ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Nearly 1,000 people gathered Saturday for a memorial service for a British-born college student who went missing in September near the University of Virginia, prompting a month-long search that ended in tragedy.
Hannah Graham’s remains were found just miles from where the 18-year-old college sophomore she was last seen in Charlottesville, Virginia.
A former hospital orderly, Jesse Matthew, has been charged with abducting Graham and could face additional charges. Authorities say DNA evidence has also linked Matthew to a 2005 sexual assault and the 2009 disappearance and death of Virginia Tech Student Morgan Harrington.
The focus of the memorial at her former high school was on Graham and her life – the softball player, saxophonist and student with a buoyant personality and a droll British wit. She had moved to Virginia from Britain as a kindergartner.
Stories about Graham’s intelligence, dry humour and an unbridled zeal for life abounded at the memorial service at West Potomac High School billed as a celebration of Graham’s life.
One of her high school teachers, Nicole Borghard, recalled how teachers would scan their class rosters at the start of the school year, hoping for the opportunity to teach a student whose reputation preceded her, “the smart, sassy Hannah Graham.”
Friends Rachel Campbell and Hannah O’Neil remembered making smores over a campfire with Graham, a first for her, and her insistence on “bringing her own British chocolate because Hershey’s was not up to her standards.”
“She had a great wit – it could be snarky at times but that’s what we loved about her,” said her band teacher, Steve Rice, who shared stories about Graham’s love of Elvis songs and her lighthearted annoyance at playing pieces that featured the clarinet section over the saxophones.
Her parents, John and Sue Graham, thanked the community for the support they have given the family – thousands of people turned out to help in searches for Graham, and the family’s neighbourhood in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County for weeks was covered in yellow ribbons in hopes that she would come home safely.
“Hannah was always able to steal the show,” her father said. “We think she would have made important contributions to society in the years ahead.”
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