The investigation into the murder of Taylor Behl continues to move forward, but not at the same frenetic pace as the investigation to locate her. Though the pace is slower it is methodical. Richmond Police Chief, Rodney Monroe tells us that the task force wants to be sure that when they charge someone, those charges "stick." The investigation continues to gather evidence from around the burial site and investigators continue to examine the contents of the computer equipment owned by the named suspect in this case, Benjamin William Fawley.

Ben Fawley is in jail awaiting hearings on charges that are, so far, unrelated to Taylor Behl's disappearance. The first set of charges (multiple counts of possession of child pornography) against Ben Fawley, should he be found guilty, appear to be enough to keep in prison for the rest of his life. The second charge that Fawley faces is the possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Fawley voluntarily surrendered the weapon to an attorney, who then turned it over to the police. This transaction took place sometime between Taylor's disappearance and Fawley's child-pornography arrest.

Gathering and examining evidence in Taylor Behl's case makes you wish that the abilities of the forensic investigation genre of television-shows, so popular in mainstream television, were true. Real detectives, real medical examiners, real forensic technicians, and real prosecutors wish that they could dedicate 100% of their time to one case. They wish that they could run DNA comparisons, determine a substance's composition, compare multiple fingerprints against multiple databases, take one look at a soil sample and know within a half a meter where on the face of the earth the soil originated, etc. Though most of the technology seen on television exists, most of the technology does not provide the dramatic and immediate results depicted in the world of fiction.

If this were the television show, "Las Vegas," Danny would have Mike check all of the "DMV" cameras that would have been conveniently placed between Taylor's dorm room, the places she went after leaving her dorm, and finally to the abandoned farm in Mathews County, Virginia. Once they zoomed in on the blurry faces in the vehicles, they would run sophisticated enhancement algorithms to bring the faces into crystal-clear focus. Once they had the faces, they could run them against through various facial databases such as the ones maintained by the FBI, Interpol, and every state's drivers license pictures. Within a minute they would have the names, addresses, work history, criminal history, military record, and shoe size. Even with all of that, Grissom, from "CSI Las Vegas" would want to "follow the evidence" and take scrapings from the pants of the chief suspect. He would know which clothing that suspect wore from the photographs used by Danny and Mike. He would find a footprint along side the shallow grave and perhaps notice a microscopic anomaly with the sole of the shoe. Based on the depth of the imprint, the density of the soil, the weather over the past weeks, and the distance between that print and the next one, he could determine the height and weight of the suspect. Of course, criminals being the idiots that they are on TV, the suspect would have wadded up any clothing and left it in the bottom of the dirty-clothes hamper for the forensic technicians to find. His shoes would have been left in a closet, the only pair covered in leaves and dirt among twenty other pair. Once the heroes of TV found the truth in the evidence, Jack McCoy from the prosecuting attorney's office would know which pieces of the vast mound of evidence gathered to present to a court. He would know just the right way to present the evidence to a jury, just the right questions to ask of witnesses, and of course, just the right way to get the defendant to take the stand where he could destroy him with his pointed cross-examination.

Unfortunately, a real investigation can take weeks, or even months, before all of the evidence is gathered and analyzed. Because of the television shows like the ones described above, criminals are receiving an education in how to cover their forensic tracks. The world of the Internet, on the other hand, could prove the downfall of the only named suspect in this case. Perhaps Ben Fawley mistakenly thought that he could be anonymous in the cyber-world. After all, any ten-year old can fool mom and dad by deleting their online history. Perhaps he did not consider that thousands of amateur sleuths would examine his every move in the digital vastness of the World Wide Web. Perhaps he did not believe that his fellow Internet users would alert investigators about every clue, no matter how insignificant they seemed, or perhaps he believed he could simply get away with murder.

The Virginia Medical Examiner's Office, the Taylor Behl Task Force, and forensic technicians, to be sure, will examine every clue, every piece of evidence, in their desire to make sense of this senseless crime. Though sense may never be made of the purpose of the crime, you can count on the fact that they will be diligent in their efforts to determine who committed such an incomprehensible act on another human being and to provide the necessary evidence to convict the a coward, a killer of a 135 pound young lady.

As Ms. Pelasara has indicated several times since the remains were discovered last Wednesday, she hopes that upon conviction, the person responsible for taking her daughter away from her receives the death penalty. We all know that road from arrest to the execution of the accused, is a very long road. Perhaps Taylor's family can derive some satisfaction in knowing that Ben Fawley's youthful looks will bring him a Hell of his own while incarcerated. While I may not know Ben Fawley, I cannot help but think that what awaits him could not be meant for a more deserving person.

Please check the "Fawley's Fickle Faces" page for some additional pictures.

So far there are no links for Sunday, 10/09/2005.

The links below are to the major network news and the stations in the area providing full coverage of Taylor's Case. These are the major source of the information provided on this site. Also included are links to the various Weblogs and other sites of interest.

The links below are to the major network news and the stations in the area providing full coverage of Taylor's Case. These are the major source of the information provided on this site. Also included are links to the various Weblogs and other sites of interest.

The information on this page was obtained through public and private sources. The images may be updated, changed, corrected, or deleted by E-mailing me at willnotagz@aol.com. You may also view an updated version of this webpage at: http://taylorbehl.notagz.com/. You may use the pictures and host them on official or other private sites. Where possible give collage credit to E-mail me at willnotagz@aol.com. I also welcome messages regarding broken links, continuity, grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.

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Permissions: Anyone may quote from, reprint, repost, or otherwise transmit the article above provided they give credit to the writer, William Drummond, and reference the website http://taylorbehl.notagz.com.

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