Missing VCU student’s body found

Human remains found buried in southeastern Virginia were identified yesterday as 17-year-old Taylor Marie Behl, the Virginia Commonwealth University freshman from Vienna, Va., who disappeared a month ago, police said.

Richmond Police Chief Rodney D. Monroe said the state medical examiner’s office used dental records to identify the remains. The cause of Miss Behl’s death was not known yesterday.

“I am sure that authorities will bring the sub-humans who did this to justice, and I pray they will get the death penalty,” Miss Behl’s mother, Janet Pelasara, told reporters yesterday outside her house in Vienna.

Authorities investigating Miss Behl’s disappearance discovered her badly decomposed remains Wednesday, buried behind an abandoned farmhouse in Mathews County, Va., about 75 miles east of Richmond. The remains were partially uncovered, possibly dug up by animals, Mrs. Pelasara told WRC-TV (Channel 4).

Miss Behl, who graduated from James Madison High School earlier this summer, had been missing from the VCU campus in Richmond since Labor Day. Her 1997 Ford Escort was found two weeks later near her dorm. The car had stolen Ohio license plates.

Chief Monroe said authorities were led to the farmhouse on Wednesday by examining photographs found on the Web site of a 38-year-old amateur photographer who was one of the last people to see Miss Behl before she disappeared.

The photographer, Benjamin Fawley, is being held without bail on child-pornography charges. His attorney, Chris Collins, had said his client had a romantic relationship with Miss Behl.

Mr. Fawley, who was considered “a person of interest” early in the investigation, has not been charged in Miss Behl’s case. That title was dropped last week after police concluded their interviews with him.

Mr. Collins did not return a telephone call seeking comment yesterday.

Police said yesterday that they expect to file charges in the case when a cause of death is identified. An autopsy was performed yesterday, police said.

Mrs. Pelasara’s attorney, George Peterson, said the family thinks the person responsible is already in custody.

“We believe we already have the person responsible behind bars,” he said.

Mr. Peterson said that investigators were led to the crime scene by a photograph that Mr. Fawley had taken of an abandoned farmhouse and a tip from Mr. Fawley’s former girlfriend.

He said the parents of the former girlfriend own property near the site.

Mr. Peterson also said he thinks that more than one person might have been involved in Miss Behl’s disappearance.

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