 CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A former detective testified Monday that a police bloodhound detected traces of a slain University of Virginia student inside the apartment and on the car door of the man charged in her killing. He said the dog alerted him to a scent indicating "fear and adrenaline," suggesting that Graham may have been attacked near a mulch pile at the site. Matthew has been charged with capital murder in the September 2014 disappearance and death of 18-year-old University of Virginia student Hannah Graham, whose remains were found about five weeks after she disappeared. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Matthew also faces first-degree murder charges in the 2009 death of 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington. Matthew is serving a life prison term for a 2005 attempted murder and sexual assault in northern Virginia. He described following Shaker as the dog traced Graham's scent to Charlottesville's downtown, where she was last seen. Mooney also said one of the surveillance videos showed a car resembling Jesse Matthew's around the time Graham was wandering eastbound. Detective Gardner says the dog also found Graham's scent at Hessian Hills apartments, at the passenger side door of Matthew's car, the entrance to Matthew's building and at the door frame of his apartment. The defense filed a motion that the search warrants for Jesse Matthew's car and apartment shouldn't have been granted. Defense attorney Doug Ramseur unsuccessfully challenged the search warrant in court, arguing that the search dog's findings were inconsistent with witness accounts and video surveillance evidence, that detectives might have misled a magistrate to obtain the warrant and that there was not probable cause for police to conduct those searches.
– A former police bloodhound handler told a court on Monday that during the search for UVa student Hannah Graham, the animal detected her scent outside the car and apartment of suspect Jesse Matthew—and the scent of "fear and adrenaline" where she was allegedly attacked. The handler was testifying during a pretrial hearing where lawyers for Matthew, who is already serving three life terms in prison for a 2005 sexual assault, unsuccessfully challenged the search warrants police obtained for Matthew's home and vehicle, the AP reports. He said the 7-year-old dog, Shaker, traced Graham's scent from downtown Charlottesville to a mulch pile at an industrial site, where the smell of fear was strongest. Matthew, 33, faces a capital murder charge in the 2014 death of Graham, whose body was found on an abandoned property around six weeks after she disappeared. He has also been charged with the 2009 murder of a Virginia Tech student. At Monday's hearing, another police witness testified that, contrary to what the defense claimed, the scent trail was consistent with surveillance videos that showed Graham wandering around, reports WSET. The officer shared text message records indicating that she was lost the night she disappeared.The Washington Post notes that Matthew is seen walking alongside Graham in some of the surveillance videos.