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Hannah Graham searcher says ‘God wanted’ them to find the human remains

VIRGINIA- ‘God wanted’ them to find what they found. The Chesterfield Sheriff’s Department sergeant who discovered human remains while searching for missing Uni...
Hannah Graham

VIRGINIA- ‘God wanted’ them to find what they found.

The Chesterfield Sheriff’s Department sergeant who discovered human remains while searching for missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham talked to our sister station WTVR.

Sgt. Dale Terry told them his team had been searching when something came over him to check nearby properties. “I don’t know how else to explain it. Something inside me just told me to continue to look.”

Human remains were found behind a vacant home in a dried-up creek bed.

Terry said the vertebrae bone appeared long and consistent with a tall person’s body. He said the body was not buried and its location was not far from the road.

He said his search team felt compelled to volunteer to find Hannah Graham in an effort to bring closure and justice for her family.

“We stayed positive, upbeat,” he said. “We knew we were here for a mission to bring closure and hopefully that’s what we’ve done.”

Terry led the search team that found remains along an abandoned property off of Old Lynchburg Road in southern Albemarle County. Saturday’s discovery came more than a month after Graham was last seen walking along the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, Virginia on September 13.

The remains were taken to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Richmond to be autopsied and positively identified.

“These are human remains,” Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo said at a press conference Saturday evening. “Forensic tests need to be conducted to determine the identification of those remains.”

The discovery comes 35 days after Graham was last seen, on several surveillance cameras, in Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall area. That footage showed her leaving the Tempo Bar at around 2 a.m. on Sept. 13, as well as a man — later identified by authorities as Jesse Matthew, 32, — following her.

On Sept. 24, Matthew was taken into custody while camping on a beach in Galveston, Texas, some 1,300 miles from Charlottesville. He is the only person detained in connection with Graham’s disappearance, charged with abduction with the intent to defile.

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