Keen Pursuit: Taylor Behl

Hi all -

For my first real blog post, I’d like to discuss a case that’s very close to my heart for a myriad of different reasons.  When I first heard about this case, I had just graduated from college, my memories of being a tiny freshman on a large campus still fresh in my mind.  When the events I’m about to share with you began to unfold, I had only just moved away from my childhood home in a rural town in north central Massachusetts to a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, NY.  It felt like I had just left home for the first time all over again; becoming a REALLY tiny fish in a really large pond. An ocean, even.  I tell you this so you can understand the context of why this case stuck with me as profoundly as it has.  Even with its resolution happening relatively quickly, this is the case that will always come to mind when people like Dave ask me ‘so what’s your case? What’s the one case that stuck with you and made you want to look deeper and know more?’. This is ‘my’ case. This is the one that will always lurk in the back of my mind for so many reasons.  I related to this girl. I felt as though what happened to her could happen to any young girl going off into the wide world alone.  I also felt, and still feel, like she didn’t receive the justice she deserved.  Although this case was resolved, and the man responsible for her horrendous death is behind bars as we speak, I don’t feel as though she got anything resembling the justice she so deserved.  She was taken from this world so young, and so full of promise.  She was only 17; she could have gone on to do great things.  From everything I’ve read and heard, she had great promise.  For her life to have ended frankly at its beginning is nothing short of tragic. 

So without any more flowery words from me, I’m going to introduce you to the girl that captivated me so that I have spent the last 18 years pursuing knowledge of what happened to her to not only put my mind to rest, but to also bring a true sense of closure to her loved ones.  This is the case that got me to where I am right now, always searching tirelessly to find the truth.

Her name was Taylor Behl.

Taylor was born on October 13, 1987.  She grew up bouncing around from place to place for her childhood; maturing her beyond her years (she was sophisticated) until settling down in Virginia with her mother, Janet Pelasara. Always told her mom what she was doing. Taylor graduated from James Madison High School in Vienna, VA with the class of 2005, and spent her last summer at home excited about the prospects college had in store for her. 

Case Timeline:

September 5th – Taylor is last seen.

Taylor ate dinner with Jake Cunningham, her ex boyfriend. He dropped her at her dorm around 9pm. She calls a guy at 9:45 pm; there's no mention of who this guy is, only that he’s clear of any suspicion. She then goes upstairs to her dorm room; walking in on her roommate with a guy. Taylor takes her keys and money and says she’s going skateboarding and will be back in a few hours. At about 10:20pm she leaves the dorm. There is security footage showing Taylor leaving, and that is the last she is seen.

September 6th – no news

September 7th – Morning – Taylor's roommate calls VCU police to report Taylor missing. VCU Police call her mom and let her know, she and Taylor’s dad drive right down.

Mom calls all local hospitals herself and checks cell phone records and bank records; there is no activity on either. Taylor’s car also cannot be located.

Mom puts up missing flyers – VCU police take down the posters as soon as she put them up

Mom calls the media herself and Taylor’s disappearance becomes big news

September 15th - 10 days in – Richmond Police take over the investigation and set up a joint task force. Richmond Police put out an Amber Alert & hold a press conference, letting the public know that they brought in VA state police and FBI.

Police focus on finding her white Ford Escort. They find the car on 9/17, parked in a residential neighborhood (North Mulberry St). They watched the car for 12 hours and no one approached it.

The VA license plates were replaced with stolen plates from Ohio.  Residents in the area say the car showed up right when Taylor’s disappearance became big news. Plates were lifted off another student’s vehicle 2 months prior.

K9 is brought in to try and trace Taylor’s scent; the dog did not find her scent leaving the car at all.  The K9 then traces a scent from the driver’s side of the car to a residence on North Shepard St. The residence is owned by an older couple, the aunt and uncle of Jesse Schultz. Jesse is a 22 year old restaurant worker who lives in Richmond. He was given a polygraph due to his suspicious behavior and the police dogs tracing his scent from Taylor's car. Jesse's polygraph indicated deception on the question of whether he knew Taylor and whether he’d been in her car. The police found he had no connection to Taylor and cleared him as a suspect.

Let's remember: the dog did alert to FEAR scent in the backseat. This will come up again later.

Police then start looking at Ben Fawley (38), an amateur photographer.

Ben’s first story was that he was abducted, beaten and robbed the night Taylor went missing:

"I was out very early, not sure of the time but the sun hadn't been up long. I was heading up to Monument to take photos when 3 to 4 guys jumped me. They got a trash bag over my head before I could see them. Tossed me into a car and dumped me out on some dirt road. I wasn't hurt much, just from where that sat on me. As they never said a word I am sure this was not just a robbery. My one camera and tripod is missing along with the $20.00 I had tucked in the camera. I didn't have my wallet, but I did have my bank card and that wasn't taken..."

Ben says initially that he hadn’t seen Taylor that day, then changes his story. He claimed to have been with her when she wasn’t even in Richmond (she was at home in Vienna with her mom). He changes his story AGAIN saying he met Taylor at the dorm after Jake left her.

He says Taylor told him to wait outside for her while she went upstairs to get stuff. He walked with her to his apartment so he could lend her a skateboard. She left a couple hours later to go skateboarding.

He says he was abducted when he went to go take photos; unknown people threw a bag over his head, threw him in a van, beat him and left him in the middle of nowhere and he had to walk home.

Ben admits a sexual relationship with Taylor (a crime as she was a minor); and a search warrant is executed on his residence. They find child porn, and he is arrested on 16 counts of child porn. They don’t find any evidence connecting him with Taylor. In speaking with Ben's friends/roommate, the police discover that he has a history of choking women; one ex he tried to choke, one he tried to smother with a pillow.

Ben's ex girlfriend Erin Crabill is brought in for questioning once the police had information about Ben's history of violence with women. Police show her many of Ben's photographs that they found on his computer hard drives. Erin recognizes a shack in one of the photos, and identifies it as one on her parent's property; a farmhouse 70 miles away from VCU.

Police go and visit the property Erin specified on October 5th, a month after Taylor went missing. They walked the property, but did not initially see anything. When officers began walking down a rural dirt road down the side of the property, the smell of decomposition hit. Following the smell, Taylor's remains were found in a shallow grave in a culvert next to the road. Due to the extensive amount of decomposition after being left outside in the elements for a month, dental records were required to identify the remains as Taylor's.

After Taylor's remains are found, Ben changes his story again. He tells police that he and Taylor went for a drive and ‘ended up’ at the farmhouse. He says she told him to strangle her during sex. He says she was breathing but unconscious. She died later while he drove her car back to Richmond, and then he returned to the remote area and dumped her body. Ben further says that he buried her because he panicked.

He claims everything was consensual. She had tape on her forearms and wrists (kinky or foul play? Ben says they were roleplaying). K9 detected fear scent at the site where her body was found.

Ben Fawley claims Taylor's death was an accident; he had no motive to hurt her. He didn’t intentionally hurt her. Mom says he’s a big fat liar.  Taylor wasn’t interested in him, and he had a habit of violently going after women who weren’t interested in him anymore.

In the course of their investigation, police found that Fawley used a credit card between Richmond and the site of the remains on that night for gas.

In the autopsy, the medical examiner opines death by homicide, but due the state of her remains, no cause of death could be determined.

1/16/06 – Ben charged with 1st degree murder

8/9/06 – Ben’s trial begins. Ben takes the Alford plea. An Alford plea is basically a no contest plea. By entering an Alford plea, you're essentially saying that a reasonable jury could find sufficient evidence to convict, but you won't admit guilt. Fawley receives 30 years for 2nd degree murder. The prosecution DROPPED all charges of child porn. I have thoughts on this, but that's an entire new blog.

Justice wasn’t done; Fawley never had to stand up and take responsibility for taking Taylor’s life. He simply took an Alford plea; he never had to admit to Taylor's murder. He claimed to police that he accidentally strangled Taylor during sex; that she’d told him to choke her during sex and he had accidentally strangled her.

He blamed her OWN murder ON HER. That is fully and completely disgusting.

I did an episode on YCT about Taylor's case, which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6glOZKm-UI&t=4188s

Taylor's mother, Janet Pelasara, wrote a memoir about the case, which is beautiful and should be revered in every way possible. If you'd like to check it out, you can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Love-You-More-Taylor-Story/dp/0061145955/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TIO45UO22Y88&keywords=love+you+more+janet+pelasara&qid=1698344656&sprefix=love+you+more+janet+pelasara%2Caps%2C76&sr=8-1

To read Taylor's own words on her LiveJournal, you can find that here: https://tiabliaj.livejournal.com/