Alexis Murphy - Virginia

[LadyBlue]

I've been following this case closely for quite some time now without posting or commenting. Now that there has been an arrest, which seems to be someone that could be connected to many young girls who have gone missing around Route 29 I think it's time for EVERYONE to watch the goings on in this case.



The FBI confirmed this morning that a cell phone belonging to missing Nelson County teenager Alexis Murphy was located near the home of a man arrested for allegedly abducting her.

Murphy, 17, was reported missing Aug. 3, after she was believed to have left her Shipman area home for a shopping trip to Lynchburg.

Searchers last week recovered a sweater-like shirt from a creek below a bridge in the Shipman area, according to news reports.

However, Nelson County investigator Billy Mays told the Lynchburg News and Advance on Tuesday that the sweater did not belong to Murphy. He declined to go into further detail.

The FBI said it would release no more information about the case, which has resulted in the arrest of Randy Allen Taylor on an abduction charge. The cell phone was located near Taylor’s home north of Lovingston, just off U.S. 29.

Coordinated, large-scale foot searches for Murphy did not begin until recent days. Her car was found in Charlottesville and surveillance footage captured her image at a gas station in Lovingston the day of her disappearance; Taylor was also visible in that location that day but not in Murphy’s presence.

A lawyer for Taylor, 48, has said that Murphy and Taylor were together at his home but that Taylor, who was arranging a drug deal, was not the last person with Murphy. The attorney has not said whether Taylor informed investigators about the meeting with Murphy and another man before his arrest Aug. 11.

Taylor is being held without bond.
www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/fbi-alexis-murphy-s-cell-phone-found/article_23d70150-14b0-11e3-a8f6-0019bb30f31a.html

[LadyBlue]

Randy Allen Taylor arrested for the abduction of Alexis

The man accused of abducting 17-year-old Nelson County teen Alexis Murphy will stay behind bars, a judge ruled Thursday, August 22, in Nelson County Juvenile and Domestic Relations court.

Earlier in the week, Judge A. Ellen White ruled that the bond hearing for Randy Allen Taylor would be closed to the public and media, but immediately before the 1pm bond hearing, she granted a media motion by attorney Craig Merritt, representing WDBJ in Roanoke, WWBT and WTVR in Richmond, and the Newsplex, to open the hearing to the public, agreeing with Merritt that the only time the courtroom should be closed was during the presentation of "sensitive" evidence from the prosecution.

"Things have been revealed, some confirmed yesterday, that could seriously jeopardize [Taylor's] right to a fair trial," countered Nelson Commonwealth's Attorney Anthony Martin.

Arguing for his client's release, Taylor's defense attorney, Charlottesville-based Mike Hallahan, presented the court with a photo of the mystery man who Taylor says left his property with Murphy on August 3, the night she disappeared, after allegedly selling Taylor $60 of marijuana. The photo was not visible to the public in attendance, and Hallahan did not speak the man's name, but told the judge it was known to investigators.

Taylor "has identified him as an adult who has seen Alexis since he has seen Alexis," said Hallahan.

Following the presentation of the prosecution's evidence in a closed courtroom, Hallahan argued that prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to support a charge of abduction. He further described the timing of a new August 21 charge for a probation violation stemming from Taylor's 2005 arson conviction in Albemarle County as "very suspicious."

"It's a restitution issue, nothing else," he said, describing the $600 Taylor owes as something that could be repaid within days.

"His violation came on the eve of the bond hearing to make it more difficult for him to get bond," said Hallahan, who said that Taylor, if released, would stay with his son and his son's mother at a home in Nelson County and that he posed neither flight risk nor danger to the community.

Immediately after Judge White issued her ruling denying Taylor bond, Hallahan asked that she sign papers allowing his client to waive his right to a preliminary hearing, where evidence is presented. The case will go before a grand jury in late September.

Hook legal analyst David Heilberg says the defense move to waive preliminary hearing is unusual and perhaps reveals Hallahan's legal strategy.

"The rule of thumb is that the only reason to waive preliminary hearing is for a trade-off," says Heilberg, noting that in this case it's unlikely that there's any kind of deal on the table so early in an investigation while police are still searching for Murphy.

The other reason, Heilberg explains, is that waiving the preliminary hearing starts the "speedy trial clock," which requires a trial to be held within five months from the date the preliminary hearing is waived since Taylor is being held without bond.

If the grand jury doesn't issue an indictment on the abduction charge when it convenes in September, Taylor will be set free. If an indictment on the abduction charge is issued, Taylor will be tried on the charge no later than January— around the time the preliminary trial was originally scheduled.

If Hallahan doesn't believe prosecutors have enough evidence to convince a jury to convict Taylor, Heilberg says, a quick trial is in his client's best interest, although prosecutors could bring additional charges against Taylor at any point if they believe they have the evidence to support them.

While Taylor's defense is taking an unusual approach by appearing to rush the trial process, Heilberg says, the prosecution also seems to be taking an unusual approach by charging Taylor with only one offense.

"Usually the commonwealth will charge every possibility to gain leverage. Here, they may have purposely limited the number of charges to keep their options open," he says. "Everyone is maneuvering and going against conventional strategies— both sides."
www.readthehook.com/110037/no-bond-abduction-suspect-stay-behind-bars

[LadyBlue]

Randy Taylor: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

1. In 2010, a woman from the town of Orange in Central Virginia, Samantha Clarke, vanished. The 19-year-old Clarke was home, babysitting her brother when she was last seen. Her brother says that she left the home to go and meet some friends at some point in the evening. It's understood that Clarke had just begun seeing a younger friend of Randy Taylor, reports Charlottesville's Hook Newspaper. Taylor admits to having seen Clarke in a bar just prior to her disappearance but had no other interaction with her. Shortly after she was confirmed as a missing person, Taylor was identified as a suspect, but was never charged for her disappearance.

2. As friends, family and law enforcement continue to search for Murphy, deputies brought Taylor in to Nelson County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court to face a judge for an advisement hearing on Tuesday. Judge Kenneth Farrar read him the felony charge he faces in connection with the disappearance of Murphy. He is charged with her abduction. "We continue to seek information from anyone who may have seen anything of interest on the day of Alexis' disappearance," Special Agent in Charge of the Richmond Division of the FBI Jeff Mazanec said. "We are also looking for any information the public may have regarding suspect Randy Taylor prior to the disappearance of Alexis on Aug. 3 and anything regarding his activities or involvement that might prove helpful to this investigation."

3. He's Currently in Jail Without Bond

4. Randy Taylor and Alexis Murphy Were Both Spotted on the Same Surveillance Footage

5. Taylor Was a Person of Interest Early on in the Investigation

www.heavy.com/news/2013/08/randy-taylor-alexis-murphy-virginia/

[LadyBlue]

12 Investigates: Women disappearing from Route 29

Investigators said today they are looking into to whether Alexis Murphy's case is connected to any other disappearances in our area.

12 Investigates looked at some of the high profile abductions and murders of women that have haunted our area. There have been a string of women to go missing in the Route 29 corridor over the last 20 years.

Something the Showalters in Harrisonburg know all too well.

"My biggest fear during those nine and half weeks was not finding her body," said Sadie Showalter. "That was such a big fear."

Alicia Showalter Reynolds disappeared in March of 1996. The 25-year-old grad student was meeting her mom to go shopping. Her vehicle was found on the side of Route 29. Nine weeks later, her body was discovered in a field.

Her killer was never caught.

In the weeks that followed, reports came from other women about a strange man trying to flag them down on Route 29.

Investigators released a sketch and received more than 10,000 tips, but State Police have never identified a suspect, and there's no evidence connecting the Reynolds case to any other - including the 2009 abduction and murder of Morgan Harrington.

Harrington attended a Metallica concert and ended up locked outside the facility. She was last seen walking along the Copely Road Bridge in Charlottesville.

Months later, her body was found on a farm along Route 29. Police got a DNA cold hit to this suspect: a rapist from northern Virginia who's never been identified.

In September of 2010, Samantha Clarke vanished. The 17-year-old was last seen leaving her apartment in the town of Orange and never returned home. She has never been found.

Also still missing is 20-year-old Dashad Smith. Dashad is a transgender man who also went by the nickname "Sage." he was last seen near the Charlottesville Amtrak Station in November.
www.nbc12.com/story/23115645/s

[LadyBlue]

While a frantic search continued in central Virginia for 17-year-old Alexis Murphy, the FBI began investigating whether the man charged in her abduction is connected to a long string of disappearances centered around the Charlottesville area.

The FBI and Nelson County prosecutors on Aug. 12 announced the arrest of Randy Allen Taylor, 48, in the disappearance of Alexis, who left her home for Lynchburg to get her hair done and vanished Aug. 3. Her car was found abandoned Aug. 6 in Charlottesville.

Randy Taylor, who lives on Thomas Nelson Highway in Lovingston, was charged with abduction by force and is being held without bond, authorities said. But as of press time, where Alexis is, and if she’s OK, remained a mystery.

“I know there is some speculation that this case may be connected to other disappearances and abductions in the region,” FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Mazanec said at a press conference Aug. 12. “We are certainly looking at all possibilities and information in this regard. However, we are not prepared to discuss this at the present time.”

As investigators dive into Taylor’s past, they’ve learned there’s one thing he is not - the “29 Stalker.”

Taylor’s police mugshot taken after his arrest Sunday bears some resemblance to a 1996 composite sketch of the “29 Stalker,” a moniker given the killer who murdered 25-year-old Alicia Showalter Reynolds. Reynolds was abducted in Culpeper County while driving to Charlottesville on U.S. 29 on March 2, 1996.

Her remains were found two months later in a remote logging community in Culpeper.

Taylor, however, was incarcerated in Virginia Beach in June 1993 after being convicted of burglary and grand larceny. He remained in prison, transferred among three correctional centers, until Sept. 20, 1996, records show.

While Taylor has an ironclad alibi in Alicia Reynolds murder, he has publicly admitted he was once a suspect in the September 2010 disappearance of a 19-year-old Orange County woman, Samantha Clarke. In an interview with a Charlottesville alternative newspaper, The Hook, Taylor was quoted as saying police “harassed him by planting evidence and illegally tracking his whereabouts.”

He was never charged and Clarke has never been found.

The Orange County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office released a statement Aug. 14 saying investigators there are working closely with detectives on the Alexis Murphy case.

“As Randy Taylor is someone that Samantha spoke with immediately prior to her disappearance, he remains someone we are very interested in learning more about,” Orange Commonwealth’s Attorney Diane Wheeler said in the statement.

The Alexis Murphy case also echoes that of Morgan Harrington, a 20-year-old Virginia Tech student who vanished after a Metallica concert in Charlottesville in October 2009. Her body was found three months later in a field in Albemarle County, near Charlottesville. No one has ever been charged in her killing.

DNA in the Morgan Harrington case matches a 2005 unsolved sexual assault in Fairfax City. In that case, the attacker was scared off by a passerby. Based on the witness descriptions in the 2005 case, a composite sketch of the suspect showed an African American male, but police have never said if they know his race.

State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said that, so far, there is no evidence linking the Alexis Murphy case to the murder of Morgan Harrington.

At the Aug. 12 news conference, the FBI said finding Alexis Murphy remains the agency’s top focus. But they want to speak to anyone who knows anything about Taylor.

Authorities ask anyone who saw Taylor or his late-model GMC Suburban around the time Alexis disappeared or since then to call 434-263-7050.
www.insidenova.com/news/crime_police/updated-randy-taylor-s-arrest-revives-interest-in-stalker-case/article_252d9606-02de-11e3-ae2e-0019bb2963f4.html