AN accused killer’s confession led to the burial site of a teenage girl over a decade after she vanished while on a secret Spring Break trip.
Family members of Brittanee Drexel, 17, were on edge for 13 years after she disappeared in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The high school junior vanished in April 2009 after telling her mother, Dawn Drexel, that she would be spending a few days at a friend’s house in Rochester, New York.
Brittanee was actually 800 miles away on a spring break trip without her mother’s permission.
The teen was spotted leaving a hotel lobby in Myrtle Beach but was never seen again.
Her mother Dawn Drexel described it as “a parent’s worst nightmare.”
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She searched long and hard for Brittanee, desperately wanting to know what became of her daughter, however, she would have to wait 13 years to finally get some answers.
SECRET VACATION
Drexel said that she had no idea that Brittanee had gone down to Myrtle Beach until she heard it from the teen’s boyfriend, John, days later.
The mom told 20/20 that she didn’t want Brittanee going on the unsupervised trip.
“I said, ‘There’s no parental supervision,’ and I said, ‘Something is going to happen to you.’”
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John and Brittanee didn’t travel to South Carolina together but were in constant contact through text messages.
However, the messages suddenly stopped on April 25, said Drexel.
Investigators were able to track Brittanee’s cellphone pings to a rural, swampy area about 50 miles south of where she was staying.
But even with an extensive search in the dense and desolate landscape, investigators came up empty-handed.
“I knew she was somewhere out there, but you know just thinking: ‘Oh my God. Are we ever going to find her?’” said Drexel.
Police learned that registered sex offender Raymond Moody, 62, was staying at a motel in Georgetown, South Carolina around the same time that Brittanee disappeared.
Moody returned to Georgetown, his hometown, after being convicted of multiple sexual assaults in California and serving about half of his 40-year sentence.
On the day Brittanee vanished, Moody was pulled over for a traffic violation near Myrtle Beach.
A search of the motel in 2011 provided no evidence connecting Moody to the teenager but details from the traffic stop did offer some clues.
Retired Myrtle Beach police lieutenant Chuck Capp revealed that Moody had scratches on his face at the time of the traffic stop.
Ernest Merchant, a former romantic partner of Moody, told 20/20 that Moody had shown up at his door a few days after Brittanee’s disappearance.
“I saw that his face had claw marks all over it,” said Merchant.
“His neck, cheeks. He had a shaved bald head. His head were just clawed.”
However, a connection wasn’t made until years later with Brittanee’s family sharing that authorities told them new evidence was obtained through enhanced surveillance video and cellphone data.
“I think it was a lot of the cell phone data, because they could place [Moody] at the same time, same location as Brittanee’s cell phone,” said Brittanee’s mother.
Moody had been a person of interest for over 10 years before he reportedly confessed to killing Brittanee in 2022 and led authorities to her burial site.
Moody allegedly admitted to police that he kidnapped, raped, and strangled the girl to death on April 25, 2009 – the same day she was last seen alive.
The Georgetown County Corner’s Office confirmed the remains were Brittanee’s; however, they ruled her cause of death “undetermined.”
“It was during this examination that the remains were confirmed to be that of Brittanee Drexel, which was collaborated by a DNA analysis,” Coroner Chase Ridgeway said.
On May 18, Moody was charged with obstructing justice, kidnapping, criminal sexual conduct, and murder.
“I will never forgive him for what he did to my daughter,” said Drexel.
Officials believe that Brittanee may have willingly got into Moody’s car for a ride back to the hotel but it soon turned into a kidnapping.
“When they drove past the hotel, she was probably like…I’m in trouble,” her heartbroken mom said.
“I couldn’t imagine how scared she was.”
Following the positive identification of Brittanee, the mother said that she became numb and fueled by anger.
Her brother, Camdyn, drew a heart and Brittanee’s soccer jersey number in the dirt where her body was buried.
“Just standing over where she was…it is very hard for me,” said Camdyn.
“But it gave me closure.”
Moody, who is scheduled for a hearing on October 19, has not entered a plea yet in this case.
“To be honest with you, I hope he rots in hell,” Dawn Drexel said.
Brittanee’s murder and the investigation into her brutal death are at the center of a 20/20 episode on Friday night.
