1.26.2010

State Police Confirm: Body Found In Albemarle
Posted: Jan 26, 2010 10:09 AM EST
Updated: Jan 26, 2010 1:31 PM EST

Body Found In Albemarle County

Anchorage FarmVirginia State Police confirm that a partially skeletonized body has been found on an Albemarle County farm and that forensic teams are on the scene. Police have blocked off access to Anchorage Farm off of Route 29 in southern Albemarle County.

State Police crime scene technicians arrived at Anchorage Farm and are searching for evidence using a grid mapping technique.

NBC29 has been told unofficially that the body appears to be that of a young woman with long blonde hair.

Albemarle County Commonwealth's Attorney Denise Lunsford has also arrived at the crime scene as has the lead Virginia State Police investigator in the Morgan Harrington case, Lt. Joe Rader.

Dan Harrington tells NBC29 he and his wife Gil are on their way to Albemarle County to identify the body found this morning and says it is likely their daughter Morgan, who went missing 101 days ago in Charlottesville.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond has not yet been notified of the body in Albemarle. A spokesman said the remains would definitely be brought to Richmond for autopsy after investigators process the scene.

Count on us to bring you all the latest updates as they become available in this developing story.
 

Body found on Albemarle Co. farm; no link yet to Morgan Harrington disappearance
By Rex Bowman | The Roanoke Times

Virginia Department of Historic Resources

Police are currently scrutinizing the skeletal remains of a body found on Anchorage Farm in southern Albemarle County. The farm is located about 10 miles southwest of the University of Virginia campus, where missing Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington was last seen.
 

View Body found on Albemarle Co. farm in a larger mapVirginia State Police and Albemarle County police are currently scrutinizing the skeletal remains of a body found on an Albemarle County farm.

State Police said they would release further information "if anything should develop concerning this scene and the disappearance of Morgan Harrington."

A 5 p.m. press conference is scheduled at the Virginia State Police office in Charlottesville.

David H. Bass is the owner of Anchorage Farm, the property where the body was found. He said he found the body this morning at 8:30 a.m., and that authorities have asked him not to speak to the media.

The farm is located about 10 miles southwest of the University of Virginia campus, where Harrington was last seen.

Harrington, 20, of Roanoke County, disappeared from a Metallica concert in Charlottesville on Oct. 17. Charlottesville is located within Albemarle.

Harrington’s parents on way to scene of found remains
MGNS report
Published: January 26, 2010


The parents of Morgan D. Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student missing since October, have been called to a farm off U.S. 29 south of Charlottesville, where police are investigating the discovery of skeletal remains.

Monica Caison, of the CUE Center for Missing Persons in North Carolina, said police have notified the Harringtons of the discovery and that the Roanoke couple is on the way to the site.
CUE was slated to start searching for Harrington, having been asked to assist in the case by her parents.

“I’ve talked to the Harringtons and they are on the way,” Caison said. “That area south of town is an area we were looking to search.”

A resident of Anchorage Farms, a 700-plus-acre tract of pasture and woods about fives miles south of Interstate 64 on the west side of U.S. 29, notified Albemarle County police this morning that he had found skeletal remains. County police later notified the Virginia State Police and turned the investigation over to the detectives heading the Harrington investigation.

The state police have been leading the investigation into the woman’s disappearance from a rock concert at the John Paul Jones Arena.

State and county police have scheduled a press conference at 5 p.m. today to discuss the discovery.