SEARCHERS have found human remains that could be those of a British-born University of Virginia student missing since September 13.
Further forensic tests are needed to show if the remains are those of Hannah Graham, Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo said.
The remains were found on an abandoned property in southern Albemarle County by a search team from the Chesterfield County Sheriff's Office.
Thousands of volunteers have searched for the 18-year-old in the weeks since her disappearance.
Jesse Leroy Matthew, 32, has been charged with abduction with intent to defile Ms Graham.
A week after she went missing, Mr Longo described Matthew without naming him, saying investigators wanted to talk to the "person of interest" and that he was the last person to see her.
Matthew then went to a police station but drove off at speed and was arrested a few days later in Texas.
While he was on the run, Virginia police charged him with abduction with intent to defile, a charge that under Virginia law compels him to have a DNA test.
Virginia State Police then announced a "forensic link" to the 2009 killing of a woman, a case linked by DNA evidence since 2012 to the rape of a woman in Fairfax, Virginia.
After Matthew's arrest, Christopher Newport University in Virginia said Matthew was named in a police file on a 2003 sexual assault on the Newport campus. He previously attended Liberty University in Virginia, where he was accused of raping a student, but the charge was dropped.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article