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VIENNA, Va. — Two young women barreled through the doors of a Starbucks in this Northern Virginia town. After ordering, they walked around the side of the coffee bar to wait for their hits of caffeine. Then, something caught their eye. Taped to the side of an espresso machine were several photos of a young brunette, a smile across her face, embracing another woman. Beside the photos sat a bouquet of wilted pink roses and a small journal. A sign read simply, “Taylor.”

That’s that girl,” one of the women said quietly, walking closer to the makeshift shrine. “Oh, my. She worked here.” The woman didn’t know Taylor Marie Behl, the 17-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University freshman whose body was found Oct. 5 in rural Mathews County a month after she disappeared. But she picked up a pen and wrote a short note anyway.

For many, the teen was just another missing face plastered on TV and front pages across the country. For those close to her, Behl was a young woman just starting to spread her wings. She was looking forward to college, to a career and to falling in love “with someone who is kind.”

For parents, Behl’s story brought out their worst fears that they might not be able to protect their children from their choices – or might not even know about them. “We picked out coffins,” said Behl’s father, Matt, “instead of wedding dresses.”

On Oct. 13, 1987, Janet Pelasara and Matt Behl welcomed their daughter, Taylor, into the world. Less than two years later, they divorced. Pelasara soon got married again, to a Royal Air Force officer, and the new family moved to England and then Belgium. Taylor Behl learned to fish on the Thames River and served as a flower girl at a Buckingham Palace wedding. Her voice took on a soft British accent.

When Pelasara’s second marriage ended, she and her daughter, then 11, returned to the United States and moved to Northern Virginia. They settled first in Loudoun County and then in Vienna, in Fairfax County. By the time Behl’s classes began at James Madison High School, she had already attended more than a dozen schools and was mature for her age, family members said.

The bubbly teen, who could strike up a conversation with just about anyone, got involved in a variety of activities, including working at a local Starbucks and managing a school basketball team. “She was the kind of person who was always smiling, smiling so much it was contagious,” said one of her friends, Lisa Hendricks. Hendricks and Behl became close while driving to a baseball game in Baltimore. During the trip, they stopped at a magic shop. “We were trying on wigs and posing for goofy photos,” Hendricks said, laughing. “That was the kind of thing Taylor loved to do, just goofy stuff that didn’t hurt anybody but was fun and made you feel good.”

Behl didn’t need drugs or alcohol to have a good time, her friends said. Sure, she’d have the occasional drink at a party, Hendricks said, but she didn’t get drunk. And she rarely missed a curfew during high school. “Taylor and her mom were really close,” said Hendricks, who is now 20. “I think Taylor respected the rules her mom had and the relationship they shared. She didn’t want to ruin that, or her life.”

Vienna, despite being nestled on the outskirts of Washington, has a small-town feel. Families walk their dogs along neighborhood sidewalks, and people say hello to strangers. Working at Starbucks was fun for Behl, Hendricks said, because it was almost always packed with people she knew. But it was hanging out at Jammin’ Java – a coffeehouse where up-and-coming bands perform – that introduced Behl to her real passion. She wanted to be an entertainment attorney, Hendricks said. When Behl started seriously thinking about attending VCU, her friend wasn’t surprised. The school sits in the heart of Richmond, a magnet for artists, musicians and diverse culture.

In February, Behl and her father visited the VCU campus, Hendricks said. An acquaintance was already at the school and shared an off-campus apartment with Ben Fawley , a then-37-year-old amateur photographer and father of two. “Taylor told me she had sex with Ben Fawley ... ” Hendricks said. “You do the math. I guess there was something about hooking up with an older man that was cool.” Behl decided that VCU was the place for her, and in late August she moved to Richmond.

It turned out that her roommate, 18-year-old Emma Ellsworth , knew one of Behl’s friends from Vienna. “I guess you could say it made the transition a little easier,” Ellsworth said recently. “I think we both thought we’d get along fine.” And they did, even if they were different. Where Ellsworth was a die-hard fan of rock and rap music, Behl loved dancing to sounds from every genre. She hung posters of Frank Sinatra and Johnny Depp above her bed. Where Ellsworth had a steady boyfriend, Behl was looking to meet new people.

On her third day at school, Ellsworth said, Behl met a boy named Jake. “After they met, she came home and called her mom,” Ellsworth said. “I smiled to myself when she told her, 'Mommy, I met a nice boy.’ They must have talked on the phone that day for an hour.” Ellsworth and Behl went to a few parties together those first days – parties Behl had been invited to. “That was Taylor,” Ellsworth said. “She could be somewhere where no one knew her, and by the time she left, she’d have a friend. I met a lot of people through Taylor.” Including Ben Fawley.

Ellsworth doesn’t have a car at school, but Behl, who had recently gotten her own 1997 Ford Escort, had brought hers. She left it in front of Fawley’s apartment because parking was free. “I met him once,” Ellsworth said. “We were going to Target to get some stuff for our room, and we walked to pick up her car.” Ellsworth said Behl didn’t want to be rude and just pick up the car without saying hello. “Taylor never told me they had a relationship,” Ellsworth said. “But I know she didn’t want to stay there long.”

Soon after Ellsworth and Behl arrived on campus, classes started. On Labor Day weekend, Behl decided to go home and visit family. On Sept. 4, before Behl headed back to school, Hendricks talked to her one last time. “She was loving being on her own,” Hendricks said. “She was loving college. She was loving this boy she met. All I could think was, good for Taylor. She deserved it all.” But when Behl returned to her dorm on Monday, Sept. 5, she seemed down, her roommate said. The college boyfriend “broke up with her,” Ellsworth said. “She wasn’t sad, really. They’d only known each other a couple of weeks. But she liked him.” After a brief venting session, the two girls parted. “I saw her later,” Ellsworth said. “She was walking away from the dorms with the boy.” Behl said hello. Ellsworth smiled cryptically at her, as if to say, “Hey, I see y’all made up.”

Later, Ellsworth said, she saw her roommate again, this time walking alone, “maybe headed to go get dinner.” Awhile later, she saw Behl again – this time back in their room. Ellsworth was with her boyfriend, who had come to Richmond to visit. “We were watching a movie,” Ellsworth said. “Taylor came in. I said, 'So, you got back with that guy.’ She said, 'Kind of.’ ” Behl walked over to her desk, grabbed a few things – probably her cell phone and car keys. “And then she left,” Ellsworth said. “She said she’d be back in three hours.”

Three hours went by. Then four. Then five. Ellsworth fell asleep. She had class the next day and figured Behl had simply lost track of time. “The next morning, she still wasn’t back,” Ellsworth said. “I figured she’d slept at someone else’s place.” Ellsworth went to class. “When I got back to the room, I noticed her books hadn’t moved all day,” she said. “I thought that was kind of weird.” She started asking people if they had seen Behl. “I tried her cell phone but didn’t get an answer.”

Concern was growing. “Right away I didn’t think something bad had happened to her,” Ellsworth said. “I mean, Taylor was kind of an independent person. I thought maybe she was visiting a friend.” Besides, another resident of the dorm pointed out that two weeks into the school year, no one really knew each other yet. Maybe it wasn’t unusual for Behl to take a couple of days off.

By midnight, though, Ellsworth couldn’t shake her worry. She went to the dorm’s front desk to ask for help. Immediately, the staff called campus police. Within minutes, Ellsworth was recounting the last time she had seen Behl. Soon, Janet Pelasara, Behl’s mother, was in Richmond. And Behl’s friends from Vienna, like Lisa Hendricks, were driving to the state capital to help pass out missing-person posters. “Before Taylor left, I wrote her a poem telling her to live life, don’t be afraid to be who you are, and don’t be afraid to take chances,” Hendricks said. “I felt guilty about giving her that advice.”

Twelve days after Behl was last seen alive, her Ford Escort was found abandoned in Richmond’s Fan District with stolen Ohio license plates. Ben Fawley, the man Behl had a sexual relationship with and whose apartment she parked her car in front of, was soon labeled a “person of interest.” His and Behl’s computers – both taken by police – yielded some of the most important evidence of the case, said John Colbert , a cyber forensics specialist and chief executive officer of Guidance Software Inc., the manufacturer of the forensics software used to help locate Behl.

In Behl’s online LiveJournal, the teen mused about life, boys, friends and the future. In one entry, she wrote about the excitement of getting her own car. In another, she vented about loved ones making decisions for her. What time someone is online, and whom they correspond with, can also reveal a lot, Colbert said. “I don’t know how many of Taylor’s friends knew about this Ben Fawley character,” he said. But Fawley often exchanged writings with Behl online. After Behl’s trip to the college in April, Fawley wrote, “this very attractive girl climbed up into my bunk.” Behl responded with, “well, I was curious.” Behl’s online entries captured an edgier side of her personality.

Over the summer, she wrote, “I wish I had friends that would hang out with me.” On a Web log site, MySpace.com, Behl called herself “Bitter” and corresponded with people who used online names such as “I Smoke Tampons,” “Chaos” and “my heart is black as coal.” In her Internet journals, Behl wrote about depression and feelings of loneliness. She said that “the bad boys” called her jailbait and that she chain-smoked Marlboro Lights at a music venue. At the same time she was telling people she was excited about college and wanted to meet “someone who is kind.” The cyber forensics helped point police in the direction of Behl’s whereabouts.

Among the many things found on Fawley’s computer were pictures of a run-down barn in a rural setting. Those pictures contrasted with the majority of the photos shot by the self-professed lover of all things Gothic. Two VCU detectives asked a former girlfriend of Fawley’s if they meant anything to her. The photos, it turned out, were taken near her family’s home in Mathews County – roughly 70 miles east of Richmond. That’s where police found Behl’s body in a shallow grave.

According to a Richmond Times-Dispatch report, Fawley claimed he and Behl drove to a beach in Mathews. During an intimate encounter in her car, Fawley told police, he restricted her breathing and then panicked when she died. He then returned to Richmond and joined forces with Behl’s family and friends passing out missing-person fliers.

Police have made no arrests in the case. Fawley is being held without bail on unrelated charges.

On Friday, the day after what would have been Behl’s 18th birthday, more than 500 people crammed inside a standing-room-only church in Vienna to bid farewell to the teenager. One high school friend drove from his dorm room at The College of William and Mary. Another flew up from Florida. Lisa Hendricks took the morning off from work. Family and friends chosen to speak at the funeral service talked little of Behl’s fate and more of the person she was, and the special things she did to touch those she loved. After the services, red-eyed and emotionally exhausted well-wishers packed the Starbucks where Behl had worked. They drove past Jammin’ Java, where she loved to spend time. And they vowed never to let Behl’s death stand for nothing.

“During one of our last conversations, we talked about dreams,” Hendricks said. Behl was going to finish college, marry a rich man and live near her family on the East Coast. Hendricks was going to marry rich and live on the West Coast. “Then we’d buy a lake house somewhere in the middle to get away together,” Hendricks said, laughing at the thought. But they would also find time to help others, to make the world a better place. “I guess it’s up to us now to make sure we do some good,” Hendricks said. “If for nothing else, for Taylor.”

The Associated Press, staff researchers Jake Hays and Ann Johnson, and staff writer Aaron Applegate contributed to this report. Reach Stephanie Heinatz at (757) 222-5563 or sheinatz@pilotonline.com.

The Virginian Pilot

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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