Mother Writes Book To Honor Slain Daughter

Today, memories are all Janet Pelasara has left of her daughter, Taylor Behl.

Taylor was 17 and a college freshman when she disappeared and was found murdered a year ago. She had been a student at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond for just two weeks before she was murdered, police say, by a man she communicated with via instant messenger.

Now Pelasara has written a book, "Love You More: The Taylor Behl Story," about her experience.

"I wrote the book to keep Taylor's memory alive forever and to let other parents know that even though their child might be the most well-behaved child, that this could still happen," Pelasara told The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm. "And for a young woman to read the book and to be careful, to be a little more aware and to go with their gut. If they are with a friend or supposed-friend that makes them feel just a little uncomfortable, there's probably something not right and they should end the friendship and move on."

Taylor's untimely demise was even crueler because Pelasara said everything seemed like it was going right her daughter's life. Taylor had been enjoying college and her mother was happy to see her coming into adulthood.

"She was so excited," Pelasara said. "She loved it. She had met tons of people and she liked her roommate and her suite mates."

Taylor vanished in September 2005 and the community reaction was overwhelming. Friends and family organized the Taylor Behl benefit concert and started the Taylor Fund. The story gained national attention as Pelasara, with the help of scores of volunteers, did everything they could to find Taylor.

Pelasara made an emotional plea at a press conference: "Whoever has her, just let her walk away. I need my baby back."

On Oct. 5, 2005, police made a discovery that everyone had dreaded.

"They just sat in their chairs and hung their heads low and said we believe the body to be Taylor," Pelasara said.

On the day she buried Taylor, Janet began her quest for justice.

"My prayer is for my next news conference to be announcing the arrest of the sick and subhuman that murdered my beautiful daughter," she said at another press conference.

Three months after she shared her prayers with the world, police charged a "friend," Ben Fawley, with the murder of Pelasara's only child. Taylor and Fawley met through a mutual friend and had been communicating over the Internet via instant messenger.

"He is a father of two young children, and I thought a 38-year-old man, not knowing that he was a predator of young girls, was there to finish his degree and go back to Pennsylvania where he came from. But I didn't know," Pelasara said.

Pelasara said the only clue she had about the relationship is that Taylor eventually told her that she had a friend who "turned out to be a weirdo."

"She was trying to distance herself because he made her feel uncomfortable," Pelasara said.

Pelasara said she did not realize how sites like MySpace work. She didn't know that the whole world can see her daughters profile on MySpace.

"I thought it was limited, like the IM, you chose who you spoke with," she said. "I didn't know how much they communicated. I don't attribute the Internet to her death."

Nevertheless, Pelasara said parents have to speak to their children about who they communicate with.

"Talk and talk and talk, until your children go, 'I can't hear this any more,' " she said. "Keep talking and warn them that what they are putting out there, the whole world can see and there are predators out there. I'm not saying it's safe, because it's certainly not."

Read an excerpt of "Love You More: The Taylor Behl Story" by clicking here.