Police: Missing Va. Tech student last seen on bridge

Morgan Harrington vanished during an Oct. 17 Metallica concert after leaving her friends to go to a restroom and somehow ending up outside the John Paul Jones Arena. Her purse and cellphone, minus its battery, were found in a small parking area the following day.

According to Lt. Joe Rader of the Virginia State Police, witnesses have helped investigators plot Harrington’s course from the arena south to the Copeley Road bridge.

According to witnesses:

8:20-8:30 p.m. A woman matching the description of Morgan Harrington is seen outside the John Paul Jones arena at an entrance near the ticket booths. She is also possibly spotted outside the arena on its south side, closest to University Hall.

8:30-8:48 p.m. She is seen still outside the arena by people “who interacted with her, who conversed with her or who observed her.”

8:48 p.m. Her friends call her from inside the arena. When she says she can’t re-enter, they suggest alternative entrances. She says she may get a ride home “from friends in Charlottesville.”

8:48-9 p.m. She is seen still outside the arena.

9:00-9:10 p.m. She is seen walking through the University Hall parking area. She still has her black purse. “No one can confirm that she was actually with someone, but she was around various people in that vicinity who were walking in the same direction,” Rader said.

9:10-9:20 p.m. She is seen in the Lannigan Field parking area adjacent to the track. She had “limited interaction” with the people who saw her.

9:20 p.m. People who encountered her in the area leave in their cars. There is “no indication that Morgan Harrington left with any of them,” Rader said.

9:20-9:30 p.m. According to witnesses who called police after Harrington’s disappearance, a woman matching her description was seen on the Copeley Road Bridge, which runs over railroad tracks. Copeley Road runs south along the west side of the arena to Ivy Road, a well-traveled thoroughfare.