Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Morgan Harrington's death ruled a homicide
The medical examiner's office is not yet able to release information on how she was killed.
Courtesy of the Harrington family
The ruling ends speculation that Morgan Harrington died of exposure after wandering away from a concert.
Related
Timeline
Matt Chittum | The Roanoke Times
Ongoing coverage
Morgan Harrington's death was a homicide, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond said Tuesday.
Harrington, 20, of Roanoke County disappeared from a Metallica concert in Charlottesville on Oct. 17. Her skeletal remains were found Jan. 26 in an Albemarle County hayfield nearly 10 miles south of where she was last seen.
The medical examiner's determination closes out speculation that she wandered away from Charlottesville and died of exposure on a chilly night.
A spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office said the office is not yet able to release information on how Harrington was killed.
Forensic experts say it could take weeks, or longer, to make that determination because of the decomposition of her body over the past three months. If, as her family believes, her body was left in the hayfield the night she disappeared, it has endured warm and cold weather, rain and snow storms and possibly the activity of animals and insects.
All of those factors could "make it a lot more difficult to determine the cause and manner of death," said Emil Moldovan, an adjunct instructor of criminal justice at Radford University and former death investigator in the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office.
For instance, Moldovan said, if Harrington were bludgeoned or shot to death, that might be readily apparent to examiners, but if she were strangled, there would be little evidence outside the possible fracture of the tiny hyoid bone in the neck. The skeletal and tissue remains also might not show any sign of a stabbing.
The announcement from the medical examiner's office comes as Harrington's family prepares to memorialize her Friday with a 3:30 p.m. Mass at St. Andrew's Catholic Church in Roanoke. The family plans a public reception afterward at the Hotel Roanoke.
