Brittanee Drexel -- Missing 4/25/09

thanks for the clip J4A..another very sad story..

I was glad to hear that there are persons of interest.. It must be so hard for her mom to not be able to get any information from LE..

Update of article Piper posted:

Detectives have leads, persons of interest in Drexel disappearance

Posted: Apr 09, 2010 7:14 PM EDT
Updated: Apr 12, 2010 4:35 PM EDT

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WCSC) - Investigators in Myrtle Beach and Georgetown County say they have yet to collect enough evidence to proceed with charges in the disapperance of Brittanee Drexel, who went missing from Myrtle Beach nearly a year ago.

Myrtle Beach detective Vincent Dorio said this information developed from a tip and is confident this tip is leading them in a direction of finding who might be responsible. The search team is not releasing any information on the tips they received because they fear it might jeopardize the recently revitalized investigation.

According to Lt. Neil Johnson with the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office, the break in the case is the result of months of lead-tracking.

"At this time, there is no reason to believe these people, [the persons of interest], knew Drexel directly," said Johnson.

No arrest warrants have been served yet, he said, but lie detector tests have been conducted on two of the persons of interest. Johnson did not disclose the results of those tests.

While the new leads are positive news for the search for the missing Drexel, Johnson said the information they have compiled in recent months indicate she is no longer alive.

"The police seem really confident, so there's a lot going through my head right now," said Brittanee's mother, Dawn Drexel. "You go through a lot of emotions. Where is she? Is she OK? Is she not OK?"

"We're going to continue our efforts looking for Brittanee," said Monica Caison, with the CUE Center for Missing Persons. "There's just a lot of time and a lot of space to account for in her disappearance and a lot of places that she could be."

Myrtle Beach Police are working with the Georgetown County Sheriff and the Charleston County Sheriff's office on this case.

Myrtle Beach Police say the Rochester, NY, teen disappeared after she was last seen in the area of 11th Avenue South and 20th Avenue South in Myrtle Beach. Drexel, who was 17 at the time of her disappearance, was in the area against the will of her mother.

Contact was lost between Drexel and her family in New York on April 25, 2009, the same night authorities say she disappeared. The last signal from her cell phone came the next night near the South Santee River.

Since she went missing, multiple search efforts for the teen have been executed from Horry County to Charleston County. While investigators have searched throughout three counties, each search effort has left police empty handed.

In a December 2009 attempt, search team consisting of approximately 70 people combed through an unidentified area of Georgetown County after a pair of knock-off Prada sunglasses were discovered near a body of water.

Those sunglasses, according to investigators, matched those worn by Drexel in a photo taken with friends in Myrtle Beach before her disappearance. Monica Caison with the CUE Center for Missing Persons says the sunglasses were located by a group of people collecting wood for a fire in December.

Members of the CUE Center, in coordination with investigators from the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office, Charleston County Sheriff's Office and the Myrtle Beach Police Department used search dogs, multiple boats, divers and a remote-controlled robotic camera to search the immediate area where the Radar sunglasses were found.

Despite using a variety of search tactics, Caison said investigators exhausted their search without any additional leads.

CrimeStoppers of the Lowcountry continues to offer a reward for any information on Drexel's whereabouts. Anyone with information regarding the disappearance of Drexel is urged to contact the agency at 1-888-CRIME-SC.

http://www.live5news.com/Global/story.asp?S=12286966

Drexel family on the Grand Strand for Brittanee’s one year disappearance anniversary

By Mason Snyder
Published: April 22, 2010



After months of little to no developments in Brittanee Drexel’s disappearance, there has been some news in the last few weeks.

Last week investigators announced that they have three or four persons of interest in the case, but still lack a key piece of evidence that could lead to an arrest.

Then late last week, a new piece of video was released, showing the 17 year old spring breaker just hours before she went missing.

This weekend will mark the one year anniversary of her disappearance, and the Drexel family is on the Grand Strand.

“It’s just hard without her,“ said Brittanee’s 12 year old sister, Myrissa.

Myrissa felt she needed to be at the beach this weekend to honor, but more importantly to help find her sister.

“I just want to come down because its for my sister,” Myrissa said. “This is where my sister went missing and I want to check out what may have happened to her.“

Saturday the Drexels will join the public for a twenty block long march down Ocean Boulevard.

After the march there will be a candle light vigil ceremony at 7:30 pm to remember the day the Drexels’ lives were forever changed.

“It’s hard,” said Myrissa. “When I found out, I think the Monday of that weekend, or the Sunday, I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t stand it. I mean Brittanee was there for everything.“

And despite many people’s suspicions, the Drexels are holding on for what they hope will be a positive weekend.

“They may get tips this weekend from the police department,” said Dawn. “Maybe, being down here in Myrtle Beach for spring break may spark somebody’s mind.“

Dawn Drexel said she will meet with police Friday to discuss the four persons of interest in this case.

She also said police have a location of interest as well.

http://www2.scnow.com/scp/news/local/grand_strand/article/drexel_family_on_the_grand_strand_for_brittanees_one_year_disappearance_ann/129618/

A year in review: The Brittanee Drexel Case

By Graeme Moore
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 5:58 p.m.

One year ago, scores of police officers and volunteer searchers traipsed through rural parts of Georgetown and Charleston Counties looking for a teen who had vanished in Myrtle Beach.

It was unusually warm, and the bugs were aggressive. Wild boars and alligators lurked just out of sight. The dangers to searchers and their dogs were real. It was no place for a 17-year-old girl to be.

But there were reasons to believe Brittanee Drexel, the spring breaker from Rochester, NY, may have been there, and detectives were running against the clock as they tried to find her.

Just before 9:00 p.m. on April 25, 2009, surveillance video caught Drexel leaving the Blue Water Resort on Ocean Boulevard. She was heading back to where she was staying, the Bar Harbour Motel, but she never made it.

By Monday, the search for her concentrated in that rural area around the Santee Rivers because detectives tracked her cell signals there.

They had determined Brittanee, who was a fervent cell phone user, sent her last text message at 8:58 p.m. on Saturday while still in Myrtle Beach. She never made another call or text, and by 10:18 p.m., her cell phone was pinging on a tower along the Georgetown/Charleston County line.

Not only did that alarm detectives, but it sent her mother into a panicked frenzy.

"I was frantic because you never think this is going to happen to your child. Ever," said Dawn Drexel during an interview on the anniversary of her daughter's one-year disappearance.

Brittanee had gone to Myrtle Beach, against her mother's will, with a group of friends, and she had met up with other Rochester kids while on spring break.

In fact, she was with a group of guys at the Blue Water Resort just before she vanished. In the beginning, police homed in on one of those men, Peter Brozowitz, a nightclub promoter from Rochester.

In the court of public opinion, Brozowitz was eyed suspiciously when he hired a lawyer and when it was found out he drove back to Rochester just hours after Brittanee vanished.

However, as the weeks dragged on, detectives ruled out Brozowitz and dropped the "person of interest" label he had been assigned from the beginning.

Meanwhile, the searches continued for Brittanee or any evidence of her along the Santee Rivers and even back in Myrtle Beach, but after weeks and months of intense searching, nothing turned up.

By early Fall, detectives had classified the case as becoming cold, and Drexel began to fade from the headlines. then something changed in late December when some sunglasses were found along a riverbank.

They resembled a pair of glasses Brittanee was wearing the day before she vanished. After being sent off for forensic testing, detectives said they were unable to determine if, in fact, they belong to Brittanee.

New People and Location of Interest

In January 2010, after no major breaks in the case, there was a task force formed, made up of detectives from Myrtle Beach, and Georgetown Charleston Counties.

They have worked out of Georgetown County Investigator Chris Bailey's office since the beginning of the year, and they say the case is heating up.

Bailey credits an early December tip as the one that turned the case around and generated new leads. He wouldn't elaborate on the tip, but says it's been enough to obtain search warrants which have led to several people of interest.

"They're suspected of being present with Brittanee (and) knowing her whereabouts or possible whereabouts," Bailey said of the people of interest during an interview a few weeks ago.

No names were released nor was information on what was searched, but Bailey and the other investigators said they feel confident they're looking at the right people.

"All of our little pieces of evidence ... they're all pointing in the same direction towards certain people," said Myrtle Beach Investigator Vincent Dorio.

Detectives said they feel they're handling a homicide investigation and fear Brittanee is dead, but her mother, Dawn, holds out hope and refuses to accept her daughter is dead.

"I just hope, when I'm at home or sitting down or just doing something, that Brittanee is going to walk through that door."

If you've got information on the case, you're asked to call the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office at 843-436-6058 or Myrtle Beach Police at 843-918-1382. You can remain anonymous.

http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=449393

SLED adds agent to Drexel investigation

Updated: Jul 12, 2010 5:17 PM EDT

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - A team of investigators looking to crack the case of a missing New York teen is growing, as the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office calls for help from state law enforcement.

Lt. Neil Johnson, spokesman for the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office, said the agency has requested an agent from the State law Enforcement Division to assist with the Brittanee Drexel missing persons case.

SLED spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons said the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office made the request last week, and has since had an agent assigned to the case. When asked the purpose of the additional agent, Timmons said the reasons for the extra manpower could jeopardize the case.

Read more: http://www.wmbfnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=12793056

Attempted abduction reported at site where Brittanee Drexel was last seen

Gary McLendon – Staff writer
Local News – July 22, 2010 - 5:11pm

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.— An attempted abduction took place in front of the place where missing Chili teen Brittanee Drexel was last seen more than a year ago, according to Myrtle Beach police.

Police said a 20-year-old woman from Kingsport, Tenn., was almost abducted in front of the Blue Water Resort about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The woman is working with the State Law Enforcement Division to come up with a composite sketch.

Police said the woman reported that three men pulled up in a light blue work van, with a sliding side door and a lot of rust. The van is believed to be a late 1980s model.

Police said the location of the attempted abduction heightens their interest in exploring a possible connection between that incident and Drexel’s disappearance in April 2009.

http://rocnow.com/article/local-news/2010100722045

wow .. this cud be the break.. hopefully there will be answers.. Also, I wonder if that van can be seen on any footage at the time of Brittanys disappearnce...

I pray she is still alive..on account it was 3 men, it almost sounds like black market????

God Bless Brittany and her family! Please bring her home!

x

Tish, you are probably right that the playing cards are a big joke to the prisoners, and from what I've read, they haven't had much success in generating tips that solve cases.

Myrtle Beach police not ready to connect attempted kidnapping to Brittanee Drexel case

Friday, Jul. 23, 2010

As Myrtle Beach police continued Friday to investigate an attempted kidnapping of a 20-year-old woman along Ocean Boulevard, those involved in the case of a missing New York teen hope the incident will provide clues in her case.

Myrtle Beach police Capt. David Knipes said there is nothing to link the two cases together, but the same investigators are working both incidents.

Brittanee Drexel, a New York teen who was last seen on April 25, 2009, while on Spring Break in Myrtle Beach. She was last seen on video surveillance leaving the Blue Water Hotel at 2001 S. Ocean Blvd., police said.

The incident on Wednesday occurred about 4:30 p.m. along Ocean Boulevard near 22nd Avenue South, Knipes said. The woman said a van drove up behind her and two men got out and grabbed her.

The woman fought back against the men and told police she was able to get free before they pulled her into the van, which was described as being pale blue with several rust spots and a side sliding door, according to the report. The woman said there was a yellow sticker in the back passenger window, but she was unable to get the license plate number because the incident occurred so quickly.

The woman said she elbowed one of the men and he had blood coming from his face when she turned around, according to the report. She said the men got back inside the van where a third man was waiting in the driver’s seat.

“We do have the same group of investigators that worked the Drexel case looking into this one,” Knipes said in a statement released on Friday. “At this time we are not saying that the cases are related, however we must exercise due diligence and properly review the cases and see if there are any similarities. As of now the only facts that are related are the (approximate location) and the fact that they are both younger women.”

Monica Caison with the CUE Center for Missing Person in Wilmington, N.C., said the proximity of the Drexel’s disappearance and the woman’s attempted kidnapping are “an awful coincidence.”

“We’re glad this young lady is OK and she wasn’t abducted. We’re hoping also that if, and that is a big if, they are connected then by her making it away, it might actually provide some information to investigators if they are connected,” Caison said. “It does spark a ray of hope that this could bring forth some information on Brittanee. Regardless if it is related to Brittanee, we hope these people are caught quickly and the next person is protected.”

Caison said she spoke to Drexel’s family Thursday and they are hopeful someone with information about the teen will come forward to authorities. “We’re hoping it will yield some information to pertain to Brittanee; you can’t help but hope that,” Caison said. “If that happens in any town it’s something to be concerned about and you’re going to look into anything to see if it’s connected. We’re hopeful because Brittannee’s case needs a break.”

http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/07/23/1600296/myrtle-beach-police-not-ready.html

Arrest made in botched Boulevard abduction

by Graeme Moore
Posted: 07.28.2010 at 12:43 PM

Myrtle Beach Police arrested a McClellanville man wanted in connection to a kidnapping attempt a week ago in Myrtle Beach -- a case that has eery similarities to that of missing spring breaker Brittanee Drexel.

Shaun Taylor, 37, turned himself in Wednesday morning to face charges of attempted kidnapping and first degree assault. An arrest warrant was obtained Monday, but despite two days of searching, detectives were unable to locate Taylor.

Taylor has now been booked at the Myrtle Beach jail. NewsChannel 15 was there as Taylor turned himself in and has the exclusive video. You can see that video on NewsChannel 15 at Six.

Read more: http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=488808

NY church offers $5,000 reward in Drexel case



Updated: Sep 13, 2010 11:14 AM EDT

ALBANY, NY (WMBF) - More than 16 months after her disappearance, a New York church is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone with credible information leading to the discovery of Brittanee Drexel.

The newest reward aimed at shedding light on the missing teen's case comes in addition to a $1,000 reward already being offered by CrimeStoppers of the Lowcountry.

Read more: http://www.wmbfnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=13143383

Brittanee Drexel Update: Documentary Looks at Teen's Myrtle Beach Disappearance

October 5, 2010 9:27 AM

NEW YORK (CBS/WBTW) Over a year after 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel disappeared while on spring break in South Carolina, a national cable TV crime show featured an hour-long special about the missing New York teen Monday night.

PICTURES: Where is Brittanee Drexel?

On Monday night, cable channel Investigation Discovery profiled Brittanee in the season two premiere episode of "Disappeared."

Read more:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20018553-504083.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Investigators release new information in Drexel disappearance

October 29, 2010

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - Myrtle Beach Police investigators are releasing new information in the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel, saying that they are looking at even more people who may have been involved.

Captain of Investigations, Joe Vella, says the number keeps growing.

"There's a couple more we're looking at now," Captain Vella explained. "One will lead to another to another to another, so we know that during the experiences of investigations, it's going to lead to you know, several more at some point, and they'll be people that will be questioned."

Captain Vella says they are just one good lead away from making an arrest.

http://www.live5news.com/Global/story.asp?S=13409534

Charges dropped against man in Myrtle Beach kidnapping case

Janelle Frost
Wednesday, Nov. 03, 2010

The 15th Circuit Solicitor's Office has dismissed kidnapping and assault charges against a 37-year-old McClellanville man at the request of the Myrtle Beach Police Department, according to a news release from the Solicitor's Office.

Timothy Shaun Taylor was charged in July in connection with an attempted abduction of a young Tennessee woman in the same area on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach where a New York teen was last seen in April 2009.

Brittanee Drexel's family and searchers had hoped that more information about her would be revealed when Taylor was arrested this July on the charges he tried to kidnap the Tennessee woman while she was on vacation with her family in Myrtle Beach.

But there is not a connection between the two cases, Myrtle Beach police Capt. David Knipes said.

Read more: http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/11/03/1791719/charges-dropped-against-man-in.html

Crews conduct search for Brittanee Drexel in Charleston County

Updated: Nov 21, 2010 7:12 PM EST
By Alex Kreitman

McCLELLANVILLE, SC (WCSC/WMBF) - More than 50 people searched a heavily wooded area in Charleston County Sunday, looking for clues in the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel.

Search crews used horses, ATV teams and K-9 units during the search for the missing New York teen. The Myrtle Beach Police Department is handling the investigation.

Between 50-75 people were involved in Sunday's search which began at 8 a.m. near the corner of Old Georgetown Road and Rutledge Road in McClellanville.

Dawn Drexel, Brittanee's mother, was present at the search. She said that Sunday's search was the 47th conducted since her daughter disappeared. She said she has attended all of them. She also said that the search was the farthest outside of the Myrtle Beach area thus far.

Read more: http://www.live5news.com/Global/story.asp?S=13545889

I remember hearing about this case when Nancy Grace first covered it.
I still don't know what became of Brittanee since I haven't heard anymore news about her disappearance.
I hope that she is found alive and well. What a shame.