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The situation keeps getting more and more complicated for Ben Fawley. The Taylor Behl investigation now leads to an illegal firearms charge against Ben Fawley.
An amateur photographer considered a suspect by police in the death of a college student was charged with illegal firearms possession, the Richmond Police Department announced Monday.
The situation keeps getting more and more difficult for Ben Fawley as first he is arrested on child pornography, then fire arms possession. Can another indictment be too far away?
Ben Fawley, 38, who has been in custody since being arraigned last month on 16 counts of possession of child pornography, has not been charged in the death of 17-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University freshman Taylor Marie Behl. Fawley was charged Friday with possession of a firearm while a convicted felon. State law, however, prevents police from providing details on the felony conviction upon which Fawley was charged on the latest count. Investigators said Fawley was in possession of firearms prior to Behl’s disappearance.
WRIC News 8
Richmond Police tell us the prime suspect in the Taylor Behl investigation could be arraigned as early as today on a new, unrelated charge – possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
October 10th, 2005 at 07:28pm
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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.
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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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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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Investigators in the Taylor Behl disappearance today found a body in a heavily wooded area discovered the body buried on private property in Mathews County, about 75 miles east of Richmond. Although investigators refused to say whether they believe they had found Taylor Marie Behl, many have speculated from the information provided that it is.
MATHEWS, Va. (AP) – A task force investigating the disappearance of a 
college freshman unearthed a body from a wooded area Wednesday, but refused to say whether they believe they had found Taylor Marie Behl.
“During the past week, we have gone into a mode of searching locations that we knew Taylor to have visited based on statements, based on photographs, based on a host of other things,” said Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe. “That is what led us to this particular location.”
(Full Story)
According to The Washington Post, police task force investigating the disappearance of Taylor Marie Behl found a decomposed body in a shallow grave yesterday. 
A police task force investigating the disappearance of college student Taylor Marie Behl found a decomposed body in a shallow grave yesterday east of Richmond and were trying to identify the remains last night, police said.
The investigators were led to the grave, in coastal Mathews County about 80 miles east of Richmond, through “credible” information collected in interviews with Behl’s friends and acquaintances, a source close to the investigation said. Clothing was also found in the rural area, a place Behl was known to have visited, the source said.
This week, we’ve been going to various locations that we’ve known her to frequent,” said Richmond Police Chief Rodney D. Monroe. “Those locations were based on where people told us she had gone and photographs we’ve seen her in. Outstanding investigative work led us there.”
Monroe declined to elaborate but said a medical examiner and federal forensics investigators were at the scene in a field off a farm road in the largely rural area.
Credible information and photographs were used to locate areas that Taylor Behl frequented.
The grave was located behind a barn on an isolated piece of private property, 
police said. Photographs of the area that were captured by hovering news helicopters showed several acres of greenery, with several white buildings bordered by clusters of large trees.
The discovery came the same day that a multi-jurisdictional grand jury convened in Richmond Circuit Court to hear evidence in Behl’s case. The special jury is composed of about a dozen residents drawn from regular jury pools in Richmond and its surrounding areas, according to the Web site for Henrico County, adjacent to Richmond.
Recent Posts:
Behl task force investigates body in Mathews County 70 miles east of Richmond, VA
Others covering the story:
Taylor Behl Notagz
In a video just uploaded on the WJLA ABC7 News, it is now reported that a source close to the family has said that they are 99.9% certain that the body is that of Taylor Behl. WJLA reports that Janet Pelasara has been spotted on the scene.
An Inch From Murder; Officials Investigating Missing Va. Teen Find Remains
Lynchburg Virginia; Shallow Graves: A Body Found
Update: Washington Times; Remains found in hunt for girl
“The FBI has begun processing the scene,” Chief Monroe told a press conference yesterday. “At this time, we do not, I repeat, we do not know who the remains belong to. We contacted [Miss Behl's] family as precaution.”
Family members said they were confident that the remains belonged to Miss Behl, WJLA-TV (Channel 7) reported. She has been missing from the VCU campus in Richmond since Labor Day.
Taylor Behl Discussion Forum
October 6th, 2005 at 12:21am
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Breaking news in the Taylor Behl case. The remains of a body have been found 70-75 miles east of Richmond, VA. There has been no official confirmation as to the identity of the body.
(Richmond Times Dispatch) Body found 70 miles east of Richmond Updated: 6:34 p.m.
The Richmond police task force investigating the disappearance of Virginia Commonwealth University student Taylor Marie Behl has discovered the remains of a body in rural Mathews County. Sources close to the investigation said the body has not been identified. It was discovered in a shallow grave behind a barn on an isolated piece of private property just west of Diggs, a community along the Chesapeake Bay just south of Rigby Island. The area is about 70 miles east of Richmond.
“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.
UPDATE: NBC4; Officials Investigating Missing Va. Teen Find Remains
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.
(Full story)
WAVY10; 
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.
Recording of interview from Sheriff Press Conference
Update: ABC News 7, Police Confirm Human Remains Found In Mathews County
Police said the remains were discovered in a grave in a heavily wooded area on private property in the county, about 75 miles east of Richmond.
Police crime scene tape blocked access to a dirt path that led off a rural road to part of the crime scene, where investigators worked Wednesday evening underneath a green tent surrounded by orange cones, two vans and a truck.
“During the past week, we have gone into a mode of searching locations that we knew Taylor to have visited based on statements, based on photographs, based on a host of other things,” Monroe said. “That is what led us to this particular location.”
Police would not say if the body was female, and said it would take several days for identification. It was not clear how long the body had been there, Monroe said.
“We will not know who or what evidence those remains present until we have an opportunity for the medical examiner’s office to make that determination,” Monroe said.
Behl’s mother, Janet Pelasara, was contacted by police about the body as a courtesy, Monroe said.
A family friend who answered the phone at Pelasara’s home Wednesday night said Pelasara would not be making any statement until the body has been identified.
UPDATE: Fox News; Body in Woods May Be Missing Va. Student
Task force investigating the disappearance of a college freshman unearthed a body from a wooded area Wednesday, but refused to say whether they believe they had found Taylor Marie Behl.
October 5th, 2005 at 08:13pm
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While the investigation goes on in to the disappearance of Taylor Behl, Taylor’s blogs give Richmond Police an intimate look into lives of teen and her friends.
Prior to her disappearance Taylor had an opportunity to put many things into her own personal blog.
Before she disappeared from a Richmond university four weeks ago, Taylor Marie Behl recorded her moods, her crushes, her insecurities in 50 entries she posted online over the span of 12 months. In language both spare and pensive, she detailed rites of passage, from earning her driver’s license to preparing for university.
With her chronicles, Behl, 17, of Vienna gained entry into a vast virtual community, a very public arena in which her writings were there for anyone to see at any time, a personal diary with no key.
One does wonder as to why so many provide so many personal accounts and details of their personal lives in forums open for all to see.
Now police also are privy to the disagreements that Behl had with her parents, her emotions on any given day, even her sexual exploits. By combing through the missing student’s online journal and profiles, they learned not only about her favorite musicians and movies but also about the many people with whom she was acquainted on the Internet — users with such online identities as “Citizen Cope” and “Chaos.”
As it turns out the internet has become are great forensic tool for investigators to get leads and clues.
The Internet, police said, has emerged as a virtual tip machine that often maps the course of an investigation. Within seconds, detectives are able to amass a great deal of information about someone, either through a search engine such as Google or on Web logs, such as the one that Behl maintained at LiveJournal.com, where more than 8 million people, most of them teenagers and college students, document their thoughts.
“It’s real surprising what people put out on the Internet about themselves, what they’re interested in, what they’re thinking,” said Richmond police Detective Jeff Deem, one of several officers assigned to Behl’s case. “Every case is different, but if we know that someone is a heavy Internet user, we’re going to go online and look around.”
Taylor Behl blog begins as follows:
Behl created her Web log, or blog, April 6, 2004. In her first entry, titled “Oh la la,” Behl wrote that her mother found out a boy had visited while she was out. “I’m just trouble,” she wrote. Two weeks later, she “decided that all boys suck.”
Mostly, Behl’s online writings captured the angst and mood swings typical among teenagers.
There were moments of sadness: “I now know that everyone is useless and really doesn’t care.”
There were moments of anger: “I’m so (expletive) tired of everyone making decisions in my best interest. Don’t I get a (expletive) say? NO. Sorry, not ’til you’re 18.”
And there were moments of utter and exposed joy: “I’ll have my own car on Sunday . . . yesssssssssssssss!”
(The rest of the article)
October 4th, 2005 at 09:31pm
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The Washington Times is reporting the items the police seized from the residence of Ben Fawley, the 38 year old photographer, the so-called former “person of interest” in the disappearance of Taylor Behl.
Items seized in a search of the apartment belonging to a man under investigation in the disappearance of Virginia Commonwealth University freshman Taylor Marie Behl include fabric from a mattress that might be stained with blood, a cell phone that might belong to Taylor, women’s clothes and a .32-caliber gun cartridge, court documents released yesterday show.
Police refused to comment on the seized items, citing the ongoing investigation.
Richmond Police spokeswoman Kirsten Nelson went on to elaborate on the about the designation of Ben Fawley as a former “person of interest.”
“We are not calling him a person of interest because he is not a suspect, but we are still looking at him very seriously.”
Other items that were seized by police in the Sept. 23 search of Ben Fawley’s residence include:
videotapes, bags of clothes, a hatchet, a hammer and three pairs of underwear from an outdoor garbage can; a beaded necklace with a cross and a watch from an outdoor supercan; a black brassiere, white panties, tissues and tampon wrappers, several VCU student IDs — which might include one belonging to Taylor, copies of student IDs, a box of bones and five skateboards from inside Mr. Fawley’s apartment.
Also seized were several fitted bedsheets, a futon cover, a bra and hat and a vacuum cleaner bag.
Police also commented about the stolen license plate, “GRN ERTH”, that occurred at the same time as Taylor Behl but did not go into great detail.
“There were some details revealed about the license plate that we cannot reveal at this point,” Mr. Peterson said. “It doesn’t suggest one way or another” whether Taylor is alive.
The personalized “GRN ERTH” Jamestown 400th Anniversary Virginia plate was stolen in Richmond about the time the 17-year-old disappeared. The person from whom the plate was stolen is not connected with the case, police said.
UPDATE: Richmond Times Dispatch, Items to be studied in Behl case
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.
“The license plate means something to us but we are not prepared to say what at this time,” Miss Nelson said.
September 30th, 2005 at 11:21am
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From NBC 4, Details About Search Of Photographer’s Home Released. Missing Teen’s Friend Charged With Child Pornography
News4 has learned new details about what police were looking for and what they found when they searched the home of a photographer being questioned in the disappearance of a Virginia Commonwealth University student from Vienna.
A copy of the police search warrant shows investigators were looking for 17-year-old Taylor Behl’s cell phone, her skateboard, and her key ring or car keys.
It’s unclear whether any items belonging to Behl were found, but authorities said they did confiscate numerous cell phones in Fawley’s home, a skateboard, sex toys, and women’s clothing.
(full story)
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Taylor Behl Discussion Forum
September 30th, 2005 at 02:32am
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