UVA Student Vanishes After Leaving Party and Texting That She Was Lost
Police in Charlottesville are searching for first-year University of Virginia student Hannah Elizabeth Graham, who has been missing since last Saturday, when she texted friends that she gotten lost walking home from a party.
Graham, 18, apparently attended a party at an off-campus apartment last Friday evening. Her friends claim to have received text messages from Graham at 1:20 a.m. Saturday, telling them that she gotten lost. Police's search of the area, including sending a bloodhound, have been in vain so far.
Charlottesville police have told the Associated Press that tips—including a possible sighting—have made them refocus their search to the eastern part of the city. According to the Daily Progress, police "may call in additional agencies" as soon as today to help with the search. As the Associated Press reports, Graham is the fourth young woman to go missing near Charlottesville in the past five years:
At least three other young women have disappeared in the area in the last five years. Nineteen-year-old Samantha Ann Clarke, who vanished after leaving her Orange County townhouse in September 2010, and 19-year-old DaShad Laquinn Smith, who disappeared in Charlottesville in November 2012, remain missing.
Morgan Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student, disappeared from the University of Virginia's John Paul Jones Arena while attending a rock concert in October 2009. Her remains were found three months later in a rural area. No arrests have been made.
"Hannah is not the kind of kid that would just go on a road trip and disappear," Stephen Rice, the band director from the high school Graham attended, told NBC Washington. "She was always very diligent with everything she did, and always did everything exactly by the book."