BRITTANEE DREXEL - 17 yo (2009) - Rochester NY / Myrtle Beach SC

A special team of missing-person investigators has been dispatched to South Carolina to take a fresh look at the case of Brittanee Drexel, a New York teen who disappeared while on spring break.

The investigators include a retired FBI agent and two former agents from
the Bureau of Investigation in North Carolina and Georgia. The three
men are part of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's
Project Alert.

Calls from AOL News to the NCMEC asking for comments were not immediately returned today. According to its website,
Project Alert is a corps of more than 170 retired federal, state and
local law-enforcement professionals who donate their time and expertise
working as consultants.




Myrtle Beach Police Department / AP


Brittanee Drexel, here in an undated photo, disappeared while on spring break in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in April 2009.



"The average Project ALERT Representative (PAR) has retired after
working more than 20 years within a federal, state, or local
law-enforcement agency. ... Project ALERT representatives are trained by
the NCMEC and participate in a variety of ways on missing child cases,"
the website says.

Project Alert team members specialize in cold cases. In addition to case
reviews, they can recommend investigative strategies, assist with case
interviews and participate in technical meetings, according to the NCMEC
website.

Drexel, a 17-year-old girl from New York, was on spring break in Myrtle Beach,
S.C., when she disappeared in April 2009. She was last seen by friends
on April 25, when she left the Bar Harbor Hotel in Myrtle Beach to meet
some people at the nearby BlueWater Resort.
Surveillance footage shows Drexel arriving at the resort, then leaving
about 10 minutes later. What happened to her after that remains a
mystery.

Drexel's family members did not immediately return calls for comment from AOL News. Speaking with a WHEC-10 reporter in Rochester, N.Y., the teen's mother, Dawn Drexel, said she is happy about the latest developments.

"I'm glad they're keeping the case still active, and they're still
looking," the mother told the news station. "They're still trying to
find some answers about Brittanee's disappearance."


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Myrtle Beach Police Capt. David Knipes said the involvement of Project
Alert was not prompted by any new developments in the case.

"It's always good to have somebody else look at it, give a second
opinion, see if there's something that might have been missed, somebody
else you might want to interview," Knipes told Myrtle Beach's WPDE News Channel 15.

Crime Stoppers of the Lowcountry is offering a reward for information on
Drexel's whereabouts. Anyone with information is asked to call
888-CRIME-SC. Confidential tips can also be submitted via helpfindbrittaneedrexel.com.

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/11/special-team-of-investigators-review-case-of-missing-spring-brea/

The search for Brittanee Drexel will continue
this weekend as crews head back to McClellanville to look for the missing teenager.
Dawn Drexel, Brittanee's mother, will be present
at the search for her daughter who has been missing since 2009. Police
say Drexel was last seen in the area of 11th Avenue South and 20th
Avenue South in Myrtle Beach on April 25, 2009. Drexel was 17 at the time of her disappearance.
This weekend search will take place Saturday and
Sunday and will center around an area along Old Georgetown Road off
Rutledge Road in Charleston County. Over 200 people are expected to help
in the search. Crews searched parts of this location in November 2010,
but were not able to cover the entire area last time.
"This little girl has just disappeared and we're
going to do everything we can to try to find her," said Monica Caison,
executive director of the CUE Center for Missing Persons. "It's going to
be a successful search either way because we've eliminated one more space if she's not here."
Volunteers spent Friday prepping for the weekend
search. They will use horses and dogs in the search which is centering
around McClellanville because a cell phone tower there received a signal
from her cell phone after Drexel went missing.

Brittanee's mother Dawn Drexel spent
Friday morning talking with Myrtle Beach Police Investigators.
She's hoping this new search will bring new hope.
"It's just been a very, very long road, you know,
enough's enough, we need someone to come forward and talk and let us
know what happened, and get some resolution, and bring Brittanee back home," said Drexel.

The case gained national attention after
the 17-year-old visited Myrtle Beach during spring break of 2009, and was never seen again.

Drexel and her friends were staying in the Bar Harbor Hotel along Ocean
Boulevard that week in April. Drexel was caught on a surveillance camera
around 8:15 p.m., Saturday, April 25, 2009, walking along the boulevard
to visit friends staying at the Bluewater Resort.

Drexel was then recorded on the hotel's surveillance camera some thirty
minutes later leaving the Bluewater Resort, returning to her hotel approximately 20 blocks away.

Somewhere within that 20 block walk, something would go very wrong, leaving
police, family, and friends trying to put together the pieces of how
Brittanee Drexel seemingly vanished.

Police received hundreds of tips concerning Drexel's whereabouts, all of which turned out to be nothing more than a dead end.

http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/13930163/crews-begin-new-search-for-missing-teen

Weekend search for Brittanee Drexel produces new information
nvestigators say they received new information in the case of missing teen Brittanee Drexel during a wide-scale weekend search.Nearly
200 people scoured an area off of Old Georgetown Road in search of the
Rochester, New York teen who disappeared from Myrtle Beach in April
2009."The location was of interest and we had reason to feel it was a worthwhile search," Myrtle Beach Police Lt. Chuck Capp said.Volunteers
and professional search crews used ATVs, horses and dogs to search the
12-mile-radius in McClellanville Saturday and Sunday.While Lt. Capp confirmed that new information has surfaced, though, what new information was discovered has not been released.
He said any new leads must first be confirmed and they haven't done
that just yet. Lt. Capp said Myrtle Beach Police will continue to follow
leads and work with other law enforcement agencies on the case."We have a cold case team and a joint task force with Georgetown, Charleston and SLED. We're constantly working on it."There have been more than 50 active searches for Drexel since her disappearance.

http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=575071

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Relatives are planning fundraisers to mark the
two years since a New York teen was reported missing in Myrtle Beach.
Carol Wagner says she hopes the events in Myrtle Beach on April 21
and 23 will raise money for search efforts and lead to new information
about the disappearance of her granddaughter, Brittanee Drexel.
Dozens of searchers have fruitlessly searched Georgetown, Horry
(oh-REE) and Charleston counties since the Rochester, N.Y., teenager
disappeared April 25, 2009, after leaving a Myrtle Beach hotel. Drexel's
19th birthday was Oct. 5.
Wagner says she is holding out hope her granddaughter will be found
alive. Drexel's cell phone transmitted its last known signal the day
after she disappeared near the South Santee River in Georgetown County.http://online.wsj.com/article/AP84445880863b4fdba31d56a51f19ed62.htm

Police in Myrtle Beach say they have a new tip in the case of missing
Chili teen Brittanee Drexel that may lead them to the teen. The tip came
in early Tuesday morning.
Crews have already been planning a new search in the Myrtle Beach area,
as the two-year anniversary of Drexel's disappearance approaches.

Drexel was last seen April 25, 2009. Her cell phone transmitted a final signal near the South Santee River the next day.

http://www.irondequoitpost.com/latestnews/x1274034088/Police-follow-new-leads-in-Brittanee-Drexel-case

The mother of missing spring breaker Brittanee Drexel says she's encouraged by a new lead in the case.Brittanee was 17-years-old when she went missing during a trip to Myrtle Beach on April 25th, 2009.Dawn Drexel, who's visiting the Grand Strand to
mark the second anniversary of her daughter's disappearance, says
police often get new tips when the family comes to Myrtle Beach."I'm
not surprised that there has been more leads starting to come in.
Normally when we come down and we do something for Brittanee, they do
get some leads called in to them," Dawn Drexel said.Drexel says she's hoping someone who saw something the night Brittanee disappeared will come forward."I
don't want to find my child not alive. We do need resolution, but we
need her back and whoever's done this, they need to step up and let
somebody know."Searchers from the CUE Center for Missing Persons
are working in the Myrtle Beach area this week. Police will not say
where they're looking, but they did say Wednesday's search didn't
provide anything of value.The Drexel family is holding fundraisers this week to pay for more searches.Max & Erma's restaurant
in Carolina Forest is hosting a fundraiser Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10
p.m. Twenty percent of all proceeds will go to the Cue Center for Missing Persons, but you must present a flyer for the donation to be made. For more information, call (843) 903-1030.The Beaver Bar in Murrells Inlet is hosting a fundraiser Saturday,DR April 23, along with Harley Davidson and the Myrtle Beach Corvette Club.
From 9 a.m. to 11:15 a.m., there will be coffee and doughnuts at the
Harley Davidson of Myrtle Beach. They'll caravan to The Beaver Bar for
lunch and a remembrance. There will be drawings and giveaways. For more
information on this fundraiser, call Robin Holley at (843) 455-9645.
http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=608111

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) – Investigators conducted a
new search Thursday for missing teen Brittanee Drexel, who vanished
nearly 2 years ago along Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach.
Thursday, a crew of about 15 volunteers searched a
wooded area in Myrtle Beach. Police do not want to release the exact
location, in order to keep the investigation intact.
Myrtle Beach Police, the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office, and the CUE Center For Missing Persons conducted the search.
Monica Caison of the CUE Center says the area searched Thursday is a new spot for them to search.
"The area we're in, we've not been before," said
Caison. "We have searched several areas in Myrtle Beach and Surfside
area, but in this particular area, we've not been here before."
Caison is hopeful this new search will encourage people to come forward with information about the case.
"It's sad that we're still here two years later,
and that somebody in this community hasn't reached out to law
officials," she said.
Monday marks 2 years since Drexel's disappearance.
Lieutenant Chuck Capp of the Myrtle Beach Police Department says he
does see an end coming to this case, eventually.
"We still have evidence that's being analyzed, and
waiting for the results of that evidence, so I think it will be solved,
I don't know if it will be solved soon," he explained.
Lieutenant Capp says they conducted a similar search on Wednesday.
So far, he says they have found nothing of significance in their searches this week.
Drexel's family is back in the Myrtle Beach area
and planning an event on Saturday to remember her, and others who have
gone missing.http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/14494186/crews-conduct-new-search-for-missing-teen

There are new developments in the Brittanee Drexel case.

WCBD-TV in Charleston, South Carolina is reporting that police and
investigators are at the Sunset Lodge in Georgetown County, South
Carolina.

Police are investigating the apartment of a man who lives in room 22 at
the Sunset Lodge. Authorities say the man lived in the apartment around
the time Drexel went missing.

Drexel, a Chili teen, disappeared April 25, 2009, after leaving a Myrtle Beach hotel on spring break.

Drexel's cell phone transmitted its last known signal the day after she
disappeared near the South Santee River in Georgetown County.

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S2222850.shtml?cat=566

Law enforcement officials put up crime scene tape Monday after
executing a search at a Georgetown County motel room to hopefully learn
more information regarding the disappearance of New York teen
Brittanee Drexel who went missing on spring break in Myrtle Beach in
2009.

Officials searched room 22 at the Sunset Lodge
Hotel—where it is believed someone who stayed there was connected with
her disappearance—for more than three hours, according to The State.

Investigators
left the room around 2 p.m. with a box of brown paper bags filled
with evidence that might lead to more clues regarding Drexel’s
location.

Drexel, who was 17 at the time of her disappearance,
was last seen leaving the Blue Water Hotel on Ocean Boulevard in
Myrtle Beach on April 25, 2009.

Search efforts were launched in
Georgetown and Charleston Counties after officials learned the last
known signal sent from Drexel’s cellphone was from Georgetown County
on April 26, 2009.

http://www.wtma.com/rssItem.asp?feedid=134&itemid=29702149

New information on missing Chili teen Brittanee Drexel
08/03/2011 6:32 PM



There is new information in the case of missing Chili teen Brittanee Drexel.
It involves police in South Carolina searching the apartment of a man
that police are interested in.

Drexel is the Chili teen who went missing in April 2009 while she was on spring break in Myrtle Beach.

Investigators in South Carolina spent three hours gathering evidence in
that apartment in Georgetown County in South Carolina and reportedly
left with bags of evidence. It's not known yet what they found.

News 10NBC has learned from South Carolina State Police that a man who
was staying at the Sunset Lodge is a registered sex offender.



Police say Raymond Moody may have stayed in Apartment #22 around the time
Drexel disappeared. Moody was convicted in 1983 in kidnapping and raping
of a child younger than 14-years-old in California.

Our NBC affiliate in Myrtle Beach was allowed inside Apartment #22 at
the Sunset Lodge. The manager of the hotel told reporters police sprayed
some sort of substance on the curtains, the fridge, the sink, and even
took pieces of wallpaper from the bathroom possibly looking at old blood
stains in the room.

Myrtle Beach Police are not commenting on the investigation. We have
learned that Moody lived at the Sunset Lodge, but the manager says he
moved about six months ago.

Police are not calling Moody a suspect or a “person of interest”.
As you may recall, Brittanee disappeared from Myrtle Beach two years ago
on Spring Break. Police have told us the last signal from her cell
phone came from Georgetown County, where the Sunset Lodge is located.
evehttp://www.whec.com/news/stories/S2226052.shtml?cat=566n

New billboard will be unveiled in Myrtle Beach, Brittanee Drexel disappearance

Aug 11, 2011 8:56 AM



Brittanee Drexel



MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WCIV) – A new billboard regarding the search for a missing teen will be unveiled this week.

Brittanee Drexel's family and the Kristen
Foundation are expected to hold a press conference Friday in regards to
recent developments in the case of the 16-year-old.

Drexel was last heard from on April 25, 2009.
She was last seen leaving a hotel in Myrtle Beach. The Rochester, New
York teen was on spring break with friends.

The billboard is located near the spot Drexel
was last known to have been. It was personally designed by Brittanee's
father, Chad Drexel.

The latest developments led State Law
Enforcement Division (SLED) agents to an efficiency apartment at the
Sunset Lodge in Georgetown on Highway 17. Myrtle Beach police would only
say that a tip led them to search the room regarding Drexel's
disappearance.

Brittanee's family and friends are appealing
to the public and ask the media for help in generating leads as to her
whereabouts. Anyone with information or leads regarding this missing
person is asked to contact the Myrtle Beach Police Department at (843)
918-1382 or the Kristen Foundation at (704) 996-5066.
http://www.abcnews4.com/story/15245108/new-billboard-will-be-unveiled-brittanee-drexel-dissaperance

The adopted father of missing New York teen
Brittanee Drexel is back in the Grand Strand just days after
investigators announce a new search in the case.
"I want to show the public that I'm here, if
you know anything please come forward," said Chad Drexel, just hours
after returning to Myrtle Beach from Rochester.

Chad Drexel and other family members are back
in Myrtle Beach for an event on Friday that will unveil a new billboard
meant to raise awareness about the ongoing search.

"I want more numbers out there, I want more people helping, I want to be able to talk to father to father." Mr. Drexel added.

The billboard, which is designed by Chad, is
sponsored by the Kristen Foundation, a non-profit group aimed at raising
awareness about missing adults. However, that decision is drawing
criticism from some members of the Drexel family.

"I feel like you know a lot of people out
there are just trying to get publicity from Brittanee, and I don't want
anyone using my daughter for that." Dawn Drexel told WMBF News during a
phone interview on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Brittanee's father fired back and defended the billboard as a chance to seek new leads in the case.

"I wish I could have 30 more groups helping,
it's our daughter not just mine or Dawns, and I wish I could have more
helping." Chad Drexel added.

Drexel was 17-years-old at the time of her
disappearance and would turn 20 this October. She was last seen leaving
the Blue Water Hotel along Ocean Blvd. on April 25, 2009. Drexel's
family was in Myrtle Beach earlier this year to mark the two-year
anniversary of the teen's disappearance and to ask the public to
continue to call in their tips to authorities in the case.


http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/15254465/missing-teens-father-returns-to-grand-strand-in-hopes-of-raising-awareness

My thoughts~
After reading the report how Dawn was upset about the new group's involvement I came to the conclusion that her words were prompted by the "original" group.
There is no point in ANY group trying to Bogart the limelight and be THE "official" search group.
I am staunchly behind Chad on this one. If 100 groups want to put up billboards, bring 'em on!

TomTerrific0420 wrote:My thoughts~
After reading the report how Dawn was upset about the new group's involvement I came to the conclusion that her words were prompted by the "original" group.
There is no point in ANY group trying to Bogart the limelight and be THE "official" search group.
I am staunchly behind Chad on this one. If 100 groups want to put up billboards, bring 'em on!

Tom, I'm with you. Wonder why the mother doesn't want the additional publicity???

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Crews have again searched a coastal South
Carolina area for a New York teen who went missing more than two years
ago.

About 30 volunteers and investigators spent several hours Friday
searching an island off the coast of McClellanville for Brittanee
Drexel. Searchers say they combed the area after fishermen reported an
odor of decay.

There have been dozens of searches in Georgetown, Horry and
Charleston counties since the then-17-year-old Rochester, N.Y., girl was
last seen leaving a Myrtle Beach hotel on April 25, 2009. In August,
authorities searched a motel near Georgetown where a person of interest
in the case was thought to have stayed.

Drexel's cell phone transmitted its last known signal the day after
she disappeared near the South Santee River, between McClellanville and
Georgetown.
http://online.wsj.com/article/APf5361184f0de4132b8b64d34eb08a108.html

MYRTLE BEACH -- Police in the Grand Strand area say they have a person of interest in the disappearance of a teen-age girl from New York nearly three years ago, but they would not confirm a report of a possible link between the Brittanee Drexel case and that of a girl who disappeared in the area seven years ago.
Fox News reported Thursday that investigators think the same "person of interest" might be involved in the cases of Drexel, who disappeared April 25, 2009, and Crystal Soles, last seen Jan. 24, 2005, in Andrews, S.C.

Officials with the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office deferred comment on the potential shared suspect to Myrtle Beach police. Capt. David Knipes, spokesman for Myrtle Beach police, said he didn't have details on the Soles case.

Knipes confirmed the name of the person of interest in the Drexel case on Thursday, but the Sun News does not publish the name of potential suspects until formal charges have been filed.

Police searched the man's hotel room in Georgetown last August, and Knipes said he remains a person of interest. Georgetown County Sheriff's office lists the man as a registered sex offender, convicted of sexually assaulting and kidnapping a victim younger than 14 years old.

Myrtle Beach police have not ruled the man out as a person of interest in Drexel's case, and Knipes said there are others. He would not say how many persons of interest there are, or who they are.

The Fox News story also said Myrtle Beach Police had received new information in the case as recent as last week, but Knipes said that's not true.

"I don't know if it was a misquote, but there has been no new information that's come in," Knipes said. "What it might be is that they've got new information the news media didn't have before."

Police had not previously named any persons of interest in Drexel's disappearance.

Knipes said information on both cases has been shared between the agencies and a relation between the two disappearances has not been ruled out.

"Is it possible that they're related? Yeah," said Capt. David Knipes with Myrtle Beach police. "Is it possible they're not? Absolutely. You never know. You check every angle. Everything's a possibility until you rule it out."


Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/17/3021196/person-of-interest-in-myrtle-beach.html#storylink=cpy
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/02/17/3021196/person-of-interest-in-myrtle-beach.html

The cold case of the missing teenage girl who disappeared while on spring break three years ago is now coming back into the spotlight as police identify a convicted sex offender as a ‘person of interest’.

Brittanee Drexel, who was 17 at the time of her ill-fated vacation, disappeared after leaving a group of friends at their hotel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina around 9pm.

When she left the Blue Water Resort, she headed back to the room where she and some girlfriends were staying at the Bar Harbor Hotel which is just 1.4 miles away down a busy road.


Security footage at the Bar Harbor Hotel shows that Brittanee never made it there.





Linked: Police think that Raymond Moody is involved in both the disappearances of Crystal Soles (left) and Brittanee Drexel (right) who went missing in 2005 and 2009 respectively


Instead, she vanished during that small stretch of a walk, and she has never been seen again.

The last trace of Brittanee came from her cell phone in Georgetown County, South Carolina, which is about 50 miles south of the hotel where she was last seen.

Brittanee, a high school junior from Rochester, New York, was not even supposed to be in Myrtle Beach when she disappeared. She had gotten into an argument with her mother who would not allow her to go on the trip with her older friends, and instead of staying at a friend’s home near Lake Ontario like she said she would, Brittanee went on the trip anyway.

Police still have not found the girl’s pink cell phone itself, but consider the fact that the signal had travelled so far south to mean that Brittanee was also taken to the area.




Last seen: Brittanee was shown on the security footage of the Blue Water Resort in Myrtle Beach as she left the room of a group of her male friends and headed to the nearby hotel where she and some girlfriends were staying

Throughout the multi-year search police have said that there were anywhere between one and three people of interest, but have never formally released the names of these individuals either to the press or to Brittanee’s family.


Person of interest: Raymond Moody, 51, spent 21 years in a California prison for abducting and raping a 9-year-old girl

In August, however, Georgetown County police conducted an extremely thorough investigation of apartment number 22 in an area motel called Sunset Lodge.

A convicted sex offender named Raymond Moody, 51, checked into that room on April 24, 2009- the day before Brittanee disappeared.


‘We cannot eliminate him as a person of interest,’ Myrtle Beach police captain Joe Vella told FoxNews.

Moody was issued a speeding ticket in Surfside- a town in between Myrtle Beach and Georgetown County- the day after Brittanee disappeared.

His previous run-ins with the law were significantly more violent, and he is classified as a level 3 sex offender.

Moody spent 21 years in prison stemming back to a 1983 abduction and rape case of a 9-year-old California girl, and was considered the suspect in a number of similar rapes, but was never charged.



Spring break gone bad: Brittanee Drexel (right) was visiting Myrtle Beach in April 2009 when she went missing. She was last seen leaving the hotel where one group of friends was staying, but never made it back to her own room.






Rebellious: Brittanee got in a fight with her mom because her mother did not want her to go to Myrtle Beach with her older group of friends. Brittanee went regardless and told her mother she was at a friend's house

Police have stressed that while they are investigating Moody, this is not new.

‘Mr. Moody was a person that was investigated in this case. His hotel room was searched last year and he is one of many people that we have investigated during the course of this investigation,’ Myrtle Beach police captain David Knipe wrote in a statement to Carolina Live.

During that search of his apartment, police reportedly took pieces of the wallpaper from the bathroom, portions of the mattress cover, and sprayed an unknown substance on the sink, refrigerator, and curtains.

‘This is still an active investigation and we continue to follow any and every lead possible,’ Mr Knipe continued.



Covering the coast: The distance Brittanee hoped to walk wasn't far (inset) but her last cell service came from Georgetown, which is 50 miles south of Myrtle Beach





Investigations in the wooded area near the apartment where Moody was staying in Georgetown have been fruitless

In addition to their suspicions about Moody’s involvement in Brittanee’s disappearance, police have also linked him to a very similar case where then 28-year-old Crystal Soles went missing in 2005- a year after Moody was released from prison. She was last seen in Andrews, South Carolina, which is to the east of Georgetown.

While police have said that they no longer feel that Brittanee is alive, her single mother Dawn is holding out hope.

‘Every day is a nightmare,’ she told FoxNews. ‘I miss her so much.’



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102380/Was-Brittanee-Drexel-captured-sex-offender-Police-link-convicted-rapist-Raymond-Moody-mysterious-cold-case-student-disappeared-Spring-Break.html#ixzz1me1bvKFx

Bones Found in Area Searched for Brittanee Drexel







News 8 has learned that bones have been found in Georgetown
County, South Carolina in an area extensively searched in the case of
missing Chili teen Brittanee Drexel.

Sources tell us that
fishermen found the bones yesterday. Police called the Coroner's office
to the site. The bones were found near Sampit River bridge in an area
called Carol Campbell Landing. At this point, we do not know if these
are human or animal bones. We also do not know if there is any
connection to the Brittanee Drexel case. The 17-year-old disappeared in
April 2009 while on spring break. There have been extensive searches in
the Georgetown area. We have reached out to Brittanee's mom, Dawn
Drexel. She says she has been made aware of the new developments.

It is unclear how long it will take to test the bones to see if they are human.

http://rochesterhomepage.net/fulltext?nxd_id=308972

Huffington Post reported on 3/29/2012 the bones were animal, not human. I can't paste article, I snuck on briefly while at work. This one just bugs me, where is she?

clt wrote:Huffington Post reported on 3/29/2012 the bones were animal, not human. I can't paste article, I snuck on briefly while at work. This one just bugs me, where is she?

---Hi clt and welcome!
My experience is pointing toward human trafficking. She was spirited away to another part of the world.
Other than that, she is no longer with us. Her body may have been destroyed to the point of non-existence.
It's been three years...She's from my neck of the woods. Somebody knows something!
I have always had my suspicions about those male friends of hers that checked out early (in the middle of the night)
to beat feet outta there. Just too coincidental for my detective blood.

Tom, I also feel suspicious of her male acquaintances that left in the middle of the night. I only saw mention of them on the show "Disappeared" and they seemed to have been dismissed rather quickly. I know the phone was traveling south and they were traveling north, but as was mentioned in the show they were tracking the phone not Brittanee. It would be easy to throw the phone into a bed of a truck at a rest stop. I also find it strange that if in fact they rushed home because of an upset parent wouldn't the parent rather than get some sleep and drive home safely rather than leave in the middle of the night. It all just seems a bit of for me. I'm sure investigators have done far more work on them though. Anyways, I'm glad to have found a forum that is keeping things current about the case. Thanks to all of you who are helping people like me stay informed. My heart goes out to the family.

Thanks to all of you who are helping people like me stay informed.

---You are welcome Camshaff and allow me to add a Welcome greeting to our site!
When Caylee first went "missing" I had no idea about the abundance of cases that occur each day. Thankfully, many are located within hours but so many, many more are never located. Hope for answers becomes less likely with each passing day. It is our mission to shed as much light on these cases as possible and keep the files current so that we can help locate the missing and seek justice for those who are abducted, abused and murdered.

It's nice to see people who are dedicated to making people aware about these tragedies. It's so sad that things like this happen. I'm glad I have a place I can go to keep up with the situations and their outcomes. Thank you for the warm welcome.

NY Missing: Brittanee Drexel
By: Katrina Irwin
Updated: April 17, 2012

One local family is coming up on a devastating anniversary. Brittanee Drexel has been missing for nearly three years.

Her mother, sister, and best friend talk about what life has been like since the Chili teen vanished.

"There's so many times I just wanted to pick up the phone and call her and be like britt, guess what," says Jessica Nice. She was one of Brittanee Drexel's best friends.

For those who knew Drexel best, the last three years have been the darkest days. "It's really hard to deal with a missing sister. So I just try to keep myself busy with friends," says Brittanee's sister Myrissa.

Brittanee was last seen during a spring break trip to Myrtle Beach. She went with a group of friends, without her parent's permission. She left the hotel where they were staying and no one has seen her since.

Numerous leads have come in over the years, but none of them have panned out. Brittanee's mother, Dawn has been on an emotional roller coaster ride.

"She's my daughter, I have to do what I have to do for her. I have to be her voice now so I am going to do whatever it takes to find my daughter," Dawn says.

She has become an advocate, not just for Brittanee, but for every parent who has lost a child. She is now the statewide coordinator for the Cue Center for Missing Persons.

"It feels good to help other families because I know what they are going through," says Drexel.

She is able to bring comfort to other families going through the same thing.

Later this month the Drexel family will visit Myrtle Beach to dedicate a tree and bench for Brittanee.

"That way people can go there and sit and pray for Brittanee....Pray for her safe return," says Dawn.

Because even though three years have gone by- those who knew brittanee best are holding out hope that she will come home.

"Every year when I go down there I keep my eyes open just to see if she is down there," says Myrissa.

Jessica Nice adds, "I never thought we'd see a month of her missing. Thought maybe she went with the wrong person. Met someone and went and did something with them and her phone died or she lost her phone. Thought maybe it would be a day. Three years it's unreal, unbelievable."

April 25th is the anniversary of brittanee drexel's disappearance. Police are still continuing to follow up on leads. Anyone with information can contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST. Or the Cue Center at (910) 343-1131

http://rochesterhomepage.net/fulltext?nxd_id=312812

Three years after Brittanee Drexel’s disappearance, a victim of ‘person of interest’ speaks out

By Cristina Corbin, FoxNews.com
Published April 25, 2012

Police say Raymond Moody is a “person of interest” in the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel, the 17-year-old from upstate New York who vanished in South Carolina exactly three years ago today.

But to Kerri Harding, Moody is the monster who abducted and raped her in 1983, when she was just 8, and she’s convinced he should be the prime suspect in the Drexel case.

Harding survived the attack in California, but the terrifying memory of her ordeal has never left her. Drexel disappeared from South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach on April 25, 2009, and is presumed dead. Police told FoxNews.com there are similarities between the two cases, and said they confirmed Moody was in the area near where Drexel was last seen. But authorities don’t have enough evidence to declare him a suspect, and to Harding’s horror, he refuses to speak to them.

“My biggest fear is that he’ll do it again,” said Harding, now 38. “You should never get a second chance to hurt a child.”

Moody, 52, served 21 years of a 40-year prison sentence after admitting to sexually assaulting Harding and six other girls. He relocated to Georgetown, S.C., after his release from the California State Prison in Solano in 2004. The ex-con, who police say works in a woodworking shop, could not be reached for comment.

Harding has monitored Moody’s whereabouts since his release, and knew he had resurfaced in South Carolina. When she came upon a February article on FoxNews.com reporting that Moody is a person of interest in Drexel’s disappearance, she said she had no doubt that her tormentor had struck again.

“That was my very first thought,” she said. “That he’s at it again. It was a gut feeling.”

Harding was walking alone to meet a friend at her elementary school in Vallejo, Calif., when she encountered Moody on Jan. 20, 1983. He forced the young girl into his car, saying he intended to drop her off at a police station because “‘You’re too little to be out here by yourself,’” Harding recalled.

Moody drove to an empty cul-de-sac, where he raped the child repeatedly before she managed to escape after pleading with her assailant to use a bathroom. The young girl was able to tell police she saw a green sticker on Moody’s car, which police determined was needed to gain entry onto a U.S. Navy base in Vallejo. That ultimately led them to Moody, who confessed to the rape and to assaulting six other children. He served slightly more than half of his prison sentence.

“He should have never been released,” she told FoxNews.com. “Why would the courts even take a chance with our children?”

Drexel, a high school junior from the Rochester, N.Y., area, went with friends and without her mom's permission to Myrtle Beach on April 23, 2009. She left a group of male friends from Rochester at the Blue Water Resort to walk back to the Bar Harbor Hotel, where she was staying with other girls, at around 9 p.m. on April 25. But security video confirmed she never made it to her hotel, police said.

Law enforcement sources in South Carolina told FoxNews.com there are striking similarities between the Harding and Drexel cases, though they declined to elaborate on many details. But Moody, a registered Level 3 sex offender, has long been a focus of their investigation. The last signal from Drexel’s cellphone came that same night about 50 miles south of Myrtle Beach and 8 miles from where Moody was living at the time. A traffic ticket also put him in the Myrtle Beach area the same weekend the teen disappeared. Yet most alarming to police was Moody’s refusal to speak with them.

Police suspect Drexel was kidnapped as she walked along Ocean Boulevard and driven to Georgetown County, some 50 miles away. Her cell phone signal was last detected in a remote boat landing area near the South Santee River and roughly 8 miles from the Sunset Lodge apartments in Georgetown County, where Moody had been living at the time, according to Investigator Phillip Hanna of the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office.

On Wednesday – the third anniversary of Drexel’s disappearance – her mother, Dawn, said her determination to find her oldest child will never waver.

“I won’t stop until I have answers,” Drexel told FoxNews.com. “And I will always be hopeful until I know the worst.”

Harding, meanwhile, said she “won’t rest until the laws are changed.”

“If justice were served correctly, this girl would be alive today,” she said. “That’s hard to swallow.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/25/three-years-after-brittanee-drexels-disappearance-past-victim-person-interest/#ixzz1t5YY3zCD