ALBEMARLE COUNTY, Va. -- The discovery of human remains over the weekend has ended the search for missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham and police are now conducting a death investigation.
Meanwhile friends and family of both the victim and the suspect are reacting to the devastating news.
Just four short miles from the abandoned Albemarle County property, now lined with police tape and full of detectives investigating the discovery of human remains, sits the house Jesse Matthew Jr. and his mother once called home.
"She wanted to try to keep Jesse out of the city away from gang activity -- if there was any in the city. She was just trying to make it safe for her son," said neighbor Cliff Hunt.
Hunt said Matthew’s mother wanted the best for her son, who is now the prime suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, who was last seen Sept. 13 on Charlottesville's downtown pedestrian mall.
Five weeks of searching for the second year student may have ended Saturday when a Chesterfield County searcher came across human remains.
Meanwhile, residents at Hannah's Graham’s apartment complex were shaken with the reality that she might never walk these halls with them again.
"It's really scary because up until now you really didn't know exactly what happened to her,” Elisa Park said. “But now that it's confirmed, it's… really scary though that this happened so close to us and to someone like us."
Aleksandra Tolczyk, who also lives at the apartment complex, said is friends with many people who were close with Hannah.
“It's just been on everyone's mind for a really long time, but we're all glad to have some sort of closure about it,” Tolczyk said. “It's been really tough for the whole community."
While the ordeal has been hard on the tightknit Charlottesville community, it has also been inexpressibly difficult for Hannah Graham’s parents waiting for word if forensic testing will confirm their worst fears.
It has also been tough for Jesse Matthew's father, who through a friend told CBS 6 News that he is heartbroken for Hannah's family and his own, as they come to grips with mounting serious allegations against their son who so many thought they knew.
Cliff Hunt
"You gotta be neighbors -- and you never know what's inside of a person," Hunt said.
