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

Brittanee Drexel missing for three years

By Staff reports WHEC.com
Posted Apr 25, 2012 @ 10:21 AM

Rochester, N.Y. — It's an unsolved mystery -- what happened to Brittanee Drexel? It's been three years and still no sign of the Chili teenager who went missing on spring break.

Drexel was last seen on this date in 2009 leaving a hotel in Myrtle Beach. Since then, investigators and Dexel's family have been working tirelessly to find her.

According to our affiliate in Myrtle Beach, the teen's family will dedicate part of a park in her honor. There will be a tree-planting ceremony at 9 a.m. on Saturday.

News10NBC is told a section of Market Common Park in Myrtle Beach will be a place where people can go and pray for Drexel.

Police have named convicted child rapist Raymond Moody a person of interest in the case. They say Drexel's cell phone last pinged in the area where Moody was staying.

He is also a person of interest in the disappearance of another girl in South Carolina.

http://www.irondequoitpost.com/latestnews/x787570379/Brittanee-Drexel-missing-for-three-years

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/#ixzz1tF2Y4Pn9

On the three year anniversary of New York
teen Brittanee Drexel's disappearance, her father said some authorities
are not doing enough to find his daughter.
"I'm a father with a missing child," Drexel said. "And I'm not getting any help."

During a phone interview with WMBF News
Wednesday, Chad Drexel said he believes political or jurisdictional
issues could be preventing the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office from
doing more to find the missing teen.

"I'm very concerned with how [the sheriff's
office] is approaching [this case], and I haven't received one bit of
communication," Drexel said. "Georgetown [Sheriff's Office] wants to
stay out of it for some reason; I'm done with all that."

Drexel said he believes there are areas and
evidence the sheriff's office has not explored, and in the coming months
he plans to work with a private group, Merrill's Investigations, to
help find his daughter.

Merrill's Investigations volunteered their
time and resources to the Brittanee Drexel investigation for months in
2010, until several of the investigations lead supervisors were taken
off the case, according to a 2011 WMBF News report.

Drexel said he plans to remain active in his
search for his daughter Brittanee, and believes Merrill's could play a
key part in bringing closure for his family.

The Georgetown County Sheriff's Office said
they are not aware of any jurisdictional or political issues involved in
the Brittanee Drexel disappearance case, and said they continue to do
everything in their power to find the missing teen.

Brittanee Drexel was last seen in the Grand Strand on April 25, 2009.
http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/17789864/brittanee-drexels-father-unhappy-with-some-police-efforts

Brittanee Drexel disappeared three years ago after being seen vacationing
in Myrtle Beach April 25th, leaving a hotel.
Saturday family and friends dedicated a tree of hope at "market
common" park in Myrtle Beach. So that people can have a place to pray for Brittanee.

Mother, Dawn Drexel was there for the ceremony and says it was
beautiful and wants to thank everyone for their support and efforts to find Brittanee.

Police have named, convicted child rapist, Raymond Moody a person of interest in the case.

Police say he is also a person of interest in the disappearance of another girl in South Carolina.

Unfortunately there still no sign of Brittanee Drexel.

For more Rochester, N.Y. news go to our website www.whec.com.

Brittanee Drexel still missing on 22nd birthday

Posted: Oct 07, 2013 1:59 PM CST
Updated: Oct 08, 2013 8:35 AM CST
By Brooke Whitson - email

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - October 7 marks Brittanee Drexel's 22nd birthday, and approximately four and a half years since she disappeared from Ocean Boulevard on April 25, 2009.



Brittanee was 17 years old when she traveled to Myrtle Beach for Spring Break in 2009. Her mother Dawn Drexel thought she was vacationing with friends somewhere closer, and realized she was missing when she received a call from her equally concerned boyfriend.

Surveillance video shows her leaving a hotel on Ocean Boulevard that day, and that's the last anyone saw of the teen. After four years of investigation, following several leads, the case remains open, as authorities hold out hope that the answers to her disappearance will come to light.

The Drexel family has returned to the Grand Strand several times in the past four years to honor Brittanee and bring new energy to the search. Billboards have been posted with her photos, a tree was planted in Valor Park, and age progression photos have been released.

Anyone with information regarding Drexel's whereabouts or her disappearance is asked to call the Myrtle Beach Police Department at 843-918-1963 or the CUE Center For Missing Persons' 24 hour tip line at 910-232-1687.

Read all the latest stories, see photos from the search for Brittanee and revisit the timeline since her disappearance by visiting our Brittanee Drexel page. You'll find videos from each search, interviews with investigators on the case, and hear from Brittanee's family.

http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/23628726/brittanee-drexels-22nd-birthday

Search intensifies for 2 missing South Carolina women, while police discover human skeletal remains

By Cristina CorbinPublished December 30, 2013FoxNews.com

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/30/search-intensifies-for-2-missing-south-carolina-women-while-police-discover/?intcmp=latestnews

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Human skeletal remains found on a road in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Saturday afternoon are not those of missing Rochester, N.Y. teen Brittanee Drexel, reports the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/report-remains-in-sc-not-those-of-brittanee-drexel/

Article says they belong to a male, over 20, and have been there for years. I hope they can identify who they do belong to. Maybe some family lost their son years back - how horrible that would be.

New search planned for Brittanee Drexel, 5 years after her disappearance

Posted: May 08, 2014 6:06 PM CDT
Updated: May 08, 2014 8:13 PM CDT
By WBTW News Staff

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Authorities along the Grand Strand say that they will conduct another search for a teen girl from New York who disappeared in this area several years ago.

Less than 2 months ago, dozens gathered for a vigil on the 5-year anniversary of when Brittanee Drexel disappeared in Myrtle Beach.

The then 17-year-old from Rochester, New York was in area on a spring break trip.

Brittanee was most recently seen April 25, 2009 on surveillance video leaving the Bluewater Resort in Myrtle Beach. She walked north on South Ocean Boulevard.

Five years later investigators say they still get a steady stream of tips and call the Drexel case "open and active."

A search for Brittanee happened in Georgetown County in March 2014. Myrtle Beach Police would not elaborate on what information led them there other than to say it was new cell phone data collected through technology improvements.

Now, Capt. David Knipes of Myrtle Beach Police confirms that officers will be conducting another search related to the Drexel case in Georgetown/Charleston Counties this weekend.

http://www.wbtw.com/story/25469650/new-search-planned-for-brittanee-drexel-5-years-after-her-disappearance