Surveillance evidence crucial in Hannah Graham case
Susan Spencer is a "48 Hours" correspondent. She investigates the disappearance and death of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham during the "48 Hours" two-hour broadcast, "Hannah Graham: Deadly Connections," airing Saturday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Investigators in the Hannah Graham case have a powerful piece of evidence - surveillance video they say shows Jesse Matthew, the man accused of her murder, stalking her.
In fact, Graham was captured on five different cameras from the time she left her apartment until she showed up at a restaurant on Charlottesville's downtown pedestrian mall in the early morning hours of Sept. 13, 2014, the last place she was seen alive.
The tapes make a bizarre sequence. The first, in her apartment building, simply shows Hannah walking down the corridor, on a normal Friday night. In the next video, a few hours later, at 12:46 a.m., she is outside, walking past McGrady's pub. In this tape, she stumbles and may be disoriented. Police believe she was drinking that night.
Then, at 12:55 a.m., on a gas station camera, she is seen again - and this time, inexplicably, she is running.
Eleven minutes later, at 1:06 a.m., still alone and now walking again, she passes a pizza parlor on the downtown mall. This is the tape likely to be key in court.
In it, police say Jesse Matthew, unmistakable with his long dreadlocks, crosses from left to right. Then Hannah Graham is spotted going the opposite direction. Seconds later, police say Matthew is seen making a U-turn, crossing the mall to blend in with a small group of people, now following Hannah Graham.
Though it's hard to see, in an enhanced version of the final tape two minutes later, police identify the two walking together -- Matthew with his arm around Hannah Graham's waist.
These eerie images of Graham in the last hours of her life are undoubtedly the most compelling evidence in the case against Matthew.