The Cyberworld Has Long Studied Ben Fawley

By  Steve Huff

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The Crime Library — Ben Fawley's real world trial is set to begin May 30, 2006.

But the case against him in cyberspace has been building for months.

Behl's disappearance in early September of 2005 launched a month-long search for the 17-year-old in and around Richmond, VA. Her remains were found over 70 miles from Richmond in Mathews County in October, close to property owned by the family of Erin Crabill, a former girlfriend of Fawley's. According to published reports, Fawley had been stalking Crabill. Fawley, charged with possessing child pornography and behind bars since October, told authorities that Behl's death occurred during "consensual" sex-play.

Since the week following Behl's disappearance, the Internet has played a key role in the investigation. The personal networking site myspace.com has probably received the most attention. For many their introduction to the online element of the Taylor Behl case was reading Taylor's profile at http://www.myspace.com/doowop. Some recent reports indicate that since Behl's disappearance and death, the popularity of online networking and weblogging has increased.

Part of the fascination with the story lay in the fact that Ben Fawley had an extensive online presence. Under a number of screen names, most often some variation of "Skulz," (Skulls), Fawley kept blogs at www.livejournal.com, a myspace profile of his own, and at least two profiles at www.deviantart.com. Because of the intense media focus on him as a person of interest in the weeks before his arrest, Fawley deleted or locked many of his websites. Portions of Fawley's journals and his own domain, www.skulz.org, can be found via The Internet Wayback Machine, an online library of internet sites and other digital media.

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Steve Huff can be reached via his web site http://www.HuffCrimeBlog.com/.

 

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