RICHMOND, Va. – Investigators said Thursday they identified the body of a Virginia Commonwealth University freshman who had been missing for a month. How Taylor Marie Behl, 17, died had not yet been determined.
“I have the utmost confidence that we’re going to be able to resolve this case,” Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe said.
A task force investigating Behl’s disappearance found the body buried off a dirt path in rural Mathews County on Wednesday. Dental records were used for identification.
Earlier Thursday, before the identity was confirmed, Behl’s mother addressed reporters.
“I’m sure you can imagine the shock and horror I feel knowing that the body found is most likely my baby’s,” Taylor Behl’s mother, Janet Pelasara, said outside of her home in Vienna, Va.
Behl left her dorm Sept. 5 with her mobile phone, a small amount of cash, a student ID and her car keys. She told her roommate she would be back in a few hours.
The teen’s car was found two weeks later, and its license plates had been replaced with Ohio plates reported stolen several weeks earlier.
The police chief said the area where Behl’s body was found was searched after police examined photographs on the Web site of an amateur photographer who was one of the last people to see Behl alive.
Ben Fawley, 38, has not been charged in the Behl case, but he is being held without bond on child pornography charges.
Fawley had a romantic relationship with the teen, his attorney, Chris Collins, has said. A telephone message left for Collins was not immediately returned Thursday.
Pelasara’s attorney, George Peterson, said he believes the strongest suspect is already in custody.
Fawley was questioned by police in Behl’s disappearance and classified as a person of interest at one point during the investigation. He was arraigned last week on 16 counts of possession of child pornography.
Detectives later seized more than 70 items from Fawley’s home, including a box of bones, a machete and part of a box spring bearing a reddish-brown stain, according to a search warrant.
Behl’s family planned to make funeral arrangements later Thursday, Peterson said.