Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Teen Girl Vanishes on Myrtle Beach Spring Break, Killer Sobs in Court

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Teen Girl Vanishes on Myrtle Beach Spring Break, Killer Sobs in Court · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. It is a story that
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: has now become all too familiar. A beautiful young girl
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: goes missing on spring break in the last days, a stunning,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: stunning turn of events. I'm Nancy Grace and this is
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Fox Nation and Serious x one eleven. First of all,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: take a listen to wbt W N Myrtle Beach authorities
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: now say Raymond Moody confessed to killing seventeen year old
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Brittany drunk Sel thirteen years ago and then led investigators
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: to her body down in Georgetown County. Back in April
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: of oh nine, Drexel visited Myrtle Beast first spring break.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: She was with friends from New York State. Investigators think
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: that Moody kidnapped her, assaulted her, and then strangled her
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  Speaker 1: to deaths joining me cole boone Special Events anchor wbt
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: W Britney's remains found where well. They were found in
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: a wooded area near the town Harmony Township subdivision, and
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: it had been gone investigator's. Police had gone to the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: site a few days before when they had gotten information
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  Speaker 1: dug on this site in a remote area of Georgetown County,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: you know, a very wooded rural area, very remote, off
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: the beaten path. And once they got this tip, I
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: spoke with solicitor Jimmy Richardson, came about getting some really
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: good information and went to this site and did the
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: excavation and that's where her remains were found. Very rural
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: area of Georgetown County, South Carolina, along the coast, but
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: in inland, in a remote area. Two special guests joining us.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: This is Don Drexel. This is Britney's mother, Miss Ducks.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: So when did you learned that Britney's remains had been found.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I had spoken with the FBI. They were pretty much
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: updating me like every day. I knew when they were
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: starting to search. But on Wednesday, probably about three o'clock
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: in the afternoon, they had called me and told me
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: that they had found human remains. When you were told
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: that human remains had been found, what went through your mind?
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I was kind of I mean, you know, with me,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, fighting for as long as I have for Brittany,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I was really upset when they told me they had
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: found her. But I can tell you that it was
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: a huge relief to me because now I can bring
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Brittany home. Did you harbor over the years any secret
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: belief that Brittany was still alive somewhere. No. Early on
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: in her case, they had told us that they believed
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: that this was going to be a homicide investigation, and
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was pretty much set up for it.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: I think, I just you know, you go back to
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the numbness in everything from the beginning. Also with me.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Jarrett Farantino, Pennsylvania, high profile, a lawyer, a homicide prosecutor. Jared,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. Pleasure to be with you, Nancy,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Thank you for having us. Jared. I cannot even imagine
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: what Britney's mother has gone through, and it has dragged
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: out for so long. I mean, that was years ago
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: when I first learned that a girl named Brittany Drexxel
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: had disappeared on a Myrtle Beach vacation and we were
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: trying to find her, and we were sending out her
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: picture and the tip line and just constantly trying to
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: find Brittany. That was a long time ago, in two
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: thousand and nine. As I recall, the suffering her family
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: has been through is really unimaginable. No one can know
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: unless you go through it yourself absolutely managing. First of all,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: thank you for the coverage you've provided in the attention
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: you brought to Brittany's case. Certainly that has inspired people
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: to continue her search and the quest for answers in
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: the case. In addition to the thirteen years, the investigation
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: itself had taken some twists and turns. In twenty sixteen,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: there were suspects named. There were certainly rumors and information
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: that came out of what may have happened to Brittany.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: So Don has been so up and down on this
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: roller coaster of an investigation. But the past several weeks,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: as we came to learn that things were coming to
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: an end in this phase, Don Drexel is with me.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: This is Brittany's mother, you know, Dawn. We had been
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: looking for Brittany for so long, and I've got to
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: tell you, when I learned that her remains had been found,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: I felt like I got punched in the stomach. I
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: guess somewhere deep inside I had always hoped that somehow
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: someone had taken her and she had I don't know
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: what I was thinking in my head. Maybe she was
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: afraid to leave, or she had been Stockholm syndrome. She
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: had been brainwashed and she wouldn't tell anybody, And I
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: always come up with these scenarios in the back of
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: my mind, and then the finality of saying we found
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: her remains. I'm just trying to imagine you in that moment.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Where were you when they told I was actually at
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: home when they had called UM. We had met with
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: the FBI UM probably two weeks prior, and you know,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: at that point things were moving pretty fast, and so
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: I knew they were, you know, they were searching for Brittany,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: But it's just I don't know at that moment when
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: they when they had recovered um, you know, or had
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: found the human remains, it was like, I don't know,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I was just in It's kind of like in disbelief,
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: Like I never knew that we were going to get there.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Like thirteen years is a long time. I never thought
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: that that that Brittany was going to be found. Take
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: a listen to our cut eight. This is from WHAM.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Brittany was seventeen, a junior at Gates Chili when she
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: left without her mom's permission for spring break in Myrtle Beach.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: She was last seen alone leaving a motel on the Strip.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: In twenty ten thirteen, Wham had this exclusive video of
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: the site along a river in South Carolina where Brittany's
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: body was believed to have been left. Crime Stories with
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Nancy Grace to Cheryl McCollum joining me for expert, Founder
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: and director of the Cold Case Research Institute. A hotel
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: security camera actually captured one of the last known images
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: of teen girl Brittany Drexel. It was just before nine
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: pm and she was leaving a friend's room, a friend
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  Speaker 1: girls room at the I think it was the Blue
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Water Resort. We see her later walking through the lobby.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know how many times you've looked at that video,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum. I have studied it. I have slow mode it.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: I have looked at it screen by screen to see
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: if I saw anybody watching her in the background. Just
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: you know the case of Kelsey Smith who went to
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: a target to pick out her boyfriend an anniversary gift.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: And when you look back at the video at Target,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: she doesn't see this guy, but in every still you
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: see a white male not far from her. He may
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: be on the aisle behind her, you know, looking over,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: he could be at the end of the aisle, looking
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: around at her. He's always right around her, but he
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: never speaks to her. And as Kelsey heads to the
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: checkout at Target, you see him walk passed her and leave,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: only to ambush her and kidnap her in the garage
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  Speaker 1: of the Target. I remember slow mowing Brittany's video and
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: just seeing who was walking by. What can I see?
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: What can I notice? And nothing was really revealed in
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: that video except the time of the date stamp right,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: which was crucial because it gave us a location, a date,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: a time, and what she was wearing and the direction
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: she went. So when she left the Bar Harbor Hotel
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: headed to Blue Water, then you know, we knew, you've
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: only got a mile and a half and she should
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: have been there, and she texted her boyfriend and hey,
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  Speaker 1: I'm walking back to my hotel, So she should have
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: been back there within a half hour. And it was
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: that critical moment a half an hour, you know, a
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: half an hour, and the whole world changed to Jared
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Farentino joining US high profile lawyer out of Pennsylvania who
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: is Don Drexel's lawyer. A half an hour. I remember
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Curly Brusia in Florida, and I'm sure you remember her
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: as well. She had to spend the night with a
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: friend girl and was walking home the following morning, I
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: think it was a Saturday or Sunday morning, and she
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: cut caddy cornered instead of following the street, and in
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: the fifteen minutes it would have taken her to walk,
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  Speaker 1: she encountered her killer. In fifteen minutes, the world turned
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: upside down for Curly's family and in Brittany Drexel's case.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: In that thirty minute segment that Cheryl McCollum just identified,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Brittany was taken walking from one hotel to the next,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and Nancy that examination of that time frame, the surgical
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: precision that the investigators lays being focused analysis is really
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: what had to be done, what had to be done
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: in the Brushia case, that's the kind of investigation what
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: can be green from the Bar Harbor Hotel to the
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  Speaker 1: blue water that we can learn. We knew when we
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: knew what Britney was wearing, we knew what direction she
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: was heading. So the investigators over the past thirteen years
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: and very recently had to examine that footage, that time
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: frame and the technological advances that have been made in
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: the interim certainly aided in their investigation as time went on.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Takey listen to our cut. Five of our friends at WCIV.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Officials say the teenager was on spring break in April
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and nine. Surveillance video shows her leaving the
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Blue Water Resort in Myrtle Beach, and for the first time,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: officials are giving details of what happened next. We believe
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: she traveled to this area around mcclellanville and the North
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Charleston South Georgetown area, and we believe she was killed
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: after that. And we do know that Brittany was in
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  Speaker 1: this community for several days. We think she was held
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: here against her will, at least for a portion of
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: the time that she was here. The FBI also announced
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: today it's now offering a twenty five thousand dollar reward
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: for information leading to an arrest. So by being here
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: for several days, other people came in contact with her,
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  Speaker 1: saw her, know that she was here, So we know
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: there is information in the community here. We think we're
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: at a point where one or two small pieces of
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: information could put us over the edge. They say, if
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: you do know information and you don't call police, you
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: could be subject even to federal charges at a later time.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: You know, why were they so convinced that she was
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: held against her will in that area for several days?
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Jarrett Farantino, Nancy, That's a great question. They were convinced
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: that she was definitely in that area based on some
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: cell phone technology where her phone was paying from in
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: the Moat area, some fifty miles away from the Myrtle
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Beach area. So whether or not she was being held
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: against her will, that was a little bit of conjecture
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: on the part of investigators, and certainly some information that
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: came out later may have suggested that. But I'm not
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: sure why at that point they felt she was being
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: held against her will for an extended period of time.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: What about it, Cheryl McCollum. I have no idea why
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: they would say it. I have no idea why they
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: would bring up even the gator pit. There were several
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: things that in that first press comfortence that Donn and
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I talked about, but I thought was just way over
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the top and almost sensationalized, and I thought maybe they
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: were trying to beat the bushes to bring other people
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: out to say, hey, that's not what happened. You're making
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: it worse. That's what I believed they would do, and
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: was trying to look for other witnesses to come forward,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: or maybe they just had a vast aukwards. Now you
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: brought up my next topic, and that was how in
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: the world did a gator slither into this fact scenario
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: who had nothing, had nothing to do with this disappearance,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: and yet somehow that became the centerpiece of so much
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: of the coverage of Britney's disappearance. Cheryl McCallum, Well, Nancy,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: I remember years ago you and I were investigating the
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: case and we had to go talk to some near
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the whales and you said to me, swines don't swim
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: and a throw her. In other words, who do you
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: think I've got to go to to find out about
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: this criminal? Other criminals. So they were getting information from
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: jailhouse informants, criminals, liars, So they have to run that down.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: If they get information, if they get a tip, they've
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: got to run with it and make sure this is
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: either credible or not credible. But either they got to
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: work that tip. Well, you know another thing, as tough
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: as it is to believe, I have actually had a
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: case where a child was killed and left and a
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: swap infested with gators. So it has happened, but in
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: this case, it just seems so far fetched, the whole
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the scenario that was being asserted to you, Dawn's directel,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: Britney's mother. Can you believe it's twenty twenty two and
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: where you're just solving the mystery? Yes, I know it
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: is it this case. I can tell you I believe
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: this case should have been solved a long time ago.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: But you know that's for another day. Well, you're absolutely
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: right about that. To Nicole Boone joining me from wbt
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: w U, Nicole, again, thank you for being with us.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Could you please describe the area where Britney's remains were
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: found and how far away is that from where she
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: went missing at the Blue Water Resort in Myrtle Beach. Yes, Nancy,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: it was a very remote area, a wooded area along
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Oldtown Avenue and Harmony Township in Georgetown County. Georgetown County
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: is along South Carolina's coast, and Georgetown itself the city
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: would be about fifty four miles from Myrtle Beach. If
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: you the drive time from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: Georgetown maybe not quite that far, maybe forty, but still
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: a decent distance. And once she went missing in Myrtle Beach,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: immediately once the cell phone started ring peeing from the
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: cell phone towers, she ended more in that remote area
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: of Georgetown County. And to the fact about the talk
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: of an alligator pit and all of that that was
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: brought up years after she went missing, it's very much
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: an alligator infested area, and some of those things start
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: to come up that may not have merit. But when
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: I spoke with Solicitor Jimmy Richardson, he told me there
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: were so many tentacles in this investigation. You have to
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: keep checking things out, and to the point that when
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: it came up out of speaking with people that were
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: actually jail house snitches, you are dealing with criminals themselves.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: So a lot of tentacles in this investigation. But the
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: area where Brittany's remains were found very remote in Georgetown County,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: forty miles or so from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, up
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the coast where she went missing along the boulevard. Then
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the search focuses there at Georgetown County, about fifty miles
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: away from where she was last seen. Alive. Now take
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: us to our three our friends at Wham. A hotel
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: security camera captured one of the last known images of Brittany.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: It was just before nine pm. She was leaving a
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: friend's room at the Blue Water Resort to walk back
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: to the hotel where she was staying. We know that
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: Brittney Drexel made it here to Eleventh Avenue in Ocean Boulevard.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: How do we know well, one of the few working
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: cameras at the time captured this image of her. She
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: was about halfway through that mile and a half walk
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: back to her hotel when Brittany disappeared. The next clue
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: appears fifty miles away and Georgetown County, where Britney's cell
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: phone gave off its last signal. That's about eight miles
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: from the Sunset Lodge where Raymond Moody had moved in
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: the day before. Moody was stopped for speeding a nearby
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: surfside the day after Brittney disappeared, to doctor Angela Arnold
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: joining me psychiatrist renowned Psychiasti Chris out of the Atlanta jurisdiction.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you recall the name Timothy McVeigh
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: he's Oklahoma City bomber that claimed the lives of so many,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: including children and that were in a daycare at the
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Alfred Murrah Federal building that was bombed. He was pulled
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: over the cause of the tail light, as I recall,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and when his car was searched there was evidence that
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: he may have been involved in the bombing. In this case,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Moody was stopped for speeding in Surfside the day after
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Brittany disappeared. But I think that it's too far fetched
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: to expect the cops to put two and two together
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: based on a speeding ticket. I can't fault them on that. Well,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: I do think, Nancy that I mean, let's say said,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: I think that these things have to be taken very seriously,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: just knowing I think that we never can let our
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: guard down. Well, I agree with that. I mean, Cheryl McCollum,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: you pull a guy over for speeding, So day after
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Brittany disappears, there were rumblings even then. Is Brittany Drexel.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: They don't run his rape sheet when they pull him over.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I mean when I get pulled over for anything. I said,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: there forever, I don't know what they're running. But You've
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: got a guy who has done hard jail time for
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: raping a little girl in the vicinity where Brittany Drexel
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: goes missing. Another reason that is so important, Nancy I said.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: When he's questioned later about Brittany, she says, oh, I
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: was gout of jail. They got proved he was not
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: out of jail. He was eight miles away the day
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: after she was kidnapped. Two. Doctor Michelle Dupree joining US
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: former forensic pathologist, medical examiner, detective, author of homicide investigation
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: field guide. Doctor Dupree the moment the remains were found,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: police immediately identified it, identified them as human remains. How
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: could they do that immediately upon sight? And I think
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: most often it's with a skull, because obviously, you know
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: humans have a very distinctive skull shape. It can also
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: be by other means. Other bones in the body can
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: tell whether it's human or not. Dawn Drexel is with me.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: This is Britney's mother who has been through pure hell
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: since two thousand and nine. And I can remember the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: very first time we spoke searching for Brittany, and you
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: would beg and you would cry in commercial breaks when
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: I was at HLN and I could hear you and
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: as somehow when we came back on the air, you
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: are crystal clear and Razor focused on trying to find
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: your daughter. Dawn. What a long, long road this has been,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and I just I hate it so much for you.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Raymond Moody is a sex offender, okay, and I don't
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: I don't care what anybody thinks. You cannot rehabilitate a
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: sex offender, you know what. That's what I've been saying
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: since day one, when I first started prosecuting. I do
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: not believe child molesters, rapists, sex offenders in general can
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: be rehabilitated. I agree, and Nancy, this is doctor Arnold.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: This is not a matter of believing it or not.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: It is that is the truth. They can be watched,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: and when I was working with sex offenders earlier in
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: my career, we would keep an eye on them very closely.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: It's I can tell you about it sometime, but they
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: cannot be rehabilitated, Dawn. I'm just thinking back on the
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: very beginning, and I mean, you see a lot of
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: crime shows on TV and in movies. Real life isn't
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: like that. Cops are not Tarot card readers or soothsayers.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: They can't look into a crystal ball. They can't figure
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: out Oh I started this guy speeding. I wonder if
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: he took Brittany, but they had a bead on him
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: from the beginning. Take a listen to our cut thirteen.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: This is the Georgetown County Sheriff. The why I may
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: never be known or understood, but today this task force
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: can confidently and without hesitation answer the rest of those questions,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: along with the who is responsible? The who is Raymond
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Douglas Moody who lives at fifty five h two Rosehill
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Road in Georgetown, South Carolina. His date of birth as
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: May the ninth of nineteen sixty and he is a
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: white male with an extensive sex offender criminal history. The
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Georgetown County Sheriff's Office charges against mister Raymond Moody our murder, kidnapping,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, all of these
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: charges occurring within the jurisdictional limits of Georgetown County, all
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: of which occurred on April the twenty fifth of two
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: thousand and nine, in all of which detail Brittany Drexel
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: as the victim. Cheryl McCollum way in I agree with Dawns.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: They not only had a beat on him, they named
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: him in two thousand and twelve as a person of interest.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: They certainly did. Yeah, and you know he has hurt
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: six young women and children. And it is baffling to
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: me that anybody can rate and harm six young people
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and walk free, and walk free to be out there
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: to take Brittany, put her through god knows what before
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: he killed her. You're absolutely right. Take a listen to
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: our cut six our friends from Wham. Raymond Moody was
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: first named a person of interest in Brittany Drexel's disappearance
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: in twenty twelve, but was never charged. In the nineteen eighties,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Moody was charged with kidnapping and raping a child in
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: California and as a registered sex offender, joining me Nicole
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: Boone special events anchor wbt W n Myrtle beat Nicole.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: It was around twenty eleven, I believe, just before Moody
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: was named a PY person of interest, and one of
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: wbt w's reporters questioned Moody what happened. It was an
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: interesting confrontation, is how I would have described it. It
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: was he was very much pushing back our reporter at
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: the time, Mason Snyder went to speak with him, and
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: this was after they had searched a hotel room where
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Moody had been living. And our reporter goes up to
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Raymond Moody talks to him, say what do you know
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: about Britney Drexel? Do you know anything about her? He said,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: I know nothing about this. Where were you the night
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: the day that she went missing? He doesn't answer. He
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: just tells them you need to get out of here.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: You need to leave, and if you don't, I'm calling
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the police. Do you know anything about the missing teenager? Well?
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: I do not. Can you tell us where you were
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: back in April of nine? Good bye? Here's former News
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: thirteen reporter Mason Snyder confronting now confessed Britney Drexel killer
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Raymond Moody. August first, twenty eleven, Snyder and a photographer
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: tracked Moody down at work. The same day investigators searched
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Moody's Georgetown County apartment. Well, I'm called the police and shaking.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: You got a splid? Can I've got nothing to say
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: to you? Understand that you know Moody was in charged
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: a decade ago because of a lack of evidence, but
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: in the short time Snyder was in his grill. Snyder
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: describes his presence as chilling. And the second I started
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: peppering him with questions, and the second he started getting
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: frustrated with the fact that we were there and that
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: we were asking him questions and that we essentially stormed him.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: You know, we didn't you know, set up this interview
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: ahead of time. It made me want to get out
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: of there as quickly as possible. Wow, that's a nerve
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: for him to suggest he's going to call police exact
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: because he's having a problem. Very interesting. He was very,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: in my opinion, belligerent with our reporter and adamant that
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: he leave, in adamant that he knew nothing and for
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: basically to leave or he was calling police. You know,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: thirteen years this guy has walked free after murdering a
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: teen girl on spring break, just beautiful girl, scrubbed in
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: sunshine on the inside and the out. I want to
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: go back to Jarrett Farentino, high profile Pennsylvania lawyer that
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: is working with Don Direxel. Britney's mom jump in, Well, Nancy,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: I have to say, you talk about capturing Timothy McGray
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: with a vehicle stop. If we remember the Son of Sam,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: he got captured with a parking ticket. This was Moody
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: was a fish out of water. He was fifteen miles
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: away from his home. He had rented an apartment in
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach the day before April twenty fifth, when Britney
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: went missing. That was suspicious to the officers immediately as well.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: You have this individual with a record and these downright
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: dangerous homicidal, sexual proclivities in town. When a young beautiful
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: girl disappears, he was on their radar, and the focus
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: has since, as we discussed, gone on to him in
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: great detail, leading to these charges. I mean the coincidence
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: that he shows up and then suddenly she goes missing.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: I mean, Sharon McCollum, he just got there and suddenly
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: a young girl is kidnapped. You said that there were
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: six victims of his that we know, how explain that
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: we know of? And that's the big question, Nancy, in
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the past thirteen years, how many more are there. He
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: hasn't just been sitting in that trailer. He hasn't just
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: gone dormant. He's been out free to stalk, harass, harm, rape, kill.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: I would be on it, comparing his m O and
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: him to every single disappearance or rape or sex attack
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: in the area and beyond another issue. Take a listen
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: to our cut number nine from WPDE. Carrie Harding was
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: only eight years old when she was abducted by Raymond Moody.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Just as I passed, he grabbed me from behind with
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: his hand over my mouth and around my waist and
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: put me in the passenger seat in the car. And
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: he drove from there from two or three miles away
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: to an undeveloped housing track, getting the back seat and
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: take off your clothes. And when I said why, he said,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: because order a screw, which you know you don't telenate
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: your old child that they don't even know what they
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: call that mean. Moody served twenty one years of a
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: forty year prison sentence after admitting to sexually assaulting Harding
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: and six other girls. He relocated to Georgetown after his
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: release from California State Prison in two thousand and four.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Nobody should get a second chance to her child. Police
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: suspect Drexel was kidnapped as she walked along Ocean Boulevard
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: and driven to Georgetown County. Her cell phone signal was
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: last detected in a remote boat landing area near the
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: South Santee River. It's roughly eight miles from the Sunset
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Lodge apartments in Georgetown County. That's where Moody had been
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: living at the time. Prime Stories with Nancy Grace thirteen
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: years This guy has walked free after murdering a tame
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: girl on spring break. Just beautiful girl. I mean the
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: coincidence that he shows up and then suddenly she goes missing.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Take a listen again to our Fransic wbtwes now say
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Raymond Moody confessed to killing seventeen year old Brittany Drexel
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: thirteen years ago and then led investigators to her body
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: down in Georgetown County. Back in April of o nine,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Drexel visited Myrtle Beasts first spring break. She was with
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: friends from New York State. Investigators think that Moody kidnapped her,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: assaulted her, and then strangled her to death. They had
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: a bead on him from the beginning and walk free
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: and walk free to be out there to take Brittany?
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: How did we get here? The focus turned back to
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: him because of improved cell phone tracking technology, allowing investigators
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: to narrow down Brittany Drexel's whereabouts that night. Matching surveillance
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: video with text and cell tower pings, they determined Drexel
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: got in a car and traveled south out of Myrtle
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: Beach and into Georgetown County. Investigators also tracked down a
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: one minute window the night of Drexel's disappearance when she
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: stopped walking on Ocean Boulevard and was instead in a car.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Ruody claims Drexel got in that car Willingly. Prosecutors can't
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: verify that's true, but took his word for the conviction.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: And the Drexel girl work and walking along the shy walking,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: hush smoking pie. She knows that and walked over through
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: the door and said something about that exactly. Yeah you
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: want something, sure, get in. She ought righting her back
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: right a problem, but she had a vehicle. Do you
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: know it was for bad purpose? No? Not at all.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: How do you even crossed my mind? Don Drexel with me?
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: This is Britney's mother and this has been a very
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: long road for her and she never gave up ever
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: in her search for her daughter. You were telling me
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: down that it was early on that you believed that
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Brittany had been killed. What led you to believe or
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: think or feel that. Well, shortly after Brittany went missing,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: m the Myrtle Beach Police Department had told us that
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: they believed that they were dealing with a homicide investigation
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: at that point. From there, you know, and then what
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: came out in twenty sixteen with the FBI. I mean,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: we pretty much knew that, you know, it's it was
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: thirteen years. We pretty much knew that that Brittany was
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: most likely deceased. Listen, things got out of Anne and
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: a panic? Is she panic? And astronomer guys, take a
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: listen to our cut fifteen. This is Solicta Richardson in
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Georgetown County. Justice is never going to be good enough.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: That's the fallacy and all of this that somehow we're
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: going to do our very best to see that Raymond
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Moody pays for what he's done here. But that is
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: not going to replace Brittany. But what we have been
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: able to do is to return a body to chadd
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: and Down and hopefully start the process of closure. And again,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: closure is not nearly as good as justice, and justice
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: isn't nearly as good as just having it not happen.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: But that's all we have to offer. So again to repeat,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Raymond Moody is in custody, is being held. He does
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: not have a bond. That original bond was on obstruction
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: of justice charge. That's another charge that I fail to mention.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: But he remains in custody. Moody confessed that he took
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: her to a campsite in Georgetown County, raped her, killed her,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: and left her there. He said he choked her because
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: he started to worry after he raped her. Raymond Moody,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: he sat through investigators or prosecutors, I should say, explaining
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: the thirteen year timeline that led up to to Danny
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: also heard from Britney Drexel's family. He walked in first
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: without showing emotion, but that changed as the hearing went on.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: It was about an hour and fifteen minutes long, and
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: in that hearing, Moody confessed to kidnapping, rape, and murder
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: of Britney Drexel, and he also did in a May
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: fifth interview with investigators. The case against him stalled more
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: than a decade ago after a search warrant didn't yield
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: to any results. He was named a person of interest,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: but was never charged forty years and four much, and
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: I did twenty years and eight munch. I thought that
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: wasn't hope, but it wasn't. I was a monster. I
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: was a most noon and I was a monster, and
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: I took brittany dregs from life. I don't know, I
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: don't have the words express all horrible fuel and I
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: felt ever since that day, very very sorry, dude, Dawn's reck.
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: So this is Brittany's mother. I know it's hard to
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: think about it right now because since two thousand and nine,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: your goal has been to bring Brittany home. Now Brittany
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: has been found. Does this all seem so surrealty? It
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: does that it happened so fast, Um, you know, and
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: it just you kind of go back to the numbness,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: and you know that those surreal moments when she first
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: went missing. I'll always remember Brittany's last words to me,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: I love you, I'll see you tomorrow. Listen now, I
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: know that you told your daughter, no, you cannot go
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: to Myrtle Beach, So she went to Myrtle Beach. That's
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: not the worst thing in the world. Many a seventeen
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: year old has gone off on spring Bright without telling
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: their parents, But she stayed in contact with you. She
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: stayed in touch with you for many many days until
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: when until Saturday? Saturday afternoon was the last time I
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: spoke with Brittany. And take a listen to cut to
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: where we hear what Brittany told her mom? What can
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: you tell me about the last time you heard from her?
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: What did she say? What does she text? When I
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: spoke with Brittany, I asked her what she was doing
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: and she says, oh, Mom, I'm at the beach and
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: it was an eighty degree day in Rochester. So um.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: Of course, you know, I thought that maybe she was
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: at the beach um in Rochester with one of her
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: girlfriends that she had said that it was staying, she
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: was staying overnight. Um. And uh. Then I said, well,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: what do you plan on doing later? She said, oh,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: I'm just gonna hang off my phone. We're going to
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: watch a movie. Um. And I told her, I said, well,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: please give me a call later, and she said okay, Mom.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: And then you know I told her, I said I
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: love you, Brittany, and she says, I love you, Mom.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: And then um, then we hung up the phone. You
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: were hearing me speaking to Brittney's mother when Brittany first
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: went missing. Right now, it's I feel the same way.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's so surreal, Like you know, it
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: is this really true, you know, and it just I
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: don't know. I've always, you know, fought for Brittany and
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: I've always wanted to bring her her home. Dawn, I'm curious,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: what is your most vivid memory of Brittany. Just her laugh,
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: her smile. Brittany, she just was she was just full
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: of life, her person She had a great personality, She
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: had a lot of friends, and just watching her play
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: soccer on that soccer field, she was just amazing. She
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: was amazing at the game. She loved the game. And
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Brittany Brittany made like twenty six goals within her season,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: which was pretty awesome. And she was just She's just
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: so full of life, you know, And for somebody to
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: take that away from us as just it's it's undescribable,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: it really is. We live in an evil world, Nancy.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: As we wait for the registered sex offender Raymond Duck
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Moody and for justice to unfold, w Batw and Myrtle
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: beach Well, Moody will get thirty years on kidnapping, and
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: criminal sexual conduct in the first degree. Because he pleaded
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: guilty to all three of the charges against him, including murder,
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: in which he will face life in prison without parole,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: the judge sentenced him to that this morning. In the
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: state recounted thirteen years of an investigation in about twenty
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: five minutes, and Deputy Solicitor for the Fifteenth Circuit Scott Hickson,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: said in court that the passage of time, unlike most
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: cold cases, actually helped out this case because of the
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: fact that there were advancements in cell phone tracking technology
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: that allowed investigators to pinpoint Brittany Drexel's phone from Myrtle
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: Beach on its way south into Georgetown County. Our prayers
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: are with Dawn Trexel and Brittaney's family, is they move
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: forward and the next phase of their lives. Goodbye friend,