Casepin
Back to cases

Case file

Murder of Taylor Behl

SOLVED2005Mathews County, Virginia2 SOURCESUPDATED JUL 2026
Illustrative

Taylor Marie Behl was a 17-year-old college freshman from Vienna, Virginia, who moved to Richmond, Virginia, in August 2005 to attend Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). About two weeks after her arrival, on September 5, 2005, Behl disappeared. The case drew significant public and online attention.

In the days that followed, Behl's car was found roughly a mile and a half from campus. Police questioned several people who knew her, including a former boyfriend she had had dinner with on the day she disappeared. Among the last people known to have seen Behl alive was Benjamin Fawley, a 38-year-old amateur photographer, who had been arrested on unrelated charges on September 23, 2005; surveillance video showed Behl and Fawley leaving her dormitory together on the night she went missing.

Acting on a tip about a month after Behl's disappearance, police located her remains in a rural area of Mathews County, Virginia. Fawley told police that Behl had died accidentally and that he had then left her body; her mother publicly disputed his account of the circumstances. In August 2006, Fawley's Alford plea to second-degree murder was accepted by the court, and he was sentenced to thirty years in prison.

Taylor's friend Erin Crabill received a reward for her assistance in the investigation and used part of it to establish a fund in Behl's honor. The investigation was later cited by law enforcement trainers as an early example of using social-networking data to narrow a suspect pool.

Key facts

Victims
Taylor Behl
Date
2005
Location
Mathews County, Virginia
Case status
solved

Case timeline

  1. 1987-10-13

    Taylor Marie Behl is born.

  2. 2005-08

    Behl moves to Richmond, Virginia, to attend Virginia Commonwealth University.

  3. 2005-09-05

    Behl disappears on Labor Day; surveillance video later shows her leaving her dormitory with Benjamin Fawley that night.

  4. 2005-09-17

    Behl's car is found about a mile and a half from the VCU campus; a tracking dog leads police to a nearby resident, who is later cleared.

  5. 2005-09-23

    Benjamin Fawley is arrested on 16 counts of child pornography after a search warrant is executed.

  6. 2005-10

    Acting on a tip, VCU police locate Behl's remains in a rural area of Mathews County, Virginia.

  7. 2006-08

    Fawley's Alford plea to second-degree murder is accepted, and he is sentenced to thirty years in prison.

Best coverage

No approved coverage links are attached yet.

People

  • Benjamin Fawley

    CONVICTED

    Entered an Alford plea to second-degree murder in August 2006 and was sentenced to thirty years in prison.

  • Taylor Behl

    VICTIM

    17-year-old VCU freshman who disappeared on September 5, 2005; her remains were found in Mathews County, Virginia.

Roles reflect public records and court outcomes at the time of writing — supporting citations are on file under Sources.

Places

Mathews County, Virginia

37.4288, -76.3183

View on the map

Common questions

What happened to the victim?
Taylor Behl, a 17-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University freshman, disappeared on September 5, 2005, in Richmond, Virginia; her remains were found a month later in Mathews County, and Benjamin Fawley later entered an Alford plea to second-degree murder.
Where did the murder happen?
Mathews County, Virginia.
Who was convicted?
Benjamin Fawley (Entered an Alford plea to second-degree murder in August 2006 and was sentenced to thirty years in prison.).
What is the current status of the case?
Status: solved.
More cases in Virginia

Sources

  1. ENCYCLOPEDICMurder of Taylor BehlWikipedia · 2026-07-10
  2. PRESSContemporaneous coverage — CBS NewsCBS News · 2026-07-10