State police are confident remains are Morgan Harrington On January - 26

UPDATED: State police are confident remains are Morgan Harrington On January - 26 - 20107 COMMENTS

State police say they are “fairly confident” skeletal remains found this morning are 20-year old Morgan Harrington. In a news conference late Tuesday afternoon, State Police Superintendent Steven Flaherty delivered the news with what he described as “a heavy heart.” The skeletal remains were found in a hayfield on the Anchorage Farm in Albemarle County this morning. State police say they are “confident” the remains are hers, but have sent the body to the medical examiner in Richmond for further tests and autopsy. A farmer found the body Tuesday morning while he was driving a tractor in his field. While State Police did not name the landowner, News7 has confirmed that the farmer, Dave Bass, found her body along a fence line. Bass said the body was very badly decomposed. Bass said he first thought it was a deer, until he got closer and realized they were human remains. The body was sent to the medical examiner for further testing, but investigators say significant items found at the scene lead them to be fairly certain the body is the 20-year-old Virginia Tech student who went missing during a Metallica concert last October in Charlottesville. Investigators say they can’t release details about the items found, but believe the scientific evidence will confirm with certainty that the body is Harrington’s. State police said the body was found in a very remote area of the farm without easy access to the location. They say the area can only be reached by tractor or 4-wheel drive vehicle and there is no public access to the field. Reporters were not permitted to visit the crime scene.State police are treating Harrington’s disappearance as a homicide. Lt. Joe Rader says the case now moved to a new level. Rader says he doesn’t see this event as a warning to residents of Charlotteville or for students at the University of Virginia. Rader says Harrington’s parents, Dan and Gil Harrington, are in Charlottesville and were briefed by state police. Harrington was an education major at Virginia Tech. As the news conference was underway, Virginia Tech president Charles Steger issued a letter to the Virginia Tech community saying that “we find our strength and resilience tested in the face of profound grief and loss.” He urged students and faculty to take advantage of campus counseling services as needed. – Video: http://www.wdbj7.com/global/Category…&partnerclipid= News http://voices.washingtonpost.com/crime-scene/maria-glod/a-missing-daughter-her-parents.html