Shattered Lives: Searching for Alexis Murphy
On August 3, 2013 Alexis Murphy was doing what most American teens do on a summer Saturday evening. Heading out for a night with friends in nearby Lynchburg, she tweeted to her friends, and surveillance video showed her last sighting at a Lovingston, Virginia gas station located approximately halfway between Lynchburg and Charlottesville. When she failed to return home local sheriffs began investigating, and soon after, FBI and Virginia State Police joined the search. It didn’t take long to locate Alexis’ abandoned car where search dogs traced scents, warrants were issued, and by August 11, 2013 a suspect was taken into custody. Subsequently a grand jury issued indictments for the abduction and murder of Alexis Murphy and by May of 2014 a trial was underway with 48-year-old Randy Taylor found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. This verdict was the third successful prosecution of murder without a body in Virginia state history. In the courtroom the family was surrounded by many supporters including Gil Harrington, mother of murdered Morgan Harrington in 2009. The …