33°40′09″N 78°54′21″W / 33.6692°N 78.9057°W
 Image of Drexel distributed after her disappearance | |
| Date | April 25, 2009 |
|---|---|
| Location | Georgetown, South Carolina, U.S. |
| Type | Child murder by strangulation, child abduction, child sexual abuse |
| Deaths | Brittanee Drexel |
| Convicted | Raymond Moody |
| Verdict | Pleaded guilty |
| Convictions | |
| Sentence | Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus 60 years |
On the night of April 25, 2009, 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel of Chili, New York, United States, left a hotel in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where she had been staying with friends over spring break. Drexel walked to another hotel a short distance away, and from there, texted her boyfriend to say that she was heading back to her hotel. It was the last time she was known to be alive.
Police investigated Drexel's disappearance but no developments were made public until 2016, when it was announced that a prison inmate had told them that she had been abducted and killed.[1] The man accused by the informant denied knowledge of any alleged crime. Based on that information, the FBI considered the case a homicide.
In May 2022, police arrested Raymond Moody, a registered sex offender in the area, on charges of murder, kidnapping, and first-degree criminal sexual conduct; he pleaded guilty to all charges in October.[2] Drexel's skeletal remains were recovered a week later in a wooded area in Georgetown, about 33 mi (53 km) from where she originally went missing.[3]
- ^ Walsh, Patrice (June 8, 2016). "FBI: Brittanee Drexel held against her will, killed in South Carolina". WHAM-TV. Rochester, New York. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
- ^ WHAM Staff (October 19, 2022). "Raymond Moody pleads guilty to killing Brittanee Drexel". 13wham.com. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
- ^ Lahman, Sean; Freile, Victoria E. (May 16, 2022). "Remains of Brittanee Drexel found; man charged in death". Democrat and Chronicle. Rochester, New York. Retrieved May 16, 2022.