Charlottesville Breaking News
Unexplained injury: Tips flood in, but still no Morgan
Morgan Dana
Harrington disappeared during a Metallica concert October
17. FACEBOOK PHOTOSMorgan Harrington, the young woman who disappeared during the October 17 Metallica concert, received a facial injury before she left the John Paul Jones Arena, according to multiple sources.
According to the sources, Harrington was seen inside and outside the Arena with blood on her chin prior to her disappearance, say witnesses who wish to remain anonymous. Thirteen days after her disappearance, a police spokesperson confirms the accounts but says investigators doubt the injury points to any altercation.
"It was a minor injury," says Virginia State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller. She explains that police chose initially not to release the detail because the injury was "consistent with what someone would suffer from slipping and falling, not with any kind of assault."
Contacted about the report of...
On the bridge: Morgan Harrington last seen over train tracks
Hastily
stitched-together photo from the bridge which carries Copeley Road
over the CSX/Buckingham Branch train tracks. PHOTO
BY HAWES SPENCERThe young woman whose disappearance during an October 17 Metallica concert touched off a national search was last seen on a bridge around 9:30 that night near busy Ivy Road. The information came in a Wednesday morning press conference in Charlottesville in which State Police Lieutenant Joe Rader expressed hope that a newly detailed timeline would provoke additional clues from concert-goers and other witnesses.
"Perhaps you saw someone stop a vehicle," said Rader. "Perhaps you saw this young lady get into a vehicle. Somewhere out there lie the answers or lies the vital link."
Rader described the timeline, pieced together from witness interviews, as fairly accurate, but he noted that it changed within the 30 minutes before the press conference began–- and that it remains...
Morgan's parents: don't blame her friends
Unlike the rest of "the
nine," Morgan opted for a red dress on prom night. (Others: Amy
Melvin, Maggie Herrick, and Jenna Testerman.) PHOTO
COURTESY HARRINGTON FAMILYThe parents of missing Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington urge would-be sleuths not to blame the 20-year old woman's friends for failing to report her disappearance during an October 17 heavy metal concert in Charlottesville.
"They're not to blame," says father Dan Harrington. "Everyone wants to make them out to be the bad guy, but they're not the bad guy."
The woman's disappearance didn't get reported to authorities until the next day when her father called police after she failed to show for a pre-arranged visit home to study math and balance her checkbook.
But should the friends at the concert have reported her missing?
"I wish they had," says her dad, "but I don't know that it would have changed anythin...
Sad days: Harrington family coping, waiting
Harrington's dad
holds Kirby while mom gives the family's "I love you 2 much" signal
Saturday. PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCERIt's been hell on earth for the parents of missing Virginia Tech student Morgan Dana Harrington.
"God, this has been a long week," says her father, Daniel "Dan" Harrington, who last saw his daughter around noon on Saturday, October 17, just hours before her disappearance from a concert in Charlottesville. "This," says mother Gilbert "Gil" Harrington, "has been physically, emotionally, quite a hit."
During a recent interview at their home in Roanoke, the couple speak fondly of the 20-year-old daughter they eagerly hope to see again; yet throughout an hour-long conversation, they occasionally refer to her, seven days gone at that point, in the past tense.
"You have a choice," says Gil, pronounced JILL, "you can dissolve in the corner or become hard and bitter– or forge...
Reward increased: Father believes attacker was local
Morgan Harrington,
center, with her father at left and her mother at right, on a
recent family vacation. PHOTO COURTESY HARRINGTON
FAMILYThe father of Morgan Dana Harrington believes that the person responsible for abducting her outside the October 17 Metallica concert is someone from the Charlottesville area.
"If I had to bet my guess," says Dan Harrington, "this is someone local."
He expressed his theory Saturday morning in a living room interview, sandwiched between visits from the top television network morning news programs and a visit from two members of the Virginia State Police. While investigators continue to express a desire for tips, photos, and video from concert-goers, Metallica has reportedly added $50,000 to bring the reward up to $150,000.
...
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