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foreign [Music] foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host
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Nick and with me as always is a man who famously knows a lot of mothers he is the captain yeah my friend Jen was
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saying we should make a shirt that says I'm the mother you should know it's good
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to be seen and it's good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
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this week we are very happy to be featuring blueberry thrill by the creative minds over at Susquehanna
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Brewing Company this is a beautiful burgundy colored ale brewed with real blueberries garage grade three and three
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quarter bottle caps and this week our fridge is full thanks to all of you out there in listener land I want to give a
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special cheers and thank you to our friend Kat over at Harvey's Lake Pennsylvania and a big shout out to Ann
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in Dallas Texas next up we have Jenny and Georgetown Ontario Canada not a big we like your jib to Jason and Jinx
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Oklahoma next up we have saska in Seattle Washington and last but certainly not least we have Kirsten and
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Tonawanda New York everyone that we just mentioned went to True Crime garage.com
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and clicked on the Donate button and donated it to this week's beer fun and for that we we thank you very much yeah
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b w e w r u n beer run and if you need more of the garage download the Stitcher app it is free and you can listen to all
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that and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a
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chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime foreign foreign [Music] foreign [Music]
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feels torn when they send their child off to college torn between feeling excited for their
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son or daughter for the education and Adventures that lie ahead and feeling anxious
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about their newly independent child's safety choices and well-being for most parents the anxiety lessens
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as they see their son or daughter settling into college thriving making a new life
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but for one family the parents worst fears came true they're beautiful smart beloved daughter
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went off to college and never came home how did this co-ed disappear just two weeks into her first semester
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this is True Crime garage and this is the case of Taylor Beale [Music] foreign Taylor Beale was a 17 year old girl who
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lived with her mom Janet pelisara in Vienna Virginia Vienna is an upper middle class suburb of Washington DC
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with the small town feel despite its population of 15 000 people Vienna was ranked third in Money magazine's list of
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top 100 places to live in 2013. Taylor was very close with her mother and the two lived in various places around the
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world including London and Belgium with Janet's husband at the time Janet's husband was an officer in the Royal Air
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Force eventually settling back in Virginia when Taylor was 11. Taylor was used to traveling of course and even
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flew alone internationally at the age of five this under the care of the airline
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this is a a really unique kind of experience for a young child I remember when I was 10 I flew by myself without
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Parents Without family it's something I will always remember because it seemed like a really big deal to me at the time
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when I was just 10 but one that smelly guy you sit next to of course I wasn't um flying internationally that would
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have been weird my flight was like one hour long but it was really neat Captain because they did like a special check-in
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for me you know when they were boarding the plane I got to get on the plane early
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and the flight attendant introduced me to the pilot or some guy pretending to be the pilot and he was cleaning the
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plane yeah and then they sat me right in the front row so they could keep an eye
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on me I guess but Taylor was close to her mother that's like an understatement but she
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was also close with her father Matt even though her parents divorced before she even turned two years old Taylor
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graduated from James Madison High School in Vienna the 15th school she had attended in her life
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that shows you how much she had moved around at just a young age and one of the colleges she was
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interested in was Virginia Commonwealth University known as VCU which is a great
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College great basketball program the VCU Rams shout out to the Rowdy Rams VCU is
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located on the west side of Richmond Virginia and the school focuses on biotech and
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life sciences Taylor visited VCU twice in the spring of her senior year in high school one
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visit was in February of 2005 with her father Matt when the two of them made their two-hour
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drive to check out the campus Matt dropped Taylor off at the apartment of a friend of hers from Vienna so she could
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experience a little Campus Life at VCU this was the apartment of upperclassman Mike Cino and his roommate Ben Farley
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Taylor Made a second visit to the same place in April of that same year now she must have liked VCU because she
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enrolled in the large school of 31 000 students and started her freshman year on August 19 2005.
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her departure for college was hard on Taylor's mom Janet even though she was only two hours away
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this was very difficult for for Janet as I said they were very tight even would give the appearance of almost best
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friends at times one she was the only daughter so they had a pretty strong bond because of that only child
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and Janet says that Taylor was not the only you know she's not one of these teens who wants nothing to do with her
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parents in fact she would still hold hands with her mom when they went places together
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the two of them even volunteered as elves every Christmas for a local charity and spent a lot of time together
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while Janet was nervous about her daughter heading off to college in the large city of Richmond Virginia of
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course she knew that it was the best thing for Taylor BCU is a good school and Taylor was very excited for the next
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chapter in her Young Life Taylor has been described in articles about her as quite mature for her age she was working
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at Starbucks and choosing to hang out at jam and java coffee house sipping cappuccino and listening to local Indie
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bands that sounds like something the captain would have been caught doing in his when he was just 16 years old
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yeah I don't know about Indie bands but didn't you go to the coffee shop yeah I think a lot of kids went to Coffee I did
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I did as well I didn't go there to like listen to the the latest you know I don't remember anymore
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at the coffee shop we had I went there and just kind of sat around yeah picked our nose right drinking uh
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sipping cappuccino friend of mine used to just say hey that's just three dollar coffee
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so she never missed a curfew this was a good kid she didn't do drugs or drink uh
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she was Savvy and smart so Janet took comfort that her daughter would make good choices even not under her roof
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Taylor was very she was in a very Avid user of social media keep in mind this is 2005 so social media looked quite
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different than it does today yeah Facebook wasn't probably even nvcu yet well the platforms that she was
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using to post her daily musings and blog and about her life were a little dated to say the least she
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used Myspace her photo is still visible on there if you can even get there I don't know how one would get there she
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used an internet meeting site called myplace.com and used a site called live Journal as
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well well Myspace was like pre-ing Facebook it was the Facebook before the Facebook became the Facebook
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but oh yeah but it was also it was wildly popular too yeah and different than Facebook because you could actually
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create a page change the colors it was weird because I was a big Myspace user and when Facebook came around it
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became well why are we going to this other thing that gives us less options like there was more fun things to do and
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you could customize uh your your Myspace a lot more yeah I remember that being a
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weird time too because it was like there was nothing wrong with Myspace but somehow we transitioned to Facebook
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we're gonna bring it back we'll bring back Myspace yeah we're starting with the garage
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on myplace.com we're talking about her social media she wrote Under the name bitter
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her online post and photos show that she was a little naive I don't know much about this site so do you know what the
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site is about my my well it looks like it looks like she's almost journaling on some of these things and I and I took
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quite a bit of time and read through them and it was a little sad and tragic just even reading through them because
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they still exist to this day and you know you really get the vibe of who she is and what she was into but also
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reminding yourself that she's 17 at this time well you're right but that's like the coffee shop thing that's a very
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you know typical young quote unquote like college thing to do let's go get some cappuccino listen to some
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singer-songwriter music like and so yeah being 17 and going to school early you're probably going to do a bunch of
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things that are very cliche well and we can get into her social media a little bit to give you a little flavor of what
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was going on in fact here is a post she wrote an early summer of 2005 it says quote I just
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graduated from high school and now I'm off to Richmond I'm looking forward to meeting people that are in Richmond
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because I only know a few people down there but I love to meet new people in general so feel free to message me
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whenever to chat that's kind of like an open invitation to um that's something that we probably
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would steer away from but um she's outgoing and Taylor had a relationship of sorts that was going on
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at the time in fact she detailed that on her online Journal talking about her budding relationship with a fellow VCU
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student this is a boy named Jacob Cunningham she loved that he was into the same things
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right he didn't drink he didn't do drugs but the two it seems like they were off to somewhat
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of a rocky start Taylor's roommate Emma says that things between Taylor and Jacob weren't going
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the way Taylor wanted and another friend of Taylor said that Jacob had dumped her
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online and Taylor was upset about this that's very mature of him I'm gonna break up
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with you online uh but this is kind of weird because she's not at school that long so she did she start doing this
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individual before she left for school it looks to me like as soon as she you know
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mind you February and April she's already making trips out to VCU to see if she's going to like VCU and and to
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see if she actually wants to attend right VCU it seems to me like as soon as she has decided on that college that
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she's openly on social media sending out invites to chat with people and get to know people in the area so that once she
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arrives she's going to hit the ground running and already have a little bit of a uh you know solid base of friends
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going on yeah and my my college and I know not every college does this but the college I went to did a bunch of this
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like freshman week of getting to know people and getting getting from familiar with the college but that's a that was a
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small College this is a lot bigger they might not have programs like that that would be very difficult yeah it's only
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two hours away but you're also a little bit younger than everybody and so get in that Community around you would
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be definitely important what's interesting to me is it's it seems like we talked about her moving
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around a lot as a younger child she's already kind of adapted to this you know she's already figured out how to set up
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shop in a new town and New City New State sometimes a new country yeah like you said 15 times 15 different schools
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this would be should be an expert at this and as you said Captain she's only at school for a very brief time before
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things start to go weird right so on Labor Day weekend 2005 when Taylor had been at school for just two weeks she
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met up with some guys on Saturday night to go skateboarding according to one of these guys his name is Kevin the group
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boarded for an hour around 2 45 a.m so early morning that's what I call the small hours
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Kevin had only met Taylor three or four times but described her as a normal girl
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who was very trusting Kevin said that Taylor was heading home to Vienna the next day to spend some time with her mom
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this was correct after spending Sunday and most of Monday at home Taylor returned to campus on Monday afternoon
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she called her father at 6 45 to say she was back safely on campus and she had dinner with the guy that she was sort of
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dating his name again Jacob yeah but this was a normal dinner they they met uh to discuss their relationship
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apparently yes that they they made up and had a nice dinner at the Village Cafe yeah but I don't think it was like
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makeup it wasn't makeup and we're gonna be boyfriend girlfriend I think it was this is going to end
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am I correct on that well there are some differing speculations but I believe that's his comments today is that they
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they left on friendly terms yes yes you're absolutely right Kevin her skateboarding buddy later said that he
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saw her alone around 8 45 p.m that night and said that Taylor was excited for her
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upcoming birthday which would be October 13th yeah it should finally be able to vote
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yeah should be 18 years old and she told Kevin that she was planning on doing something quote unquote illegal
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what that was Kevin does not know what that was I do not know um my guess if I if I had to guess would
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be it would be a weird way to to describe it to me but being on a college campus
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turning 18 years old it kind of feels like drinking might be the thing she might
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have been referencing there or maybe it was to get a fake ID because she's going
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to get a new ID at being 18 years old get a fake ID so she could go into you know oh yeah overage clubs that would
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technically be illegal I think you might be more right than me so at 9 45 p.m Taylor spoke on her cell
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phone to a male to a a guy this is according to Crime Library I couldn't figure out who this guy was
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his name that she spoke with but Crime Library says this guy was later questioned and there were no additional
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calls to or from her phone at this time nope that time again was 9 45 pm as the news reports from 2005 when
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Taylor got back to her dorm room that Monday night at 10 20 p.m she found that her roommate was entertaining a young
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man Taylor had to vacate this is that like a sock on the door that's what my mind
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went to the Old Tie on the door yeah I didn't live on campus but the amount of times I like just opened up friends
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doors and stuff was going on I kept on going why wouldn't you just lock the door I keep running into these naked
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people uh she grabbed her keys her car keys her phone and some cash and took off telling
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Emma that she was going to go skateboarding and that she would be back in about three hours you know that's the
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polite thing to do to the roommate you tell them exactly how long you can stay gone for
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right and that I didn't want to speculate too much on that but that's the way I took it was like Hey I see
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you're with somebody I'm gonna go skateboard do some stuff I'll be gone for a few hours right but
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you know but we also have class in the morning you're giving them a time limit I have to return it sometime to go to
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sleep to get up the next day I got things to do I'm being courteous here you got three hours the place is yours
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right and but that still puts you in round one two o'clock in the morning correct you
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got class the next day yeah so the Gladding residence Center security cameras show footage of Taylor walking out of
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her lobby at 10 24 pm these security cameras do not show Taylor returning in fact she was not
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seen again after this time that was 10 24 pm Taylor's roommate Emma went about her
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day on Tuesday September 6th but then that evening she noticed that Taylor had still not come back
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and none of her things had been touched by this point and on Wednesday morning she informed
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the VCU Campus Police that her roommate had never returned to their dorm and had
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been gone close to 36 hours the VCU Campus Police started looking for Taylor and guessed it
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she had left the dorm and gone somewhere in her car as the vehicle is missing as
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well campus police called Janet her mother at home to tell her that both her daughter
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and her daughter's vehicle are missing there was no response on Taylor's cell phone to Janet's calls
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and Janet and Matt Taylor's father immediately came down to VCU and joined the campus police the campus security
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officers in their search for their daughter the campus police officer spoke to Taylor's friends and acquaintances and
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tried to track her movements on that night that she disappeared they knew that often young people just go off on
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these Benders or leave town without really telling anybody but nobody thought that that was likely
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not you're right it's a Monday it's a holiday so it's very typical to a Sunday and it's like it's not who would do that
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it makes more sense if she went missing on a Thursday or a Friday yeah and if she did go somewhere she she
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left without telling anyone but really I know that it's 36 hours and there are some people on the very Inner Circle
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that are probably panicking at this point but the masses the majority of the people really think that it's likely
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that Taylor will surface at some point well it's a really big campus she could have hung out with some people spent the
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night you know but I guess my concern is that we know that she told her roommates hey I'm I'm going
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to go skateboarding so where does that put her at does that put her at on campus
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off campus what kind of bad area yeah that's true that's true the students started posting missing Flyers
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featuring Taylor's photo and her personal information around and up on uh you know around campus
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this to me very reminiscent of the Brian Shafer case when when I think about all
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the activity that I Envision going on at this time yeah a lot smaller school but
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in fact Brian would go missing from OSU campus what six months later yeah seven months
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later Taylor's mother Janet resorted to talking to the media hoping that publicity would generate leads into
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Taylor's whereabouts she knew that Taylor would not have just left school or skipped classes since it was only the
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second week and she was you know she had been so excited to start college Janet's strategy worked the media
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strategy worked and Taylor's disappearance received national news coverage from Nancy Grace and from
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others on September 11th VCU announced that it was Consulting with the FBI on Taylor's
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case then 10 days into the investigation on September 15th the Richmond Police Department took over the case issuing an
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amber alert for Taylor and her vehicle again note Taylor was only 17 so still yet a minor so she did qualify for an
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Amber Alert the Richmond Police Department put together an 11-member task force of local University and
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federal investigators to try to locate Taylor and what was now considered a criminal case
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two of the investigators on the task force were one was the Richmond Police Department's Captain and the other was
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the State Attorney General office's investigators so we have some pretty high level individuals on this task
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force police said that they had no evidence of Foul Play but Taylor a minor and now missing for days all without
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being in contact with anyone was of great concern investigators confirm that Taylor had
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not used her credit card or cell phone since she went missing and this is never good and always really I mean we know
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this Captain a bad bad sign the task force set out to use a relatively new tool available to them in
00:26:22
assembling the victimology and get a list of Persons of Interest and this was social media
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Taylor's prolific online writings and posts gave investigators a glimpse into her life and a place to start compiling
00:26:38
a list of her contacts friends and acquaintances well you can control your top eight I think at some point you can even
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make it bigger than top eight you could have a like top 16. so you would control
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who was in that group so there's your closest Pals right there on the internet this is also helpful
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because they're able to determine what she had been doing and where she had been going in the days leading up to her
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disappearance and then they're able to reach out to people that Taylor's family was not
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aware of that she was hanging out with one of the first people the task force question was this jacob Cunningham the
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the sort of boyfriend right uh that they they just met when school started Jake told police that things were good when
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they had dinner as you said Captain with Taylor and they left the restaurant holding hands he also told investigators
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that they parted ways that Monday evening and when they did so Taylor told him that she was going to go skateboarding
00:27:45
another reference to the skateboarding thing she was into boarding as we know and this would have been a normal
00:27:51
activity it seems for her even at night remember we know that she went skateboarding after midnight just days
00:27:58
earlier however police were not able to track down anyone who had been skateboarding
00:28:05
with her on the night that she disappeared or even seen her skateboarding that night well we know
00:28:11
that she took her keys with her when she left her room but on that video footage
00:28:15
I don't see her with a skateboard correct correct now one thing that they the investigators were going to start
00:28:23
looking at and this there's not much mention of this in the media but police looked at Taylor's
00:28:30
father's girlfriend's son okay I'll say that again because it's a little difficult Taylor's father's girlfriend's
00:28:37
son and I don't know this guy's name or really anything about him but what we do
00:28:44
know is that Taylor did blog about him in her online live Journal saying that he was creepy and he hit on her and it
00:28:55
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visit lightstream.com TCG for more information [Music] [Music] all right we are back we are back and I
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want to give a special shout out and cheers to a great man Dwight Radcliffe was Sheriff of Pickaway County in Ohio
00:34:01
from 1965 all the way up to 2013. he is the longest serving sheriff in the United States he was re-elected
00:34:13
12 times unfortunately Dwight passed away last week on May 6th so thank you to sheriff Dwight Radcliffe for a
00:34:22
lifetime of service to the community I'll pour a little out for the good Sheriff may he rest in peace a big
00:34:29
cheers mates to you big cheers on September 17 2005 Taylor has now been missing for
00:34:37
about 12 days there was a break in the case Taylor's white 1997 Ford Escort sedan was located
00:34:47
it was parked on a quiet residential street this is North Mulberry Street has about three blocks from campus that's
00:34:56
correct about a mile and a half from her dorm so not far away at all what was disturbing was that the car had
00:35:05
different license plates on it the license plates were from Ohio and these plates had been stolen or
00:35:13
reported stolen two months earlier they were lifted off of a vehicle of an Ohio resident who lived in Richmond while
00:35:21
attending VCU residents said that the vehicle had not been parked there for the duration of
00:35:28
Taylor's of the time that she had been missing so we have a situation here Captain she
00:35:34
goes missing her car goes missing at the same time this car her car magically appears in
00:35:40
this spot and it's not there for much of the time that she's been missing well we
00:35:45
can only assume that somebody switched the tags to throw people off from finding her car they put the captain's
00:35:51
plates on that car this next part is really really smart on the behalf of the police I think this is an absolutely
00:36:01
great tactic what what they did was they did a Stakeout job on this car I mean what what a genius idea that's a
00:36:12
great idea if you know that it's if you suspect that something may have happened
00:36:15
to her very early on in the period that she's been missing and you believe had have good reason to believe that this
00:36:22
vehicle has been moved since then who's not to say that this this guy is going to come back and move
00:36:29
the vehicle again we know people get nervous when they Place bodies or evidence or cars places and sometimes
00:36:35
they SEC they have second thoughts and think oh I better move it to a different place or it's going to be found sooner
00:36:40
or maybe I didn't move it far away enough from me well then you also you have no evidence that
00:36:48
she's dead yeah so is she using her vehicle is she the one that changed the license plates
00:36:55
um this you we got to figure out what's going on with her yeah if you get some type of activity in or around the
00:37:02
vehicle it may be the lead that you so desperately need because by this point captain
00:37:08
we've already discussed this and you have to believe this is what went down they are using social media they're
00:37:14
talking to her friends her roommate her parents everybody that knows her to figure out what her Social Circles are
00:37:20
and then interview everybody that they can possibly think of within those circles and it sounds to me like at this
00:37:28
point they really got a whole lot of nothing going on until you find the car let's let's be smart that what a genius
00:37:35
idea yeah but like you said before though oh shoot she's gonna go skateboarding that's a normal thing for
00:37:41
her and I was bringing up the point on break well there is no normalcy it's not like she's been at school for a year
00:37:50
and now we have all these times that we know hey Sunday night she likes to go skateboarding I mean like she's been at
00:37:58
school for a couple weeks there is no normal hat you it's not even long enough to form a bunch of habits well I think
00:38:06
that it's not abnormal is what I would point out there no no no I agree so after staking out the vehicle for 24
00:38:14
hours to see if anyone would return to it police called in the dogs the sniffer dogs and impounded the car
00:38:23
it was sent off to the FBI for forensic analysis police Bloodhounds tracked a scent from her car to a home on Shepherd
00:38:33
Street this house was about five blocks away from Taylor's car yeah this is pretty interesting the home belonged to
00:38:40
the aunt and uncle of a 23 year old guy named Jesse Schultz Jesse was not a VCU student but he
00:38:49
frequented VCU Hangouts to try to meet the ladies he also may have been a skateboarder
00:38:56
Jesse had visited his aunt uncle's home within the past 24 hours and had left one of his work shirts at this house at
00:39:06
their home the couple was very cooperative and allowed police to look through their house
00:39:12
the house where Jesse lived was down the street and it was search as well during
00:39:20
that search they found a razor blade with cocaine residue on it and this led to Jesse's arrest
00:39:29
although we should in all fairness we should point out the razor blade could belong to Jesse but he also had a
00:39:36
roommate could belong to the room right police clearly wanted to they wanted to sweat Jesse a bit see
00:39:44
what he knew see if he was guilty of anything and they just put a bunch of cocaine on the table had him do a bunch
00:39:51
of lines and then questioned him turn the thermostat up to 104. yeah so they didn't feel about that jealousy they
00:39:58
interrogated Jesse at the station for several hours about Taylor about her being missing he did agree to take a
00:40:06
polygraph test which indicated some deception according to the detective in charge yeah
00:40:13
he failed on two questions uh one what what's your name right is this your cocaine yes sure
00:40:22
uh he failed on two questions and what is cited in the media reports is one of those questions was whether he knew
00:40:28
Taylor at all and two whether he had been in her car he answered no to both of those and this
00:40:37
shows deception the police are not believing it it that's that's difficult because for
00:40:45
someone to say I don't even know this person and show deception and then to say I've never been in this vehicle show
00:40:51
deception now you have reason to believe not only why does he not want us to know
00:40:55
that that he knows her right why what else is he covering up if he's saying that he was not in her
00:41:02
vehicle but we have the scent dog leading you from the car right to his aunt and uncle's house
00:41:10
the trouble is both of these tactics are not perfect like everything else right they're not 100 percent well I really
00:41:18
question because and this is kind of gross and you gotta watch out for certain campuses but especially at that
00:41:25
time late 90s early 2000s especially college guys they get drunk they we everywhere it's a wee-wee Fest
00:41:36
peeing on the side of the houses oh just creep between these two cars and pee real quick
00:41:42
is it possible that he just was taking a leak and then he took a leak by her car and then walked
00:41:49
to his aunt and uncle's house it's also possible that the dogs were wrong and the test is not scored properly
00:41:56
right the other thing too is if this young man is just nervous about being questioned anyway
00:42:04
you know that test is reacting to him not it's not actually detecting if he's lying or not it's detecting if there's
00:42:11
any change in his in him physically well right again and if I ask you a question
00:42:17
hey what were you doing the other night hey I was at this bar there's no tension
00:42:21
there I I can ask all these questions but I know that there's a missing girl I know this was her car right I know that
00:42:29
they have a set from her car to my house once you bring her up even if I don't know her the nervousness of that could
00:42:38
fail those tests I mean I don't like these tests like a hundred percent I just like when people are willing to
00:42:44
take them because I I do think it gives us somewhat of a barometer and also when
00:42:50
they let you know which I don't like it when they just say oh well he seemed to be deceptive so he failed the test I I
00:42:58
like when they come back and they go well look he passed everything but these two questions there's some deception
00:43:04
there okay well give me that and that gives me more to go on yeah despite the test failure despite
00:43:12
the Unexplained dog tracking or maybe they believe the drug dog tracking I don't know but what we do know is this
00:43:20
Jesse continued to deny that he had any involvement so much so to the point where he continued to tell officers and
00:43:27
detectives I don't even know this person I don't know you know I I get that she's
00:43:31
missing and I get that you're looking for and I wish I could help but I don't know who she is I never met her I don't
00:43:37
know what that vehicle is and eventually police they do clear him of any involvement at all because they looked
00:43:46
at this dude pretty tough and pretty hard and they were unable to link him in any way to her right and that's also
00:43:54
becomes another problem do you know this person remember Brian Shaffer a lot of people didn't know who Brian
00:44:01
Shaffer was but if I would have showed you a picture of him people would have been like I know that guy from somewhere
00:44:07
yeah because of the hundred and some thousand Flyers we put everywhere right yeah I mean so how many Flyers were out
00:44:14
there with her face on it how much news coverage was there he could be sitting there going I I you
00:44:20
know if I think his answer uh I think it was a 48 hours or something was really good when he said look if
00:44:30
if I knew her I wasn't aware that I knew her right and when looking at this Jesse
00:44:38
Schultz guy what this leads investigators to is they start they they take a look at a
00:44:46
skateboarder friend of Jesse's his name is Ian and they also impounded a Nissan Altima which may have been Ian's looking
00:44:55
for evidence they apparently had reason to believe that maybe Taylor had been in
00:45:01
the Altima at some point is my guess here and reportedly refused to take a polygraph test he's not as
00:45:09
Cooperative as what Jesse was was but he just failed well that's what you have to
00:45:15
wonder about like if you know that your buddy didn't know this girl and the police are telling him hey you failed
00:45:21
your your Polly you're not going to be so excited to sit down for one yourself and we've talked
00:45:26
about that many times like what could would come from you taking one because if you pass it people go well that the
00:45:34
test is [ __ ] but if you fail it most people don't follow up with the test is [ __ ] well and if you want to be like
00:45:42
uber cooperative and if you really want to help the best way to do it and it's not cheap so a lot of people don't do
00:45:49
this the best way to do it is to to you do a bunch of cocaine get an attorney and then have your attorney set up a
00:45:57
polygraph test and those results can then be sent to investigators from from that I like that process but again after
00:46:06
you take it a few times learn how to beat the system you have to pay for the test you have to pay for the attorney
00:46:11
all things that can be expensive if you want good ones right uh they did look like we said police
00:46:18
were looking at both of these guys uh Ian and Jesse I think them being skateboarders and
00:46:27
then a possible connection to Jesse even though they couldn't find one this goes
00:46:31
back to the thought of maybe she was planning to go skateboarding with them or maybe she actually did know them
00:46:39
right but it seems like they couldn't make that they being the investigator investigators could not make that
00:46:46
connection well I don't think he ever told us what happened as far as her dad's her dad's girlfriend's son
00:46:54
that was questioned and looked at acting a little creepy because that would be very awkward oh my dad is now dating
00:47:01
this girl and you you meet her kid for the first time and you're you're attractive female so
00:47:08
he's like well she's not she's not bad to look at that would be a very awkward situation well and who knows like I said
00:47:16
I know very little about it because it wasn't reported on who knows the age of this guy or right
00:47:23
so yeah because he could it was 35. yeah I mean I don't really know anything about him I do know he was
00:47:30
looked at and I have to believe that there was no connection couldn't take that portion of the investigation
00:47:36
anywhere or it would have been reported on right in the media what's clear though is I mean especially like her
00:47:43
friends from high school and then her family members these are almost a little bit easier to
00:47:50
investigate on some level because you can start eliminating people quickly because the distance yeah so even if oh
00:47:58
the mom and daughter is close but well maybe they had a fight okay well the mom's two hours away so to to establish
00:48:06
Alibis is a lot easier and the other thing too I would think with the with her colleagues at school
00:48:13
at VCU it'd be easy to to clear people as well because this we're talking about people that are at
00:48:20
an age where they're very active and they're out and about and they're hanging out with other people it's real
00:48:25
easy to establish as you said in Alibi for who was doing what and when right but here's here's the tough thing though
00:48:33
and and anybody would know this I mean you'd know this by even going to high school
00:48:39
when you get to a new school everybody's new you're not forming your click yet so she was still in the process if you
00:48:51
would have told me she went missing at the end of her freshman year again schedule habits routine the the
00:49:00
people that she would be in daily contact weekly contact monthly contact would be
00:49:07
all those habits would be formed but because it's so early in the school year a lot of those scenes are just not
00:49:15
formed yet but you do have roommates like it's a situation where people aren't living
00:49:21
alone you know we cover so many of these cases and it's like this guy says well he couldn't have done it because he was
00:49:27
20 miles away well what was his Alibi he he didn't feel well he had a headache he
00:49:33
lives alone he sat at home watching some TV he went to bed early that night so the students at VCU at the campus
00:49:40
they held a vigil for Taylor this was on the night of September 19th but but hold
00:49:45
on one good second with that point though is yes when you have a college campus of 30 some thousand you normally
00:49:53
have on that campus maybe a half a million people that live on that campus most of them not going to
00:50:00
that school if you go to the Ohio State campus yeah there's a hundred and some thousand kids that attend to Ohio State
00:50:07
campus but there's roughly like a million in that area that don't go to school the while this this whole thing's going
00:50:16
on here Captain so we're now at September 19th and the investigators still don't have any
00:50:23
real strong leads and mind you they're they're really diving into every aspect of Taylor's
00:50:30
life that they can find this being through friends this being through her activities on social media
00:50:37
they noted that there was another guy who was involved in Taylor's life this was not
00:50:43
Jacob this was not Jesse it was Ben folly you might recall that this was the roommate of Taylor's friend Mike Sino
00:50:54
whom she stayed with on her two trips to VCU in the spring of 2005 while she was
00:51:02
a senior in high school so let's discuss this Benjamin Folly shall we yeah it'd be one of her oldest
00:51:09
friends at VCU yep Ben folley was known around town because he was a quirky flamboyant character a
00:51:18
self-proclaimed goth skater he always had dyed Surfer style hair that changed colors regularly
00:51:27
he drove what many would describe as a creeper van that was completely covered with bumper stickers and old license
00:51:35
plates yeah it was very strange they actually did a couple news stories on his van because
00:51:41
he would take it was a big creeper van but I think it was painted black and then it was just covered from top to
00:51:49
bottom with stickers and bumper stickers and every kind of sticker and there's almost no paint visible on this thing
00:51:56
yeah I mean when you saw it going down the road it it looked almost like something from Mad Max or something
00:52:01
so it's a novelty you know and that was kind of neat that it was featured on a couple local stories their news stories
00:52:08
I guess maybe it's not technically a creeper van maybe you don't describe it as that because it might have the size
00:52:14
and shape of the traditional creeper van but when you're when you're covered in bumper stickers and license plates you
00:52:21
don't really blend in very well do you right Folly was once a student at VCU he attended for seven years
00:52:31
um do you think he was studying to be a doctor probably or something happening he looks like a
00:52:37
doctor he never graduated but when Taylor met him at her friend's apartment where he was living he was no longer a
00:52:47
student in fact it was like 38 years old yeah he doesn't but if you watch these interviews he didn't look that old at
00:52:56
all I would say like early 20s you know he dyed his hair a lot changed that up a
00:53:02
lot but even in the interview they're like so why do you do this to your van he's like yeah I just like stickers man
00:53:08
he's like one of those guys right well he had two children as well the children didn't live with him in fact they lived
00:53:16
rather far away with their mother well that's because he dislikes having sex man but in regards to his age and being
00:53:24
a father of two I don't know that Taylor knew any of this no we can't say because we we don't know
00:53:33
what their conversations were but we're talking about a relationship a friendship for a few months you know at
00:53:41
some point yeah the truth will come out but this girl is coming um two hours away to come visit this
00:53:51
college campus you can be whoever you want or whoever you think she wants you to be
00:53:58
because you're you're spinning not as much time with her if that makes sense yeah and as the captain said you
00:54:07
can see Ben Foley in these interviews he actually gave an interview to 48 hours in a 2019 piece by Aaron Moriarty on the
00:54:17
case he said that when he first saw Taylor standing in the doorway of the apartment
00:54:22
that he shared with Mike you know when she came to visit that he thought she was extremely beautiful
00:54:30
he said that they spent the entire weekend talking when they first met and they shared so
00:54:36
much in common including many opinions and feelings about different things Matt Beale Taylor's father said that
00:54:45
when he dropped Taylor off there in April he did meet he actually met this Ben Folly right and he said that Ben
00:54:53
seemed to be to him seemed to be a very nice personable young man Matt said that he assumed Folly was a
00:55:02
student and was in his mid-20s at the oldest and just like you pointed out Captain he looked that part we know now
00:55:11
that neither of these assumptions were correct well there's a big difference I mean if you look him up on Google images
00:55:18
for example once they once his hair is chopped and and of a natural color then you go oh okay yeah mid-30s
00:55:30
pushing pushing 40. but with the pink hair or sometimes it's green hair there I can't solve footage where he had
00:55:38
purple hair you know it just makes them look especially his attitude like I said he
00:55:44
has that you know I'm just you know love dyeing my hair bro right right Polly and Taylor stayed in touch
00:55:51
Apparently after Taylor's first visit just to VCU on her second visit she slept with him she told her friends that
00:56:01
she was curious about him and wanted to see what it would be like yeah now this is in spite but this is a
00:56:10
look this individual there's plenty of women that you come in contact with that are attractive
00:56:20
you could tell that she is 17 18 years old and look maybe you know I don't want to
00:56:29
get into age gaps and relationships too much but it's like he he should that you know I I just find
00:56:36
this wrong on many levels yes yes 100 she's look she's a very attractive young lady very photogenic
00:56:44
but you're absolutely right there I didn't see one picture of her where I thought for a second that she was 20 21
00:56:51
she looked very 17 to me uh her friends though even regardless of this whatever was going on between
00:57:01
Taylor and this Ben folly her friends at the time say she's not very Taylor's not very sexually
00:57:11
experienced and we do have some evidence of Taylor and Folly's hookup from the digital
00:57:19
banter between the two Folly commented online on live Journal posting under his online name skulls
00:57:28
that this very attractive girl climbed hold on a second go ahead you're pushing 40 and your online name is skulls you
00:57:36
know like come on with something better the but the thing with this dude man it feels like to me the only thing that's
00:57:42
really pushing 40 in his life is his actual age right you know what I mean this guy
00:57:48
his one day his brain turned 18 and it stayed there right so skulls our friend skulls here posted
00:57:57
this very attractive girl climbed up into my bunk at 407. and then Taylor whose online
00:58:05
name was I don't even know if you can say this Tia balage is what I how I would try to
00:58:11
pronounce this but really it's it's supposed to be jail bait spelled backwards okay
00:58:18
she replied well I was curious to which skulls then replies so was I in fact I still am
00:58:26
Folly told 48 Hours That Taylor appreciated that he didn't treat her like a child and that he respected her
00:58:34
opinions yeah it's like I had sex with her but it was like almost a con job you know that's the way I view it do you
00:58:42
think that it here's like the vibe that I kind of get and I'm really totally guessing here Captain but I get the vibe
00:58:49
like she was aware that this guy was older that she that she wasn't dumb to that no no that she wasn't that naive
00:58:57
that she didn't understand that this guy's older you just wonder how much older did he tell her he was
00:59:04
you know 29 29 is a lot different than than mid to late 30s right again and and if you have children that
00:59:14
you're not telling the person about you again you have that ability you're on the islands especially with
00:59:22
those college campuses you're on an island you can pretend to be whoever you want to be
00:59:28
well folly he goes on to tell 48 hours about his game how he planned to flatter Taylor
00:59:40
telling her that he's an amateur photographer and that he wanted to take pictures with
00:59:48
her and this did happen you know he took some photographs of Taylor now we can only assume that Taylor
00:59:57
fell for folly fell for his carefully constructed online Persona of this you know cool
01:00:06
dude who was into goth stuff like skulls photography and had had been he says he
01:00:13
even he even says that he had been a nude model at one time yeah they specialize in small penises Folly
01:00:23
loved to post about himself in his Interest online obviously detailing his romantic Conquest go ahead hold on a
01:00:30
second because here's what I think happened I think she's going to go to this school she
01:00:37
knows she's going to go there she meets this meets up with somebody that from her hometown that goes to VCU his
01:00:44
roommate is there okay cool you're my friend by association now this guy is Smitten by the 17 year old
01:00:52
they make plans to hang out he's taken pictures of her which a lot of times with these cases you can start googling
01:01:01
and it I think it's better to wrap your head around the whole situation the more
01:01:07
pictures you can have or the more videos you can have but a lot of the pictures in Google Images are stuff that this guy
01:01:16
took that's what you'll find of her and I think that as far as the sexual experience I think it was probably
01:01:27
simply a 17 year old that probably drank a little bit and it was something that happened because
01:01:37
she later is telling her friends well yes we were physical but I I don't want that to happen again right I'm not
01:01:48
like that's it was a it was an accident right all right well this Folly guy he if you weren't already dialing into this
01:01:58
already he has a bit of a dark side you know he maintained websites with titles like
01:02:06
dark evil goth and skulls dot deviantart.com featuring articles uh described as goth nude porn
01:02:18
these included images of death and Decay as well as photos of very young women we
01:02:25
should probably say girls really in all sorts of compromising nude or scantily clad shots
01:02:32
he also blogged about Taylor's visit in April on his live Journal under his screen name
01:02:39
this portion of my notes says screen name skulls 67. then Taylor came down to Richmond to
01:02:47
visit for the weekend got out to Belle Isle amongst other things I got some photos
01:02:56
not as many as I would have liked but Taylor looked cold from earlier posts about other women it
01:03:03
seemed that taking photos on Belle Isle was a sort of a like a foreplay for Folly and Taylor for her part seemed to
01:03:14
have a somewhat moodier darker Persona than she let on too many in her life she had
01:03:21
recently picked up smoking some of her online journals reflect a girl who didn't feel she had real friends and who
01:03:29
wanted something more out of her Young Life and her friends from the Starbucks where
01:03:35
she worked in Vienna before College said that she was always interested in older
01:03:41
men and was known for flirting with them rather than guys her own age it's possible that
01:03:48
this Ben Folly older maybe exotic seeming was just what possibly a Restless young tailor was
01:03:59
kind of looking for again that's where I go back to the idea of I don't I don't believe for a second that she did not
01:04:06
know or did not understand that he was older it's just what kind of how different did she know he was than
01:04:15
her we also have a female there should be that has been to many schools 15. she understands the idea that when
01:04:25
you're going into a new situation like that especially when you're on an island it's not like you go into the school and
01:04:32
10 of those people know who you are going into school where nobody knows who you are so
01:04:39
for her you know is she now a smoker because she went to college and for two weeks she been smoking I would look at
01:04:48
all that stuff as this is a time for her her to try things uh to experiment with things and
01:04:57
discover who she really is and who she wants to be so I don't know if I would necessarily necessarily say that she
01:05:06
was darker sometimes people just need an Avenue to to vent about things and I think you're spot on there Captain I
01:05:13
think we have this big change in her life this is a major change in her life she's moving off and going off to
01:05:20
college so there's probably a lot of things going on with Taylor what my suspicions are is that she
01:05:29
is a good judge of character and she's good at setting herself up and fitting in in a new place I just really think
01:05:37
that she doesn't really know who this Ben Folly guy is [Music] [Music] with all the uncertainty and the world
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garage thanks for tuning in today we got so much more to get to in this case join
01:06:38
us back here in the garage tomorrow until then be good be kind and don't live foreign
01:06:51
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