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Benjamin William Fawley is the chief suspect, and thus far, the only suspect in the disappearance and subsequent death of Taylor Behl. Ben, as he is known to his friends, is the father of two young girls who did not live with him. There are many rumors going around on in the Weblog world, some addressing Fawley's childhood, some about his school years, some about a possible adoption and foster care. At this writing, I have been unable to independently verify any of the rumors, so I will not discuss them here. What I do know is that Ben Fawley has a "rap sheet" that is approximately 20-pages long on fan-fold computer printout paper. That printout lists only the criminal charges and not traffic citations.

Ben Fawley spent most of his formative years in Doylestown, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia. He attended Doyle Elementary School from 1974 until 1980. Then in 1980 he moved over to Doyle Junior High School, where he stayed until he began attending high school at Central Bucks West High School in 1983. After completing high school, Fawley attended Bucks County Community College for one year. After moving to Richmond, he attended VCU off and on, majoring in Art and Theater from 1999 through 2004.

While living in Doylestown, Fawley had at least 11 brushes with the law, according to an article in The Intelligencer. The Intelligencer reported that Fawley had court records in two Pennsylvania counties. In Bucks County the records show theft and burglary charges and in Montgomery County records show charges of receiving stolen property. As a high school student, Fawley should have graduated in 1986, but did not do so until 1989. No specific reasons for the delay in receiving his high diploma were given. Court records indicate that Fawley first entered the system in 1986. Some of those same records point to his legal troubles as being one of the main causes why Fawley had a two-year delay in receiving his diploma.

In two separate incidents, he was charged with theft, receiving stolen property, removal or falsification of a vehicle identification number, aggravated assault with indifference to life, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, failure to stop and failure to yield. One officer in the area recounted an incident where he attempted to stop Fawley as he backed out of his grandmother's driveway. Instead of pulling to the side of the road, Fawley chose to lead the police on a high speed chase through a residential area. The chase ended when Fawley lost control of his car. After pleading guilty to all charges, he was sentenced to serve between four and twenty-three months in jail. On November 3, 1986 he was granted parole. Then in April of 1989, Fawley was sentenced to one year of probation plus alcohol counseling, after pleading guilty to charges of receiving stolen property and theft.

Between April of 1989 and August of 1990, Fawley plead guilt to charges of burglary, breaking into an occupied building, unauthorized use of auto, theft, receiving stolen property and removal or falsification of a vehicle identification number. On June 21, 1990, he was sentenced to between one and three years in jail. At the same time his parole was revoked as a result of the new charges. He received credit for time served beginning when he was arrested on those charges in December of 1989. On May 13, 1991, Fawley was approved for work release and two months later he was furloughed. When he failed to pay the costs and restitution imposed on him in his sentence, the judge issued bench warrants for his arrest. He was arrested in 2002, but was released after making a $200 payment and promised to make monthly installments for the remainder of the costs. Though I have found no details, several sources have reported that Fawley spent three years in an Ohio prison for felony car theft.

More recently, Fawley has demonstrated an increasingly violent tendency toward women. In the past three years, Fawley has been convicted of assault three different times, once each in 2000, 2003, and 2004. Two of those convictions arose from domestic situations involving women. In another case, the charges were dropped. At least one of Fawley's ex-girlfriend's recounts an incident in which Fawley kept her in his apartment for hours. At one point he choked her making her think she would die. During the hours-long incident, Fawley cut himself several times with a rug cutting knife. The entire time he was sobbing and trying to convince the girl that he could make her love him again. The standoff ended after the girl convinced him to go to the hospital for treatment for the cuts. Fawley agreed to go, but only if he could take his knife with him. That incident led to protective orders preventing Fawley from having any type of contact at all with the victim.

Another ex-girlfriend reports that Fawley grew so angry after she broke up with him that he hurled a set of keys at her, striking her and leaving a bruise and scrapes on her arm. This ex-girlfriend, Jessica Payton, said that her relationship with Fawley began when she was a freshman at VCU, when she was 19 years old. For that attack, Fawley spent two months in a Richmond jail.

In the months leading up to Taylor's disappearance and murder, Fawley was arrested for trespassing after he broke into the apartment of Jonathon Delano and his roommate, Erin Crabill. Erin had recently broken off her relationship with Fawley. Delano describes the 4 a.m. break-in saying that he discovered Fawley in the apartment armed with a hammer and a can of mace. Delano said that even though Crabill broke off the relationship weeks earlier, Fawley continuously harassed Miss Crabill, and eventually lead to the break in during the early morning. Fawley told Delano that he only wanted to talk, and told him he would not hurt him. Fawley told Delano that he would understand if he wanted to call the cops, but that he broke in because he had to do something crazy so that he could talk to Delano. Delano said that he repeatedly ordered Fawley to leave the apartment, but that Fawley insisted on sharing the story of his life.

During that story, Fawley told Delano that he grew up around criminals and that he had led a life of crime. Fawley also told about having slept with hundreds of women, but had questions about his sexuality, as he wondered what it would be like to be with a man. Fawley was quick to point out that he was not attracted to men, but just curious of how it would be with a man. Delano says that Fawley told him how he was going to continue doing crazy things, and talked about his mental condition. Fawley informed Delano that he had stopped taking the medications prescribed for his bipolar disorder because of the sexual side effects. The case against Fawley was dismissed when the prosecutor's office declined to prosecute. Delano said that he believes the prosecutor's office decided to drop the case when Delano failed to show up for court to testify. Delano says that he did not show because he did not receive notice to appear.

In the past few days, I have uncovered evidence that shows that Fawley and another person visited a popular eatery located on the VCU campus. Though the information is not entirely clear about when, the pair visited a mutual friend either Tuesday or Wednesday 9/6 or 9/7. The person that they visited says that both people indicated that they had been in the company of Taylor on the evening that she disappeared. Though this source does not name the person that was with Fawley during the visit, it leaves me wondering if that person was Jesse Schultz, or perhaps Kevin or Ian. Recall that Ms. Pelasara said that Taylor had told her that her new skateboarding friends were named Jesse, Ian, and Kevin. She also indicated that she believed that the three were employed at the Village Cafe', where Taylor had dinner the evening she returned to campus. If, in fact, this other person was Jesse Schultz, then Mr. Schultz's claims of not knowing Taylor and not knowing Ben Fawley, are proved false. If that is the case, that would tend to imply some type of guilt that Mr. Schultz is attempting to hide. You will recall that in more than one media account, Mr. Schultz denies knowing Taylor, denies ever having been in her car, and denies knowing Ben Fawley. However, the tracking hounds tracked a scent from Taylor's car to Mr. Schultz's apartment, and a second scent was tracked to the home of his relatives. Having two separate scent tracks that tie Mr. Schultz directly to Taylor's car would appear to be more than a coincidence. If Mr. Schultz was the other person with Ben Fawley during the visit to the popular eatery, then Mr. Schultz has misled the media, law enforcement, and the grand jury. That is a lot of misleading for someone that is not involved. Of course, that other person could be someone entirely unrelated to the investigation thus far. We shall have to wait and see.

What is clear is that Ben Fawley lacked even the most basic of respect for women. His pattern of past behavior shows him as a predator that looks for the most vulnerable targets upon which to prey. Fawley's widespread presence on the Internet, and his propensity to interact with young women and teenaged girls, shows a pattern of grooming them to fall into his grasp to with as he pleases. Using some of the most obvious methods, he praises these young women about their looks, telling them that they should be models --- and, oh by the way, I am a photographer. He seems to look for young women from broken homes, preferably his prey are raised by their mothers. This creates a need for approval from an adult male figure. He likely hides or disguises his bipolar disorder during the initial contacts, probably only revealing it as a tool to connect with his young targets once they reveal their own depression. His disorder then becomes a "weakness" that he shares so as to "connect" with his prey.

Over the past few weeks we have heard more than one mental health professional tell us that a bipolar disorder has two phases, a depressed phase and a manic phase. During the depressed phase, the sufferer may retreat into themselves, hiding from most types of social contacts. During that phase, however, a predator my "reach out" to one of his targets telling them he needs their support to climb out of his pit of depression. It does not take much of an imagination to see Taylor, a friendly, outgoing, caring, and compassionate young woman going to help a friend that needs her. Then when you factor into the picture that Taylor exhibited some symptoms of depression (even if only the "normal stuff teenagers experience") made her an even easier target for someone that had spent years honing his predatory skills. Some of the mental health professionals also describe how some bipolar individuals can "snap" during a manic phase, losing touch with reality. While I conceded that such a scenario is possible, I dispute it in this case as someone that has "snapped" would not have a consciousness of guilt to the degree of covering up whatever happened during that "snapped" phase. Fawley clearly knew he had done something wrong, he claims to have panicked, and then he describes driving in the dark to an area previously visited with another ex-girlfriend. He then placed the body in a shallow ditch, likely covering it with debris. He then made his way back to Richmond, somehow hiding Taylor's car. Then he concocted an abduction story of his own, reported it to the police, and then joined Taylor's family, friends, and other VCU students in handing out missing flyers.

It is perhaps that last act, handing out the flyers, which demonstrates just how cunning Ben Fawley is. The fact that he visited a friend and successfully lied to that friend about his involvement shows how confident Fawley is of his ability to deceive those around him. As reported in the past couple of days, Fawley even hoodwinked the owner of the building where he rented an apartment. He smooth talked that gentleman to the point where the man added Fawley to his will to inherit the apartment building upon his death. One thing is for sure; Fawley's background has and will continue to play a large part in the ongoing investigation into the disappearance and death of Taylor Behl.

The Intelligencer - Fawley's Background
NBC4 News - Virginia Criminal History
Justice Magazine - Criminal History

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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