Brittanee Drexel Vanished On 2009 Spring Break, Case Now Solved

Brittanee Drexel faced a rough patch. Three high school seniors invited her to Myrtle Beach, SC, for spring break. Brittanee's parents had recently separated, causing her to lose interest in schoolwork and soccer.

The Myrtle Beach trip looked like a fresh start. However, getting her parents' approval was the issue. Dawn and Chad Drexel did not want their 17-year-old daughter taking an unsupervised road trip six states away from their Rochester, NY home with three teenagers they did not know. Her parents insisted she stay home, but Brittanee wanted to go.

The family reached an agreement. Brittanee's parents let her stay at a friend's house in Rochester during the break. During the week, Brittanee checked in with Dawn regularly. Dawn saw her daughter's spirits lift. Dawn did not know Brittanee was actuallynowhere near Rochester.Instead, Brittanee went to Myrtle Beach with her friends.

Security footage shows Brittanee Drexel leaving the Blue Water Resort. A friend from Rochester, Peter Brozowitz, stayed there with three friends. Brozowitz said Brittanee went to a club with Peter and his friends the night before and met up again that day, April 25.

Brittanee reportedly went to the Blue Water Resort to get flip-flops she left earlier. She stayed at the hotel for about ten minutes. Her location remains unclear between 8:10 pm and 9:00-9:15 pm, the time she stopped replying to texts. Brozowitz is thought to bethe last person who saw herShe left the friend's hotel before she went missing.

Brozowitz checked out of the Blue Water Resort around 1 am on April 26, about five hours after seeing Brittanee. When asked why he did not contact the police after hearing about her disappearance, he said he "wasn't in Myrtle Beach to babysit."

Dawn Drexel got a call from Brittanee's boyfriend, John Grieco. John announced Brittanee had gone to Myrtle Beach for spring break. Dawn's initial anger over her disobedience turned to fear when John said Brittanee hadabruptly stopped answering texts and phone calls from John and her friends.Brittanee and John texted all day. When she stopped replying to his messages around 9:15 pm, John grew worried. John even texted Brittanee, saying he would call her mom if she did not write back. When he got no reply, he called Dawn, believing Brittanee was in danger.

Brittanee and John texted all day. He got worried when she stopped replying to his messages around 9:15 pm. John texted Brittanee, saying he would call her mom if she did not reply. Receiving no answer, he called Dawn, thinking Brittanee was in danger.

Dawn believed her daughter was a human trafficking victim from the start. This happened possibly after Brittanee was promised a modeling chance that was only a cover.He stated this in an interview.Somebody saw her walk and offer her a ride; she got in the car with the wrong person.

Brittanee and her friends stayed at a hotel about 1.4 miles north of the Blue Water Resort. She was last seen there when she picked up her flip-flops and spoke briefly to Peter Brozowitz.

Brittanee'sCell phone records showed she headed south, despite supposed travel north.show her traveling south after that. Brittanee's phone pinged a cell tower seven miles south of the Blue Water Resort about half an hour after she sent her last text. Her phone pinged a final time not long after.The phone pinged one last time.This happened in Georgetown County, just over five miles south of Myrtle Beach.

Authorities followed up on reports of Brittanee boarding a bus and entering a convenience store. These leads hit dead ends, and the search stopped.

Some authorities believe they took her to McClellanville, SC, based on cell phone pings and witness statements.

In the early months after Brittanee disappeared, the Community United Effort (CUE) searched.The CUE Center for Missing Persons searched for 11 days straight after she disappeared.CUE founder Monica Caison told reporters her group "searched 11 days straight, sunup to sundown, nonstop" near where Brittanee's cell phone pinged.

CUE's searches involved about 200 to 500 people each time. One search brought 800 people looking for Brittanee. Caison said the area where Brittanee might have been taken was hard to investigate. "We searched the delta, the Santee area, Georgetown, areas in Charleston and McClellanville, places with alligators and snakes and wild hogs."

CUE has helped 9,000 families in missing person cases. However, they never found any trace of Brittanee Drexel.

In 2016, Taquan Brown claimed he saw Brittanee Drexel several times after she vanished. His first sighting occurred just two days after Brittanee went missing.

Brown told investigators that Brittanee was shot and dumped in an alligator pit in 2016.Brittanee was taken to a "stash house" in McClellanville, SC, where she faced sexual assault. Days after Brown first saw Brittanee, he said she fled the house. Four men caught her, dragged her back inside, and Brown heard gunshots, assuming she was murdered. He testified seeing the men carry a rolled carpet out and drive away with it, possibly to hide Brittanee's body in the nearby alligator swamps.

Taquan Brown's testimony revealed a shocking fact: Timothy De'Shaun Taylor was involved in Brittanee Drexel's kidnapping. Brown told the FBI Taylor was at the stash house the first time he saw Brittanee, and that Taylor assisted in kidnapping her.Brown implicated Timothy Da’Shaun Taylor in Brittanee’s death, but Taylor denied ever meeting her and assisted in kidnapping her.Brown claimed Taylor, who was 16 in April 2009, was the person he saw assaulting Brittanee at the stash house as she left the Blue Water Resort.

Taylor strongly denied the kidnapping claim. He said he had nothing to do with Brittanee's disappearance and never met her. "The only thing I've known is what I've seen on TV and bulletins and what the FBI has been telling me," Taylor stated in a 2016 interview.

March 2018 reported Timothy Da'Shaun Taylor failed aTaylor failed a polygraph test about the case.Taylor took the test regarding Brittanee Drexel's vanishing. Taylor faced a 2011 McDonald's robbery charge. He agreed to cooperate and take the test for a lighter sentence. Taylor claimed he never met Brittanee but recalled hearing a heated talk with two people who might have had her cell phone.

Court documents show Taylor's polygraph test results indicated deception. The test showed this when asked if he knew who was involved in Brittanee's disappearance or if he ever met her. Taylor then stopped cooperating, and no more questions came.

Authorities have never verified Brown's detailed testimony.Brown's claim lacked corroboration.Brown's claim that he saw Brittanee's murder in 2009 changes between 2016 and 2019.

In 2019, authorities checked an abandoned trailer owned by Brown's late cousin, Herman. Brown told investigators a man named Nate shot Brittanee twice with a double-barrel gun in the woods behind the trailer. Brown said Nate, Herman, and another man later dumped Brittanee's body in the swamps. Brown guessed alligators ate her remains. Brown walked away from the scene to avoid being an accomplice. The lead died down.

Brown offered his first testimony for a lesser prison sentence but disliked the final sentence. Brown later sued authorities for risking his life by naming him as a jailhouse informant.

Thirteen years after Brittanee Drexel disappeared, her remains were found in May 2022.remains were foundAuthorities found her remains buried in the woods 35 miles from where she vanished. DNA and dental records confirmed her identity. Authorities say she was strangled the night she went missing.

In 2009, marking the 10-year anniversary of Brittanee's disappearance, Robin Holley, a Drexel family friend, told reporters, "I hope we can all sit in court and look the person in the eye, or people, and say, 'You're gonna get what you rightfully deserve.'" Finding Brittanee's remains may make this hope real.

According to reports, Raymond Moody was arrested and charged with murder, kidnapping, and rape on May 16, 2022.Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver, a South Carolina resident, arrested Raymond Moody.Raymond Moody kidnapped, assaulted, and killed Brittanee Drexel on April 25, 2009, the day she went missing. The next day, Moody acted.Moody buried her in the woods.35 miles away. Her remains were not found until 13 years later.

Sheriff Weaver said Moody, age 62 during his arrest, is a registered sex offender in South Carolina with a record from 1983. Investigators found little about what caused this case break, but Moody was.Moody was arrested on May 4.He was arrested in 2022 for obstruction of justice.

Brittanee's family holds a.candlelight vigil.The family holds the vigil every year on April 25 since Brittanee disappeared in 2009. They usually hold it in Myrtle Beach near a tree planted for Brittanee. Dawn and Chad view the vigil as a way to show the public Brittanee will not be forgotten and to bring attention to where she was last seen. These vigils often include prayers, songs, and releasing balloons.

After finding Brittanee's remains, her family traveled to Myrtle Beach to seek justice in the case.Her mother said“This is truly a mother's worst nightmare. I am mourning my beautiful daughter Brittanee as I have for the past 13 years.”