Virginia

Search to Resume for Alexis Murphy, Va. Teen Missing Since 2013

Authorities plan to resume a search for the remains of a Virginia teenager who disappeared last year.

Nelson County Sheriff David Brooks tell media outlets that the search for 17-year-old Alexis Murphy isn't connected to any other cases. He says the search will be conducted in Orange County in November but he didn't provide details.

Murphy was last seen on Aug. 3, 2013, at a gas station in Lovingston. She was spotted on surveillance video on that date at a Liberty gas station in Lovingston; the video shows that 48-year-old Randy Taylor was there at the same time.

Surveillance video from the gas station also showed Murphy's vehicle following Taylor's truck. Murphy's car was found several days later in an Albemarle County parking lot.

In May, a Nelson County jury convicted Taylor on charges of abducting and killing Murphy. He is serving two life sentences at the Powhatan Correctional Center.

Taylor's attorney, Mike Hallahan, told NBC29 in Charlottesville last year that his client was not the last person to see Murphy that day. He said while he and Murphy were parked at the gas pumps that day, she approached him and "made a comment to him about smoking marijuana based on her seeing him at another car wash in Lovingston weeks or a month before that."

Hallahan told NBC29 the teen then told Taylor she "knew a guy" and told him to follow her in his car to arrange a drug deal with a third individual.

The lawyer said Taylor, Murphy and another man went back to Taylor's camper in Lovingston. The two men smoked and drank, while Murphy did neither, the lawyer said.

Hallahan said Murphy and the other man left at the same time in separate cars, and that was the last Taylor saw of them. The lawyer told NBC29 law enforcement found a hair belonging to Murphy in Taylor's car. Law enforcement officials also found Murphy's cell phone amongst several phones recovered during the course of their investigation.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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