#TextMeWhenYouGetHome on Lifetime: Where was Alexis Murphy last seen and was she ever found?

Alexis Murphy was a Virginia-based social media influencer who disappeared while driving to her hair appointment at a salon in Lynchburg in early August 2013. The 17-year-old never arrived at the salon and was reported missing by her family after she failed to return home that night.

Detectives investigated the case by using her cell phone records. The data led them to the Liberty Gas Station in Lovingston, where she was last seen, as per surveillance footage, which also captured a man named Randy Taylor with the teen.

Taylor was considered a suspect as he tried to throw off the investigation. But key evidence, including the victim's fingernail, hair extensions, and phone, was found inside and near his home. He was found guilty of kidnapping and murder charges.

Lifetime's #TextMeWhenYouGetHome is slated to chronicle Alexis Murphy's disappearance and killing in an all-new episode this Monday, September 18, 2023, at 8 pm ET. Here's an official synopsis for the same:

"Rising social media influencer Alexis Murphy was on her way to a hair appointment, but never arrived; her worried loved-ones knew something was wrong; there's a crack in the case when gas station surveillance video reveals something truly bizarre."

Moreover, several sources have confirmed that Alexis Murphy's remains were located on private property near Route 29 in Nelson County in January 2021.

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Alexis Murphy's phone was traced to a Lovingston gas station where she was last seen

According to Oxygen, Alexis Murphy was a rising social media star and a senior-year student at Nelson County High School in the rural enclave of Shipman, Virginia, when she disappeared in August 2013 while on her way to a salon appointment.

The 17-year-old reportedly drove her father’s white Nissan to a salon in Lynchburg for a hair appointment on August 3. But neither did she arrive at the salon nor did the teen return home. Her family filed a missing person's complaint when she missed her 11 pm curfew that night.

ABC News 13 reported that while investigating the case, the Nelson County Sheriff's Office, the FBI, and the State Police traced Murphy's phone to the Liberty Gas Station in Lovingston. They soon learned from the clerk there that "there was some conversation between Alexis Murphy and a heavily tattooed person that drove a camouflage SUV."

The outlet reported that security footage corroborated the clerk's account about the exchange between the missing girl and the possible suspect sometime around 7 that evening, i.e., August 3. The same video also captured the girl leaving the gas station and driving south on Route 29, following that camouflage SUV.

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How was Randy Taylor linked to Alexis Murphy's disappearance and murder?

Oxygen reported that the unknown man Alexis Murphy was last seen talking to at the gas station was later identified as 48-year-old Randy Taylor, who resided in a camper near Route 29.

Taylor reportedly denied knowing anything about Murphy, and when confronted with the surveillance footage, he immediately changed his story, claiming that he first met her a year ago at some car wash.

The outlet reported that Taylor then told detectives that he had been smoking marijuana when "she [Alexis Murphy] had made a comment about how it [the marijuana] smelled like some really good stuff."

As per Taylor's story, Murphy was with another man at the time, and they talked "about a marijuana sale" before coming to his camper to buy some. He claimed the duo then left. The "another man" theory was later confirmed to be a bluff to throw off the investigation.

Eventually, during a search of Taylor's house, detectives found a torn fingernail, hair extensions, and diamond stud, all of which were linked to Murphy using DNA. They also found her smashed phone about 70 feet from the house.

Then, in May 2014, the accused was tried and found guilty of abduction and first-degree murder, receiving two life sentences in prison.

Years later, in early 2021, human remains found on private property near Route 29 in Nelson County were identified as Murphy.

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Learn more about the case on Lifetime's #TextMeWhenYouGetHome this Monday.