Nelson County, Va. – Alexis Murphy’s aunt said parts of a letter sent by Randy Taylor’s attorney asking investigators to check for a potential link between Hannah Graham abduction suspect Jesse Matthew Jr. and the missing Nelson County teen offended her and her family. That’s according to a report from WTVR.
Taylor was convicted earlier this year of kidnapping and killing 17-year-old Alexis Murphy. Her body has not been found.
Taylor’s attorney, Michael Hallahan, asked Nelson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Andrew Martin to order additional DNA testing to see if Matthew, the man accused of abducting missing UVa. student Hannah Graham, has any link to Murphy’s case.
“There’s no reason for us to think that anyone else was involved,” Trina Murphy said.
Since Matthew’s arrest, he has been forensically linked to the disappearance of Morgan Harrington. Harrington was the Virginia Tech student who vanished in 2009. Her remains were found 101 days after she was last seen at a Metallica concert, at the University of Virginia, on Oct. 17, 2009.
Martin maintains that there is no credible evidence linking Matthew to Murphy’s abduction. Regardless, he said he will order scientific testing to rule out any speculation, WTVR reports.
“I don’t think that the DNA testing will come back to show that Jesse Matthew’s DNA was in the car,” Trina Murphy said.
She said that parts of the letter written from Hallahan to Martin were offensive. In it, Hallahan wrote that Alexis’ friends testified she liked older men.
“When you’re 17 years old, older men to you are 18, 19, 21, not 32,” said Murphy.
The letter also stated that Randy Taylor never gave the location of Alexis’ body.
“That’s a below the belt hit,” said Trina Murphy. “It really is, it’s very difficult for us as a family to know that Alexis is most likely not with us anymore; but not have closure, not have her body, not being able to go to a place where we’ve laid her to rest.”
Trina said the focus now needs to remain on the search for Hannah.
“We need to find her and we need to bring her home,” Murphy said. She said that both Taylor and Matthew are behind bars, but the search is on for Graham.
She added that said she will continue to have hope for Hannah, and pray for her family.
Read the full story from WTVR, HERE.
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