Events surrounding Ben Fawley's killing of Taylor Behl are getting clearer.

By Marilyn Bardsley

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Richmond, VA — (Crime Library)

The fog of conflicting claims and media misunderstandings on Taylor Behl's death is starting to lift, despite the recent gag order imposed by multi-jurisdictional grand jury Judge Margaret Spencer.  So what can we say we know for sure with some level of comfort?

Taylor Behl visited the Virginia Commonwealth Campus (VCU) twice before she enrolled as a freshman this fall. Once in February with her father, Matt Behl, and again in April. In April, she stayed with her hometown friend Mike Cino and his then-roommate Ben Fawley. Out of curiosity, she climbed into the bed Fawley's bed at least once and had sex with him. There is no question that there was a sexual relationship between Taylor Behl and Ben Fawley: Taylor wrote about it in various online journals and her friends confirmed it.

What has not been clear until recently was the nature of the relationship between Taylor and Fawley between her visit in April and her disappearance the night of Sept. 5.  Several sources have reported that Taylor liked to flirt with "older men." Ben Fawley, 38, is an amateur photographer and father of two girls. His bi-polar disorder permits him to live on a monthly Social Security disability check.

Emma Ellsworth, 18, Taylor's roommate is the first of Taylor's friends to go on the record about Taylor Behl's relationship with Ben Fawley once Taylor started school. Janet Pelasara has steadfastly maintained that there was no sexual relationship between her daughter and Ben Fawley after the brief encounter in April. Other girlfriends of Taylor's have privately told the same story.

When Taylor started school, she parked her car on North Hancock Street near Ben Fawley's apartment because there were no parking meters there. Ellsworth says that she saw Ben Fawley once when she and Taylor went to get her car.

Ellsworth told the Virginian-Pilot that Behl didn't want to be rude and just pick up the car without saying hello [to Fawley]. "'Taylor never told me they had a relationship,'" Ellsworth said. "'But I know she didn't want to stay there long.'"

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