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NBC4 has a short blurb on their website saying that Fawley spoke to the police about Taylor's death. This is a small piece of new information, as the prior reports only indicated that his conversation with the police was about the night that Taylor disappeared. Investigators are checking out Fawley's version of what happened that night.

WVEC interviewed an expert in occult practices to obtain his impression of the items seized from Fawley's home by the police. Don Rimer says that he finds some of the items very alarming, saying that they are clear signs of Satanic worship. When asked why these types of items concern him, he replied, "It alarms me because in my years of experience one of the things we've seen across the country is individuals use those in rituals." Rimer also says that some of Fawley's postings online point in the same direction.

Jim Nolan of the Richmond Times-Dispatch's made the following observations during the church services held for Taylor Behl today, one day after she would have turned 18.

A funeral today commemorating the life of Virginia Commonwealth University freshman Taylor Marie Behl was "beautiful and touching, short and sweet, just like Taylor's life," her mother said.

More than 500 friends and relatives said good-bye this morning to Behl, a 17-year-old teenager whose remains were found in a wooded area of remote Mathews County about a month after she disappeared. She was memorialized in a 45-minute funeral held at Church of the Holy Comforter in her hometown of Vienna in Fairfax County.

After the service, a gaunt and devastated Janet Pelasara, Behl's mother, told reporters she hoped the next time she speaks publicly about the case would be to announce the arrest of the "sick subhuman . . . who murdered my beautiful daughter." Flanked by a family member and her attorney, Pelasara renewed her desire that the person responsible for Taylor's death receive the death penalty "so he may continue his downward spiral into the depths of Hell."

Most mourners filing out of the A-framed brick church walked silently through a steady rain to their cars. The impact of Behl's death and funeral was etched on their rain-streaked faces. "It's very, very sad," said Daniel Moery, a mourner who attended with his family and infant daughter. "I feel so sorry."

June Harper's four teenaged daughters served as acolytes. There wasn't a dry eye," said Harper, "especially when friends and family got up and started speaking." Harper, whose children -- like Behl -- attended Madison High School, said the service made her realize "how much [Behl] was loved, how much she was missed." Standing beside her in the rain was her 17-year-old daughter, Lauren, a senior at Madison and just one class behind Behl in school. "Why did she have to die?" Lauren said. "She's my age. It's hard to think about." Her mother said Behl's story "scares me to death. I have more teenage daughters. They make good decisions and run into the right kind of people, but some things just happen that you have no control over."

Today, the service at Church of the Holy Comforter was more a celebration of how she lived.

Richmond Times-Dispatch

While most of the coverage of this case has been about the facts, some reports have strayed into the arena of speculation. Most of the reporters covering the story have been respectful of the feelings of the family and friends of Taylor, as well as those of the public. Having said that, I need to express my opinion of the articles posted by Jim Nolan with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. I have read every word posted on the Times-Dispatch website. Since the very beginning the coverage has been professional, and lacking in sensationalism. This is both a testament to Jim Nolan's character as a person as well as his dedication to his profession. The Times-Dispatch, by printing the stories without the hyped-up sensationalized headlines, display their commitment to their community, and their respect for the family and friends of Taylor Behl.

WRIC TV8 News is running a story about Fawley's past relationships. TV8 refers to court documents that describe serveral acts of violence alleged by ex-girlfriends. One described an incident where Fawley wrapped his arms around her neck, choking her, because she ended her relationship with Fawley. Jessica Payton, like Taylor, met Fawley during her freshman year at VCU. During their year-long relationship, Payton told TV8 that Fawley sometimes became violent. "I'm glad I got out of there. The best thing that ever happened to me was leaving," Payton told TV8.

In the past week, we have read about Fawley's newest criminal charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. There have been hints that there was more than one gun, but today, NBC12 News is confirming that two guns were turned over to the police. Interestingly, each gun was handed to police by a different attorney. The guns were ostensibly given to the attorneys by Ben Fawley, before the searches of Ben's residence. Recall that a .32 shell casing was one of the items taken into evidence by the police during the searches. The weapons were turned over to police at about the same time that the shell casing was found.

NBC12 reports that Fawley handed both guns over to his attorney, Chris Collins; but, it was not Chris Collins that turned the weapons over to the police. Collins handed the weapons over to another attorney, David Baugh. It was Baugh that turned the guns over to police, and he did so without an explanation. It is unclear if Baugh knew to whom the guns belonged, or why Collins had him turn them over to the police. When approached by NBC12, David Baugh refused to make any comments about the guns, alluding to attorney-client privilege.
Thank you to Virginia Layman for her tip on this article.

NBC12 News

The Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal provided a more in-depth story about the site where Taylor's remains were discovered last week. The paragraphs below were taken from an article written by Charlie Koenig and Sherry Hamilton. The picture of the site is from the Gazette-Journal as well.
Thank you to Kim for her tip on this article.

The Diggs site was one of several searched in the county after Fawley's ex-girlfriend [Erin Crabill], a former resident of Mathews, identified the locations in photographs.

If a murder charge is brought, the prosecution of the accused murderer or murderers appears likely to be held in Mathews, with the assistance of the Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney, if no evidence that the crime took place elsewhere comes to light.

According to the Code of Virginia, "where evidence exists that a homicide has been committed either within or without this Commonwealth, under circumstances which make it unknown where such crime was committed, the offense shall be amenable to prosecution in the courts of the county or city where the body of the victim may be found."

Mathews County Sheriff Danny Howlett concurred with Hicks, saying that if the case is murder and the scene of the murder is not determined, the trial would likely be held in the jurisdiction where the body was found. "But that's way down the road," Howlett said.

For the time being, State Police and FBI forensics experts have their work cut out for them, sifting through the evidence taken from Diggs. "It's going to take several weeks, if not longer," Howlett said.

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AT THE SCENE

The odor of decay drew Virginia Commonwealth University investigators to the wooded ditch off a dirt road in Diggs where they found the skeletal remains of 17-year-old Taylor Behl last Wednesday (Sept. 5) afternoon.

Sheriff Danny Howlett said the two investigators, who had come to Mathews following one of many leads in the case, called the Richmond task force they were working with to report their find. That call triggered a chain of events that would lead to a brief time in the national spotlight for Mathews County. The sheriff recounted the events in an interview last Friday, two days after Behl was found.

As the VCU team waited with the body, said Howlett, Don Thompson, agent-in-charge of the Richmond FBI office, called at around 11:40 a.m. Wednesday to tell the sheriff's office that agents were on the way. Howlett sent Major Brown Strigle to secure the road where Behl's body lay.

Thompson, Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe, VCU police chief Willie B. Fuller, and an assistant commonwealth's attorney for the city quickly left Richmond in a state police helicopter as FBI forensics teams were dispatched from Richmond and Norfolk.

Although the helicopter asked for coordinates to land close to the crime scene, Howlett decided such a landing would attract too much attention and instead directed the helicopter to land in a field at Dixie that had been used for ultralight aircraft. He met the helicopter there around 12:25 p.m. and drove the men to Knight Wood Road, where a crumbling cottage and a ramshackle trailer marked the entrance to the dirt road leading to the scene. Several state police lieutenants met them there.

Howlett said that as a group, he and the other agency heads decided that the state police would be in charge of the scene, the FBI would be in charge of evidence recovery, and the sheriff's office would handle the perimeter and local logistics.

Before the team entered the dirt road, Howlett provided aerial photographs of the scene that were taken during the E-911 mapping process. "Everybody was a little taken aback at our ability to provide stuff at the scene," he said.

On Wednesday, the chiefs and a small contingent of forensics specialists were the only ones who entered the scene. A photographer began taking pictures at the main road as they all walked in to the site where the body lay. There, the victim's lower jaw was removed and sent to the state crime lab so the teeth could be used for identification.

Because daylight was fading and the forensics teams have a rule that they don't begin working a scene until every team member arrives, the decision was made to secure the area for the night and return Thursday morning to begin the task of combing the scene for evidence. Members of the FBI team stayed at the Comfort Inn in Gloucester, while members of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation of the Virginia State Police stayed at the scene in a large panel truck that's used as a command post.

At 7 a.m. Thursday, forensics investigators began the task of evidence recovery. A reconstruction team began mapping the area so that the scene could be reconstructed later during the trial phase. "They're going to question everything in a capital murder case," said Howlett.

To that purpose, a GPS device was used to mark the coordinates of landmarks and anything that might turn out to be evidence, beginning at the main road. The information was then computerized. Howlett said the painstaking job of recovering evidence included visually searching the scene and checking the area with a metal detector, then flagging any item that might be important, determining its GPS coordinates, photographing it, and making extensive written notes describing the item and its location.

"If they found a pin stuck in the ground, they can put it back a year from now," he said.

In order to recover the body without disturbing it, Howlett said the forensics team dug a trench around it that was deeper than the bottom of the ditch and that left the body on a pedestal of dirt in the center. The dirt that was removed was placed in buckets, carried to nearby tables set up under canopies, and carefully sifted through screens for evidence. Howlett said that a specialist in anthropology was part of the team, and that the operation had the appearance of an archaeological dig.

By noon, team members were ready to remove Behl's body. They slid a tarp under her, keeping her in the position in which she was found, and placed her in a bag for transport. Because a news helicopter was overhead, transport was delayed until after the news crew had made its noon broadcast and left the scene. Howlett then directed Foster-Faulkner Funeral Home to enter the area from Rt. 611 Tabernacle Road next to Riverside Convalescent Center -- Mathews, rather than from Rt. 643, where television crews in huge vans with satellite dishes waited for news.

After the body was removed, the team formed a line and walked almost shoulder-to-shoulder across the site, performing a grid search for any further evidence, said Howlett. Then they went about the task of returning the scene to its original condition. By 5 o'clock Thursday, everything was done, said Howlett. All equipment had been packed up, the trench dug around Behl's body had been filled back in, and any trace of the FBI's presence was gone.

As evidence was collected Thursday morning, the sheriff took investigators to three area beaches to search for additional evidence. He said they recovered some items of clothing that might or might not be related to the crime.

Howlett said he was struck both by the professionalism of the FBI agents as they did their jobs and by the care and consideration everyone gave Behl's body.

"Everything was meticulous," he said. "The senior agent on the evidence collection team, a woman, told everybody how it was going to work and the process they were going to go through, and there wasn't any question. They realized the importance of what they had and there were no jokes -- it was a solemn occasion."

The investigation was a success because of good police work on the part of investigators and good coordination among agencies, said Howlett. Even the Middle Peninsula Regional Security Center became involved, providing team members with pastries and muffins for breakfast, with food, snacks, water, and coffee throughout the day, and with a portable toilet at the scene.

"The investigation took a lot of dedicated work on the part of the Richmond police department and VCU," Howlett said. "And when you get the local people involved in the logistics, it makes a difference. Anything the FBI or the state required, we were able to provide. There weren't any turf battles. It all just flowed together awful good."

Although Chief Monroe drew chuckles from local residents when he admitted in front of Mathews Courthouse on Wednesday that he wasn't exactly sure where he was, when he left the scene Thursday afternoon, he expressed his gratitude to Howlett.

"I can't thank you enough for everything you've done," Monroe said.

Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal
WRIC TV8 News
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Washington Post
The Fairfax Time Community

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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