Michael Boone, a Northern Virginia detective who helped solve the Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington murders in Charlottesville, and the murder of Bethany Decker in Loudoun County has died of cancer, his daughter Courtney told WTOP. Boone was 68.
A major turning point in solving Graham’s 2014 killing and Harrington’s 2009 death came as Boone — then a City of Fairfax police detective — was investigating the long-unsolved 2005 brutal attack of a woman in Fairfax.
After Jesse Leroy Matthew was arrested in connection with Graham’s disappearance, Boone noticed his physical resemblance to a police sketch provided by the victim in the Fairfax case, who was attacked as she walked home with arms full of groceries.
Boone got a DNA swab from Matthew, which matched DNA found under the fingernail of the Fairfax victim, who had scratched and fought her attacker.
In 2015, Boone testified at Matthew’s trial for the Fairfax attack. Matthew was found guilty, and received three life terms.
In March 2016, Matthew pleaded guilty in Albemarle County Circuit Court to killing Graham and Harrington, and received four life sentences.
“Mike was an old-school detective and a dogged truth-seeker,” former Fairfax County prosecutor Ray Morrogh said, reflecting on Boone’s role in the Fairfax case.
“He stayed in touch with our victim, who had returned to Asia after the attack, for a decade until the killer’s identity emerged,” said Morrogh. “And when our victim told us she was unwilling to come back to the U.S. to testify for fear of repercussions in her village, he agreed to travel with me to Asia to try to convince her to testify for the sake of other women.”
The woman, who was identified in court by the initials R.G., took the stand, and recounted both the pain of the 2005 attack, as well as her pain in 2015 having her family learn that Matthew also attempted to rape her.
“Ultimately, she came and testified, in large part, I believe due to the trust Detective Boone had built with her over the many years the case languished,” Morrogh said. “He was a quiet hero.”
Detective Michael Boone, instrumental in solving Hannah Graham/Morgan Harrington murders by IDing Jesse Matthew now involved in investigation of Bethany Decker murder. https://t.co/K3N3CY24ni
— Neal Augenstein (@AugensteinWTOP) March 20, 2019
In 2019, Boone joined the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation into the 2011 disappearance of 21-year-old Bethany Decker, who was five months pregnant when last seen by her live-in boyfriend in their Ashburn apartment.
“Suspicious activity was also later reported on Bethany’s Facebook account by her mother and some of Bethany’s friends,” according to a search warrant signed by Boone, in 2019.
In February 2023, Ronald Roldan was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder for the abduction and death of Decker.
In a statement, Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman said: “Detective Boone leaves a legacy of hard work and persistence in bringing criminals to justice, and Loudoun County was fortunate to have him on our team investigating the Bethany Decker case and many others. He enriched many lives, personally and professionally, and we will miss him.”
Boone’s daughter, Courtney Boone Douglas, said her father was born in Macon, Georgia, and went to high school at Robinson High School in Northern Virginia, before beginning his more than 30-year career in law enforcement.
Douglas said a celebration of her father’s life is being planned.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story misstated the year Jesse Matthew pleaded guilty to killing Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington. The story has been updated.
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