PART 3: HANNAH GRAHAM: DEADLY CONNECTIONS "48 HOURS:" A SLAIN STUDENT'S CASE UNLOCKS LONG-UNSOLVED CRIMES

After leaving his second college, Matthew came back to Charlottesville, driving a cab for a few years. He had a few minor run-ins with police; traffic violations and trespassing.

Matthew's father, like many, was bewildered at the thought Jesse could be involved in something as serious as Hannah Graham's abduction.

"To kill or hurt somebody, that's not my son," Jesse Matthew Sr. said. "I could see him maybe trying to give the girl a ride home or helping her out."

Frances Lee-Vandell was Matthew's landlady.

"Mostly, I am just really shocked," she said. "We don't know a thing yet, we don't know a thing. Everything seemed to be going well for Jesse; he had a promotion at the hospital."
TV Report: Charges are filed against the man authorities believe was the last person seen with the UVA student before her disappearance more than one week ago.
William Haith hadn't seen or heard from Matthew in years. When he learned that his former teammate was suspected in Hannah Graham's disappearance, his reaction was pure shock ... at first.

"I'm watching the news. I'm shocked; I'm like, 'Wow. It's -- just, is that L.J. that went to school with me?'" Haith said. "And then next thing you know, everything just started flashing through my head. The incident that happened at Liberty. ...Like, 'Wow. Could L.J. have done this?'"

"And how did you answer that?" Spencer asked.

"At first, you know, I'm, like, 'No,'" he replied. "He just seemed to be a caring person. But again, when you start looking at some of the other things ... I thought that, possibly."

"You almost get the impression of two Jesse Matthews," Spencer commented to Augenstein.

"Who was the real Jesse Matthew? ...Maybe this guy was OK. ...People were trying to get in touch with the family ... with his lawyer," Augenstein said. "Looking, asking, 'tell us a little bit about him,' you know, let us at least paint a picture that's fair. ... I think that everyone was trying to maintain hope that maybe this was a mistake."

But, as the days wore on with no sign of Hannah Graham or Jesse Matthew, hope was scarce with memories turning to those other young woman for whom searches had failed.

"They may not have all been connected, but it definitely was on the minds of people living in and around central Virginia, the Charlottesville area," said French.

"I think most people were beginning to think bleak thoughts ... you know, 'somebody give us some information about something,'" said Snook.

Soon, someone would -- and the twisted trail of Jesse Matthew would take a surprising turn into the past.
HANNAH GRAHAM: STALKED BY EVILWATCH PART 2SUSPECT ON THE RUN
September 21, 2014. It's a week after Hannah Graham went missing and Jesse Matthew, the one person who may hold the key to her whereabouts, is missing as well.

"I hope and pray we might have an opportunity to talk to Jesse Matthew again...'cause I think he could help us find Hannah Graham," Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo told reporters.

"It was tense. It was already tense. And it was even tenser. 'Cause now we don't know where he is," said WTVR reporter and "48 Hours" consultant Laura French.

French wasn't the only one speechless to learn police had let their only suspect slip away.

"So Jesse Matthew is gone," Spencer commented.

"Jesse Matthew is gone. I even joked with one of the investigators and said, 'You guys really know where he is,'" French replied. "'There are some serious accusations against this individual. And you don't know where he is?"' He fled. And he fled far."

Remarkably, four days after he fled, Jesse Matthew is spotted in, of all places, Galveston, Texas -- on a near-empty beach 1,300 miles from Charlottesville.

"Fast forward to September 24th. We have a woman out on the beach looking just for a peaceful afternoon to watch the water," said French.

That woman was Karen Monk.

"His tent was about right here close to the grass and his car was parked on the other side," Monk pointed out of where she spotted Matthew.

"She's sittin' in the back of her car. And she sees this man in a tent, you know, a few yards down from her, doesn't think much of it, until he drives by her," French continued.

"This car came right in front of me and stopped," Monk explained. "And the fella sitting in the driver's seat, his windows were down and he leans over and looks, kinda glares at me."

Monk suddenly found herself face to face with one of the most wanted men in the country.

"When I looked up and I saw him. His facial features are unmistakable. I just held my breath. Hoping he would keep going. My heart literally probably stopped beating," she said. "I knew that was him. I'd seen his face on the news every morning."

"You mean to tell me that she recognized him on the beach from a wanted poster that she'd seen on television or what?" Spencer asked French.

"From a mug shot," she replied. "And she's like, 'OK, do I leave? Because I'm probably in danger. Or do I stay here so I can tell police exactly where he is?'"

Monk not only stayed, she called every law enforcement agency she could think of -- finally getting a response from the Galveston County Sheriff's Office. They found Jesse Matthew on the beach and arrested him without incident.

"How does she view what she did?" Spencer asked French.

"She's very humble. She views it as being in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing," she replied.

"I really didn't want to make it a big deal at all. And I still really don't," said Monk.

"We're here tonight to announce that ... Jesse Matthew is in custody in Galveston, Texas" Chief Longo reported.

And apparently Matthew had bigger travel plans than Texas - a map of Mexico was found in his car. Now in custody, he was headed not south, but north ... back to Charlottesville, Virginia.

"He was locked up in Galveston for 40-some hours. Charlottesville authorities came and ... flew him back here. And they had him by their side at all times," said French.

But Matthew quickly dashed any hope police had that he'd give them information about Hannah Graham.

"He never cooperated with anybody ... as far as answering questions voluntarily," French continued. "Never has."

"We have a person in custody but there's a long road ahead of us and that long road includes finding Hannah Graham," Longo told reporters.

Now the search expanded out from Charlottesville and the university campus to the surrounding countryside. And despite the growing odds against this having a good outcome, no one was giving up; in fact, the volunteers just kept coming.

Neal Augenstein, a "48 Hours" consultant, covered this story both for WTOP Radio and online.

"It wasn't clear whether she was-- alive or-- or dead, at this point," Augenstein told Spencer. "I think people were -- as time went on, people were -- were thinking more and more that she probably had died."

"People wanted answers. People wanted closure. People wanted it now," Augenstein continued.

But no one wanted the news that came on October 18 -- 35 days after Hannah disappeared.

"Sometime before noon today, a search team from the Chesterfield County Sheriff's Department was searching an abandoned property along old Lynchburg Road in Southern Albemarle County when they discovered what appears to be human remains," Longo updated reporters.

"Where the human remains were found was -- behind a home that -- that nobody was living in at the time. And ... this was within a few miles of a home where Jesse Matthew had -- had grown up and spent time with his family," Augenstein explained.

"How far was this from Charlottesville?" Spencer asked.

"So this house was-- was five, six, seven miles out of -- downtown Charlottesville," he replied.

What also intrigued investigators: the site where Morgan Harrington's remains had been found four years earlier was only a few miles away.

"The remains will be taken to the office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond for examination, autopsy and official identification," Albemarle County Police Col. Steve Sellers told reporters.
CBS Evening News: Late today, a mother and father`s worst fear came true when an autopsy report identified remains found last week in Virginia as those of their daughter.
With the discovery of Hannah's body, the community that had searched so long and hard with John and Susan Graham now could only grieve with them.

"As a parent, it just-- my heart sank. Because it was final. Their worst fears had come to light. But at the same time, they were able to bring her home. And they were able to give her the proper burial that she deserved. And they at least knew where she was," said French.

The next challenge: building a solid case against Jesse Matthew. He wasn't talking, but science was about to do the talking for him.
A COLD CASE HEATS UP
"I have a lot of friends that go to UVA. ... my initial reaction was how could this be," said Hannah Graham's friend, Leila Nasser.

After a month of vigils and hopes and prayers for Hannah Graham, the reality of her murder was a horrific shock.

"This is our opportunity to create a silver lining in the tremendous cloud that Hannah's fate represented to us," John Graham told reporters.

"... when it comes to these sort of, girl-gone-missing stories, there's always this barrier of ignorance where you don't know the person who's on the other side of the screen ... and I did this time," Nasser continued. "It's something that's so overwhelming and so powerful and you can't understand or fathom why anybody would do this."

Law enforcement wanted to ask that very question to Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr., who now sat in jail, formally charged with "abduction, with intent to defile" Hannah Graham. He was not charged with murder.

"People have been calling ... for death for Jesse Matthew before Hannah Graham's body was even found," Augenstein explained. "This is showing ... the power of Twitter and not necessarily for good. You know people were convinced ... of his guilt."

While Matthew was behind bars in Charlottesville, a case 100 miles away in Fairfax, Virginia, ice cold for nearly 10 years, was about to heat up.

"I was getting ready to go out of town to Georgia to a funeral ...I was watching the video of Hannah Graham going through the mall down there," said Fairfax Det. Michael Boone.

Detective Boone had never stopped working that unsolved rape case from 2005, involving the victim known only as R.G. He had little to go on but the composite sketch of her rapist.

But then one day he happened to glimpse news coverage of the Hannah Graham case.

"I saw the picture of Jesse Matthews ... and I saw a picture ... of the composite drawing," Boone said. "I mean I knew they had the right person."

"You knew the second you saw his picture?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah," said Boone.

Detective Boone had been looking at that composite for almost 10 years and his gut told him that, without question, his rapist and Jesse Matthew were one in the same -- that Matthew's DNA would match the unidentified DNA in his rape case. So Boone got a search warrant and speeds off to Charlottesville to meet with his suspect.

"What was his demeanor? How did he seem?" Spencer asked Boone.

"He didn't say anything, didn't show any emotion," he replied.

"So you take this sample and what did you do with the sample?" Spencer asked.

"I drove it to the Department of Forensic Science to the central lab in Richmond," said Boone.

A quick turnaround got an answer in a week.

"So the word was, 'Look, you know, we need this,'" Spencer remarked.

"Well they knew. They knew what we were dealing with," said Boone.

"What'd you think you were dealing with?"

"A very violent sexual offender," Boone replied.

The results were a bombshell. Boone was right. Jesse Matthew's DNA matched that of the Fairfax rapist.

"I held out hope every year that he was gonna get identified. It's just like, 'finally,'" said Boone.

But there was more. Remember, the rapist DNA matched DNA found on Morgan Harrington's T-shirt after her murder. Now investigators knew whose DNA it was.
WTVR report | September 29, 2014: We were able to confirm today that Jesse Matthew Jr. has been linked -- forensic evidence has linked him to the Morgan Harrington case from 2009.
Laura French broke the story.

"We know that Jesse Matthew, at some point, made contact with Virginia Tech student Morgan Dana Harrington, the night she disappeared and three months later was later found murdered," French told Spencer. "That's what we do know ... it doesn't mean he did something..."

Fast forward to 2014 -- to Jesse Matthew and the Hannah Graham case.

"...we know that police have forensic evidence that places her with him. What that is we don't know," said French.

"We know she was with him. ...She's on tape with him," Spencer noted.

"But the question is did she leave in his car? That's what's not been made public," French replied.

The key would be evidence showing what happened to Hannah after she was last seen at the restaurant with Matthew.

Police searched his car within days of her disappearance and will say only that no blood was found.

"...the state has in its possession digital records from a cell tower from Hannah Graham's phone. We also know that there are digital records from her Facebook account, Skype, Snapchat, Twitter -- all those different social media venues," French said. "But there's about 50-plus search warrants, so half of those we don't know about."

But on Oct. 20, 2014, two days after Hannah Graham's remains were discovered, authorities indict Jesse Matthew -- not for Hannah's murder, nor for Morgan's -- but for the attempted capital murder, abduction and sexual assault of the anonymous R.G. back in 2005 ... apparently feeling that the rape case was the strongest.

It was bittersweet news for Gil and Dan Harrington.

"Why have there been no charges filed in Morgan's case?" Spencer asked.

"I think they're trying to--they wanna finish prosecuting the Fairfax case," said Gil Harrington.

"So you fully expect that there will be?"

"Yes, I do," she replied.

To show their support, the Harringtons will be front and center at Jesse Matthew's upcoming rape trial. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, prosecutors are scrambling to build a solid case against Matthew for the murder of Hannah Graham -- and the pressure is building.
ON THE ROAD TO JUSTICE
Suspected killer Jesse Matthew was safely behind bars, but each passing day brought the question: when would he be charged with Hannah Graham's murder?

"On Monday, February 2, 2015, Jesse Matthew Jr. was indicted in Albemarle County for abduction and murder of Hannah Graham," Albemarle Commonwealth attorney Denise Lunsford announced to the press.

It was five months after she vanished before prosecutors had the evidence they needed.

"What we don't know is what they found in his apartment," Laura French explained. "We can report this much though. In the second search of his apartment, police went there for something very specific. And when asked if they got what they went in there for they said, 'Yes, we did.' ...Those details presumably will come out in court."

But relief that the Graham case was moving forward mixed with disappointment, especially, once again, in the Twittersphere.

"When Jesse Matthew was first charged with first-degree murder, people were outraged. Why weren't they gonna go for the death penalty?" Neal Augenstein explained.

That all changed three months later when the Commonweath attorney announced she would seek the death penalty after all:

"The Commonwealth received some additional forensic information in late February that led to this increase in charge," Lunsford told reporters.

Charlottesville attorney Lloyd Snook has been following the Graham case.

"Was upping the charges to capital murder a strategic move or was that based on some sort of bombshell that they had?" Spencer asked Snook.

"They haven't told us," he replied.

"There is some other evidence ... maybe there's some DNA evidence that ... hadn't come back from the lab yet," Snook explained. "In addition ... there is a second analysis ... and that is to weigh aggravating and mitigating circumstances."

"And what would those be?" Spencer asked.

"Well ... it's a long way of saying that it was a really, really awful crime. Not just awful because all murders are awful, but ... something really, really bad," said Snook.

Gil Harrington was at a pre-trial hearing in Hannah Graham's case the day the change to the death penalty was announced. She supports the move.

"I want to see what happens when evil intersects with justice," she told reporters outside of the courthouse. "I really don't know what the justification for changing the charge is ... but some bad things happened ... lives were lost."

As the years have gone by, her daughter's case seems to have been stalled. Despite that T-shirt DNA linking Matthew to Morgan.

"A trial for Morgan, we do want to have that day, but it really changes nothing in our lives. Our lives that are empty -- the pain that we'll have after a trial is the same pain that we have today," Gil Harrington told reporters.

By spring of 2015, Matthew faced two trials -- for the murder of Hannah Graham and for the 2005 abduction, sexual assault and attempted capital murder of the woman known as R.G.

And questions were raised about a Matthew connection to the Alexis Murphy case -- questions generated by attorneys for her convicted killer, Randy Taylor. They demanded evidence be tested for Matthew's DNA just in case.

"We're fine with that," Trina Murphy said. "Let's say by the off chance they do find Jesse Matthew's DNA in her car, it just means that he was also involved. It doesn't make Randy Taylor any less guilty than he is now."

"And what do you think the odds of that are?" Spencer asked.

"Honestly, I think it's pretty slim," she replied.

Alexis's aunt was right - no DNA link with Matthew was found.

Meanwhile, after nearly a decade, R.G.'s case was moving forward with hearings. And finally, June 2015, a trial, with Jesse Matthew's fate depending on the DNA and on testimony from the anonymous victim, R.G.

"She was hesitant. She was worried," Commonwealth attorney Ray Morrogh explained. "She is a very dignified woman ... from a different culture, very well educated, I might say, brilliant. And she wanted her privacy. She did not want anything to come out about her background. And so we tried to make sure that didn't happen. But at the same time, we tried to-- make sure she had the opportunity to get her voice heard."

Since the rape, R.G. had moved back home to Asia to a new life. Seeking justice meant not only traveling halfway around the world, but publicly reliving perhaps the most terrifying moments of her life.

"What do you think the specific impact was on her," Spencer asked Det. Michael Boone.

"The trauma, the trauma of it. It was just so violent," he replied.

Detective Boone had always kept in touch with her, contacting R.G. with any news about the case.

"I picked her up at the airport. I hadn't seen her in such a long time," Boone said. "She was nervous. ...She's gonna see him in court. And that's very stressful for a victim, very stressful."

"She did not want to be victimized again by some who might blame the victim," Morrogh said. "She didn't want people around her to know about it. And she didn't want it to define her."

"She did nothing wrong," Spencer noted.

"No, no," Morrogh said. "Here, we understand that, but some people don't."

And the composite sketch R.G. helped put together back in 2005 posed a problem. The attack was at night, she was traumatized, and, predictably, the defense insists neither it, nor an updated version, looks anything like Jesse Matthew.

"So going into this, then, you have the sketch ... and you've got a victim. You don't know how she's gonna testify," Spencer remarked to Morrogh.

"Right," he agreed.

"You're a little nervous as it starts?"

"I try not to be nervous," Morrogh replied. "But ... It's always a risk to have a jury trial. ...I was concerned."

Justifiably so, the outcome of this trial, like everything else in these tangled cases, would defy everyone's predictions.
THE WOMAN WHO GOT AWAY
"This wasn't just a rape case. This was a rape case that was tied to the Hannah Graham case," said Neal Augenstein.

The trial of Jesse Matthew for attempted murder, abduction and sexual assault takes place in the shadow of the Hannah Graham case. Although unlike Hannah, this victim, known only as R.G., does survive.

In June 2015, R.G. travels from her home in Asia to Fairfax, Virginia, for Matthew's trial. Hoping to help put him behind bars -- and not just for herself.

"We thought about our victim and our case and Hannah and Morgan pretty much every day from the day we found out that this was our man," Ray Morrogh said. "It strikes at your heart, you know, as a father myself, but just as a human being. I can't think of anything worse than attacking a woman or a child."

Commonwealth attorney Morrogh was happy to have his case against Matthew go first -- hoping to pave the way for future prosecutions for Hannah and for Morgan Harrington.

"We wanted to take him off the street. This is step one," he told Spencer.

"I think every bit of testimony that was heard in this case, you were listening with the thought that could this somehow be related to these other cases?" said Augenstein.

The judge allowed no cameras, but sketches and Neal Augenstein's tweets painted a vivid picture...from the first moment R.G. walked into the courtroom.

"This was the first time that she was in the same room with Jesse Matthew in 10 years," Augenstein told Spencer. "I and everyone else in the courtroom was ... looking to see who was making eye contact with who."

"Did she ever look at him?" Spencer asked.

"I never once saw her look at Jesse Matthew," Augenstein replied.

"Did he look at her?" Spencer asked.

"He looked at her the whole time," he replied.

"I think there was some expectation that at the trial, she would sit there and go, you know, 'that's him,'" Spencer remarked to Morrogh.

"Yeah, that was an issue ... But she hadn't seen him in 10 years. So I wasn't gonna press her on that," he explained. "She came just a whisper from being murdered and there in the courtroom, 20 feet from her, sits the man who tried to murder her. And she's, to this day, is obviously afraid of him."


R.G. takes the stand to tell the story of her brutal 2005 attac© Provided by CBS Interactive Inc. R.G. takes the stand to tell the story of her brutal 2005 attac  
In a hushed voice, R.G. testified about that horrible night, saying her attacker picked her up from behind like a baby. And then she went on, "He put me on the ground and he sat on my legs. And he banged my head on the grass -- on the ground." "He hit my face, beat me. I was screaming and yelling."

"I think at first she was extremely nervous ... and admitted certain parts ... that she put in a part of her mind that she didn't want to bring back out but she knew she would have to," said reporter Laura French.

"I was punching him, I was trying to kick" ... "he sealed my nose and my mouth with his hands and he choked me," R.G. told the court. "He was pulling my pants down. And I was still struggling."

"She told the story. She didn't seek vengeance on the stand," said Augenstein.

"He said, 'I will kill you. If you scream again. I'll twist your neck."... "'Let me do this, I'll let you go.'" R.G. testified.

The nightmare only ended, she said, when he dragged her into a ditch and ran off. R.G. was a very good witness.

"I think she realized that the way that she could get her justice was by calmly recalling what happened on that violent night," said Augenstein.

Also testifying was Mark Castro, the passerby who heard R.G.'s cries that night. He found her confused and covered in blood. He got a neighbor to call 911 and stayed until the ambulance arrived.

"What did you feel was the most important thing that you needed to get across to the jury?" Spencer asked Castro.

"Her condition. ...It was not just a typical assault. This is attempted murder," he replied. "She looked like somebody that was near dead."

"You wanted to be sure they understood how badly hurt she was," said Spencer.

"That's right. That's right," said Castro.

"I'll look at the defendants to see if there's any emotion, expression. There wasn't any from him," said Det. Boone.

Unlike R.G., Boone did look Jesse Matthew in the eye as the lead detective testified about how he got the vitally important sample of Matthew's DNA.

"I went through and explained to them how I collected it, that I ... put on gloves and swabbed the inside of his mouth and took that back and submitted it to the Department of Forensic Science," he told Spencer.

DNA was pivotal to the trial. Experts testified that the sample from Matthew matched what was found under R.G.'s fingernail.

"How strong was the DNA evidence? What were the numbers?" Spencer asked Morrogh.

"It was one in 7 billion that it could've been anyone else but the defendant, so one in greater than the world's population," he replied.

"One in 7 billion is pretty clear."

"That's a pretty good number," said Morrogh.

After two-and-a-half days, the prosecution rested, and attention turned to the defense.

"The defense asked for a brief recess," Augenstein said. "The brief recess lasted longer and longer."

"What are you thinking during all this?" Spencer asked.

"At first, I just thought ... they were trying to decide whether they were going to put on a defense or not," he replied.

"Then you see Jesse's family get taken in the back. Then you see them go back and forth. But then you see prosecutors just sitting there. So you're thinkin', 'There can't be a deal going on.' Then you see his mom in tears. 'What's happening?'" said French.

It was at that point that Neal Augenstein, who at over six feet tall has a rather good vantage point, noticed something else.

"I watched the prosecutors walking down the aisle. And I looked at the paperwork, it said, 'Alford Plea,'" Augenstein explained. "So I went on Twitter and started tweeting that the defense and prosecution were handling printed copies of an Alford plea."

Augenstein's tweets broke the story that there would be no jury verdict - Jesse Matthew would plead guilty -- albeit a slightly qualified guilty.

"They kinda threw the towel in on it -- made a decision ... to plead Alford, which is a type of guilty plea, where the defendant is allowed to say, 'The evidence against me is overwhelming. I'm pleading guilty. But I do not admit that I committed the crime,'" Morrogh explained.

"You did not offer this," said Spencer.

"No, I never offered any plea agreement," Morrogh said. "We wanted the jury to decide it."

"The only thing he's gaining here by doing an Alford plea here is not having to look at his mother in the eye and say, 'This is what I did,'" said Snook.

The plea stunned everyone, including Gil Harrington, who attended the trial to show support.

"R.G. is one exceptional human being. I applaud her courage and determination in finding her justice in this court building today," she told reporters.

The trial did not end as expected, but the result was all that mattered.

"He's convicted. So we've done our job. He's off the street, we gave him no breaks," Morrogh told Spencer. "This is a good thing."

He could be off the streets for a very long time. A judge will decide in October if Matthew gets the maximum in this case: three life sentences.

For R.G., it was a difficult, but triumphant trip. Before flying home, she had some business to attend to with a man she'd not seen since the night of the attack.

"She said, 'Thank you-- for saving my life,'" said Castro.

"Did you say anything else to her?" Spencer asked.

"I said, 'You're welcome. I just did what I thought was the best thing to do,'" he replied.

R.G. also thanked Detective Boone, whose business card she kept in her wallet all these years.

"We went back into a conference room and she pulled it out. And she said, 'I guess I should give this back to you now.' And I told her, 'Keep it,'" he said.

R.G.'s case was closed, but suddenly, justice for another victim was moving with shocking speed.


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