Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Police ID remains of missing student 17-year-old Virginia girl found after 1-month search Kristen Gelineau THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RICHMOND, Va. — Remains found in woods in rural Virginia were positively identified. Thursday as those of a missing Virginia Commonwealth University student, investigators said. Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe said identification of Taylor Behl, 17, was confirmed by dental records. No cause of death has been determined. A task force investigating Behl’s disappearance found the decomposed body in Mathews County on Wednesday — one month after the freshman vanished. The body was found off a dirt path that led from a county road. “I have the . utmost confidence that were going to be able to resolve this case,” Monroe said, adding that charges were expected to be filed within hours. Earlier Thursday, before, the remains were identified, Behl’s mother addressed reporters. “I’m sure you can imagine the shock and horror I feel knowing that the body found is most likely my baby’s,” Janet Pelasara said outside of her home in Vienna, Va. “My mind still cannot absorb the fact that someone could so something this cruel and heinous to my 17-year-old.” Monroe said police were led to the crime scene by examining photographs found on the'web site of a 38-year-old amateur photographer who was one of the last people to see the teen before she disappeared on Sept. 5. Ben Fawley is being held without bond on child pornography charges. He has not been charged in the Behl case. Fawley had a romantic relationship with the teen, according to his attorney Chris Collins. “We certainly believe that the strongest suspect they have already in custody,” said Pelasaras attorney, George Peterson. Peterson said the parents ot one of Fawleys former girlfriends owns a property next - to the area where the remains were found. Police have been interviewing that woman, Monroe said. “As far as I understand, Taylor has never been to that area — however, as you may know, Ben Fawley has been,” Peterson said. A telephone message left for Collins was not immediately returned. Investigators on Thursday continued to process the crime scene, which is on private property about 75 miles east of Richmond. The family was planning to make funeral arrangements later Thursday, Peterson said. Behl has not been seen since she left her dormitory room, taking only her cell phone, a small amount of cash, a student ID and her car keys. She told her roommate she would be back in a few hours. The teen’s car was found two weeks later, less than two miles from her dorm. Her license plates had been replaced with Ohio plates reported stolen several weeks before she disappeared. Peterson said he believes more than one person might have been involved in Behl’s disappearance. Police dogs tracked the scent from Behl’s car to the home of a 22 year-old employee of the Village Cafe, where Behl had dinner the night she disappeared, Peterson said. Fawley also worked at the cafe, Peterson said. “It seems very coincidental and suspicious to me,” Peterson said. HTI . . _ _I_1 - i uc mail vvao uuai^vu mui cocaine possession after police searched his apartment, Peterson said. He later took a polygraph test, and failed two sections: one in which he said he didn’t know Behl, and one in which he said he’d never been in her car, Peterson said. Fawley was questioned by police in her disappearance and classified as a person of interest at one point during the investigation. He was arraigned last week on 16 counts of possession of child pornography. Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Jagels said authorities have found at least 30 videos on Fawley’s computers depicting children as young as 1 in sexual acts. Detectives later entered .Fawley’s home looking for anything that might belong to Behl. They seized more than 70 items, including a box of bones, a machete and a cutting of a box spring bearing a reddish brown stain, according to a search warrant. Man lauded for dog testicle work Inventor snags ‘Ig Nobel’ prize for pet implants (Ilichael Hunzelman THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON — Gregg Miller mortgaged his home and maxed out his credit cards to mass produce his invention — prosthetic testicles for neutered dogs. What started 10 years ago with an experiment on an unwitting Rottweiler named Max has turned into a thriving mail-order business. And on Thursday night Miller’s efforts earned him a dubious yet strangely coveted honor: the Ig Nobel Prize for medicine. “Considering my parents thought I was an idiot when I was a kid, this is a great honor,” he said. “I wish they were alive to see it.” lhe Ig INobels, given at Harvard University by Annals of Improbable Research magazine, celebrate the humorous, creative and odd side of science. Miller has sold more than 150,000 of his Neuticles, more than doubling his $500,000 investment. The silicone implants come in different sizes, shapes, weights and degrees of firmness. Although the Ig Nobels are not exactly prestigious, many recipients are, like Miller, happy to win. “Most scientists — no matter what they’re doing, good or bad — never get any J attention at all,” said Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research. Some, like Benjamin Smith of the University of Adelaide j in Australia, who won the biology prize, actually nominated their own work. Smith’s team studied and Gregg Miller / The Associated Press Gregg Miller poses with Buck, a bloodhound, in April 2001 at . Miller's home in Buckner, Mo. Miller mortgaged his home and maxed out his credit cards to mass produce his invention, prosthetic testicles for neutered dogs. catalogued different scents emitted by more than 100 species of frogs under stress. Some smelled like cashews, while others smelled like licorice, mint or rotting fish. He recalled getting strange looks when he’d show up at zoos asking to smell the frogs. “I’ve been turned away at the gate,” he said. This year’s other Ig Nobel winners include: PHYSICS: Since 1927, researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia have been tracking a glob of congealed black tar as it drips through a funnel — at a rate of one drop every nine years. PEACE: Two researchers at Newcastle University in England monitored the brain activity of locusts as they watched clips from the movie “Star Wars.” CHEMISTRY: An experiment at the University of Minnesota was designed to prove whether people can swim faster or slower in syrup than in water. The Ig Nobel for literature went to the Nigerians who introduced millions of e-mail users to a “cast of rich characters ... each of whom requires just a small amount of expense money so as to obtain access to the great wealth to which they are entided.” South Carolina Bookstore 801 Main St. 0 1124 Devine St. 2410-C Augusta Rd. And All Domino’s Locations 701 Gervais St., Ste 110 132 Assembly St.