— A former police bloodhound handler testified Monday that a dog found traces of scent from University of Virginia student Hannah Graham at the apartment and in the car belonging to a Charlottesville man charged with killing her.

Former Louisa County Sheriff’s Office detective Buck Garner testified in Albemarle County that Graham’s scent was present at the apartment and in a coupe owned by Jesse L. Matthew Jr., and that the dog found Graham’s scent at an industrial site about a mile from downtown Charlottesville. It’s possible that she was violently attacked at the site.

Matthew faces the possibility of the death penalty on charges related to Graham’s disappearance and death in September 2014. The court appearance on Monday included testimony from Garner and the lead Charlottesville police detective on the case. The proceedings also marked the first appearance for newly elected prosecutor Robert N. Tracci, who defeated two-term incumbent Denise Lunsford in the November election for Albemarle commonwealth’s attorney.

In lengthy testimony during a pretrial hearing, Garner discussed his role in the early days of the Graham investigation working with his “partner,” a 7-year-old bloodhound named Shaker.

Garner, who has nearly three decades of experience as a K-9 handler, described following Shaker as the dog traced Graham’s scent to Charlottesville’s downtown, where she was last seen. After Graham disappeared in the early morning hours of Sept. 13, 2014, video footage emerged that showed the 18-year-old sophomore walking that night alongside Matthew. Her body was found six weeks later on an abandoned property in Albemarle about 12 miles from the U-Va. campus.

Garner testified that Shaker at one point traced a long route east from the downtown mall to an industrial site known as Woolen Mills, about 1 1/ 2 miles away. Once Garner and Shaker arrived at the scene, he said, the dog alerted Garner that he smelled a strong scent from Graham indicating “fear and adrenaline.” Garner testified that the dog’s behavior indicated that Graham may have been attacked near a mulch pile at the site.

During a subsequent search, Garner said that Shaker detected Graham’s scent on the passenger door of Matthew’s vehicle, in the doorway to his residence and near a dumpster at his apartment complex. Garner said that the dog did not find Graham’s scent near other apartments. Garner, who left his Louisa post in December 2015, also testified that the dog only found Graham’s scent and not necessarily evidence that Graham had been walking near Matthew’s apartment.

During the hearings on Monday, Tracci, a former special assistant U.S. attorney in Charlottesville, sat as an observer and spoke only once. A Republican, Tracci defeated Democratic incumbent Lunsford with 51 percent of the vote.

[Jesse L. Matthew Jr. to face capital murder charges in Graham case]

Lunsford had led the Albemarle prosecutor’s office since 2008, and no case had attracted as much attention during her tenure as Matthew’s.

At the end of a nationwide manhunt, Matthew was apprehended on a beach in Texas and was brought back to Charlottesville. Then, citing new evidence, Lunsford announced in May that Matthew’s initial charges of abduction and first-degree murder were upgraded to capital murder. The new charges came two weeks after Lunsford declared her candidacy for reelection and altered the direction of the case.

Lunsford came under additional scrutiny last summer after an Albemarle judge vacated an abduction conviction in a case Lunsford handled, allowing Mark Weiner to be freed from jail. Weiner had been convicted of abducting a young Charlottesville-area woman in 2012. But the case, which hinged on the woman’s testimony, crumbled after new evidence called her credibility into question.

[Conviction in abduction case is overturned]

Tracci takes over the case against Matthew after the 33-year-old was sentenced to life in prison, convicted on charges related to a vicious 2005 sex assault in Fairfax County. Matthew also is scheduled to be tried on charges related to the death of Morgan Harrington, a Virginia Tech student whose body was found in a field in 2010 after she disappeared during a concert in Charlottesville.