While state lawmakers were preparing this week to tackle the budget and Medicaid expansion, they also had an audience of two people who are trying to prevent tragedies like what happened to their daughter and other women in Virginia.
While Gil and Dan Harrington say they are hopeful that now-missing Hannah Graham is found alive and well, this is eerily similar to other cases of missing or abducted women.
Dan and Gil Harrington are raising awareness after the disappearance and murder of their daughter, Morgan. They were asked to speak to the state Crime Commission, which is studying the limited resources available to victims' families. They say the greatest hurdles are the inconsistencies among various local police departments—and what they don't tell families. They say predators can elude police—because of both limited resources and also the public's lack of awareness while these killers hide in plain sight.
They also say the Charlottesville area seems to have the highest number of cases statewide where women have disappeared or have been targets of sexual predators.
Those events include the now-solved serial rapist case, and the disappearance of Morgan Harrington, Hannah Graham, and at least two other women within five years—along with nearby Nelson County teen Alexis Murphy, who vanished.
