for many young people, including UVA students, the mall is a weekend destination, a place to socialize and a place to drink. And on a beautiful early autumn night, September 12, 2014, Hannah Graham was one of them.

18 years old, born in England, her family moved here when she was in kindergarten. In high school, Hannah was a straight-A student. She played alto sax in the jazz ensemble and marching band. She was on the softball team. She loved to ski. Pretty, friendly, outgoing, with a wry sense of humor. And on this night, she would simply vanish. By Sunday afternoon, Hannah Graham's mother Sue

realized she hadn't heard from her daughter in a few days and that wasn't like Hannah. So Sue Graham asked Hannah's brother James, and he reached out to Hannah's friend Jenna through Facebook. And when Jenna realized she hadn't heard from Hannah either, she called Charlottesville police and reported her friend Hannah Graham missing. What could have happened to Hannah? Her family and friends were worried...very worried. By Monday, it was anything but a normal day at Hannah's school.

University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan put out a statement saying the school was deeply concerned about its missing student. And Charlottesville police were already deep into a missing persons investigation. They came here to Hannah's apartment building, the Grand Mark at the corner. And they got their first break. Surveillance video shows Hannah in the hallway Friday when she was heading out for that evening. Police released photos from the video.

Hannah was wearing a black crop top with mesh cutouts. It looked kind of glittery in the photos. And she was wearing black capri pants and white shoes. She had her iPhone 5S with a pink case with her too. And here at the Charlottesville Police Department, investigators started a timeline, charting out Hannah's movements and interactions before she went missing. Where she was, when, and with whom. And here's what they found. On Friday night, Hannah had a late dinner with friends at Fig Bar and Bistro. Friday night is $5 sangria night at Fig's.

Hannah's 18, but like a lot of college students, she'd been drinking that night. At 11 o'clock, Hannah left Fig by herself, walking. She stopped and stayed a while at a casual party before heading toward McGrady's Pub. At 1.06 Saturday morning, Hannah sent a text to friends saying she was heading to a party, but was lost near 14th and Wirtland Streets. That text was the last time anyone ever heard from Hannah Graham. anyone ever heard from Hannah Graham. On Wednesday, September 17th, four long days after Hannah Graham disappeared, Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo held his first news conference about the missing 18-year-old.

Tim Longo, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Police Chief, Charlottesville Earlier this afternoon I had the opportunity to sit with John and Susan Graham. I can't imagine. As a parent and as a husband, I can't imagine what they're going through these past several days. And I got an opportunity to learn a little bit about their Hannah.

and I got an opportunity to learn a little bit about their Hannah. Not only how special she is to them, but how special she is to so, so many other people. We talked about Hannah's enthusiasm for life. We talked about her quest to be a good student. Dad was telling me for six straight years and leading up to the University of Virginia, straight A's. And as far as I know, she's probably still achieving that at the university. An accomplished athlete, an alpine skier, good friend.

So that's who we're looking for. We're looking for Hannah Graham. Ever since Hannah had been reported missing missing police had been looking for surveillance video of that night hoping to find a glimpse of where she was and when i've learned that detectives went to every business on or around this mall twice just to make sure they didn't miss anything one detective kept a map where they've been once they'd completed the mall area they moved out in different directions away from the mall area, they moved out in different directions away from the mall, looking for any signs of Hannah's movements. And it paid off.

Police gathered a series of surveillance videos that placed Hannah in different parts of the city the past Friday night into Saturday. past Friday night into Saturday. They could now show them to a growing nationwide audience that was both horrified and captivated. Video of the promising 18-year-old in the minutes before she disappeared. The first surveillance video showed Hannah Graham walking near McGrady's pub a little while after she said goodbye to her friends after dinner. Outside of McGrady,

she stumbles a bit on the sidewalk. I've stumbled a bit that way when I've had too much to drink. The bouncer turned her away. Another surveillance video shows Hannah, 10 minutes later, running by a Shell gas station. Police were pretty sure that nobody was chasing her, so it's not clear why she was running. What was becoming clear is that Chief Longo, who'd been the head of the department for 13 years, was tired of not being able to provide answers about what happened to Hannah Graham. I will tell you that it consistently frustrates me when incidents occurred in a highly populated... I mean, we saw... How many people did you see in that video at McGrady's? I don't know how many phone calls we've gotten from people at McGrady's that may have seen her,

but I'd be very disturbed that someone on this downtown mall did not see that young lady and has not yet called the police to report it. And so we're hoping that there were people on the mall, and I'm hoping that they're hearing my words and seeing my frustration and hearing the pain that this family is experiencing and pick up the phone and tell us something regardless of how insignificant you think it might be. And remember that text that Hannah sent to friends at 106 Saturday morning, the last one she sent before she disappeared, it said she was heading to a party but was lost somewhere near 14th and Wertland streets.

Well, Hannah Graham wasn't there at 106. Maybe she'd typed that text but forgot to send it until later. But at 106, she was actually about to have a chance meeting, and fate was about to change her life. At 1.06, Hannah Graham was more than a mile away from 14th and Wortland. She was here on the downtown mall. Surveillance video from this restaurant, Sal's Cafe Italia, shows Hannah Graham and other people walking on the mall. In the background, she walks past Sal's from right to left, still walking by

herself with no sign of distress. But somebody noticed something else in the video. More specifically, someone else. I've learned that as police watched the video, it was a Charlottesville detective who recognized a man who was walking from left to right in the foreground of the video before Hannah Graham appears on the screen. Turns out the detective went to school with the man. And the more police watched the video, they realized the guy didn't just walk away before Hannah Graham passed cells. Detective Sergeant Jim Mooney.

One of the videos, and this came from tips, eyewitnesses that saw people in addition to observations of the video. You see in front of one of the restaurants in the 300 block, you see a black male wearing all white. He has long dreadlocks walking westbound. Within a couple seconds, you see Hannah Graham walking eastbound. You can clearly see this black male with dreadlocks cross to the other side of the mall, and then he travels eastbound behind her. An additional video shows that same black male with dreadlocks with his hands around Hannah Graham's waist. Police Chief Tim Longo then took a strategic chance. He laid the cards on the table.

He made it clear that police were focusing on that man with dreadlocks. Now Hannah Graham was on this mall last Friday night into Saturday morning. She walked from one end of the mall to the other end of the mall and she walked past people. And now we have reason to believe she was inside of a bar on this mall with an individual who lived on Hessian Hills Way, whose home we visited this morning. People saw Hannah and people saw him and people saw them together and it's entirely possible we believe that Hannah Graham may have gotten into his vehicle a vehicle that we seized pursuant to a search warrant vehicle that is characterized as a 1998 Chrysler

coupe burnt orange in color somebody got out of it and somebody got back in it and somebody drove away when police were seizing the man's car, they found evidence to get another warrant to search his apartment. Now the question, appropriately so, has come up, well, was anyone at that house when the police arrived? Yeah. There were three people. Was the individual who we believe was with Hannah Graham there? Yes, he was there. Is he in custody? No,

he's not in custody. Was there probable cause to arrest him? No, there was no probable cause to arrest him. Was there a legally sufficient legal basis to detain him? Not in the opinion of the ranking supervisor on the scene, not in the opinion of our Commonwealth attorney, not in the opinion of our Commonwealth attorney, not legally sufficient reason. So that person isn't in custody, but we know who he is. But why hadn't police mentioned the man by name? They clearly knew it if they were able to get those search warrants.

Well, since police didn't have enough evidence to charge him, they couldn't name him as a suspect. But it was just a matter of time. By the next day, September 21st, the person of interest was named for the first time in a story in the Daily Mail. Other reporters scrambled to track down information about the man. And since his name was already out there, it was time for Chief Longo to publicly identify the man in dreadlocks. I believe that man was Jesse Matthew.

I really do. And I believe Jesse Matthew and Hannah found themselves at the Tempo restaurant. I believe that. Eyewitnesses told us so. And I believe Hannah Graham left Fellini's restaurant with Jesse Matthew. I believe that. In fact, I believe that Jesse Matthew was the last person she was seen with before she vanished off the face of the earth.

Let me say that again. I believe Jesse Matthew was the last person she was seen with before she vanished off the face of the earth. Because it's been a week and we can't find her. By naming Jesse Matthew as the suspect, police were trying to ratchet up the pressure on him and people who knew him. I've made no mistake about it. We want to talk to Jesse Matthew. We want to talk to him. We want to talk about his interaction with a sweet young girl that we can't find because he was with her.

So Jesse Matthew showed up at the police station yesterday, walked right through the front door. I might add, just a couple minutes after a few cameras walked away, walked right through the front door with I may add just a couple minutes after a few cameras walked away. Walked right through the front door with a couple family members. He got inside and he asked for a lawyer and we found him one. I know they talked for a little bit and I know they walked out that door and I don't know any more about his interaction with Hannah Graham than I did the moment he walked in. So I hope and pray that we might have an opportunity to talk to Jesse Matthew again, because I think he can help us find Hannah Graham. Even though police believed Jesse Matthew could lead them to Hannah,

at that point they didn't have any evidence of a crime. And since he had a lawyer, Matthew was under no obligation to answer any questions from police. And despite their interest in Jesse Matthew, suddenly he was gone too. When Mr. Matthew left, at some point thereafter, state and federal authorities who were overtly, overtly, not covertly, overtly monitoring his movement, saw him get into a car, leave a location in Albemarle County at a high rate of speed,

driving in a manner that was at a high rate of speed, driving in a manner that was reckless and placed others in danger, so much so they had to disengage for their protection and the protection of other people. So the Virginia State Police have obtained arrest warrants for Jesse Matthews, charging him with reckless driving. Two counts because he had So eight days after Hannah Graham was last seen, with a family, a university, and a town desperate for answers, the man who police said was the last to be seen with her, Jesse Matthew, had also disappeared. He was gone. This was now a case with two missing people. How could police have let Jesse Matthew get away? Tomorrow on the CBS News 48 Hours podcast,

The Hannah Graham Story. And join us on Saturday, September 26th at 9 p.m. Eastern on the CBS television network for the special two-hour season premiere of 48 Hours on the Hannah Graham case. A look into her disappearance and the apparent connection with other unsolved attacks on young women.

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