Teen blogs help police

Generally, law enforcement is concerned about teen blogging (see "Teen solicited in MySpace" and this Little Rock, Ark. TV report). But here's a case where the technology is helping police. Probably because of her blogging, the case of Taylor Marie Behl, 17, who "disappeared from a Richmond university four weeks ago," the Washington Post reports, is now being viewed by police as that of abduction, not just a missing-person case. Because of Behl's blogs, the Post adds, police are "privy to the disagreements that Behl had with her parents, her emotions on any given day, even her sexual exploits … [it] recorded her moods, her crushes, her insecurities in 50 entries she posted online over the span of 12 months." The Internet, in fact, "has emerged as a virtual tip machine that often maps the course of an investigation. The girl hasn't been found, but there's a suspect in custody, arrested on charges of possession of child pornography, a 38-year-old man who'd posted in Behl's blogs, including at LiveJournal.comand MySpace.com.