Freshman Taylor Behl is still missing. Her car, however, was found Saturday on the 500 block of North Mulberry Street in Richmond’s Fan District.
The white 1997 Ford Escort was found about 8:30 a.m. by an off-duty Richmond police officer walking his dog in the area.
According to Jim Nolan’s report in Sunday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, Behl’s Virginia plates had been replaced with Ohio plates from a car stolen in Richmond long before Behl disappeared. A Fairfax County registration sticker was still on the car’s windshield.
Police, however, are remaining tight-lipped about the connection between Behl and the stolen Ohio car. When asked about the Ohio car, Detective Ron Brown of the Richmond police replied that he couldn’t talk about it.
After the car had been identified, police kept it under surveillance before impounding it after no one tried to access it for 12 hours.
“We sat on it as long as necessary,” said Brown.
Twenty detectives from the Richmond City Police spent Saturday night “scouring the Fan,” according to the Times-Dispatch, and the FBI was called in to handle the forensic investigation of Behl’s car.
“This is a tremendous break,” Police Chief Rodney Monroe, head of the multi-agency task force searching for Behl, told the Times-Dispatch. “Now we can try to determine how long the car has been there and whether or not anyone may have seen the car being parked.”
Police urge anyone with information to call the Tip Line at (804) 514-TIPS.