Reward Increased: Father Believes Attacker was Local by Hawes Spencer
published 10:11am Sunday Oct 25, 2009
Morgan Harrington, center, with her father at left and her mother at right, on a recent family vacation.
PHOTO COURTESY HARRINGTON FAMILY
The 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.
The RV lot is shrouded by trees and other plants.
PHOTO BY GOOGLE MAPS
In a quiet house where a yellow ribbon adorns a front yard tree and a pair of candles burn on the kitchen counter, Dr. Harrington also confirms that he’s been told that his daughter’s purse and phone were found in the RV lot, a small gated parking area alongside Copeley/Alderman Road, the CSX/Buckingham Branch train tracks, and the UVA athletic fields.
Dr. Harrington bases his perpetrator theory on the idea that a local attacker would have the confidence and familiarity with the landscape. He says that his daughter, who was born at UVA medical center in 1989 when he was on the psychiatric faculty, is no stranger to Charlottesville concerts, having also attended shows at the Charlottesville Pavilion.
Stat Police spokesperson Corinne Geller says that troopers and agents spent last night, October 24, handing out fliers and interacting with passing motorists and pedestrians in the John Paul Jones Arena, in the hopes of encountering someone who habitual passes that way and might have seen something.
–last updated 11:13am Sunday (with Geller info)
http://www.readthehook.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/25/reward-increased-father-believes-attacker-was-local/#