I’ve been following the case of missing Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington since she disappeared in mid-October of last year. Her family and Virginia State Police had been searching tirelessly for her for the past three months since she disappeared in Charlottesville after attending a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia. Today, Virginia State Police have confirmed that the human remains found on a farm southwest of Charlottesville have been conclusively identified as Morgan Harrington’s.
Here is the report from a local televisions news network in Southwest Virginia. (Coincidentally, the anchor is Jay Warren, who was my senior year Broadcast Writing teacher.)
Although I didn’t know Morgan, I have a few friends back at Tech who knew her, and the fact that a student from my alma mater had mysteriously gone missing alarmed me. Not to mention, the story has been all over the media since the weekend of her disappearance.
It’s interesting to me that despite the fact that over 2,500 missing persons reports are filed daily within this country and few of them receive any attention from the media, the disappearance of Morgan Harrington shot straight from local news to national news within 48 hours. Was her connection to Virginia Tech, the place that many Americans still associate with the largest mass school shooting in US history, a factor in the story exploding onto national news? I definitely think it was one of the largest factors that came into play. As much as it hurts myself and many other members of the Virginia Tech community to be reminded of it, the university has been indelibly branded as a site of a major school shooting and national tragedy. As we have seen in the past two and a half years, the slightest bit of negative news that sparks in relation to Virginia Tech or Blacksburg will somehow make it to national headlines.
Robert Thompson, one of the country’s most-respected media experts told The Roanoke Times, “Part of this is when you think ‘Virginia Tech,’ it carries certain sacred overtones to the country. Not only do you have a young college student in danger, but when you attach the words ‘Virginia Tech’ … Virginia Tech is one of those sets of words like ‘9/11’ and ‘Oklahoma City.’ It means more than just the college name. The whole country has strong sympathy and empathy for the university. It’s still recent in their minds, the last big national story to happen there.
Whatever the reason that Morgan’s story received national coverage, it doesn’t change the fact that those who knew her have suffered an unimaginable loss. My heart goes out to them; I can’t even fathom the pain that her family and friends are going through at this time. It’s been an emotionally taxing search for the last few months, with the Virginia State Police receiving over 600 leads. It’s a heartbreaking reality that oftentimes our wishes and prayers for a happy ending do not get rewarded, but at least Morgan can finally be laid to rest and the community can reach some semblance of closure, however sad it may be. There are still many unanswered questions, however, and the possibility of this case being a homicide is strong (as the State Police are investigating it as one). We can only hope that there will be answers soon, and that justice will be served.