"By KRISTEN GELINEAU
Associated Press Writer
(AP) - 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."
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