VA - Hannah Elizabeth Graham, 18, Charlottesville, 13 Sept 2014 - #5

[Clockwatcher84]

Why on earth did she leave her friends??? Just can't imagine why this would happen, unless she had secret plans or overheard someone say where a person she was interested in was that night, and went in search of him/her. How does dinner, drinks and dancing with close friends turn into this??

That's why they call alcohol "liquid courage". I remember leaving my ride and walking 6 miles home from a party, through some pretty shady streets, because of some perceived insult that I couldn't even remember the next day. A walk that I would never attempt at night if I had not had too much to drink.

 

[SheRuns]

Longo stated in the presser (at 4:50 in http://youtu.be/2zEwZzxbZyA) 'we know that he lived in the house that we searched this morning. We know that many of you were there. My suspicion is that others know his name."

Has it been discussed as to his comment "many of you were there"? http://youtu.be/2zEwZzxbZyA

I hope I am tagging the video link correctly, long time lurker with not much experience posting.

 

[Galadriel]

Has anyone Googled "downtown mall Charlottesville" there is a much bigger crime problem than everyone claims.

Not to veer too far off-topic, but there were at least two reports of random beatdowns in the mall last fall/winter according to this article.

 

[Lava]

An earlier poster said that WG's behavior was typical of someone in LE or security. Also, eyewitness accounts are unreliable - cornrows could look like a closely shaved head and white pants could be remembered as black on a black guy.

I agreed that WG's behavior was similar to someone in LE. It proves the point that his behavior was suspicious (Which doesn't need to mean nefarious). And until/if LE says more about that, I have to believe that something was odd about his behavior. But that could go either way.

 

[zelmajane]

Not to veer too far off-topic, but there were at least two reports of random beatdowns last fall/winter according to this article.

One of those photos from one beat down that the victim took looked a bit like our alleged suspect.

 

[FightTheOstrich]

Maybe someone familiar with the area can answer this.

Are there apartments above the restaurants and stores on the mall? If yes, would that be typical student housing? Perhaps she was looking for a party at an apartment above a business???

 

[ArtemiSleuth]

Hi, I'm new here. I read somewhere that people who are from Cville know <modsnip>

 

[Jmm124567]

If I have the right apartments it's a 32 minute walk home from the last video placement.

http://www.apartmentguide.com/apartments/Virginia/Charlottesville/Grandmarc-at-the-Corner/169412/

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/nTe...5c697ac16c4!2m2!1d-78.499582!2d38.0372893!3e2

Yes that's correct

 

[jef3r]

You have a really good point. I haven't looked at it that way.
Humor me on this thought......He's so comfortable there that he gets complacent. Maybe it's not even the first time he's done this (whatever "this" may be), but this time it went bad. She didn't go along with his plan. Maybe he misjudged her/she misjudged him. It didn't necessarily have to start out as a premeditated murder.
Just a thought...I totally see where you're coming from though. It just does not make sense to me that the women are in on it, the white guy following her is in on it too (I think that was in your theory).
I just don't know...

Yeah...I admit...it was far fetched.

I agree...the other alternative is that it didn't start out premeditated. He's maybe taken a lot of women home in this fashion but somehow, this one went wrong.

 

[Lovepink]

Maybe someone familiar with the area can answer this.

Are there apartments above the restaurants and stores on the mall? If yes, would that be typical student housing? Perhaps she was looking for a party at an apartment above a business???

I think it's mostly offices, with maybe a few apartments. No, it's definitely not typical student housing imo. It's getting too far from campus. The only people I knew that lived that far downtown or near the mall were either non-traditional students, or just people who live in Charlottesville but weren't students.

 

[zelmajane]

Definitely agree. Someone way back in one of the threads, indicated that students are carrying guns. Another person seemed to scoff at this suggestion. With a little nosing around, it would appear to be true. There are numerous posts on various different forums and news reports. Here is an example:

"The areas around UVA have been bad for a very long time. My husband & I are both alumni and daughter entered UVA in 2002. She could not find an area to live that did not have rapes and murders and did not feel safe anywhere including her apt/houses. We finally bought her a gun and concealed carry permit. There is no excuse in a college student feeling that unsafe. I am surprised it has not affected applications to UVA. Very sad. "

Dated a guy at UVa while he was in grad school. He stayed in labs late and often alone. He carried often off campus. And probably on, illegally in some of those late nights. This was 7ish years ago? If he didn't have a gun he had a knife. Lived a short walk from downtown mall.

That's why this case bothers me so much. I stumbled back often. Always with him, but still. I saw the late night life often.

 

[Skigirl]

You have a really good point. I haven't looked at it that way.
Humor me on this thought......He's so comfortable there that he gets complacent. Maybe it's not even the first time he's done this (whatever "this" may be), but this time it went bad. She didn't go along with his plan. Maybe he misjudged her/she misjudged him. It didn't necessarily have to start out as a premeditated murder.
Just a thought...I totally see where you're coming from though. It just does not make sense to me that the women are in on it, the white guy following her is in on it too (I think that was in your theory).
I just don't know...

I agree that it was likely to have been a crime of opportunity rather than premeditated. I would guess he didn't have any very specific plan in mind when he first spotted her. Maybe he hits on all the girls who are in her situation but doesn't get lucky very often, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day. I would bet he was actually surprised when he got her in his car.

 

[msteach]

To those who have commented about him being familiar on the mall -- lots of discussion within the past hour on Parker Slaybaugh (local reporter)'s FB Page. More details about his activities that fall into the "this guy is a fixture at the downtown mall" category. Interesting stuff in the comments to the post that he posted about how great the sleuths have been.

I followed him during the AM case. He was working in Lexington then, but moved to Richmond news within the past year. He's one of the best reporters out there on these types of cases.

 

[parttimesleuther]

Longo stated in the presser (at 4:50 in http://youtu.be/2zEwZzxbZyA) 'we know that he lived in the house that we searched this morning. We know that many of you were there. My suspicion is that others know his name."

Has it been discussed as to his comment "many of you were there"? http://youtu.be/2zEwZzxbZyA

I hope I am tagging the video link correctly, long time lurker with not much experience posting.

I believe he was speaking to the press about many of them being there this morning when they did the search.

 

[Skigirl]

What a hellishly random set of circumstances. Even with someone watching out for her, even after all that time wandering around alone in sketchy places, at the very end of a long evening, to have things go so horribly wrong. Oh, Hannah.

 

[Plumeria5]

Is the map correct and consistent with the video in that link?
Let me know if there should be an update to the map.
Any idea where her apartment was?

I based the timeline on this map, but I forgot to copy the url. It's from one of the local news stations. This is my source (will look for the link):

Great map! I am a visual learner. So she walked south until 1 am and then backtracked up the same road?
I was thinking about why she was holding her back. Do we know what shoes she had on? Could she have been wearing heels? Those would certainly make my back hurt after walking all that way. And one other thing. The text message. How does LE know where she was at 1:20 am at the time of the text? Pings wouldn't narrow it down that close would it? Or was there a camera there at the time? Wondering if someone else sent the text to throw everyone off the trail by giving a location a half mile away. You know what would be great is if we had the capability to take the map add the video clips at each location and then add the location that was on the text.

 

[troykan]

I agree. Or else maybe he really did just pick her up and later dropped her off somewhere. Or maybe there was no plan to harm her, just trying for sex, and something went wrong. It would be pretty stupid to snag a girl on camera from a place where he hangs out. Jmo

Many criminals are stupid, just saying!

 

[msteach]

Lots of info on that Parker S. thread. One woman just posted that RAT used to hang out at a local club there, too. She said he gave her the creeps. (He would me, too!)

 

[zelmajane]

To those who have commented about him being familiar on the mall -- lots of discussion within the past hour on Parker Slaybaugh (local reporter)'s FB Page. More details about his activities that fall into the "this guy is a fixture at the downtown mall" category. Interesting stuff in the comments to the post that he posted about how great the sleuths have been.

I followed him during the AM case. He was working in Lexington then, but moved to Richmond news within the past year. He's one of the best reporters out there on these types of cases.

When I was there often, there were a lot of "fixtures," in the evening. I'd describe them more as vagrants.

 

[FightTheOstrich]

I think it's mostly offices, with maybe a few apartments. No, it's definitely not typical student housing imo. It's getting too far from campus. The only people I knew that lived that far downtown or near the mall were either non-traditional students, or just people who live in Charlottesville but weren't students.

Thanks!!! :daisy:

What about underground clubs, raves, that sort of thing???

Trying to figure out what she was up to and where she was headed.