Summary: Hannah Graham, a student from the University of Virginia, has been missing since Saturday. A car was seized and an apartment was searched on Friday in connection.
A car has been seized and an apartment was searched on Friday afternoon in the search for missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, according to ABC News. Police have said that these two events are major breaks in the case.
A trio of warrants were executed on Friday, which led to the searches, according to Charlottesville police. The third warrant was to search a phone. All three of them were connected to the same person in the case.
Police Chief Timothy Longo said that the searches “absolutely” provided a break in the search for Graham.
A search and seizure warrant was executed for a vehicle, which occurred not long after midnight. Upon arrival at an apartment building, police seized the vehicle and a person associated with the car was in the apartment with two other people. Longo said that officers identified the people, but did not detain them because the officers felt they did not have grounds to do so.
A full search of the vehicle was conducted at another location, which led to receiving the other two warrants after probable cause was reached for them. The officers returned to the apartment not long after 10 a.m. and the three people were not inside.
Longo said that the warrants were “not in relation to anyone we’ve talked to.”
A $50,000 reward for info about Graham’s disappearance was offered by police one day prior to the execution of the search warrants. Four video surveillance clips were released earlier this week. The clips came from local businesses that depicted Graham, 18. She was walking in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The last time someone heard from Graham was around 1:20 that morning when she texted her friends. The texts reportedly talked about her heading to a party, but she was not sure where she was located.
On Thursday, police described a person of interest seen on the video who appeared to be following Graham in the surveillance clips. The man told officers he was concerned about Graham because she appeard to be “physically distressed.” He then left her when another man walked up to her and put his arm around Graham.
The second man was also described as a person of interest. He cannot be seen on any surveillance videos, but he has been described as a black male in his 20s or early 30s.
A large search is being planned for this Saturday.