Parents of Murdered Metallica Fan Morgan Harrington Speak, Seek Justice

The discovery earlier this week of the remains of Morgan Harrington, the 20-year-old Virginia Tech student who disappeared from a Metallica concert back in mid-October, saddened hundreds of thousands across the U.S. But the find, in a remote hayfield just 10 miles south of where she was last seen, has devastated the girl's parents, Dan and Gil Harrington.

For three harrowing months, they had no idea what happened to their daughter, yet consistently displayed grace and strength in public while imploring anyone with information about Morgan's whereabouts to come forward. Now that the Harringtons have found closure, they're talking about the tragic conclusion to their exhaustive search.

As investigators and forensic experts work to bring justice to Morgan, the Harringtons appeared on Friday's 'Today Show,' and spoke candidly about their loss. Morgan vanished from an Oct. 17 Metallica concert, after being separated from her friends.

"This has been a horrific three months," Daniel Harrington explained. "And this is not the end that we wanted, but closure is really important. There is some peace we have at this point. We are very sad, and obviously we would love for our daughter to be alive. But closure is very important."

"It has been like a wound," Morgan's mother Gil Harrington said, who graphically described looking into her daughter's "empty eye sockets" when police called her to the scene where the body was found Tuesday. "A huge wound. But until this point, it had been a festering wound that could not heal. You know, we still have healing to do, but it's possible, because having recovered our daughter's body gives us peace. I know no one is hurting her now, that she is beyond pain."

Gil added that, while her husband desires justice and punishment for Morgan's killers, she just wants those responsible caught, so that other women won't meet with a similar fate.

In an interview with the Roanoke Times, the Harringtons claim they believe their daughter was killed the night she disappeared, and that for the first time since she went missing, Gil is not imagining her daughter as a captive, held against her will by her brutal captors. "I'm not thinking every minute, 'What is he doing to my daughter right now? What is she having to endure right now?'"

Forensic experts have still not pinned down the cause and time of Morgan's death, but police have led the Harringtons to believe their daughter did not suffer, and that her death came swiftly. "We are very happy to know that Morgan very likely did not live through the time of the concert," Gil Harrington said. "She was a long time in that field. I'm happy to know she was not alive long enduring unspeakable things."

The Harringtons are planning a public memorial for their daughter. Dan Harrington says the family will not rest "until that person is brought to justice." While he hoped "to find Morgan alive," at least "now we have some peace and some closure."