DNA Links Second Abduction-Rape to Morgan Harrington
Murdered student's family hope earlier case will bring a lead to her killer.
Nov. 7, 2010 — -- A DNA link has been found between the abduction and murder of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington a year ago and the kidnapping and rape of a Fairfax, Va., woman in 2005.
Harrington's family and friends traveled from their home in Roanoke, Va. to Fairfax on Saturday, hoping to keep the unsolved case in the public eye.
"It's too late for us. Our daughter is dead. But it's not too late for the next girl, and that's why I can't give up," Harrington's mother Gil Harrington told ABC affiliate WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C.
"It's easy for a community to grow complacent and forget that there is still violence and that a predator still walks the streets," Gil Harrington said.
They passed out leaflets with a composite sketch of the man suspected of abducting and raping a 25-year old Fairfax County woman in 2005.
"We want justice for our daughter, but we want the community to be safe," Morgan Harrington's father Dan Harrington said.
The 20-year-old woman was last seen at a Metallica concert in Charlottesville, Va., on Oct. 17, 2009. Her body was found on a Virginia farm in January.
"It's scary, I have a 16-year-old daughter," Caravan volunteer Amanda St. Clair told WJLA-TV.
"The DNA collected from that young lady is connected forensically to Morgan's murder. There's no question about it," St. Clair said.
Police have said that the suspect may have changed his appearance in five years, but Harrington's family and friends still hope someone might remember him or make a connection.
"The people he possibly worked for. This guy has to be eating somewhere. He's got to be sleeping somewhere. Somebody knows him," Caravan volunteer Kenny Jarels said.
Harrington's body was discovered in January, on a remote farm in Albermarle County, about 10 miles from where Harrington was last seen at a Metallica concert.
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