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.