Taylor Behl ~ Missing VCU Student

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Missing Student's Car Found
Monday, September 19, 2005

RICHMOND, Va. — Police found the car of missing 17-year-old Taylor Behl on Saturday parked not far from her dorm room at Virginia Commonwealth University (search) in Richmond, where the freshman was last seen nearly two weeks ago.

An off-duty Richmond (search) police officer discovered the abandoned vehicle about 1.5 miles from the school. The car's Virginia plates had been replaced with Ohio tags that had been reported stolen. Police put it under surveillance but finally impounded the car Saturday night after no one approached the vehicle for more than 12 hours.

A dog team was brought in to try to pick up a scent and the FBI has begun a forensics investigation. Police have said there is no evidence of foul play surrounding Behl's disappearance, but last week they shifted their search from a missing-persons case to a criminal investigation, citing the fact that Behl is a juvenile and has been missing for an extended period of time without being in contact with anyone.

Friends, classmates and family have put up posters featuring the smiling Behl around campus and have created the Web site friendsoftaylor.com. She is described as being 5-foot-6 and 135 pounds with light-brown hair, brown eyes and piercings in her ears and nose.

www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,169709,00.html

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www.planethuff.com/darkside/archives/cat_the_disappearance_of_taylor_behl.html

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Crime story on Taylor:

www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/forensics/taylor_behl/

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Mark Holmberg column:
2nd family affected by Behl case

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."

Contact Mark at [phone] or [e-mail]

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Police report filed after Behl missing
Photographer who knew Behl claims attack hours after she was last seen

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.

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.

Contact Jim Nolan at [phone] or [e-mail]

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VCU offers reward in Behl case
Police say the report filed by photographer is 'vague' and they can't investigate

SPECIAL REPORT: Taylor Behl

Officials at Virginia Commonwealth University are pledging a $20,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the location and return of missing VCU freshman Taylor Marie Behl.

"Please keep Taylor, her family and friends in your thoughts as we hope for her safe return," VCU President Eugene P. Trani wrote yesterday in a letter to the university and VCU Health System "communities."

The announcement came a day after Behl's family posted an $11,000 reward for information about her disappearance.

Meanwhile, Richmond police officials said yesterday that they do not have enough information to properly investigate an abduction report filed by a 38-year-old amateur photographer who said he was attacked and robbed hours after he had seen the 17-year-old Behl.

"In order for us to go forward on [the photographer's] case, we have to have more details than the limited and vague descriptions he gave us in reference to this alleged crime," Police Chief Rodney Monroe said.

The photographer -- identified by police as one of a number of "persons of interest" in the criminal investigation into Behl's disappearance -- filed a report with police at 4:42 p.m. Sept. 6. He said the attack occurred in an alley near where the eastern end of Monument Avenue meets Franklin Street at 5 a.m. -- about 7½ hours after saying good night to Behl the evening of Sept. 5.

The photographer said he had been attacked by unknown people, struck by an unknown object, driven with a bag over his head to an unknown location and dumped on a dirt road.

In a supplemental police report on the incident, he said a Hispanic man assisted him an hour later and drove him back to his neighborhood, but the photographer said he did not know the man's name. The officer who took the photographer's statement said he believed the photographer had been attacked, but "due to his mental state, getting any other relevant information is going to prove to be verydifficult."

The photographer also told detectives that he should be on medication for a bipolar condition and was drunk at the time of the attack.

The photographer's lawyer, Chris Collins, said Wednesday that the attack was unrelated to Behl's case and possibly involved a dispute with a friend over the rights to photographs he had taken.

But investigators say the details are important because they can help establish the photographer's whereabouts in the hours after he is said to have left Behl.

Behl was last reported seen by her roommate at her VCU dormitory about 10:20 p.m. Sept. 5. She left with her car keys, student ID, a small amount of cash and a cell phone. Police said she told her roommate she planned to go skateboarding with friends.

In the 18 days since her disappearance, investigators have also questioned several other acquaintances of Behl's, including some who are believed to have previously skateboarded with her.

Police impounded the car of one skateboarding friend after finding evidence that Behl had been in the car at some time before her disappearance.

They also arrested a friend of the skateboarder on a drug-possession charge after a bloodhound tracked his scent from Behl's car, recovered on North Mulberry Street, to his apartment several blocks away. The man has denied knowing Behl or being in her car.

Contact Jim Nolan at [phone] or [e-mail]

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Man who knew Behl charged

BY JIM NOLAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Sep 24, 2005

Richmond Police yesterday arrested an amateur photographer - one of the last people to see Virginia Commonwealth University freshman Taylor Behl before she vanished Sept. 5 - and charged him with 16 counts of possession of child pornography.
Ben Fawley, 38, was arrested about 3 p.m. just as a phalanx of armed and armored police officers converged on his doorstep in the 400 block of Hanthingy Street.

"Open the door, Ben," ordered a detective, who was filmed making the arrest by a local TV crew.

Moments later, the bespectacled Fawley exited in a black T-shirt. Police said his long, dyed blond hair and matching goatee of a few days ago had been trimmed and dyed black. He was handcuffed without incident and led into a waiting police vehicle.

A contingent of investigators from the multi-agency task force searching for Behl converged on Fawley's house, executing their second search warrant at the premises over the past week.

Fawley's lawyer, Chris Collins, was present at the time of the arrest. He said the search warrant filed by police sought various items of clothing and jewelry from Fawley and Behl, as well as electronics, cell phones, identification, and license plates.

A separate search warrant was also issued requiring Fawley to submit hair and DNA samples to police.

Officials said the child-pornography charges stem from video evidence gathered during a search of Fawley's home last week, during which police confiscated seven computers. One source close to the investigation said the evidence depicts adults and children in sexually themed movies.

Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe declined to comment specifically on the evidence, saying only: "Our investigation led to an individual that had possession of child pornography, which is of grave concern to us."

Collins said that he had no specific knowledge of evidence gathered against his client to justify the arrest warrant. But he said some of the computers confiscated last week by investigators belonged to ex-roommates of Fawley.

The lawyer last night reiterated his earlier statements, saying Fawley told him he had nothing to do with Behl's disappearance. He also said the child-pornography charges have "nothing to do with Taylor.

"They're investigating three people and they haven't ruled anybody out," Collins said. "They're just doing a really thorough job."

Fawley's arrest, he said, was another investigative tool being used by police "just to add a little pressure" to him.

Fawley has admitted to police he had a physical relationship with the 17-year-old Vienna girl and last saw her around 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 5. The last known sighting of Behl came from her dormitory roommate around 10:20 p.m. that evening.

Behl left VCU's Gladding Residence Center saying she was going to go skateboarding with a few friends. She was carrying her cell phone, student ID, car keys and a small amount of cash.

She has been missing for 19 days.

Police said they have no suspects in their criminal investigation into the missing teen. They have identified Fawley as one of a number of "persons of interest" in the investigation into Behl's whereabouts.

Police also have no evidence that a crime has been committed, but officials have stated that Behl may have been the victim of foul play, such as an abduction, given the fact that there has been no contact from her for nearly three weeks.

"The Richmond Police Department continues to conduct an aggressive and focused investigation into the disappearance of Taylor Behl," said Monroe.

He described Fawley as "one of many persons that holds information in reference to the past 24 to 48 hours of Taylor's disappearance."

Fawley's association with Behl dates to earlier this year. She met the photographer in February while visiting his former roommate - an upperclassman who comes from Behl's hometown.

Behl saw Fawley again in April, and posed for him in clothed pictures taken on Belle Isle. Fawley - an aspiring artist, actor, and prolific Goth Web master - posted the Behl photos on the Internet arts site, deviantArt.com, under the user name, "Skulz."

Behl listed "Skulz" as one of her "friends" on her Web page on the Internet meeting site, MyPlace.com., where she wrote under the screen name "Bitter."

When the 5-foot, 6, 135 pound teenager came to VCU on Aug. 19 to begin her freshman year in college, family said she customarily parked her 1997 Ford Escort on Hanthingy Street near Fawley's house just north of Broad Street, where there was free parking.

The car, which had been missing since Sept. 5, was discovered a week ago in the Fan District, more than a mile away from Behl's dormitory and Fawley's house. The Virginia license plates of the car had been replaced with Ohio license plates stolen several months earlier from another VCU student.

A subsequent search of the vehicle by a police bloodhound led investigators to the home of a friend of one the skateboarders with whom Behl was acquainted. Earlier this week, police searched the man's residence and arrested him on drug possession charges. In interviews with police, the man denied knowing Behl or having ever been in her car.

Investigators are still awaiting results of forensic tests on the vehicle being conducted by the FBI. VCU and Behl's family have offered more than $30,000 as a reward to anyone who provides information leading to the location and return of the teen.

Meanwhile, investigators are also scrutinizing the details of an abduction report filed by Fawley himself on Sept. 6, the day before Behl was reported missing.

Fawley claimed he had been robbed and beaten by unknown assailants and driven to an unknown location before being dumped on a dirt road at 5 a.m. - less than 8 hours after he last saw Behl.

Fawley is expected to spend the weekend in the city jail and is scheduled to appear in court Monday morning for a bond hearing.

A source close to the investigation said Fawley - who was recently arrested for trespassing and received a suspended 30-day sentence for an assault charge in Richmond last year - also has a previous arrest record, including a Richmond charge of assault last year.

Yesterday afternoon, Behl's mother, Janet Pelasara, said she was pleased with the arrest of Fawley, a 38-year-old man whom she said had "exploited" her daughter.

"It is only the beginning," she predicted, "of Ben Fawley's downward spiral into the depths of hell."

Contact Jim Nolan at [phone] or [e-mail]

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City university walks thin line
During crisis, it shows it cares and works to protect its reputation

BY GARY ROBERTSON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Sep 25, 2005

RELATED
Taylor Behl
The disappearance of freshman Taylor Marie Behl has pounded Virginia Commonwealth University's image in the news media. Every newspaper story, every television report, every national interview and every day that passes without Behl's being found can mean another day of bad publicity.

National news organizations have swooped into the city, bringing in swarms of producers and, in some instances, journalists who are going for the jugular.

Pamela Lepley, VCU's director of news services, recalled one journalist's interview of Taylor Behl's mother that she said more closely resembled a courtroom interrogation than a question-and-answer session.

Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management, said VCU is in a crisis not unlike crises that have affected many other institutions, where missteps could profoundly damage its reputation, its operations and its viability.

Every crisis involves different responses or different priorities of response, said Bernstein, who lives in California but has a nationwide consultancy.

Because a young person's life is involved, Bernstein said VCU's first and most important response is to express compassion, to show that as an institution, it is sharing in the suffering.

"In-person communication, as much as possible, is important," he said.

Bernstein recommended that a top-level administrator or spokesman daily reinforce the university's compassion: before students, parents, community members, and to the public-at-large during television interviews or news briefings.

"Messages of compassion are difficult to communicate strictly in writing," he said, but people can see compassion in someone's face.

Absolute honesty is also critical in crises, Bernstein said, and institutions must be transparent in their communications.

Lepley said VCU officials have met repeatedly to discuss how they should deal with Behl's disappearance as new events unfold.

But she said the discussions have a common theme.

"Every day," she said, "we ask ourselves, 'What more can we do for the family?'"

VCU President Eugene Trani, in an electronic update to the VCU community last week, said the college had arranged for lodging for the Behl family while they are in Richmond and had offered counseling services to the family and to Taylor Behl's friends.

VCU also has pledged a reward of $20,000 for information that leads to Behl's location and her return.

In his years as a crisis consultant, Bernstein said, what he continues to find is that most institutions are not adequately prepared to deal with a crisis.

With colleges and universities, he said it is almost inevitable that at some point they will have to deal with a crisis involving harm to a student.

If a college or university is unprepared, Bernstein said, the institution becomes as much a victim of the event as the student.


Contact Gary Robertson at [phone] or [e-mail]

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Behl's family: Street smarts failed

BY JIM NOLAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Sep 25, 2005

RELATED
Taylor Behl
Janet Pelasara remembers the advice she gave her 17-year-old daughter, Taylor Marie Behl, when she dropped her off at Virginia Commonwealth University to begin her freshman year. "I told her to have as much fun as you can stand and still get good grades," Pelasara recalled the other day, nearly three weeks after her daughter disappeared.

They were the words of a mother confident in her daughter's judgment.

And why not? Taylor Behl had grown up handling responsibilities beyond the experience of most youngsters.

By the age of 5, she was traveling internationally by herself on planes -- a byproduct of Pelasara's second marriage, to an officer with Britain's Royal Air Force.

Behl lived in England and Brussels until she was 11, before returning to the United States when that marriage ended.

Pelasara and Behl settled initially in Ashburn in Loudoun County and then moved to Vienna in Fairfax County. By the time Behl graduated from James Madison High School last spring, she had attended 15 schools.

She worked at a Starbucks, managed the JV boys basketball team and hung out at Vienna's Jammin' Java, where she ardently followed up-and-coming bands, such as the Brindley Brothers.

During it all, Pelasara said, Behl never missed a curfew, always remembered to call and "didn't do drugs -- that I know of."

So when it came time to choose a college, Pelasara had few worries that her "street-smart" daughter wouldn't be able to handle its challenges.

Taylor chose VCU over two other Virginia schools, Pelasara said, because she wanted to take advantage of what a city like Richmond had to offer over a more staid, suburban setting.

"I thought it would be a positive thing for her to be on her own," Pelasara said.

But as her disappearance has evolved into a criminal investigation, even people close to her are questioning whether she was as capable of protecting herself as she appeared to be.

"She's very smart and very worldly at 17, but she's still a 17-year-old," said her uncle, Jeff Pelasara, who has been staying in Richmond with his sister to help in the search for his missing niece.

Behl arrived in Richmond with connections to home.

Her roommate turned out to be a friend of Behl's best friend back home in Vienna. Another high school classmate from Vienna was an upperclassman at VCU. And within a week of arriving on campus on Aug. 19, Behl met her first real boyfriend.

"She was so excited," said Pelasara, "that she had met a boy and he didn't drink or do drugs."

Glynnis Keogh, Behl's best friend, concurred.

"She seemed really happy," Keogh said. "She liked him because he was so straight-edged."

But Behl also had made connections, through friends and the Internet, with people in the city who dwelled on the fringes of college life, some of whom police are investigating for possible clues to her disappearance.

Among them is Ben Fawley, a 38-year-old photographer and self-described "Goth Skater" Behl met in February during a visit to VCU. He was one of the last people to see Behl before she vanished Sept. 5.

Fawley, a father of two with a criminal record of assaults, was arrested Friday and charged with 16 counts of possessing child pornography. He has told police he had a romantic relationship with the 17-year-old Behl.

The relationship was apparently one Behl had not discussed with her mother but had talked about with Keough.

Keogh, now a college freshman in West Virginia.

"They weren't that close," said Keogh, now a college freshman in West Virginia. "She was like, 'I know it's bad,' but it wasn't anything at first."

"It started evolving . . . She was intrigued by him. I think she enjoyed the attention," Keogh added. "But after a while, she didn't like him as much. I think she realized he was more screwed up than she wanted to deal with."

Fawley told police he last saw Behl about 9:30 the night she disappeared. Earlier in the day, Behl and her new boyfriend had broken up but had dined together at the Village Cafe.

When Behl was last seen, at 10:20 that night, she told her roommate she was going skateboarding with a few friends.

Now, police are investigating a group of skateboarders with whom Behl had become acquainted after arriving at the school. The car of one skateboarder has been impounded under the suspicion that Behl had been riding in it sometime before she disappeared.

And a friend of the skateboarder has been arrested on a drug-possession charge after a search of his house, where police were led when a bloodhound detected the friend's scent in Behl's abandoned car.

The flurry of recent police activity involving Fawley and the skateboarders has heartened Behl's family and friends, even if has yet to bring her back.

"It sounds like she was exploited by several people," her mother said, "and they are going to pay."


Contact Jim Nolan at [phone] or [e-mail]

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Bond denied for man who knows Behl
He is held on child-pornography charges; search for student goes on

BY JIM NOLAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Sep 27, 2005

Benjamin Fawley
SPECIAL REPORT: Taylor Behl

The search for Taylor Marie Behl enters its fourth week today with a "person of interest" in the investigation into her disappearance in jail on unrelated charges and teams of police and family members growing increasingly concerned for her safety.

"Whoever has her, let her walk away," Behl's mother, Janet Pelasara, pleaded yesterday during an interview with reporters.

"Let her come home. I need my baby, and I want her back."

Pelasara's plea for her daughter followed a court hearing yesterday morning for an unemployed photographer who was one of the last people to see the missing Virginia Commonwealth University student before she disappeared on Sept. 5.

Benjamin "Skulz" Fawley, 38 -- a "person of interest" in the Richmond Police Department's criminal investigation into Behl's disappearance -- was de- nied bond after appearing in Richmond Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court on 16 counts of possession of child pornography.

Senior Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Mike Jagels said Fawley was in possession of sexually explicit movies depicting young children with adults when police search his home on Sept. 16.

Jagels told Judge Kimberly O'Donnell that there may be as many as 30 movie files discovered on computers confiscated from Fawley's apartment, "some depicting acts with minors as young as 1 or 2 years old," and others featuring "individuals 10 to 14 years old."

The warrants filed against Fawley, the father of two children, make no specific mention of Behl. But Jagels said additional charges could be pending against Fawley because of his alleged admission of "multiple acts of sexual intercourse" with the 17-year-old Vienna girl dating back to last spring.

The slightly built, bespectacled defendant appeared yesterday morning in drab prison scrubs and Day-Glo orange slippers. He looked haggard and perturbed by a room full of reporters. He spent the weekend in the city jail after being arrested at his home on Hanthingy Street in Richmond on Friday.

Under questioning by O'Donnell, Fawley acknowledged that he has no job and lives off a monthly Social Security disability check. Lawyer Chris Collins last week said Fawley received the check for a "severe" bipolar condition.

Collins did not appear in court with Fawley yesterday and later issued a statement saying he will be stepping aside on the case.

O'Donnell appointed an attorney from the public defender's office to represent Fawley, whose next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 31, and ordered Fawley held without bond.

"If he knows anything about Taylor and where she is, maybe he'll share it," said Pelasara, speaking from her hotel in Richmond, where she has been put up by VCU since arriving in town Sept. 7 to help publicize the search for her daughter.

"That's what we're hoping for."

If convicted, Fawley faces up to five years in prison on each child-pornography count. At the conclusion of the hearing, he was escorted from the courtroom by a sheriff's deputy. As he left, Fawley glanced over his shoulder toward the packed room and shook his head.

"The Commonwealth takes the disappearance of Taylor Behl very seriously," Jagels told reporters outside the courtroom, explaining how her case and the pending charges against Fawley made the state consider Fawley a risk to flee.

Fawley is no stranger to law enforcement. Virginia court records indicate he has been arrested and convicted of misdemeanor assault and battery of a family member three times since 2003, with two of the cases involving women, Jagels said. He was also convicted of destruction of property in 2004.

Law-enforcement sources said Fawley was also arrested and convicted five times between 1986 and 1990 in his home town of Doylestown, Pa., a suburb of Philadelphia. The charges ranged from theft, receiving stolen property and petit larceny to aggravated assault, disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment.

The sentences for Fawley's convictions could not be immediately determined last night. But in his online modeling profile, Fawley wrote: "I can not work with real firearms."

The self-described license-plate collector and "Goth/Skater from the 1980's" -- who got the nickname "Skulz" for the number of human skulls he has drawn, made and collected -- also wrote in his profile on OneModelPlace.com: "Gotta have some fun before I start looking my age."

Fawley met Behl in February through his roommate at the time, a fellow VCU student who was a friend of Behl's from Vienna. When they met again in April, Behl posed for Fawley in fully clothed pictures taken on Belle Isle.

When Behl came to Richmond to begin school at VCU in late August, she regularly parked her 1997 Ford Escort in front of Fawley's home on Hanthingy Street, just north of West Broad Street near VCU's Seigel Center.

Her arrival in town had already been posted on her Web page on the dating site MySpace.com: "I'm looking forward to meeting people that are in Richmond," she wrote.

On Sept. 5, police said, Behl is believed to have dined with an on-again, off-again boyfriend at the Village Café, several blocks from her dormitory, but close to Fawley's apartment. Fawley has admitted to last seeing Behl about 9:30 p.m. and told police they had sex around that time.

The 5-foot-6, 135-pound Behl was last seen by her roommate leaving her dormitory about 10:20 p.m. on Sept. 5. She was wearing jeans and a dark hooded sweatshirt and was carrying her student ID, a small amount of cash, a cell phone and her car keys.

Behl's roommate told police Behl said she was going skateboarding and would return in several hours. There has been no contact from her since then.

But on Sept. 17, police discovered Behl's car on North Mulberry Street after searching for the vehicle for 12 days. The car's Virginia tags had been switched with license plates from Ohio that had been reported stolen months earlier.

A police bloodhound traced a scent from the car that eventually led investigators to the home of a man who is friendly with a skateboarder Behl is believed to have seen within two days of her disappearance.

Police arrested the man tracked by the bloodhound on a drug-possession charge and searched his apartment on the 800 block of Sheppard Street. Police said the man failed a polygraph test when he denied knowing Behl or having ever been in her car.

Investigators also interviewed the skateboarder and impounded his car to collect evidence. That skateboarder, according to sources close to the case, has refused to take a polygraph exam.

"I can't begin to imagine where she is," said Pelasara, the strain of three weeks of searching becoming increasingly visible in her eyes.

"I believe someone has her, and they need to let her go."


Contact Jim Nolan at [phone] or [e-mail]

www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031785296194

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Police seek personalized license plate in Behl case

BY JIM NOLAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Sep 29, 2005

Missing VCU student, Taylor Behl
SPECIAL REPORT: Taylor Behl

Richmond police yesterday asked the public to help locate a car with a personalized Virginia license plate that may have a possible connection to Taylor Marie Behl's disappearance 24 days ago: "GRN ERTH."

Police said the plate was stolen from a vehicle around the time the 17-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University freshman vanished Sept. 5.

A law-enforcement source familiar with the case said the plate may have been in the possession of Ben Fawley, a 38-year-old amateur photographer and acquaintance of Behl's who was one of the last people to see her.

Police spokeswoman Cynthia Price yesterday described Fawley as one of several persons whom "police are talking with in connection with the investigation into Taylor's disappearance."

Fawley was arrested Friday and charged with 16 counts of possession of child pornography after a Sept. 16 search of his Hanthingy Street home. That search was related to the police investigation into Behl's disappearance.

Fawley is being held without bail in an isolation cell of the Richmond City Jail. Reached last night, one of Fawley's attorneys, Chris Collins, reiterated Fawley's contention that he had nothing to do with Behl's disappearance. Collins also said he had no information on the "GRN ERTH" tag or to whom it belonged.
Police asked anyone who sees the personalized plate on a vehicle to call police and tell them the make and model of the car, the time and place where it was last seen, and provide a description of the driver.

"Preliminary information indicates this plate may be connected to the Taylor Behl investigation," said acting Maj. Peggy Horn, in charge of all Richmond detectives.

"At this time, we need more information to make a final determination, and the community's input is needed."

The request for help came as members of Behl's family and friends in her hometown of Vienna announced a benefit concert this weekend to raise reward money to encourage people to provide information that helps locate her.

A concert featuring some of Behl's friends and favorite musicians -- Shane Hines, The Brindley Brothers and The Echoes Band -- will be held in Vienna at Jammin' Java on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Proceeds will go toward the Friends of Taylor Behl reward fund, which currently stands at $14,000, said family attorney George Peterson.

VCU has also posted a $20,000 reward for information leading to Behl's whereabouts.

Contact Jim Nolan at [phone] or [e-mail]

www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031785340408

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Items to be studied in Behl case

BY JIM NOLAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Sep 30, 2005

RELATED: Police Beat | Taylor Behl

Skateboards, sex toys, women's undergarments and a box with bones are among the items investigators removed last week during a search of the Richmond apartment of a 38-year-old man questioned in the disappearance of Taylor Marie Behl, according to court documents released yesterday.

Detectives also removed cell phones, a machete, a .32-caliber cartridge, discarded clothing and the dirty laundry of Benjamin "Skulz" Fawley -- one of the last people to see the 17-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University freshman before she disappeared the night of Sept. 5.

In all, more than 60 kinds of items were removed from the Hanthingy Street apartment, according to documents filed with the court.

Richmond police last night were tight-lipped on whether any of the items seized have yielded clues to the Vienna teen's disappearance.

Police Chief Rodney Monroe did say that three items Behl was known to be carrying before leaving her dormitory room at 10:20 p.m. -- her cell phone, VCU student ID and car keys were not among the items recovered by federal agents who searched Fawley's home.

Monroe said it has yet to be determined whether other female "personal items" seized during the search belong to Behl.

"They have to be analyzed to determine their relevance to the case," the chief said.


Monroe said last night that the criminal investigation into Behl's disappearance is "still moving forward. We still have several very viable options," he added, declining to elaborate.

Fawley was familiar to Web surfers as an aspiring photographer and had posted photographs of Behl on his Web pages. An indigent, bipolar, single father of two children and self-described "Goth/Skater" with an obsession for drawing and sculpting and collecting skulls -- he told police that he had a sexual relationship with Behl and last saw her about 9:30 p.m. the night she disappeared.

Roughly an hour later, Behl told her roommate that she was planning to go skateboarding with friends and would return in several hours. She has not been seen since.

Fawley is being held without bail in an isolation cell at the Richmond City Jail after being arrested Sept. 23 on 16 counts of possession of child pornography. The charges were the result of a search of Fawley's home on Sept. 16.

Fawley's lawyer, Chris Collins, said he did not think police who searched his client's apartment were looking for anything in particular, "just anything that might provide information or a link.

"They took a lot of his clothing. They found some of her clothing, which had been there for some time, and they took some of another friend's clothing. I don't think we can read anything into it."

Contact Jim Nolan at [phone] or [e-mail]

www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031785365352

[admin4laney]

Body May Be Missing Virginia Student

POSTED: 6:28 pm EDT October 5, 2005
UPDATED: 6:41 pm EDT October 5, 2005

RICHMOND, Va. -- A police task force investigating the disappearance of a 17-year-old Virginia student missing since Labor Day went to the state's rural coastal county of Mathews Wednesday to examine the remains of a body found there.

The remains had not been identified, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, quoting sources it did not name.

The task force was created to investigate the disappearance of Virginia Commonwealth University student Taylor Marie Behl, who was last seen one month ago.

The remains were discovered in a grave behind a barn on an isolated piece of private property in the sparsely populated county, about 50 miles east of Richmond.

Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe could only confirm that remains of a body have been discovered at the location.

www.channelcincinnati.com/news/5062888/detail.html

[admin4laney]

Breaking News -- Body is Probably Taylor's

Janet Pelasara, Taylor's mother said today that she believes a body found in a wooded area is her daughter. "The body found is most likely my baby's," she said at a news conference at her home in Vienna, Va.

One key person of interest in this case from the time that college freshman Taylor Behl went missing is Ben Fawley, a 38-year-old amateur photographer who had a romantic relationship with Taylor. Fawley is currently charged with 16 child pornography counts and is being held without bond in Richmond.

Crime Library sources have indicated that another of Fawley's former girlfriends, Erin Crabill, once lived at 554 Knight Wood Road in Diggs, VA. The remains found by the task force searching for missing college freshman Taylor Behl were located near the intersection of Rt. 611 and Rt. 613. Knight Wood Road in Mathews County is very close to that site. Mathews County is right on the Chesapeake Bay, about 70 miles from Richmond.

Members of the task force searching for Taylor Behl meticulously researched the online records created by Taylor, Fawley and their various associates. From these online records, police determined that several sites should be examined. One of those sites was the area where the remains were located behind a barn on private property. Police had shown photos of the site to one of Fawley's former girlfriends who identified where the photos were taken.

The remains were very decomposed and positive identification was not immediately possible. However, several news sources indicated that clothing found at the site was similar to clothing that Taylor reportedly wore when she disappeared. The FBI will continue to handle the gathering of evidence at the crime scene. Taylor's mother, Janet Pelasara, may issue a statement today regarding the remains found in Mathews County.

Fawley told police the day after Taylor disappeared that he had been abducted and assaulted several hours after Taylor was last seen. He claimed that he had been driven to an unknown location and robbed of his camera, tripod and cash. Fawley told police he was then dumped on a dirt road where he managed to get a rid back to his residence. Fawley told police that a former girlfriend was behind the attack on him.

www.crimelibrary.com/news/original/1005/0601_net_led_behl_body.html

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Ben Fawley's Confession

Richmond, VA (Crime Library) — It should come as no surprise that Ben Fawley's jailhouse confession on Wednesday evening did not include a claim of first or second degree murder. Bolstered by the medical examiner's difficulty in determining cause of death, Fawley had an opportunity to propose that Taylor Behl died accidentally. Perhaps she did.

The Times-Dispatch learned that Fawley told police that he and Taylor went in her car to an area near a beach in Mathews County the night she disappeared. He then told police that while they were in her car, she died accidentally during "rough sex.when he restricted her breathing." Fawley explained that he panicked when he realized she was dead and placed her body in the ravine in which she was later found. The ravine was adjacent to property owned by a former girlfriend.

Police are now trying to verify Fawley's account, but do not accept it at face value.

Ben W. Fawley is a 38-year-old amateur photographer with a bi-polar disorder that provides him with a monthly Social Security disability check. He has a history of violent assaults on young women when they have tried to break off their relationships with him as well as convictions for larceny, receiving stolen goods, and other felonies. Fawley is facing charges on 16 counts of possession of child pornography and possession of a firearm in violation of Virginia laws regarding convicted felons.

Fawley's attorney, Chris Collins, advised his client not to make his statement to the police, but Fawley did not heed his lawyer's advice.

www.crimelibrary.com/news/original/1005/1501_fawley_confession.html