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Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace Mysteries: The Story of Taylor Behl
Aired March 07, 2014 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: A beautiful college co-ed vanishes after leaving the dorm. That same night, she meets up with a much older former lover. Was the 17- year-old living a secret double life, or did she just get mixed up with the wrong guy?
Tonight on NANCY GRACE MYSTERIES, what happened to missing freshman Taylor Behl? And what shocking surprise did cops ultimately uncover?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Taylor Behl, just 17 years old, had just graduated high school at Madison High School there in Vienna, Virginia, already enrolled at college at VCU, looking forward to that. So here`s a girl just 17 years old, just straight out of high school, had just graduated high school, looking forward to her freshman year. She loved photography. Her dream was to become a famous photographer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Janet Pelasara says her daughter is a good student, loves art and theater, even coached a boy`s basketball team.
JANET PELASARA, MOTHER: She didn`t drink. She didn`t do drugs. She was basically just a good kid.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What`s baffling police is the lack of evidence pointing to a possible abduction or runaway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From of all her friends that we`ve talked to, and her roommate, no evidence of any conflicts with anyone or anybody who indicated that -- or she had indicated she was afraid of anyone or any indication that she might be taken by anyone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Behl was last seen around 10:20 Monday night by her roommate inside her dorm room. Earlier, she had eaten at this restaurant with a friend and talked about possibly going skateboarding later that night.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She took her car keys, her student ID and possibly a borrowed skateboard -- possibly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While police say they do not suspect foul play, the concern is growing as the time goes by. State authorities, as well as the FBI, are now involved in the case, and police are following every lead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We thought we had a few, but every one of them have not panned out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And with no trace of Behl`s car, credit card transactions or phone calls or sightings, each passing moment brings greater panic.
PELASARA: If I stopped and really thought about it, I think they could just probably put me away. And if we don`t find her, they just might have to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Taylor Behl is 5-feet-6. She`s 135 pounds and has brown hair. She was last seen earning bluejeans and a black hooded (ph) T-shirt. She was also driving a white 1997 Ford Escort with Virginia tags, JPC-2848. If anyone has information in this case, they`re asked to contact the VCU Police Department immediately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: The night in question, she goes out to a local restaurant called the Village Cafe with a friend. After she has dinner -- and this is at a normal hour, 7:00, 8:00 o`clock at night, it was not late at all -- she meets up with a former lover, 38-year-old Ben Fawley.
Now, let`s back it up. He`s 38, she`s 17. He`s 38. She just finished high school, and he`s a former lover? Which means what, that this 38-year-old man had been having sex with her when she was in high school? Anyway, Taylor Behl -- cute, cute -- meets up with Fawley, pushing 40, and he walks her home after dinner.
BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take a good look. This is 17-year-old Taylor Behl. Her mother tells me she was last seen coming out of her freshman dorm here at VCU on Monday night. But just three days later, her mother tells me she seems to have vanished without a trace.
PELASARA: She`s just a good kid -- good, clean, fun kind of kid, and smart and beautiful. I miss you!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fighting back tears, Janet Pelasara is trying to muster the strength to complete her mission, finding her daughter, Taylor Marie Behl. Tonight, as students put out flyers with Taylor`s picture, her mother is still trying to find out where her daughter, who started school only two weeks ago, could be.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She left her room, her dorm room at 10:00 o`clock-ish, and told her roommate she`d be back in a couple hours, and took her car keys and her student ID, and that`s it. That`s where the story`s ended.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As you can see, some flyers have already started to go up as they continue their search for Taylor. Her mother has a description that she`s trying to get out tonight. She`s described as 5-6, about 125 pounds. She was last seen wearing bluejeans and a black hooded top.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, I was curious about how the two met. How does a guy with children, pushing 40, happen to meet a 17 or 16-year-old high school girl and start dating and start a sex affair? They met on line. They became friends on line, and it went from there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are now classifying the investigation as a criminal one.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police tell us they`re now investigating the case as a criminal one because of three main reasons. Behl is a juvenile. She`s been missing for more than 10 days. And the extensive media coverage has increased the number of leads.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no evidence of foul play, but because of the lack of information and the fact that she has been missing for more than 10 days, we`ve convened this task force.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In addition to the Richmond Police Department, the task force includes VCU, the attorney general`s office, Virginia State Police and the FBI. Now, up until now, VCU police have had control of this investigation. Well, now the power is switching to the Richmond Police Department.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The new eyes, the new ears, listening to the responses could bring -- could shed new -- new light, and hopefully, you know, a lead that`s going to take us to Taylor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, here`s a wrench in the works. Taylor Behl actually makes it back to her new dorm room. Classes were about to start. She gets back, and she`s spotted there. In fact, her roommate, her dormitory roommate, was in the room with her boyfriend. So Taylor Behl said, Go ahead, have your day, I`ll come back later. And she leaves with her cell phone and her car keys. She says, I`ll be back in a couple of hours. You guys have fun. She never comes back.
Now, that is on Monday night. That`s Labor Day night, September 5. She leaves. The next day is the 6th. She`s not back for that morning, so the roommate thinks, Oh, she`s out starting classes. She`s buying her books. She`s shopping. She`s this, she`s that.
The day of the 6th passes. It becomes the evening. The roommate is thinking, Well, did she have a date? Did she go out to dinner? That`s OK that I haven`t seen her. Maybe we just missed each other. The evening of the 6th passes. That night, Taylor Behl does not come back to her dorm room to go to sleep. She has nowhere else to go.
The next day, the 7th, the roommate is consumed with foreboding. She calls campus police and reports Taylor Behl as missing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last night, the Richmond Police Department issued an Amber Alert for our search for Taylor Behl. The idea behind the Amber Alert is that it will get even more attention from the community, particularly up and down the East Coast.
Again, Taylor`s been missing for 11 days now, and we want to ensure that she comes back safely, and we`re doing everything we can to put the information out so that anybody who may have seen her or may be with her gets the word that we are looking for her, and that they`ll contact us so that we can bring Taylor back safely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two weeks after her disappearance, the investigation into a missing VCU student intensifies as each passing day brings a greater need to find 17-year-old Taylor Marie Behl safe.
PELASARA: I`m exhausted, emotionally, physically exhausted. But I`m out there for Taylor, to find her, to help her, to do whatever I need to do to bring this child home safe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Over the weekend, police made progress with the discovery of Taylor`s car, found on Mulberry (ph) Street in Richmond`s Fan (ph) district. The tags had been switched to Ohio plates from a stolen car, and a dog was able to pick up Taylor`s scent.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was helpful information in the car.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Police also seized computers and other evidence at the teen`s Vienna home, at her VCU dorm room, and at the apartment of 38-year-old photographer Benjamin Fawley, a personal friend of Taylor`s known to have taken several pictures of her and one of the last people to have seen her. He was in court today on an unrelated trespassing charge. While not a suspect, police are calling him one of several people of interest in this case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s been very cooperative with the police, to the point where last week, he actually wanted to take a polygraph and I wouldn`t let him.
PELASARA: Trust him? No, I wouldn`t trust him as far as I can throw him. He`s exploited my daughter. And if he`s done it to one, has he done it to others?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And while police have found no signs of foul play in this case, they are concerned that two weeks have passed and still there`s no sign of Taylor anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Here is the critical error. I don`t know if it would have made any difference in the outcome of the Taylor Behl mystery, but the roommate reports Taylor Behl missing on the morning of the 7th, OK? Last she was seen, late on the 5th, late that night in her dorm room.
The VCU campus security, the campus police, hold onto the case for 11 days -- 11 days. They don`t handle homicides. They don`t issue Amber Alerts. They don`t do dragnets. They don`t go search creeks and ravines and cartilage (ph). No. They don`t issue search warrants or identify suspects. Nothing! They sat on the case for 11 days. The VCU, Virginia Commonwealth campus security, did not hand the case over to the Richmond police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELASARA: I know that if I thought about the situation, if I let myself feel about the situation, I would not recover.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For Taylor Behl`s mother, Janet Pelasara, being emotionally numb has kept her going.
PELASARA: Once I start crying, once I, you know, start to feel what`s really going on, you can put me in a straitjacket and just put me in the hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Janet`s brother, Jeffrey, says the person closest to the missing teen has also been the strongest, not just for her, but for Taylor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She just knows if it`s the waterworks, then she`s not helping Taylor, and we are focused and determined, and she knows the best thing she can do for Taylor. That`s what Taylor would want. She wants her to be strong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chris Collins, Ben Fawley`s lawyer, tells us he believes his client is a suspect, even if the police won`t confirm this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they`re using the term "person of interest," which to me means he`s a suspect, but we don`t want people to know he`s a suspect. You know, he would have to be a suspect. He`s one of the last people, although not the last, to have seen her. So they`ve got to look at him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Collins also confirmed to 8 News that the 38- year-old had a relationship with 17-year-old Taylor Behl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Their relationship was romantic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fawley`s lawyer also gave us more details about the night Taylor disappeared.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She came back over later in the evening somewhere around 9:00 o`clock. She borrowed a skateboard. He walked her back to her dorm about 9:30.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Collins also tells us, quote, "I`m assuming he`s not going to be charged, so I`m not too worried about him."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Open the door (INAUDIBLE) or we`re going to take it off!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Open the door, Ben!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on out slow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Step from behind the door. Step from behind the door.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, Ben.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody else in the house?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just there, and there`s nobody else there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The severity of the 16 child pornography charges against Ben Fawley became clear right at the outset of his hearing. The prosecutor told the judge that the movies found on Fawley`s computer include sex acts with children between the ages of 1 to 2 to 14.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s beyond contempt. It`s just -- it`s sickening to hear this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In addition to the pornography charges against him, there is the ongoing matter of Taylor Behl`s disappearance three weeks ago now, in which Ben Fawley has been and remains a person of prominence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The commonwealth takes the disappearance of Taylor Behl very seriously. He is a person of interest at this time.
PELASARA: I speak to the police every day...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taylor Behl`s mother is still in Richmond, still holding press conferences, doing interviews, still hoping her teenage daughter is alive.
PELASARA: Will whoever knows anything please come forward and tell what you know? It`s gone on way too long. Taylor needs to be found, and needs to be found soon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you do believe that she`s still alive.
PELASARA: I believe she`s alive. She`s being held against her will.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ben Fawley, who prosecutors now say had a close personal relationship with Taylor Behl, will remain locked up in the Richmond city jail pending his next court hearing October 31st.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Just one day later, one day after VCU campus security hands the case over to Richmond police, Taylor`s car is found, bam, just like that. An off-duty police officer is out walking his dog in a neighborhood, and he spots her car. It was a white `97 Ford Escort. He connects it to Taylor Behl`s car.
Here`s the weird part about it. She had Virginia license plates on her car. Someone had taken off Taylor Behl`s Virginia license plates and put on Ohio car tags, license plates.
Now, that was immediately traced back, those Ohio plates, to an owner of a car that said -- had reported the plates had been stolen earlier. So someone, after Taylor Behl goes missing, steals Ohio plates, puts them on Taylor`s car and leaves her car abandoned on the side of the road, as if it were just parked in a neighborhood about one mile from Taylor`s dormitory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The scene is in a remote area of Matthews County, about .3 of a mile off Knight Wood (ph) Road. Sources close to the investigation tell me Taylor was found in a ravine along this dirt road, her decomposed body wrapped in a plastic bag, with some remains scattered around nearby. Investigators say they don`t know how long she had been there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A body that`s exposed to the elements, rain, wind, all kinds of weather -- and of course, in a remote area, you`re always subject to animal life, and so on. So all of those things might impact on a determination as to how long the body had been there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Authorities say Taylor`s skull was removed Wednesday to identify her through dental records. They say the rest of her remains were removed today. A GPS system was used to map the crime scene, detailing where evidence was found. Investigators say, so far, they have not determined a cause of death and can`t comment on a possible motive, but they say their case is focused.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The scope of this investigation has narrowed significantly, whereby it is now a very targeted focus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELASARA: I`m sure you can imagine the shock and horror I feel knowing that the body found is most likely my baby`s. My mind still cannot absorb the fact that someone could do something this cruel and heinous to my 17-year-old. I`m positive the authorities will bring these subhumans to justice, and I pray they receive the death penalty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s my understanding that an ex-girlfriend of Ben Fawley`s parents own that property adjacent to where the body was found and that there were pictures of that property on Ben Fawley`s Web site.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: For a period of time, there were no cracks on the case until police looked at her computer. That is where they learned, where they first learned that this 17-year-old girl had been having some sort of a relationship with a 38-year-old father who himself claimed to be a photographer.
Now, they see her chats and her e-mails back and forth with Ben Fawley. And then they go to look at his Web site. There they find a lot of young girls posted, photography of them, a lot of tattooed young girls, a lot of young girls with a lot of piercings -- very, very risque. They also find photos and artwork of animal skulls and erotica.
So the e-mails and the chats clearly show that the two were lovers. So they start looking back at Ben Fawley`s comments and his postings. And they see around the time that Taylor goes missing, he posts, I really must go launder my sheets and do all my laundry. Why would he post that? That, in connection with all the photos of young girls, including Taylor, in risque, scantily clad positions and images, animal skulls, teen girls, tattoos, piercings -- yes, cops hone in on Ben Fawley.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELASARA: Ben Fawley has confessed to being involved in my daughter`s death. Mr. Fawley`s story is now that her death was accidental. Let`s be clear. Ben Fawley murdered my daughter. His claim that it was accidental is just one more perversion of his truth and his ever-changing web of lies.
Taylor may have had one sexual encounter with Ben Fawley last April, but we know that she quickly became disillusioned with him when she started seeing what type of person he was. We do not believe for one instant that Taylor had consensual sex with Ben Fawley on either September 5th or September 6th.
But it is apparent that my daughter died a violent and unspeakable death at the hands of Ben Fawley that night and was not a willing participant. Mr. Fawley is a pathological liar and deserves the ultimate penalty for his vile conduct.
He told police he had been attacked at 5:00 AM on September 6th by an unknown number of individuals, who hit him in the stomach, put a plastic bag over his head and then dropped him off on an unknown location on a dirt road. What does that bogus story tell us about what happened to Taylor? It tells us that any wounds Mr. Fawley suffered from his bogus kidnapping report were defensive wounds inflicted by my daughter as she fought for her own life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just before noon, the grand jury returned its decision, charging 38-year-old Ben Fawley with murdering 17-year-old Taylor Behl. It`s the ruling Taylor`s mother, Janet Pelasara, has been hoping for.
PELASARA: I know that this is just the beginning and that, you know, there are months and months still to come and -- before complete justice is served.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`ll recall Ben Fawley is already in jail being held on unrelated child pornography charges filed in Richmond. You`re looking at video of him being taken into custody back in September.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now that the grand jury has indicted Ben Fawley, he needs to be brought from Richmond here to Matthews County. He`s be arraigned here at the Matthews County courthouse at the end of the month.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: According to sources, the 38-year-old skateboard-photographer claimed Taylor died accidentally during a sexual encounter. But police, Taylor`s mother and now a Matthews County grand jury suspect it was murder. Pelasara waited outside this morning`s closed proceedings in case she needed to testify. Looking ahead, she tells us she`s unsure about sitting through the entire murder trial.
PELASARA: I would imagine that there will be horrible things said. There could be a lot of detail. No mother should have to see that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Ben Fawley walks into this courthouse here in Matthews, Virginia, at 4:30 tomorrow afternoon, he`s expected to plead guilty to second degree murder, admitting for the first time that he did, indeed, kill Taylor Behl. Next week, he was expected to go on trial on first degree murder charges. Now, as part of this deal, we understand, the child pornography charges he was facing will be dropped.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Fast-forward to September 23, the same month. Police have really honed in on Ben Fawley. Surprisingly, on that date, September 23, Fawley is arrested on 16 counts of child pornography unrelated to the Taylor Behl investigation -- 16 counts of child pornography.
When they go into his home and execute a search warrant, they take with them -- and we find this in the court documents. What they seize is this -- a plastic laundry hamper -- remember he said he was doing his laundry around the time Taylor went missing -- a hatchet, a machete, a pry bar, a hammer, reddish brown stains on the box spring mattress, sex toys, his computer and cameras.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At that point in time, for all of us, you know, Fawley`s starting to look like he`s the guy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For Detective Jeffrey Dean (ph), revelations about Fawley began with the sheer volume of data he`d stored away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just an amazing amount of material. One computer had, I believe, five hard drives in it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In an endless variety of random photos -- abandoned buildings, secluded locations, maps and weapons -- the truly bizarre. Along with photos of Taylor, investigators sensed (ph) a jigsaw puzzle of evidence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: That was from CBS News, "48 Hours."
GRACE: Now, oddly, looking back at Fawley`s postings and what he`s doing on line, on September 8th, OK -- remember, she goes missing the night -- she leaves the dorm the night of the 5th, September 5. On the 8th, the day after she`s reported missing, Ben Fawley posts that he was assaulted and kidnapped the same day, the 8th, that he was out taking photographs and people snuck up on him, put a bag over his head and took his camera and $20. They did not take his debit card or credit cards -- camera and $20.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The job is to put the puzzle together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ben Fawley was now a prime suspect in the disappearance of Taylor Behl, and police were looking for someone that could link the talented student to the temperamental college dropout. Erin Crabo (ph) would be that someone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Taylor`s missing. And I know Ben, and I know Taylor, and I want to talk about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Erin, as a one-time girlfriend of Fawley`s, soon figured out just what the police were beginning to conclude.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I realized they were looking for someone who was dead. They weren`t looking for a live Taylor anymore. Then they started showing me photographs that had been pulled off his computer, and they said, Do you recognize the one you`ve got in your hands?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So when they showed you this -- and it says, "Home, sweet home" -- what was your reaction when you saw this picture?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said, Oh, that`s right next to my parents` house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And how did the detectives react when you said that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They said, Oh! I just got chills and I got goosebumps. And he said, That place is going to be important. We need to go there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After Erin Crabo told two VCU cops how she had once taken Ben Fawley to this house in the photo, it was pure police instinct that led them to rural Virginia`s Matthews County, 90 miles from Virginia Commonwealth University. Still, Erin wasn`t sure what, if anything, police would find.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m thinking, God, I feel so bad. I`m wasting their time. They could be doing other things. They could be doing something important.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a month since Taylor Behl had disappeared. Erin Crabo led the way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First the officer said, Do you smell something? I said, yes. It smelled like the end of something. The officer saw her before I did. He said, We found someone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: That was from CBS News "48 Hours."
GRACE: We all can make a difference. Need proof? Check out this week`s "CNN Hero."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: October 5, Taylor Behl`s body is found, completely naked, badly decomposed, down a steep ravine off a country road. The medical examiner immediately says that the manner of death is homicide, but the cause of death, because the body is so decomposed, to this day remains unknown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN FAWLEY, CHARGED WITH MURDER: Trying to see if she was OK, and I couldn`t tell whether she was breathing or not. I remember closing the car door and jumping in the front seat and racing back towards Richmond. And at one point, while driving, she was in the back seat. I wasn`t paying attention to where I was going. I don`t even remember where I was. But I remember hearing a horn and slamming on the brakes because I almost ran a red light, and she fell to the floor.
And that`s when it really sunk in that she was dead. She was still in the back seat, so I put her up on the seat. And she was stiff. I knew there was nothing I could do at this point, so I put the two bags over her and I picked her up and I put her in the trunk.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Only after her body was found, Fawley cracks and tells police that he had consensual sex in Taylor`s car with Taylor, that she demanded rough sex, and that during sex, he accidentally choked her dead, that he in the past has had problems with blacking out, and the last thing he remembers as he blacks out was that she was choking.
That`s his story, that he panicked and threw her dead, naked body down a ravine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ultimately, this is how 38-year-old petty thief Ben Fawley claims 17-year-old college freshman Taylor Behl died, at her own game, a sex game known as erotic asphyxia.
FAWLEY: It`s where you pass out during sex.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And she`s the one who came up with this idea?
FAWLEY: I had never heard of it before.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You had never heard of erotic asphyxia.
FAWLEY: Never.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We only have your word on that.
FAWLEY: I`m aware of that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We only have your word for that.
FAWLEY: And I`m aware of that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what are you saying that Taylor wanted you to do that night?
FAWLEY: She wanted to pass out during sex.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For what purpose?
FAWLEY: The ultimate orgasm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So Fawley claims, at her urging, during sex in the back seat of her car, he tried various ways to restrict Taylor Behl`s breathing.
FAWLEY: She wanted me to put a bag over her head.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that what you did?
FAWLEY: We tried that several times.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you do with it then?
FAWLEY: I held it over her nose and her mouth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For how long?
FAWLEY: I don`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what happened?
FAWLEY: At first, I thought she was laughing because we fell off the seat. We had fallen off the seat several times this night. I thought everything was fine and dandy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was she talking to you?
FAWLEY: But she was passed out. And that`s what she wanted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then he claims, unable to wake Taylor up, he froze into a stone, cold panic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why didn`t you call for help?
FAWLEY: I thought about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you try calling 911?
FAWLEY: I thought about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And why didn`t you?
FAWLEY: Because by the time I tried to wake her up, what was running through my head was, I`m in some serious...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: That was from CBS News "48 Hours."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELASARA: No mother should ever have to hear that all that was left of their child was bones, some soft tissue, and some liquid brain matter due to some subhuman that didn`t have the guts to act like a man. Ben Fawley, how do you live with yourself?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: August 6th, Ben Fawley in court. It`s just before his murder trial goes to the jury.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAWLEY: ... because by the time I tried to wake her up, what was running through my head was, I`m in some serious (EXPLETIVE DELETED) here and I...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You might have been able to save her.
FAWLEY: I might have. I don`t know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And no one ever will because Ben Fawley then claims he panicked again, that he drove the body of Taylor Behl back to Richmond, left her in her car, went to sleep, and then a day later returned to Matthews County, dug a shallow grave and left the once vibrant girl by the side of the road. By the time her body was discovered a month later, it was impossible to tell exactly how Taylor Behl died.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You thought you could get away with it?
FAWLEY: I thought I could -- yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ben Fawley was charged with first degree murder.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: I`d like to point out he never admitted guilt. He pled under U.S. v. Alford, an Alford plea, where he neither admits nor denies that he did the deed but will accept the punishment. Also, he never apologized to Taylor`s parents and to this day insists it was all just a rough sex accident. All charges of child pornography were dropped.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAWLEY: I am king at putting my foot in my mouth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a flip jailhouse conversation with an officer, Fawley described his previous statement to police as nothing more than a cynical strategy to beat the system, leaving the impression his story about erotic asphyxia was completely made up. It put his lawyers in a very awkward position.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He went back to his cell and immediately said to one of the deputies, It`s a big chess game, and I just made a huge move. Let`s see what they do. That`s pretty devastating stuff.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then there was this jailhouse letter penned to an ex-girlfriend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can`t quote it verbatim, but it simply said that, I am the reason why Taylor is dead. I deserve to be imprisoned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Prosecutor Chris Fuller plans to use that letter against him in court.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "People are right. Something is wrong with me. All the thoughts the of death and killing in my head, and now it`s true. I`ve killed."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: That was from CBS News "48 Hours."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: John, don`t tell me you think that there is an insanity defense brewing here just because there`s a bipolar history.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, there might be, but let me answer the question about why there`s not...
GRACE: Maybe she accidentally fell in that shallow grave?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it could -- yes, I think that`s a little stretching it. But let me tell you why it`s not a capital case because nobody`s answered that question for you yet. Remember, the Supreme Court required when they reinstituted the death penalty back in the late `70s that there be enumerated offenses, like lying in wait, kidnapping, et cetera, associated with a murder, multiple murders, murder of a police officer, before you could have a capital offense.
It appears the only evidence here is that she is deceased and that there`s this statement from the guy that wouldn`t rise to the level of one of those enumerated offenses. So that`s why there`s no capital case here.
GRACE: You know, I find it very difficult to believe, John Patrick Dolan (ph), that the state could not prove a kidnapping defense because, as you know, kidnapping does not require the victim being taken miles or miles. Asportation (ph) or movement only requires in some jurisdictions a couple of inches, from one room to another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I agree with you, but you know, you`ve got to have evidence of that. And it sounds to me like there was a voluntary relationship that obviously went terribly awry. And so unless you have evidence, it`s hard for a prosecutor to make that charge because they have to have evidence to present to a jury.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Fawley, based on your plea of (INAUDIBLE) and stipulations of the evidence and the proffer made earlier of the evidence, I find you guilty of second degree murder as set forth in the indictment. Is there any further argument regarding disposition (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, your honor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Fawley, before sentence is formally pronounced, is there anything you would like to say?
FAWLEY: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Having found you guilty of the offense of second degree murder, I sentence you in accordance with the agreement to 40 years in the state penitentiary.
PELASARA: His beginning, his spiral -- spiraling down to the depths of hell, and that`s where he`s going to end.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: As we go air, Ben Fawley has been transferred to the Lee County Correctional Institute in Homs, New Mexico. Let`s just hope it`s good and hot in New Mexico because it`s going to be a lot hotter where he ends up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELASARA: I don`t know that I`ll ever have closure. How do you have closure on losing your only daughter? I don`t think there is closure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
END
