Jesse Matthew's first-degree murder charge in the abduction and killing of Hannah Graham was upgraded to capital murder, meaning a conviction can lead to the death penalty.

According to the Washington Post, homicide cases in Virginia are eligible to be punishable by death if the allegations include circumstances such as abduction and sexual assault, both of which apply to this case. Matthew, 33, was initially charged with abduction with the intent to defile and then with first-degree murder.

Graham, an 18-year-old student at the University of Virginia (UVA), went missing early in the morning on Sept. 13, 2014 and her body was found weeks later.

Denise Y. Lunsford, the commonwealth's attorney in Albemarle County, told the Post she only sought the capital murder charge after talking to the Graham family, considering the public ramifications and lab analysis of evidence.

"The commonwealth received some additional information in late February that led to this increased charge," NBC News quoted her telling reporters after the hearing. "If I didn't believe that this case were worthy of a capital charge, I wouldn't believe that Mr. Matthew were someone that would be appropriate for this ultimate penalty."

Though the crime lab concluded Graham died of "homicidal violence," but authorities still do not know the precise cause of death, the Associated Press noted.

Matthew fled Charlottesville when the police named him as a person of interest and was ultimately arrested in Texas. Police also connected him to the 2009 disappearance of Morgan Harrington, a 20-year-old student at Virginia Tech who was in Charlottesville for a concert when she went missing.

Graham's body was found some 10 miles from UVA's campus, but also six miles from where police found Harrington's.

"As long as we're alive, we will bear this grief and this burden," Morgan Harrington's mother, Gil, told the AP Tuesday after the hearing. "You want to ask why, but there's no answer for that."

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