Taylor Behl

[Sher]

Missing from: Richmond Virginia since September 5, 2005.
Taylor is a Virginia Commonwealth University Student. She was last seen with three unknown white males at her VCU dorm on September 5th at about 9 PM. She stated to her roommates that she would return within three hours.

Taylor is a white female, 5'06" 125 pounds with brown hair. She was last seen wearing blue jeans and a black hooded top.

Taylor's car is also missing. The car is a 1997 white Ford Escort with VA license JPC-2848

Anyone with information is asked to call the Virginia Commonwealth University Police, Campus Dispatcher at 804-828-1196, 1-800-THE-LOST (NCMEC) or 703-918-6337 to leave a message (family phone).

codeamber.net/

[Sher]

Taylor Marie Behl, a 17-year-old freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University, is still missing after last being seen on Sept. 5, according to Colonel Willie B. Fuller, the VCU chief of police.

The VCU student was first reported missing on Sept. 7 around 1:35 a.m. Her roommate, who was with her boyfriend at the time, saw her last on Sept. 5 around 10:20 p.m. in their dorm room. Behl had just returned from dinner at the Village Café, located on the corner of Harrison and Grace streets. She left shortly after that with just her car keys and a credit card.

The Vienna, Va. native is 5-feet-6-inches tall and weighs 135 pounds. She was wearing blue jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt at the time of her disappearance. Her car, a white 1997 Ford Escort with the license plate number JPC-2848, is also missing.

The VCU Police Department is treating the case as a "missing person" case. Fuller said VCU Police had received a number of leads, but none of them had come to anything as of yet. The Richmond Police Department and the Richmond office of the FBI are assisting VCU Police with the investigation.

"We have accessed every regional and state police resource," Fuller told reporters at a press conference on Sept. 12.

"At this point she could be anywhere," he later added. "We don't have any reason to say she's in Richmond, or not in Richmond."

Behl had not made any charges on her credit card since disappearing, nor had she placed any calls on her cell phone, according to Fuller.

An internet network devoted to locating Behl has been set up by family and friends. The VCU Police Department has been in close contact with Behl's parents throughout the past week.

Fuller said there were currently no persons of interest in the case.

Reuban Rodriguez, associate vice provost and dean of students at VCU, said Behl's disappearance was not the result of an unsafe campus.

Fuller agreed with Rodriguez that VCU was a safe school. "In my experience at this university, which goes back 27 years, we have not had a student go missing to this extent," he said. "So I would consider this something out of the ordinary."

Fuller said incoming freshman at VCU receive a safety seminar during orientation. "We always educate our students about the inner-city environment," he said.

Behl had been entered into the National Crime Alert Network, Fuller said.

The VCU Police Department offers the following safety tips for students walking on campus:


Never walk alone or isolate yourself.


Use well-lit and well-traveled routes. Avoid dark areas and be alert to what and who is around you.


Avoid flashing large amounts of cash or valuables.


Know the locations of the Emergency Response Telephone System (ERTS) boxes throughout both campuses.


Use the VCU Escort Service. Dial 828-Walk, or use an ERTS.

Counseling services are available to VCU students who are experiencing increased anxiety as a result of Behl's disappearance.


www.richmond.com/news/output.aspx?Article_ID=3881910

please click the link for photo

[Sher]

Richmond police say 38-year-old photographer is a "person of interest" in the disappearance of 17-year-old Taylor Behl. Ben Fawley is reported to have had a romantic relationship with the missing VCU freshman.

According to a search warrant obtained by News 7, police seized seven computers, along with several boxes of CD's and some hard drives from Fawley's home. The warrant states it was filed on a suspicion that Frawley possessed child pornography.

Fawley is one of the last people known to see the Taylor Behl alive the night she disappeared.

[Sher]

A 38-year-old amateur photographer -- one of the last people to see missing Virginia Commonwealth University student Taylor Behl -- filed a report with police claiming he had been abducted and robbed just hours after Behl was last seen on the night of Sept. 5.

The photographer told Richmond police that he was walking in an alley near Franklin Street and Monument Avenue at 5 a.m. Sept. 6 when he was "robbed by an unknown number of people," according to a Richmond Police Department incident report obtained last night by The Times-Dispatch.

The photographer told police that he was hit in the stomach by "an unknown object" before being pushed down and having a bag placed over his head. "He was then put into a vehicle and driven to an unknown location and pushed out of the vehicle onto a dirt road," according to the report.

The photographer was "unable to provide any details as to the location where he was pushed out of the vehicle," according to the report, which goes on to state that the photographer needed medication for a bipolar disorder and had been drinking before the alleged attack.

Last night, the photographer's attorney, Chris Collins, said the attack has "nothing to do with the other matter" involving Behl's disappearance. Collins had earlier confirmed that the photographer is bipolar and had a relationship with Behl. The Times-Dispatch has not published the photographer's name because he has not been charged with a crime.

He said his client does not know who is involved in the attack. "But he [the photographer] suspects that it involved an acquaintance with whom he was in an argument with over the rights" to some photographs.

According to the police report, the photographer told police he had been involved in a similar incident last year in which he was attacked outside his home and that he believed the two events were related. He told police that a camera and tripod valued at $375 was stolen, as well as $20.

The photographer told police that after he was attacked, he was rescued at 6 a.m. by an unknown man who gave him a ride back to his home off Broad Street near the VCU campus.

He filed the police report at 4:42 p.m., nearly 11 hours after the attack. Police sources close to the investigation said a roommate of the photographer told him to file the report when she saw him return to the apartment about 1 p.m. Sept. 6.

Behl was last seen in her dormitory by her roommate at 10:20 p.m. Sept. 5. According to police, the roommate said Behl had told her she was going to go skateboarding with a few friends and left with her car keys, student identification, cell phone and a small amount of cash.

Collins, the photographer's lawyer, said his client told police that he had last seen Behl at 9:30 p.m. that night. Collins said the issue of the attack came up when police questioned his client but was "quickly brushed aside."

In the last 10 days, Richmond police have executed numerous search warrants at the homes of Behl's friends and acquaintances who may have seen her within a day or two of her disappearance.

A warrant filed in court on Tuesday to search the photographer's home stated that police were seeking "all computer media" in relation to the possible offense of possession of child pornography.

Court documents also revealed the Monday arrest of a Richmond man on drug-possession charges. Police believe that man's scent was detected by a bloodhound brought in to sniff Behl's Ford Escort, according to sources close to the investigation.

The 1997 Escort was discovered Saturday on North Mulberry Street in the Fan, several blocks from the Sheppard Street apartment of the arrested man. The man, who was interviewed by police, told Times-Dispatch columnist Mark Holmberg that he told police he did not know Behl and had not been in her car.


Investigative sources said the Sheppard Street man is a skateboarding friend of another acquaintance of Behl's. The acquaintance's Nissan Altima was impounded by police for investigation this week. Police also interviewed him.

Police spokeswoman Kirsten Nelson said investigators are interested in the Nissan because Behl is believed to have been in it before her disappearance.

"Right now, it's a very small piece of a very big puzzle," Nelson said.

Yesterday, Behl's possessions in her dormitory room at Virginia Commonwealth University were packed into black trash bags and boxes and carted away.

Books, clothes, computer equipment, music, posters and a plain brown teddy bear -- the inventory of a college student's life -- fit easily in the back of the sport utility vehicle that Behl's family lawyer and her uncle parked on Main Street outside VCU's Gladding Residence Center yesterday afternoon.

"This would have been too hard for [Taylor's mother]," said the lawyer, George O. Peterson, as he deposited another box into the back of the car.

"When Taylor comes home, she's not coming back to VCU," said Peterson, who yesterday announced the family had posted an $11,000 reward for the tip that finds the missing freshman.

The lawyer said Behl's mother, Janet Pelasara, was disappointed with how university police handled the case of the missing 17-year-old from Vienna who arrived on campus Aug. 19.

The attorney said the family felt the university had held onto the leadership role in the case "when it was beyond its capabilities." The Richmond Police Department took over as the lead agency in the case on Sept. 12.

Dr. Reuban Rodriguez, VCU dean of student affairs, said University Police "used all of their full resources available" from the day Behl was reported missing and also involved the same federal, state and local police agencies in the search that are now part of the Richmond police-led task force running the criminal investigation of her disappearance.

"We did everything that was available to us," Rodriguez said.

[Sher]

If there's any doubt about the intensity of the hurricanelike search for missing VCU student Taylor Behl, just take a quick look at one of the homes -- and families -- swept into the epicenter.

It began late Saturday, when Chess, a flop-eared bloodhound from Louisa County, woofed at a home on North Sheppard Street in the Museum District.

Chess was trying to follow a scent from Behl's Ford Escort, which had recently been found three blocks east, on Mulberry Street in the Fan District. It was the first tangible break in the nationally watched case since the 17-year-old freshman disappeared two weeks ago.

The couple living at the Sheppard Street address didn't come home for a couple of hours about 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

They said they were greeted by a score of plainclothes police officers.

"They were apologizing for coming so late," said the husband. (The family members asked not to be identified by name.) "I said, 'No need for apologizing. We're on your side.'"

His wife recalled telling the officers: "'You're welcome to go all through the house.' . . . I opened up everything."

The couple had heard about the missing student. They wanted to help, even though they wondered whether Chess might have been attracted by the scent of their dogs.

The husband and wife were "very cooperative," said Lt. John Venuti, head of the Richmond police detective division.

Investigators asked them if anyone else had been to their home recently.

"The only other person who visited in the past 24 hours was our nephew," the wife remembered saying.

The nephew, who lives several blocks from where the car was found, had left one of his restaurant work shirts at the house.

Investigators wanted to take the shirt. The couple agreed.

The Richmond officers went right down the street to the nephew's apartment, but he was at a party and didn't come home until later.

His aunt told him what was going on later that morning, and the nephew called one of the detectives about 9 a.m.

The nephew said Detective Mark Williams asked to meet him at the corner of Kensington Avenue and the Boulevard. "I need you to come with me," the nephew recalled being told once he met Williams.

He was questioned about the case for several hours -- he said he knew nothing of Behl or her car -- and was dropped off back at the corner.

Meanwhile, other Richmond officers were arresting one of the nephew's former roommates on an unrelated, out-of-state warrant, based on a tip.

Later Sunday, in the evening, the nephew was picked up again for questioning while officers searched his apartment.

Dozens of items were taken, according to the search-warrant affidavit, including videotapes, sheets, beer bottles, cigarette butts, gloves, film and a shaving kit.

"They cleaned my room," the nephew said sardonically.

Meanwhile, he voluntarily took a polygraph test.

"I haven't done anything," he explained when asked why he agreed to take the test. "I'll do anything they want me to do."

Afterward, "they told me I failed two questions on the polygraph -- did I know the girl, had I been in the car."

The nephew said he knew then they were sweating him. He was thinking, "I don't know the girl . . . [and] they hadn't asked for an alibi."

"They were telling me they knew I did it," he recalled.

That irked him. He remembers saying, "You all are just [messing] with me right now because you don't have anything else."

He wasn't dropped off until well after midnight. He went to his mom's apartment in the Fan.




The police came back Monday evening, this time arresting the nephew and charging him with possession of cocaine. Investigators searching the apartment he shares with other young people allegedly had found a razor blade with cocaine residue on it.

About that same time, the Sheppard Street couple came home from work to find that someone had kicked in their basement door and had apparently rummaged through some of their belongings, opening and partly emptying a steamer trunk.

They told me they believe the police did it while fishing for evidence in a high-profile, high-pressure case.

They asked me to meet them at their home late Monday night after the nephew was released on a $3,000 bond -- to discuss their discomfort about the way police were proceeding.

"I don't see any difference between this and Stalinist Russia," the husband said.

"I truly understand why police have a hard time getting people to talk to them," the wife said.

Her sister, the nephew's mom, said she understands a break is desperately needed in the case.

"I'm so sorry for the young lady and her family," the mom said. "But [her son] doesn't need to be persecuted because he doesn't have the answers they want."

She left after making that comment. When she got to her apartment about 11:30 p.m., she found someone had broken in and gone through her belongings.

The family was sure the police had struck again.

All this in the 48 hours since Chess came sniffing.

It was just too much. The family felt like howling.

Roughly two hours later, about 2 a.m. yesterday, Venuti and another officer went to the Sheppard Street home to address the family's concerns.

"The reason I went over there was to explain to them we had nothing to do with [the break-in]," Venuti said yesterday afternoon.

Not only would they not do something like that -- it wouldn't make any sense, because any evidence gathered in such a way wouldn't be admissible in court.

The Sheppard Street break-in is being investigated as a burglary, Venuti said. The nephew's mom filed a police report last night.

Venuti didn't comment about the timing of apparent break-ins involving people on the periphery of an intense police investigation.

The wife said police told them there's a chance a private detective might be doing some kind of free-lance investigation.

Venuti said Richmond police are in firm control of what he described as an "intense, focused investigation." No corners are being cut, he said. "That comes before everything else.

"We are going to be as aggressive as we possibly can with the case," he added. "When you're aggressive, things happen."

[Sher]

The search continues for missing VCU freshman Taylor Behl. Today's Richmond Times Dispatch is uncovering new details about the man Richmond Police are calling a person of interest in the case.

According to the article, the 38-year-old amateur photographer being questioned by investigators filed a police report claiming he had been abducted and robbed while walking in an alley in the Fan the same night Behl was last seen. He was later driven to an unknown location and pushed out onto a dirt road.

The paper is not publishing the photographer's name, however 8News has identified the man as Ben Fawley. Fawley's attorney says the attack has nothing to do with the Behl case.

Taylor Behl's mother, Janet Pelasara, is offering an $11,000 reward for information that helps find Taylor. If you'd like to contribute to the reward fund, you can send a check or money order to the address below:

Reward Fund Taylor Behl
Friends of Taylor
C/O Johnson & Scarborough, CPAs
2571 Chain Bridge Rd.
Vienna, VA 22182

[Sher]

Officials Investigating Missing Va. Teen Find Remains
Behl Last Seen Sept. 5

POSTED: 3:04 pm EDT October 5, 2005
UPDATED: 12:33 am EDT October 6, 2005

DIGGS, Va. -- Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe confirmed Wednesday that a body was found in rural Mathews County, but he would not say whether it is missing Virginia Commonwealth University student Taylor Behl.

Numerous law enforcement officials arrived Wednesday afternoon at the scene in Diggs, including the task force investigating Behl's disappearance. Police gathered in a field that is just off of a farm road, News4's Pat Collins reported.

"At this time, we do not, I repeat, we do not know who the remains belong to," Monroe said at a news conference outside the Mathews County sheriff's office.

Monroe said investigators from VCU discovered the location of the body, FBI investigators were collecting evidence from a large crime scene and state police would investigate the discovery of the remains.

The remains were discovered in a shallow grave in a heavily wooded area on private property in the county, about 75 miles east of Richmond.

According to police, their investigation included several searches, and in one of those searches, some pictures were seized, including a picture of the general area where the human remains were found. Police said one of the witnesses they spoke to recognized the area in the photograph.

Behl's friends at a local music club said they were asked not to comment on the latest developments in the case, but said they have been doing everything they could to find her, including an Internet search.

The search turned up a Web page entitled, "Deviant Art," which contains pictures from Fawley, News4 reported. On the Web page are photos of a farmhouse that is approximately the same age and architectural style as the building on the property where the remains were found. One picture contains the caption, "I saw this on May 15 with someone special."

Items that were seized from Fawley's apartment are still going through forensic tests, News4 reported.

The investigation into the 17-year-old Vienna girl's disappearance began with campus police. Richmond police and the FBI then joined in.

On Tuesday, sources told News4 that a grand jury was getting involved in the case.

The grand jury investigation will provide for interrogation by prosecutors, witness testimony under oath and penalties for those caught lying, News4 reported.





"The stakes are higher, and so you would think that the leads that come from a grand jury have more credibility than if it came simply from statements made to a police officer when somebody is not under penalty of perjury," said Steve Shannon, a Fairfax County prosecutor and member of the Virginia House of Delegates.

Behl's mother, Janet Pelasara, has returned to Vienna but says she is still apprised of the investigation. She had been staying in Richmond since her daughter disappeared. Monroe said officials called Pelasara as a courtesy when the body was discovered.

Behl was last seen in her dormitory at about 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 5. She took her cell phone, a small amount of cash, a student ID and her car keys. She told her roommate she would be back in a few hours.

The teen's car was found two weeks later, less than two miles from her dorm. Her license plates had been replaced with Ohio plates reported stolen several weeks before she disappeared.

A 38-year-old amateur photographer who was one of the last people to see Behl was questioned by police in her disappearance. Ben Fawley was arraigned last week on 16 counts of possession of child pornography and ordered held without bond.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mike Jagels said authorities have found at least 30 videos on Fawley's computers depicting children as young as 1 in sexual acts. Neither Behl nor Fawley appear in any of the videos, Jagels said, and Fawley has not been charged in Behl's case.

According to Fawley's attorney, the photographer had a romantic relationship with the teen, and Jagels said the two had sex on several occasions.

Behl is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 135 pounds. Police said she was last seen wearing blue jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt.

Behl graduated from James Madison High School in the spring. She had been at VCU for only two weeks before she disappeared, her mother said.

Anyone with information should call police at (877) 244-HELP or [phone].

www.nbc4.com/news/5061616/detail.html

[Sher]

It's Taylor.

Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe this afternoon confirmed that the human remains discovered yesterday in rural Mathews County are those of Taylor Marie Behl, the 17-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University student who had been missing since Sept. 5.

Monroe said identification of the badly decomposed remains was made through dental records provided to police by Behl's family.

The chief said further forensic tests will be needed before the medical examiner can determine the cause of Behl's death. He said he expects to file charges in the case, "but in the next three or four days, that's not going to happen."

"The scope of this investigation has narrowed significantly," said Monroe, speaking at a news conference held at the Mathews Sheriff's Office about 70 miles east of Richmond.

"Now it's a very targeted, focused investigation."

Responding to questions about Richmond amateur photographer Benjamin Fawley, Monroe for the first time said it was "not incorrect" to consider Fawley a suspect in Behl's death.

Fawley is currently in jail in Richmond on unrelated child pornography charges.

The chief also said that Jesse Schultz, a 22-year-old Richmonder arrested on drug possession charges after a police bloodhound allegedly detected his scent on Behl's abandoned car, is not considered a suspect at this time. Schultz has denied knowing Behl or having ever been in her car.

This afternoon, Schultz's lawyer, W. Joseph Owen III, said his client "has no idea why he was targeted. He is innocent of having anything at all to do with Taylor Behl's disappearance."

Owen also said Schultz "does not know Mr. Fawley. He has no relationship to Mr. Fawley."

Monroe confirmed that VCU detectives who located Behl's body were led to a farm in Mathews by Fawley's ex-girlfriend, whose family owns property adjacent to where the body was found.

The chief said that the girlfriend, whom he did not name, "has been someone we have spoken to for weeks." He said he did not know if the former girlfriend knew Behl.

Earlier in the day, Behl's mother told reporters from her home in Vienna that she believed the remains belonged to her daughter.

"I'm sure you can imagine the shock and horror I feel knowing that the body found is most likely my baby's," Janet Pelasara told reporters during a brief statement.

"My mind still cannot absorb the fact that someone could do something this cruel and heinous to my 17-year-old child," said Pelasara, appearing subdued and exhausted. "I am positive the authorities will bring these subhumans to justice, and I pray they receive the death penalty."

Behl's remains were found in a shallow grave in woods behind a barn on a private farm near the bayfront crossroads community of Diggs, about 70 miles from Richmond.

Behl, a graduate of James Madison High School in Vienna, had started her freshman year at VCU in late August. She was last seen leaving her dorm room around 10:20 the night of Sept. 5.

Wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt and jeans, the 5-foot-6, 135-pound brunette left her dorm room with car keys, student ID, cell phone and less than $40 cash, telling her roommate she was going out skateboarding with friends and would return in several hours.

On Wednesday, VCU detectives drove to Mathews after an ex-girlfriend of Fawley's identified a picture shown to her as being taken near her family's property in the rural coastal county.

After a search of the land, the detectives discovered human remains along a ravine in woods behind a barn on an adjacent property. Sources said clothing found at the scene matched clothing Behl was believed to be wearing the night she disappeared.

Fawley, 38, who met Behl through his ex-roommate back in February, has admitted to having a sexual relationship with her and said he last saw her at 9:30 the night she vanished.

The following day, Fawley filed a report with police claiming that he was robbed and abducted in Richmond by unknown assailants just eight hours later, driven to a remote location and dumped on a dirt road.

Investigators are reviewing his statement for inconsistencies in comparison to a description of the incident posted by Fawley on one of his Web logs.

In that posting, he attributed his alleged attack to friends of his ex-girlfriend -- the same woman police said identified the Fawley photo that led police to Mathews County.

"We certainly believe that the strongest suspect is the person they have in custody," said Pelasara's attorney, George Peterson, referring to Fawley. He said the family would begin to make funeral arrangements.

Fawley's attorney, Chris Collins, last night declined comment.

During her brief prepared statement, Pelasara expressed gratitude to all who had helped and supported her over the past month of searching for her daughter.

" . . . Whether it was time spent or money contributed, or most comforting, your prayers, thank you from the bottom of my sad and broken heart," she said.


VCU President Eugene P. Trani said, "Our overwhelming sympathy goes to Taylor's parents, Janet Pelasara and Matt Behl, and to Taylor's entire family and her friends. We share in their grief.

"Taylor was not with us very long, a few short weeks, as a freshman at VCU," Trani said in a statement. "Regardless, she was part of our university family and we feel her loss."

www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031785493173

[Sher]

October 23, 2005
MATHEWS -- He has a fascination for skulls, an affinity for doodling them going back 25 years to his adolescence, when he wore a black leather jacket with a skull painted on it.

It's a dark obsession manifest in Benjamin W. Fawley's countless photographs of skulls - both real and fake, he brags in an online posting - and on Web pages he designed that are wallpapered with them. Skulls also figure prominently in some of his myriad online names, many a variation on "Skulz."

Taylor Marie Behl was a 17-year-old college freshman from Vienna - a Northern Virginia suburb - who just started at Virginia Commonwealth University.

A striking brown-eyed brunette, Behl had grown up all across Europe after her parents divorced and her mother married a British Royal Air Force officer. That marriage ended in another divorce, and Behl and her mother returned to Northern Virginia. Before enrolling at VCU, Behl worked at a Starbucks.

In April 2004, Behl created a Live journal.com Web page under the name "tiabliaj" - "jailbait" spelled backward. She wrote that her favorite actor was Johnny Depp.

Erin Crabill is a small-town girl from Mathews County who left for VCU in 2000, determined to make it on her own terms. A vegetarian since 1999 - she ditched meat to follow the diet of a boyfriend - she began modeling in college as a way to pay for school, saying in an online biography that it paid better than the night job she'd had at 7-Eleven.

Her modeling endeavor took a dark twist earlier this year, when Fawley took her photo - a shoot that later erupted into a spat that played out on the Internet.

From interviews, examinations of police and court records, and an extensive search of Internet Web pages, blogs and online journals, the Daily Press reconstructed the progression of three lives down a path that culminated in a grisly discovery in a remote Mathews ravine.

It's a strange intersection of fates: that of Fawley - a man nearing 40 whose online rants depict a deeply rooted immaturity and obsession with sex; Behl, who would nonchalantly leave her dorm room shortly after spending time with Fawley and never return; and Crabill, whose brief fling with Fawley would leave her emotionally scarred but ultimately yield the clues that would end Behl's missing-person search.

It was a local mystery that quickly became a national obsession when Fawley, who passed out missing-person fliers with Behl's friends, emerged as a suspect in her disappearance and was arrested on child pornography charges.

The discovery of Behl's body - 75 miles east of Richmond a month after she disappeared -capped a bizarre journey encompassing a disturbing cyberworld of words and images, among them a seemingly innocuous photo of an abandoned shack with a rusting tin roof that would help lead investigators to Behl's remains.

A photo Fawley posted on the Internet. Months later, the caption accompanying it remains chilling.

"Home Sweet Home."

APRIL 2005 BEHL, FAWLEY CONNECT

Just two months after meeting Behl through a mutual friend, Fawley posts a brief message on Behl's Web page.

"Skulz67" - Fawley's nickname, followed by the year he was born - writes April 8 that a "very attractive girl climbed up into my bunk."

By the time that he makes his first public contact with Behl, computers have become an obsession for Fawley. In 1998, he spent $300 building his first computer, and by this summer, he had seven of them.

He had created his own "Line Nowhere" Web page on Live journal.com, under the pseudonym "darkevilgoth."

He writes that the "dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had." It's a quote from the rock band Tears for Fears.

Fawley is a man of incessant Internet ramblings. They run the gamut from mundane musings about his photography, computers and the number of visitors to his Web pages to frank ruminations about his sex life with various twenty-somethings and younger partners.

[Sher]

CONT...

He writes about his affinity for the Goth subculture, of living on a disability check for bipolar disorder, of owning five skateboards and of his seven computers. He also reveals an odd attachment to old Dodge vans and Dodge Darts. It's a quirky fondness that landed him afoul of the law in Doylestown, Pa., in 1989, when among his 11 encounters with police was a theft of a Dodge Dart.

Acquaintances of Fawley say he's known to be socially awkward.

Fawley enrolled in acting and lighting classes at Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002 and 2003. Although he bragged to fellow students that he had been a "professional extra" in several movies, he wasn't getting speaking parts in campus plays.

"He didn't do a lot of scenes because he said he had severe attention-deficit disorder and couldn't memorize the lines," said Sarah Johnson, a VCU theater student.

He stood out for one particular reason, students say: In one acting course, he was the only older student in a class full of freshmen.

"In general, he never did anything threatening, but he just made you uncomfortable," said Sarah Blum, a senior theater major. "He was very clingy."

Yet, by Fawley's own reckoning, young women - including Behl and Crabill - were never hard to come by.

"I have dated lots of women, had sex with even more," Fawley writes as Skulz67. "This is because I am old."

After Fawley wrote to Behl on April 8, she sent a short reply a day later.

"... well I was curious ..." she wrote.

On April 11, Fawley wrote another posting on Behl's Web page: "... so was I ... fact I still am."

Less than a week later, April 17, Fawley writes on his Web page that "Taylor" had come for a visit and that he had taken photos in the Richmond area of her and "Erin." It was a reference to Crabill.

MAY 2005 CRABILL AFFAIR ENDS

By May, Behl is finishing her senior year at Madison High School and has obviously drawn the interest of Fawley. At the same time, however, Fawley is romantically linked with Crabill, a slender, dark-haired student and part-time model whom he had known for some time.

A biography of herself posted on a Web site gives a long account of why Crabill became a vegetarian - essentially to impress a boy she was dating while in high school.

In her bio, Crabill says she likes "Star Trek" over "Star Wars" - even naming a pet bird "Picard" after "Star Trek: The Next Generation's" Capt. Jean-Luc Picard. She has a weakness for Chunky Monkey ice cream out of the container, coffee-flavored soy milk and shoe shopping.

She writes at the time that she has blue hair and piercings in her navel and nose, as well as a tattoo at the small of her back.

While Behl might have drawn Fawley's attention, he appears to fall hard for Crabill, writing about a weekend getaway to her rural home in the Diggs area.

Before going there, he shoots photos of Crabill and another former Mathews resident, Rachel Rennel, in Crabill's Richmond apartment.

Packing along his camera to Mathews, Fawley photographs the surroundings, snapping photos of narrow, tree-lined Knight Wood Road where Crabill lived as she finished high school.

[Sher]

CONT...

He takes photos of a path into the woods next to her home and of an abandoned shack with a trailer next to it that sits along a dirt road. The road leads back to an area where a local contractor and the owner of the property dump tree stumps, limbs and other woody debris.

Months later, these photos become tantalizing clues in Behl's disappearance.

Less than a week after spending the weekend with Crabill in Mathews, Fawley's brief romance with her is over.

Fawley writes on his Live journal.com Web page that he was depressed about his breakup with her.

"I will try my best to give Erin the space she asked for, though being apart from her is so very hard for me," he writes in a post May 22. "Time with Erin was something very special to me, I hope it isn't truly over."

He also writes that he hopes "she will come to me and give me another chance."

Early the following morning, Fawley breaks into an apartment that Crabill shares with Jonathan Delano. Fawley, who was holding a can of Mace and a hammer, is charged with trespassing after Delano contacts police, court records show.

Delano declined requests for an interview but told Justice magazine that after breaking in, Fawley refused to leave and discussed at length his sexuality and life of crime.

Fawley also told Delano that he hadn't been taking his medication for his bipolar disorder because it left him unable to have sex.

JULY 2005 BREAKUP TURNS UGLY

In a posting dated July 2, Fawley writes about a conflict with a girl he describes as a "psycho" who is posting false ads online about him - a veiled reference to Crabill.

"So I will make something she wants to hide from some very public and in a big way if she keeps doing the stupid things she is doing to me," Fawley writes under his Web name Skulz. "Sad as the only thing I had nice to remember her by is now lost due to the psycho games she keeps playing. I thinks (sic) she better go back to the hospital and get on some meds."

Days later, Fawley posts the photographs from his trip to Mathews with Crabill on one of his Web pages.

Embittered by his breakup with Crabill, Fawley begins feuding with her over the Internet.

On Aug. 6, Fawley posts a 1,900-word slanderous rant against Crabill about a dispute centered on photos of her he shot that he says she sold to a Web site without giving him credit. Three days later, he writes about Crabill again in unflattering terms.

He alleges that she was hacking into one of his Web sites.

Crabill hasn't responded to the Daily Press' repeated attempts to contact her. But she has communicated via e-mail with Steve Huff, an Atlanta-area true-crime writer who has written extensively online about the Behl case.

Huff said he received many e-mails and instant messages from Crabill - including one recent communication at 6 a.m. The essence of her first e-mail to Huff was to correct statements that Fawley was making about her, he said.

"What he was doing was a slander job, for one thing," Huff said.

His e-mails with Crabill revealed a very different person from what Fawley portrayed, he said. "I realized she is a very witty, intellectual, free-thinking person," Huff said.

[Sher]

CONT...

He said he read into Fawley's tortured blog postings that he's a man with an anti-social attitude: "The guy's really angry."

In an online conversation, Crabill gave the writer the sense that she was afraid of Fawley and that she thought he was stalking her, Huff said. "I saw somebody who was pretty normal who encountered something strange," he said of Crabill. "She was dealing with something that was pretty scary."

Crabill "caught on to Ben fairly quick and got out of there," Huff said. Behl might have been a different story, he said.

Behl arrived at VCU on Aug. 19 and moved into Gladding Residence Center. A former employee at Starbucks, Behl parks her Ford Escort in front of Fawley's apartment because she can park there for free.

"I just graduated from high school, and now I'm off to Richmond for college," Behl writes in her online journal shortly before leaving for college. "I'm looking forward to meeting people that are in Richmond because I only know a few people down there. But I love to meet new people in general ..."

SEPTEMBER 2005 SEARCH FOR BEHL STARTS

Behl goes home for Labor Day and returns to Richmond early in the evening. Fawley initially tells police that he last saw her about 9:30 p.m. At 10:20 p.m., she enters her dorm room and, seeing that her roommate was entertaining a boyfriend, leaves with her student ID, cell phone, car keys and less than $40. She tells her roommate that she's going skateboarding with friends and will return in a few hours.

Behl never returns. She's reported missing by her roommate Sept. 7.

In a curious development, one of the last people to see Behl before her disappearance writes online about his abduction at the hands of unknown assailants early Sept. 6.

Fawley writes that he was out early Sept. 6. He says he's unsure of the time but notes that the sun hadn't been up long. He was heading out to take photos "when 3 to 4 guys jumped me," Fawley writes.

"They got a trash bag over my head before I could see them."

He writes that the men tossed him into a car and dumped him on "some dirt road" and added that he wasn't hurt much.

"As they never said a word I am sure this was not just a robbery," he writes. "My one camera and tripod is missing along with $20.00 I had tucked in the camera. I didn't have my wallet, but I did have my bank card and that wasn't stolen ... ."

As the investigation into Behl's disappearance ratchets up - with the creation of a task force joining Richmond police, the FBI, VCU police and the Virginia State Police - investigators focus on Fawley.

Smallish at 5 feet 8 and slightly built, Fawley is barely bigger than the 5-foot-6, 135-pound Behl. He also has a trail of convictions for petty crimes that become increasingly violent and bizarre across two states and spanning 20 years.

Adopted at birth, he's the father of two young daughters he lives apart from. By his own admission, he looks half his age.

Richmond police were familiar with a violent streak: A protective order was taken out against him in 2003 by a woman he had been dating, after he allegedly attacked her. Three years earlier, he had committed a similar crime.

On Sept. 10, 2000, Fawley was arrested and charged with assaulting and battering Magdalena Ziolek in Richmond. "He hit me with his fist on my head three times and held me down by sitting on me with a knife. I couldn't move as he held my hands together," Ziolek wrote in a statement to police.

Afterward, Ziolek moved back to Poland, her home country, meaning that she couldn't serve as a witness at the trial. Instead, drug counseling and treatment was ordered for Fawley.

As Behl's disappearance moves beyond a local story into the realm of cable television and blogs, Fawley writes in his Web page on Sept. 14: "I don't feel I need a lawyer, but my friends feel that to talk to anyone more without one would be foolish on my part. The police have also asked me not to speak to the media on the subject so I will not."

[Sher]

CONT...

Days earlier, Fawley joined Behl's friends in passing out missing-person fliers around the VCU campus.

Then, on Sept. 16, there's a break in the case: An off-duty police officer notices a Ford Escort matching Behl's parked on a residential street in Richmond's Fan District. The vehicle has stolen Ohio license plates and is later confirmed to be Behl's.

Two days later, Fawley writes online that his Web page has been receiving more than 1,000 hits a day, up from 50 to 200 a day that he was documenting in the spring. "This is all over something I can not comment on," he wrote. "I am sorta out of contact. Not by choice, but forced."

Within days, Fawley is behind bars.

On Sept. 19, police search Fawley's apartment, seizing his seven computers and other computer equipment. Also seized are compact discs and a photo card.

Investigators return on the afternoon of Sept. 23, a day when Fawley is booked into jail on 16 child pornography charges after police find illegal images on his computers. Among the items police are searching for, court records indicate, are Behl's VCU identification card, her Nokia cell phone and her key ring.

They don't find them. But seized in the search are women's undergarments, a .32-caliber cartridge, a machete and a cutting of a reddish-brown stain from a box spring mattress, as well as a box of bones.

OCTOBER 2005 POLICE TURN TO FAWLEY

Through September and into October, investigators probing Behl's disappearance are leaving nothing unturned.

"They were just following any and all leads," Mathews County Sheriff Danny Howlett said. "If anybody mentioned a name or an area, they followed up on it.

"If somebody made a statement about Gloucester, they went to Gloucester. If it was New Kent, they went to New Kent."

During the probe, investigators pore over Fawley's Web pages and talk to his former girlfriends, former roommates and acquaintances. One of those former girlfriends is Crabill.

Investigators show her photos that Fawley posted on his Web pages. They include the shots of her neighborhood, including the local landmark: an abandoned shack with the trailer beside it. Unbeknownst to the Mathews sheriff, two task force investigators drive to Mathews the morning of Oct. 5 and head for Crabill's former neighborhood. The investigators walk around the abandoned house just down the road from Crabill's parents' home before they head down the dirt road.

"They walked far enough down this dirt lane that they smelled the body," Howlett said. "It was very faint. They could've stopped at any time, and she wouldn't have been found."

After detecting the odor, the two investigators walk into the woods and find the mostly skeletal remains in a ravine. It was a remarkable discovery, in Howlett's opinion. "You would almost have to have stepped on the body to have seen it," he said.

Howlett said investigators also scoured three nearby beaches - including Haven Beach, also known as Festival Beach - not far from where Behl's remains were recovered. The investigators look primarily for articles of clothing, he said, and find some, though the significance of those discoveries remains to be seen.

"You could probably go through and find many articles of clothing on any beach in Mathews," Howlett said.

A day after the remains are found in Mathews, their identification is announced by Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe at a news conference outside the Mathews Sheriff's Office. A piece of Behl's skull - the teeth from her lower jawbone - help a medical examiner identify her.

Monroe tells a throng of reporters that "it's not incorrect" to say Fawley is a suspect in her disappearance.

Within a week, Fawley changes his story about the events of the night when Behl disappeared.

[Sher]

CONT...


On Oct. 12, Fawley meets investigators - over the objection of his attorney. Richmond news media report that Fawley tells the investigators he drove Behl to Mathews and that she died during rough sex.

Fawley tells police that after killing her during consensual sex, he panicked and dumped her body in the ravine in the woods next to Crabill's home, said law enforcement sources who speak to Richmond news media.

Two days later - as news breaks of Fawley's purported confession - the suspect's landlord and friend, Sam Forrest, recalled Fawley in an interview as a perfect tenant.

Speaking outside the former Hershey's chocolate warehouse where both men lived in Richmond, Forrest said Fawley always paid his rent of $350 a month on time.

"We were friends," Forrest said.

Forrest recounts seeing Fawley's daughters - who he guessed were about 8 and 10 years old - visiting him this summer.

When Forrest got a gun several months ago for self-protection in the drug-infested neighborhood, he asked Fawley whether he wanted access to its lock.

"But he didn't want the possibility to exist that he could have access to guns," Forrest said. This occurs even though Fawley would be charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Forrest insists that Fawley has been wrongly judged.

"I still think he's innocent," Forrest said. "It just kills me to see him pronounced guilty before he's been tried. But the more information I get, the thread holding us together has become pretty slender."

But a few days later, Forrest sent a Daily Press reporter an e-mail.

He wrote that he read about Fawley's jailhouse confession. In light of the confession, he wrote, he feels he was made the fool.

"My only stock in life is my credibility," Forrest wrote, "and it's clear Ben has tarnished that."

For Crabill, the case has taken an emotional toll on her.

Huff, the blogger communicating with Crabill via e-mail, said she was a funny young woman with a wry sense of humor that's failing her now, in the face of something so heavy and tragic.

"I would definitely describe Erin's state of mind as haunted," Huff said.

He said he received an instant message from a tired Crabill at 6 one recent morning.

"She'd been up most of the night," Huff said, "according to her, simply trying to coax herself to sleep and couldn't do it."

www.dailypress.com/news/dp-98478sy0oct23,0,1272316.story?page=1&coll=dp-widget-news

[Sher]

Here is a timeline of all the events in Taylor's case.

FEATURE STORY ON THE DISAPPEARANCE OF TAYLOR BEHL - Seventeen-year-old Virginia college student disappeared without a trace, until her remains were found a month later. An ex-boyfriend, Ben W. Fawley, claims he killed her accidentally. Fawley, a 38-year-old amateur photographer, faces charges on possession of child pornography and firearms. Feature story updated on daily basis along with the latest news.
Full story




LATEST NEWS:

• Video Clips

• Exposing Erin — Crime Library exclusive

• Time Line of Events in the Disappearance of Taylor Behl

• Search Warrant Issued for Fawley's Apartment

• Photo Gallery

• Maps

• Taylor Behl Message Board

• America's Missing

• Taylor Behl's Murder: What do we know?
Events surrounding Ben Fawley's killing of Taylor Behl are getting clearer.
Full story

• Gag Order Creates Concern
Behl family lawyer troubled over gag order
Full story

• Framing Erin
Was Ben Fawley's abduction story designed to implicate an ex in the disappearance of Taylor Behl?
Full story

• Ever-changing web of lies...
Ben Fawleys statements suggest the Preppie Murder defense
Full story

• Is Fawley's Confession Another Lie?
Jailhouse statement about Taylor's death is troublesome
Full story

• Fawley Admits Killing Taylor Behl
Fawley claims Taylor died accidentally during "rough sex"
Full story

• Taylor Behl Suspect Talks to Police
Is Ben Fawley trying to make a deal?
Full story

• The Saddest of Occasions
Taylor's birthday celebrated in a funeral home
Full story

• Taylor Behl's Autopsy
Preliminary autopsy may rule out certain causes of death
Full story

• Police look for help on Taylor Behl
Mathews County residents asked for info about Taylor's car.
Full story

• RVA Serial Killer?
What is the meaning of suspect Ben Fawley's alias?
Full story

• Nothing Less Than First Degree Murder
Richmond police indicate murder charges will be pressed
Full story

• Behl Murder Investigation Targeted
Richmond Chief Rodney Monroe says that the probe into Taylor's murder has become much more focused.
Full story

• Body Found is Taylor's
Taylor's mother says the body found in Mathews County is probably Taylor's.
Full story

• Body Found in Behl Probe
Richmond police announced earlier that they have discovered the remains of a body in Mathews County, an are of interest to police in Behl case
Full story

• Behl Bombshell
Kevin, a skateboarder acquaintance, sheds new light on Taylor Behl's disappearance
Full story

• Taylor Behl Grand Jury
Richmond City police media spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that a grand jury is being convened in the case of the missing college freshman Taylor Behl
Full story

• Police connect stolen license plate to missing girl
Police say they are searching for anyone who might have information on a stolen license plate that may be connected to the case of a missing college student
Full story

• Police stop calling man 'person of interest' in Behl case
Police NO longer consider a 38-year-old Richmond man a person of interest in the disappearance of Virginia Commonwealth University freshman Taylor Behl (beel).
Full story

• Man Tied to Behl Case Arraigned on Child-Porn Charges
A Richmond man referred to by police as a "person of interest" in the disappearance of a Virginia Commonwealth University student was arraigned on child pornography charges
Full story

• Mature But Still Seventeen
The portrait of Taylor Behl that has emerged from acquaintances, her online journals and her mother is a young woman far more mature in many ways than most 17-year-olds
Full story

• Missing Student's Friend Arrested
Taylor Behl's friend arrested on pornography charges
Full story

• Person of interest in college student's disappearance arrested
A 38-year-old man identified as a person of interest in the disappearance of a missing college freshman was arrested Friday, police said.
Full story

• Missing Student's Friend Abducted?
Photographer in Behl case says he was abducted and robbed
Full story

• Reward for Missing Student
Taylor Behl's possessions removed from Richmond and a reward was announced.
Full story

• Police find car of missing Virginia Commonwealth University student
Police found the car belonging to a missing Virginia Commonwealth University student and hope it will provide clues to help find the 17-year-old two weeks after she disappeared.
Full story

• Missing Student's Car Found
Police are hoping the discovery of a missing Virginia Commonwealth University student's car will help find her two weeks after she disappeared
Full story

• Search for VCU student becomes criminal investigation
The search for a missing Virginia Commonwealth University freshman has shifted from a missing-persons case to a criminal investigation involving several law enforcement agencies
Full story

• Amber Alert issued in search for VCU student
Police activated the Amber Alert system Thursday night in the search for a missing Virginia Commonwealth University freshman
Full story

please go to this link to read the full stories of each entry...
www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/taylor_behl/taylor_behl_jump_page.html