Lovingston / Richmond, VA
Nelson County Sheriff David Brooks confirms to BRLM Tuesday that a red sweater pulled from the Rockfish River last weekend does not belong to missing teen Alexis Murphy. “It’s did not belong to Alexis,” Sheriff Brooks told BRLM Publisher Tommy Stafford.
Meanwhile the FBI has confirmed one of the cell phones located does belong to Alexis.
Press release via FBI Richmond:
Alexis Tiara Murphy’s disappearance on August 3, 2013; spawned a multi-agency law enforcement effort to investigate the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. Through community support and the media’s engagement law enforcement have received several hundred calls with potential leads; which investigators diligently continue to work through. As a result of the state-wide and national media coverage, some of these calls have been from outside the Commonwealth of Virginia; and are being prioritized and addressed as investigators deem appropriate.
During this investigation, the Murphy family and investigators requested the public’s assistance in locating Alexis’ phone. Law enforcement have since confirmed that several phones were recovered during the course of this investigation; however until analysis of items sent to the FBI Laboratory were completed it was not clear if any of the phones were Alexis’.
The Commonwealth Attorney’s Office of Nelson County and the Investigative Partners in the Murphy investigation are announcing that one of the phones located has since been positively identified as that of Alexis Murphy. Since this is an on-going sensitive investigation, where evidentiary items and search information is sealed; no further discussion will be entertained. This sole release of information is only being made to advise the public that we no longer need assistance looking for that one item.
In order to protect the integrity of the investigation and ensure that Mr. Randy Allen Taylor gets a fair trial in Nelson County, Virginia, absolutely no further information will be released about this investigation.
This case continues to be investigated by the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office, the Virginia State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Nelson County Commonwealth Attorney Anthony Martin is prosecuting the case.
