Missing Freshman's Car Found
Police in Richmond, Va., say there's no sign of a college freshman who has been missing for two weeks. Over the weekend, however, police found her car, which they call an important break in the case.
Taylor Behl, 17, was "the manager for the boy's basketball team for four years, and the boys all called her 'Mom,' " says her mother, Janet Pelasara.
But,
Julie Chen, happy memories of Behl growing up in Europe and Virginia have been replaced with a mother's haunting questions about her daughter."We do know that she had dinner with a friend, another VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) student at the Village Café," Pelasara says. "We do know that she was at her dorm room around 10:20."
Behl is described as having been eager to make new friends, and her Web site asked that they be kind.
Her father, Matt Behl, says Taylor "was mature for her age. Perhaps, in hindsight, to her own detriment."
Chen says that months ago, on Taylor's first visit to VCU, she had entered another — possibly much darker — world.
"She came to look at the campus, to see if it was the kind of place that she'd want to go," friend Mike Cino says.
She met a 38-year-old man, a friend's roommate, who took pictures of her and posted them on his provocative Web site, Chen says.
Though he's not a suspect in the case, the man was one of the last people to see Taylor the night she disappeared.
"They had been talking for a while online," Cino says, "and it's possible she considered him a confidant of sorts. She couldn't have known too many people around here at that point."
Taylor left her dorm room and vanished after taking only her cell phone, student ID, a little cash, and the keys to her car, police say. That car was spotted over the weekend by an off-duty officer.
"It's a very big piece in the puzzle," Richmond Police Chief Raymond Monroe says, "and, hopefully, once we have an opportunity to search the vehicle further, it can give us more information."
An 11-member task force is working on the case. Search dogs were taken house to house to track the scent authorities hope will lead detectives to Taylor.
"In order to go on," Matt Behl says, "I have to hope that Taylor is out there somewhere."
For now, haunting and poignant messages posted on Behl's Web site remain unanswered.
"Everything is OK. Just come home," Pelasara implores.
If you have any information about Taylor's whereabouts, call 1-877-244-HELP.