Parents urge student’s return

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- The parents of a missing Virginia Tech student urged their daughter to come home.

"If Morgan is out there and can hear this, please come home," Dan Harrington, father of missing 20-year-old Morgan Dana Harrington of Roanoke County, pleaded at a news conference in Charlottesville yesterday.

Harrington was last seen about 8:40 p.m. Saturday at the Metallica concert at the University of Virginia's John Paul Jones Arena.

During the concert, Harrington was separated from her friends and has not been seen since. Her parents reported her missing the following afternoon.

It is unusual that Harrington, a Virginia Tech junior majoring in education, would disappear in such a fashion, her mother said.

Gil Harrington said, "This is a girl who calls home almost every day and asks things like, 'How do you make macaroni and cheese?' And I tell her to read the box."

At the news conference, held at U.Va. police headquarters, Virginia State Police Lt. Joe Rader said investigators are treating the situation as a missing-person case. "We have no evidence that a crime has been committed," Rader said.

Anyone with information regarding Harrington is asked to call Virginia State Police at (434) 352-3435 or e-mail . U.Va. police can be reached at (434) 924-7166.

Brian McNeill is a staff writer at The Daily Progress in Charlottesville.