With discovery, Harrington case now a likely homicide

Charlottesville, Va. Police said Tuesday they’re confident that remains found in an Albemarle County hayfield are those of Morgan D. Harrington. They’re now expecting to look for person or persons connected to what authorities said is most likely a homicide.

Farmer Dave Bass found the remains as he inspected a fence line on his tractor in the wake of Sunday’s storm.

“I thought it was a deer at first, and I hoped it was,” Bass said.

But police soon knew that what he had found were human remains.

Police based their preliminary identification of the remains as Harrington on items found at the scene at Anchorage Farm, Virginia State Police Superintendent W. Steven Flaherty said at a news conference Tuesday.

“Based on the evidence that is there that we’ve recovered, we’re fairly confident … that they are the remains of Morgan Dana Harrington,” Flaherty said.

A final identification will be made by the medical examiner, police said. Harrington’s parents gave police her dental records in mid-November to help with potential identifications. Positive identification is expected to be made by today.

Flaherty added, “Now we begin the work to determine how she came to be in this remote location.”

The area of Bass’ 750-acre cattle farm on which the remains were discovered is particularly remote and difficult to access, the farmer said.

Bass has owned the farm for 30 years and gets back to that section only about twice a year, he said. The farm is on the west side of U.S. 29 about five miles south of Interstate 64 near Red Hill Road.

Harrington, 20, disappeared Oct. 17, after leaving a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena.

Tuesday’s discovery seems to close one chapter in the story of Harrington’s death and open the next.

While police said their identification is not yet certain and cause of death will be the province of the medical examiner, officers spoke with the presumption that this is the beginning of the search for “those responsible for the death” of Harrington, as Lt. Joe Rader of the Virginia State Police said.

Police said it was to that end that they were mum about what exactly they found and what the details of Tuesday’s discovery might imply about Harrington’s fate.

“We’re in the very infant stage of this investigation, even though we’ve been out there all day,” Flaherty said.

Harrington’s parents appeared sad and solemn Tuesday as they came and went from a state police office in Charlottesville.

“They’re reacting as parents would react,” Virginia State Police Lt. Joe Rader said at the news conference.

When a reporter tried to speak with the Harringtons as they entered the office Tuesday evening after the news conference, the man escorting them issued a stern “not now.”

Instead, Gil Harrington, Morgan’s mother, hugged the reporter.

Only Sunday, Gil Harrington had expressed hope on findmorgan.com.

“3 months!” she wrote. “Despite the length of time Morgan has been gone I remain hopeful. Part of me is waiting to be surprised. Waiting for God to pull the rabbit out of the hat and bring Morgan home.”

Tuesday’s discovery wasn’t the first time there was speculation that human remains could be Morgan’s. In November, a set of remains found in Roanoke, where Harrington was from, sparked speculation, before state police declared they weren’t Morgan’s remains.

Harrington’s case began as she headed for that Saturday concert.

According to accounts given by police:

Harrington went to the concert with several other friends. They took Harrington’s car, but one of her friends drove.

The Virginia Tech student had been drinking that night, and got separated from her friends when she left to find a restroom.

Somehow - it’s not clear exactly how - she wound up outside and couldn’t get back in, because the arena doesn’t allow reentry without a ticket stub.

In a phone call with her friends, she told them not to worry about her, and that she’d try to find her own way home.

From the arena, she headed southwest on foot. She lost her purse and her cell phone. They were later found in an overflow parking lot near the arena, though the phone was missing its battery.

Based on tips, police are fairly certain that, at about 9:30 that night, she was hitchhiking on the railroad bridge on Copeley Avenue.

From there her trail vanished. But it wasn’t for lack of people looking.

Police searched the area immediately around the arena in the days after Harrington’s disappearance. For some time afterward, they would occasionally conduct spot searches further from the place she was last seen, based on information they had, Rader said.

About 1,600 community searchers, led by the Texas-based Laura Recovery Center, scoured an area around the arena after the first police efforts but came up empty.

Police didn’t search the area in which Harrington was ultimately found, because they only searched places that far from the arena when they had specific information, Rader said.

At that time, the hay in the field, last cut in August, would have been waist-high, police said.

Since then, autumn leaves have fallen, along with almost 2 feet of snow.

The Harringtons recently invited a North Carolina-based search organization, the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons, to help in the search for their daughter. The nonprofit center was to review previous police and community searches to determine target areas for future efforts.

Monica Caison, of the CUE Center, said her organization relies on professional search and rescue teams that volunteer to look for missing persons. The organization works closely with police and community search teams to help determine what steps should be taken next.

“We were getting a search together and were interested in looking south of town, along U.S. 29,” Caison said Tuesday. “I’m glad that she was found, even though it’s a terrible thing to have happened.”

Harrington’s parents worked hard to keep their daughter’s story in the public eye, granting interviews and appearing on programs including the “Dr. Phil” show and “Nancy Grace.” People put up posters in public places around Charlottesville and started the Web site findmorgan.com.

Donors, including Metallica, gave enough money that there was eventually a $150,000 reward for information leading to Harrington.

Leonard W. Sandridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer of UVa, issued the following statement:

“The University community is deeply saddened by today’s news about Morgan Harrington. Our hearts go out to Morgan’s parents, Gil and Dan, to her brother, Alex, and to our friends in the Virginia Tech community at this very difficult time.

“We have assured the Harrington family of our concern and offered to assist them in any way we can.

“We are grateful to members of the larger community for the extraordinary support and commitment they have exhibited since Morgan’s disappearance. We had all hoped and prayed for a different outcome. The University Police Department will continue to do all it can to support the Virginia State Police as they work to solve this case.”

Police are still looking for tips, and ask anyone with information to call 352-3467.

Daily Progress staff writer Bryan McKenzie contributed to this story.