Doug Stanglin

USA TODAY

Virginia State Police said Monday that a suspect charged in the disappearance of a University of Virginia sophomore is linked through forensic evidence to the abduction and murder of another college student five years ago.

Jesse Matthew Jr., 32, was arrested near Galveston, Texas, last week and charged with abduction with intent to defile in connection with the disappearance of Hannah Graham, 18, who is still missing.

Police confirmed Monday that forensic evidence links Matthew, a University of Virginia Hospital worker, to the disappearance and slaying of 20-year-old Morgan Harrington in October 2009.

Harrington, a Virginia Tech student from Roanoke, Va., was abducted and killed after leaving a Metallica concert in Charlottesville, Va.

Her remains were found in a hayfield on a farm in Albemarle County three months after her disappearance. The forensic evidence was collected at the site where the body was found, state police said in a statement.

Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Matthew's arrest "provided a significant break in this (Harrington) case with a new forensic link." The forensic evidence was not specified.

Harrington's father said the family was " just overwhelmed right now."

"We're relieved in one sense, but very sad in another as it's taken another tragedy to solve Morgan's case," he told NBC News.

Matthew's lawyer, James Camblos, had no comment.

Police also announced Monday that they were investigating whether Matthew is the man behind the September 2005 abduction and rape of a 26-year-old woman in Fairfax City, outside Washington, D.C. In July 2010, six months after Harrington's body was found, authorities announced that DNA evidence linked her killing to the man wanted for attacking the woman as she walked home from a grocery store.

The man was never caught, but the victim provided details for police sketches of her attacker.

In the Graham case, police say Matthews is believed to be the last person seen with her before she went missing early in the morning of Sept. 13.

Surveillance footage in a popular bar and restaurant area of downtown Charlottesville indicates that she had been wandering the area disoriented when she encountered Matthew.

A staff member at the Tempo restaurant told police that Matthew, who had been inside, left and joined Graham outside. The witness said Graham appeared to be leaning on Matthew for support, as if she were intoxicated.

Police treated Matthew as a person of interest early in the investigation, but he fled the state before they were ready to charge him. Charlottesville police had searched his car, and removed several items of clothing from his apartment.

Matthew was arrested Sept. 24 in Texas after police were alerted to a suspicious man camping on the beach on the Bolivar Peninsula.

He is being held without bond at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail. He is expected to make his first court appearance Thursday.

Police have not said whether they Matthew might also be connected to two disappearances in central Virginia in the past four years. Dashad Laquinn Smith, who was 19 and transgender, disappeared in Charlottesville in November 2012, and Samantha Anne Clarke, also 19, was last seen in Orange, Va., early Sept. 13, 2010.

Contributing: WVEC-TV, Hampton-Norfolk, Va.; Michael Winter, USA TODAY.