audrey77
09-12-2005, 08:45 AM
FBI joins search for VCU student (http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784991548)
Freshman, 17, from Fairfax was last seen on Monday evening
BY JIM MASON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Sep 11, 2005
RELATED: Police Beat
The search for a missing Virginia Commonwealth University student expanded last night with the entrance of the FBI into the case.
The mother of Taylor Marie Behl, a 17-year-old freshman from Vienna in Fairfax County, said she was informed of the FBI's involvement during a meeting with VCU Police Chief Willie Fuller.
Behl, who lives in a dormitory at the downtown Richmond school's Monroe Park campus, was last seen late Monday night, and she was reported missing to VCU police early Wednesday morning.
"We are assisting the VCU Police Department," FBI Special Agent Larry Barry said last night. He declined to provide further details.
Click here.
Paul Timmreck, the university's senior vice president for finance and administration, also confirmed last night that the FBI had been brought in to help VCU and Richmond police search for Behl.
Behl left her room in the Gladding Residence Center, across West Main Street from Monroe Park, about 10 p.m. Monday, telling roommates she was going skateboarding with three young men.
Behl is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighs 135 pounds and has brown hair. She was last seen wearing blue jeans and a black, hooded sweatshirt.
Also missing is Behl's car, a white 1997 Ford Escort with Virginia tags JPC-2848.
Behl's mother, Janet Pelasara, said yesterday she has been in Richmond since Wednesday morning, hoping to help find her daughter and keep in close touch with VCU officials.
Her daughter, Pelasara said, had been at VCU only two weeks before disappearing.
"She was very excited and had made new friends and was looking forward to the college experience," Pelasara said. "She was so happy."
Campus police have begun posting daily alerts on the university's Web site advising people of Behl's disappearance. In addition, fliers with Behl's picture and a description of her have been put up around the campus, at nearby businesses and in Vienna.
A bartender and a customer at the Village Café, at Harrison and West Grace streets near the northern end of the Monroe Park campus, said yesterday they recalled Behl visiting the establishment.
"I've seen her in here a couple times. She sat at the bar and drank water," the bartender said.
"She would come in here on Sunday afternoons with her roommate," said the customer, who asked not to be identified. "She was very outgoing and very friendly."
Andrea Ingram, a 19-year-old sophomore from Exmore on Virginia's Eastern Shore, said she sat beside Behl on the first day of a physics class.
"She told me she liked to hang out at the Village Café," Ingram said. "She said she was not old enough to drink but would sit at the bar and smoke."
Pelasara has been meeting regularly with Fuller so the police chief can keep her abreast of progress in the search. They met last night at her hotel near the campus.
"He wants to keep the family up to speed on the investigation," university spokeswoman Anne Buckley said.
VCU police ask anyone with information to contact them at (804) 828-1196.
Her Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/doowop) Profile
Freshman, 17, from Fairfax was last seen on Monday evening
BY JIM MASON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Sep 11, 2005
RELATED: Police Beat
The search for a missing Virginia Commonwealth University student expanded last night with the entrance of the FBI into the case.
The mother of Taylor Marie Behl, a 17-year-old freshman from Vienna in Fairfax County, said she was informed of the FBI's involvement during a meeting with VCU Police Chief Willie Fuller.
Behl, who lives in a dormitory at the downtown Richmond school's Monroe Park campus, was last seen late Monday night, and she was reported missing to VCU police early Wednesday morning.
"We are assisting the VCU Police Department," FBI Special Agent Larry Barry said last night. He declined to provide further details.
Click here.
Paul Timmreck, the university's senior vice president for finance and administration, also confirmed last night that the FBI had been brought in to help VCU and Richmond police search for Behl.
Behl left her room in the Gladding Residence Center, across West Main Street from Monroe Park, about 10 p.m. Monday, telling roommates she was going skateboarding with three young men.
Behl is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, weighs 135 pounds and has brown hair. She was last seen wearing blue jeans and a black, hooded sweatshirt.
Also missing is Behl's car, a white 1997 Ford Escort with Virginia tags JPC-2848.
Behl's mother, Janet Pelasara, said yesterday she has been in Richmond since Wednesday morning, hoping to help find her daughter and keep in close touch with VCU officials.
Her daughter, Pelasara said, had been at VCU only two weeks before disappearing.
"She was very excited and had made new friends and was looking forward to the college experience," Pelasara said. "She was so happy."
Campus police have begun posting daily alerts on the university's Web site advising people of Behl's disappearance. In addition, fliers with Behl's picture and a description of her have been put up around the campus, at nearby businesses and in Vienna.
A bartender and a customer at the Village Café, at Harrison and West Grace streets near the northern end of the Monroe Park campus, said yesterday they recalled Behl visiting the establishment.
"I've seen her in here a couple times. She sat at the bar and drank water," the bartender said.
"She would come in here on Sunday afternoons with her roommate," said the customer, who asked not to be identified. "She was very outgoing and very friendly."
Andrea Ingram, a 19-year-old sophomore from Exmore on Virginia's Eastern Shore, said she sat beside Behl on the first day of a physics class.
"She told me she liked to hang out at the Village Café," Ingram said. "She said she was not old enough to drink but would sit at the bar and smoke."
Pelasara has been meeting regularly with Fuller so the police chief can keep her abreast of progress in the search. They met last night at her hotel near the campus.
"He wants to keep the family up to speed on the investigation," university spokeswoman Anne Buckley said.
VCU police ask anyone with information to contact them at (804) 828-1196.
Her Myspace (http://www.myspace.com/doowop) Profile