Brittanee Drexel: Murdered Rochester girl, 17, sent eerie message to BF hours before vanishing in 2009
Warning: The article contains information about child sexual abuse that could be triggering to some readers. Discretion is advised.
MYRTLE BEACH, SOUTH CAROLINA: Brittanee Drexel, the 17-year-old Rochester girl who was murdered in 2009, texted her boyfriend a few hours before she vanished while on a spring break vacation. In the message, Drexel indicated she was "so heated" before she vanished on April 25, 2009, from Myrtle Beach. The teen's remains were discovered earlier this year in Harmony Township, South Carolina, New York Post reported.
"Ill tell you later when you call me.. Im so heated," Drexel wrote in one of the messages found in court documents that Live 5 WCSC accessed. Drexel emailed her friend about a pair of shorts she had borrowed the hour before she disappeared, and they agreed to meet at the hotel to return them. She also discussed her attire, mentioning the teal and black shirt that was ultimately captured on camera at Blue Water Resort.
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Drexel informed her partner at 8.58 p.m, "I'm staying in packing and going to sleep probably." Although the teen's cell phone records don't indicate any additional texts, over the course of the following few hours, her boyfriend and friends grew concerned. One message reads, "Send me something we think ur [sic] missing." "Stop playing games," read another. While Drexel did not reply to the texts, the documents reveal that her phone kept pinging off various cell towers before it died at 11.57 pm.
MEAWW reported earlier, Raymond Douglas Moody was accused of abducting, sexually abusing, and killing Drexel, while she was on spring break in Myrtle Beach in 2009. He pled guilty to the crime in a South Carolina courtroom on Wednesday, October 19 morning. The 62-year-old has been sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping, murder, and first-degree sexual misconduct. In addition, Douglas was also given consecutive 30-year sentences for kidnapping and illicit sexual activity, according to The Democrat and Chronicle.
Drexel was allegedly picked up by Moody and his girlfriend Angel Vause while she was out alone. He claimed that she agreed to their invitation to party and shared a joint with them at a campground in Georgetown County. Moody expressed the possibility of having consensual relations with Drexel. He started making a move on the teen after Vause left. He threatened to sexually abuse her and did so when she refused. When he realized he could return to prison for the assault, he killed her by strangling her.
When Vause came back, he had the teen wrapped in a blanket and her body concealed in some bushes. He stated that Drexel's friends had picked her up, but later went back to the encampment and transferred the body to another spot to bury her. While acknowledging that the confession provided sufficient proof of Moody's guilt, the prosecution criticized his story for being self-serving.
After Moody entered a guilty plea, Judge Ferrell Cothran Jr gave him a life sentence for the murder charge and two concurrent terms of 30 years each for kidnapping and criminal sexual behavior.