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On a day that should have been one of great celebration, friends, family, well wishers and loved ones said their goodbyes instead to Taylor Marie Behl.
They lined up outside the Money & King Funeral Home in the raw drizzle of an overcast October afternoon to say goodbye.
They saw a closed, reddish-brown casket containing the remains of Taylor Behl on what would have been her 18th birthday.
“A beautiful girl. Beautiful,” said Samantha Murat, one of many mourners drawn to yesterday’s visitation by sorrow and sympathy for a family tragedy that unfolded before a nation.
“I feel like she’s my own. I feel so bad for family,” Murat said in broken English. “She’s in the heaven now. What can you say to parents . . . no words.”
From The Washington Post: An Outpouring of Grief for Slain Student
Taylor Marie Behl would have turned 18 yesterday, a milestone the slain college student eagerly anticipated and wrote about in her online journal. Instead, dozens of relatives, friends and strangers filed into a funeral home in Vienna to bid farewell, one week after her remains were found in a ravine east of Richmond.
“I can’t stand it. How does this happen to a young girl like that?” said Samantha Murat, a longtime Vienna resident who attended the closed-casket viewing with her sister. “It’s just so very sad. I feel like she is one of my own. I watched her every night [on television]. I saw her parents inside. I told them I didn’t know her, but I feel like I know her. I told them she’s in heaven right now. What can you say to parents? [There are] no words.”
Other Related Posts:
Medical Examiner’s Office releases Taylor Marie Behl’s Body to her Family
Taylor Behl May be Buried On her 18th Birthday
October 14th, 2005 at 01:12am
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As reported tonight by Jim Nolan of the Richmond Times Dispatch on MSNBC’s Rita Cosby and Fox News with Greta Van Sestran tonight, Ben Fawley used (correction: his credit card) Taylor Behl’s credit card to buy gas. It was also reported the gas was purchased with his Taylor Behl’s credit card in New Kent County lies between Richmond and Mathews County.
8 News has uncovered new details in that case as well. According to multiple sources, Fawley’s credit card was used to buy gas in New Kent County around the time Behl disappeared. New Kent County lies between Richmond and Mathews County, where Behl’s remains were found.
From MSNBC, Rita Cosby ‘Live & Direct’ for Oct. 12th
JIM NOLAN, “RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH”: Well, Rita, what we know is that sometime in the morning following the night Taylor Behl is said to have disappeared, Ben Fawley’s bank card was recorded in a purchase of gasoline and other items in a location somewhere between Richmond and Mathews County. Mathews County as you know is the location where Taylor Behl’s body was found just last week.
COSBY: You bet. Now, the credit card trail that Jim’s talking about
if, indeed, there’s this purchase from the, quote, sort of “prime suspect,” Ben Fawley, who is a guy who had a relationship with Taylor Behl
credit card purchase in between these two counties the morning of, means he was traveling either to or from. That is pretty significant, right, Vito?
COLUCCI: Oh, that’s very big, Rita. It shows that he’s lying. As an investigator, you knew from day one that he’s lying, but this gives you ammunition now to sit across the table and point your finger at this guy, who basically said he was almost abducted by, let’s say, aliens, mysterious people, OK, that nobody knew about or anything else. Then he says he puts gas in a Spanish person’s car who mysteriously just picks him up and drives him back.
It’s ridiculous stuff. You got to wear this guy down. He’s too used to talking to young kids and getting away with stuff. He’s not going to do that. This is a good PD down there.
COSBY: Now, let me play devil’s advocate, Vito. He’s also—if he did do this, he’s pretty dumb because you leave a paper trail.
More at the Dark Side and Steve Huff
October 12th, 2005 at 11:38pm
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According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, following tests done by the medical examiners office; Taylor Behl’s body was released to her family. There was no conclusive results found as a cause of death according to the medical examiner’s office.
The body of Taylor Marie Behl was released to her family yesterday as sources close to the investigation into her death said the medical examiner’s office will need more tests to determine how she died.
One law enforcement source close to the investigation said the initial autopsy showed “nothing obvious” that would allow investigators to definitively establish a cause of death. The case is listed as “pending.”
“We need a much deeper analysis,” said the source, noting that the process to identify a cause could take weeks as forensic investigators await the results of additional tests on her remains, described as mostly skeletal.
The family has the sad task of making arrangements for the burial of Taylor Behl. There will be a visitation tomorrow and the funeral will take place on Friday.
George O. Peterson, an attorney for Behl’s mother, Janet Pelasara, said plans were to hold a visitation tomorrow — on what would have been Behl’s 18th birthday — followed by a funeral Friday, both in her hometown of Vienna in Fairfax County.
Peterson said the services would be closed to the media and all but “family, friends and well-wishers” of Behl.
Yesterday, the Police task force investigating the Taylor Behl case issued a plea to residents of Mathews County for any information about Behl. Specifically, police are interested in talking to anyone who saw the following items:
Virginia license plate “GRN ERTH”;
Virginia license plate “JPC 2848″;
Ohio license plate “EP 34 KW”; and
a white Ford Escort.
needs the help of citizens in Mathews County.
Police are asking anyone who may have seen her white Ford Escort in the county to call authorities.
October 12th, 2005 at 10:46pm
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If you think it looks familiar, look again. No its not New Orleans or the Gulf Coast regions
. It is New England. To be specific, its Keene, NH. Known this time of year for its picturesque fall foliage and leaf peepers; this weekend tragedy and mother nature struck. Three more deaths are being blamed on heavy rain and flooding in the Northeast, raising the death count to 10.
From North Carolina to Maine, continuous rain forced hundreds of people from their homes, knocked out power and flooded roads. And the situation could get worse.
While the floodwaters have receded in some areas, the National Weather Service said rain is expected for the next several days. The rain was also described as a factor in three traffic deaths in Maine.
Earlier, in eastern New York, officials found the body of a 6-year-old boy who’d been swept away in a swollen river, and the man who dove in to try to save him.
Just like during the devastation that occurred during the hurricanes Katrina and Rita; the torrential rain storms took their toll on property, buildings and life.
“Not since the ’38 hurricane. The ’38 hurricane was worse than this,” resident Dale Wilson said. “I think the last flood we had here was in ’79. It took out some of the roads, but nothing like this.”
Debris littered the streets as the waters receded. Many homes were 
damaged, some beyond repair.
“We’ve done all we can do. It’s gone,” resident Paul Palmisano said. Palmisano’s house was perched precariously on the banks of the river, the ground eaten away by the surging waters.
“Everything we have is in there,” he said. “If it falls in the river, we have nothing.”
(full story)
October 11th, 2005 at 01:17am
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According to CBS News, Taylor Behl, whose body had been recovered last may be laid to rest this coming Thursday. It would have been Taylor Behl’s 18th birthday.
(CBS) Taylor Behl, the slain Virginia Commonwealth University freshman, may be laid to rest Thursday, which would have been her 18th birthday, her father tells The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler.
Behl’s father, Matt Behl, told Syler Monday her funeral will probably be held Thursday.
“Of course,” he said, “this is something we had not planned. But hopefully, if we can, (if) all the arrangements come together, her mother and I will take her to burial on Thursday.”
Taylor Behl’s father, Matt Behl, made some comments regarding lessons to be learned for parents and children regarding the internet and what one puts out there.
“I think a lot of parents are probably in similar situations, in not knowing exactly what is going on with their kids, other than the precautionary tales of, ‘Be careful what you put out there.’
“But some of these Internet sites where children are putting out a lot of personal information about themselves, I don’t think parents are wholly aware of it. And in the discussions that I’ve had with some of my friends who have children, or other parents, they are becoming more aware.
A memorial service was help for Taylor Behl
A community has come together to remember a Virginia college student found murdered earlier in the week.
Memorial services were held for 17-year-old Taylor Behl on Friday.
Behl was a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University, and her body was found Wednesday buried off a dirt path in a rural area.
She had been missing for about a month.
Other Taylor Behl related posts
October 10th, 2005 at 03:05pm
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I do not think many people gave it much credence when police and authorities originally claimed that Ben Fawley was not a “person of interest” in the Taylor Marie Behl disappearance. Police state that clues that lead to the discovery of Taylor Behl’s body came from pictures that were on Ben Fawley’s web site.
Police found the body of Virginia Commonwealth University freshman Taylor Marie Behl, 17, after examining photographs on the Web site of an amateur photographer who was one of the last people to see Behl alive.
“I don’t think that I would be too far off base to say that he is a suspect in this case,” Richmond police chief Rodney Monroe said Friday on CBS News’ The Early Show
However, Ben Fawley has still not been charged in the Behl case but is being held on other non-related charges.
Photo led police to student’s body
Police found the critical photo that led them to Behl’s remains on one of Fawley’s Web sites, where he had posted a gallery of his digital snapshots.
Internet Central In Behl Case
The Early Show correspondent Tracy Smith reports that the two met through Web sites where people post photos and messages. Taylor shared intimate details of her life on these sites, Smith reports.
“There seems to be a lot of information on here that someone who didn’t know her would have a pretty good idea who she is and what she’s all about,” one computer expert told Smith.
While the Internet can put young people like Behl at risk, Smith reports, experts also say it can provide clues when they go missing.
“It really can offer nearly a complete profile of the individual,” one expert told Smith. “Who they spoke to, when and where they expect to go, where they’ve been in their past.”
On Taylor’s Web site, there are numerous messages from Fawley, who took and posted pictures of Taylor on the Internet.
October 7th, 2005 at 04:02pm
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Police say that Donald Cameron, 78, of Lima was reported missing.
The Livingston County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the death of an elderly man who was reported missing Wednesday.
Police say that Donald Cameron, 78, of Lima was reported missing. Cameron’s wife told police that she saw their van in the pond at the back of their property.
Sheriff’s scuba divers recovered the body of Donald Cameron. His wife told police that he needed daily heart medication
(full story)
October 6th, 2005 at 10:30pm
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New York State police divers located two of three victims and the wreckage of a missing Piper aircraft that crashed into Lake Erie near Dunkirk, NY in late August. The plane was located in about 80 feet of water.
After nearly six weeks of searching the lake bottom, police, U.S. Coast Guard officials and a Texas-based nonprofit search organization pinpointed the site where the plane came to rest. The divers found the wreckage at about 1 p.m., police said.
“We found a significant portion of the fuselage. It had the tail number on it,” said Sgt. Alvaro Garcia, a State Police diver from Albany. “We came across a victim on the first dive, and we knew what we had.”
The Texas-based nonprofit search organization was Texas Equusearch who had volunteered and deployed to Dunkirk, NY to help locate the missing plane and recover the three young adults after previous searchers had come up empty.
Texas Equusearch has deployed to Dunkirk, NY, to assist the New York State Police and Niagara Regional Police Department in the search and recovery of 3 young adults, victims of a tragic August 26th plane crash in Lake Erie.
The victims are three Pennsylvanians, 22-year-old pilot James Regal; Regal’s best friend, 24-year-old Kevin Jesteadt; and Jesteadt’s girlfriend, 23-year-old Lindsay Myers. The three were returning from a sight seeing trip over Niagara Falls where
The search has been primarily conducted by New York state police, who have contributed a dive team and a vessel equipped equipped with side-scanning sonar; although several other entities were involved, including a Texas-based non-profit group that assists in finding missing persons both on land and water.
Texas Equusearch of Dickinson, Texas, supplied a dive team and people with technical expertise in the interpretation of side-scan sonar and analyzing the flight radar data supplied by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Related stories:
Wreckage, body found in missing plane case
Missing plane found in lake off Dunkirk
October 6th, 2005 at 08:23pm
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The body found yesterday in the wooded area 70 miles east of Richmond, VA has been positively identified as missing teen Taylor Behl according to a press conference on Fox News. God Bless Taylor and her family. 
Fox News Breaking News; Police: Remains Found in Virginia Are Those of Missing Student
From Fox News: Police: Remains Found Are Missing VA Student’s According to police the cause of death has not yet been determined; however, it is confirmed that the remains found yesterday were that of missing VCU freshman Taylor Marie Behl.
The identification was made through dental records and the investigation is continuing, police said during a news conference. They said that “the scope of this case has narrowed significantly” and they were confident they’d resolve it soon.
NBC4; Remains Positively Identified As Missing Teen
VIENNA, Va. — Human remains found Wednesday in a remote part of Mathews County, Va., have been positively identified as those of a missing teenage college student. Officials said Thursday afternoon that the positive identification was made through dental records at the state’s medical examiner’s office. A cause of death has not been determined. Investigators said Taylor Behl’s mother and father were notified about the identification.
Video of Press Conference from WAVY 10
UPDATE:6:00 EDT: Richmond Times Dispatch; Richmond Police confirm remains to be Taylor Behl
“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.
On the matter of Jesse Schultz, a 22-year-old Richmonder, authorities said the following:
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.”
The most damning connection of Benjamin Fawley to the crime scene and Taylor Behl is the fact that Fawley’s ex-girlfriend lead investigators to the farm property that her family owns.
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.
October 6th, 2005 at 02:32pm
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The mother of missing VCU freshman Taylor Maria Behl believes that the remains found yesterday are that of her daughter. Although police and investigators have not made a 
formal announcement as to the identity of the body found in the wooded area 75 miles east of Richmond. Janet Pelasara, said at a news conference outside her home in Vienna,
“The body found is most likely my baby’s.”
The body was found in a shallow grave off a dirt path that led from one of the county’s roads into a heavily wooded area about 75 miles east of Richmond. Investigators were tipped to this area of interest from an “ex-girlfriend of a man interviewed in connection with the disappearance of Taylor Marie Behl.”
An ex-girlfriend of a man interviewed in connection with the disappearance of Taylor Marie Behl yesterday led investigators to a Mathews County farm where police discovered the severely decomposed remains of an unidentified person, law-enforcement sources told The Times-Dispatch. Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe said it could be several days before the remains — found in a wooded area off a dirt road behind a barn on private land — are positively identified.
Update: From CBS; Mom: Body Likely ‘My Baby’s’
The mother of a missing college freshman said Thursday she believes a body found in a wooded area is her daughter, who was last seen alive at her school dorm Sept. 5.
“The body found is most likely my baby’s,” said Janet Pelasara during a news conference at her home in Vienna, Va.
From the Richmond Times Dispatch: Human remains “most likely” Taylor Behl’s, mother says
The mother of missing Virginia Commonwealth University student Taylor Marie Behl said this morning that she believes the body found yesterday by police in rural Mathews County is “most likely” her daughter’s.
Taylor Behl Discussion Forum
October 6th, 2005 at 12:27pm
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