Brittanee Drexel -- Missing 4/25/09

Brittanee Drexel: 4 months later, still missing

By Graeme Moore
Saturday, August 29, 2009 at 7:43 p.m.

More than four months after her disappearance, Brittanee Drexel's whereabouts remain a mystery.



Drexel, 17, of New York, disappeared April 25 after leaving the Blue Water Resort on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach.

Almost from the very beginning detectives theorized Drexel was abducted and feared she was in danger. During the first few weeks of her disappearance, police and volunteer searchers with the C.U.E. Center for Missing Persons initiated exhaustive searches.

The main search focused on the North Santee Community in Georgetown County, an area where Drexel's cell phone last gave a signal the night she vanished.

"Law enforcement stepped right up and said we got something wrong here. A lot of times (missing persons) cases will be downplayed for a week or two until they realize they really have a problem. And then what happens is they realize it's too late. You don't capture the media and attention of the community," CUE founder and director Monica Caison said.

Despite heavy media coverage, inevitably the weeks came and went. The organized searches stopped. Summer dragged on. Eventually Brittanee's story faded from the headlines, and there was still no Brittanee.

But on Saturday there was a renewed effort to keep her story front and center among the Myrtle Beach community at a missing persons awareness tour, and the person sponsoring that effort knows the pain of a missing person.

Angie Gilchrist's mother is Alice Donovan who was abducted, raped and killed in November 2002 by Brandon Bashum and Chadrick Fulks.

For years Donovan remained missing, despite the death sentence convictions of her murderers. In late 2008, Gilchrist ran into Monica Caison with the CUE Center, and together they decided it was time to find Alice. Previous searches by CUE, police and others yielded nothing.

"It is the most excruciating, tormenting thing to ever have to deal with. Your life stops," Gilchrist described of her ordeal with her mother's murder and subsequent disappearance.

Caison wrote to Fulks in prison, and to her amazement, he sent her a package stuffed with maps pointing to where Alice could be found.

Caison's crew jumped into action and in January 2009 they found human bones that would later be positively identified as Donovan.

Far from a "success" story, it is a story that brings closure, something Brittanee Drexel's mom is desperately searching for.

"I still have hope that she's somewhere out there," Dawn Drexel said Saturday at the Myrtle Beach stop of CUE's "On The Road to Remember Tour."

Dawn left Myrtle Beach at the end of June after spending two months in Myrtle Beach searching and raising money for her daughter's cause.

Her frustration is growing.

"I just wish people would come (forward) and call one of the tip lines," Drexel said.

Those tip lines, run by the Myrtle Beach Police Department and the CUE Center, have lit up in the months past, but no tip has generated the clue needed to crack the case.

Dawn, Monica and police are determined to keep the tips flowing, and one of the ways to do that, they say, is through events like the one held Saturday.

It was a small gathering of no more than a dozen folks -- from lead detectives to Dawn to Monica to a few who didn't even know the Drexels -- but it was meaningful.

"The whole purpose of the tour is to get their information out, tell their stories, show their pictures and to visit their towns and rally their communities to remind them they're still missing," Caison explained.

As for the investigation by police, NewsChannel 15 learned that detectives have brought in an FBI agent to be "thoroughly briefed" on Brittanee's case.

Detectives are also working with the CUE Center to organize a new search sometime later this Fall when the leaves fall and the terrain becomes easier to navigate.

What won't become easier is Dawn Drexel's anguish.

"Brittanee's 18th birthday is coming up which is going to be very difficult in Ocotber," Dawn said adding, "I just want to know something. I know my daughter didn't just disappear off the face of the earth."

Anonymous tips and information can be called in to the Myrtle Beach Police Department at 843-918-1382 or to the CUE Center at 910-343-1131.

Donations to the planned search effort can be made to CUE, a non-profit organization, by visiting their web site www.ncmissingpersons.org or by calling them.

http://www.carolinalive.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=343626



Brittanee Drexel Vanished During Spring Break, Will She Ever Be Found?

September 24, 2009 12:45 PM

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) She went on spring break and didn't come back.



Brittanee Drexel, a 17-year-old high school student from Rochester, N.Y told her mother she was staying at a friend's house, but actually set off on a weekend vacation with friends to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

And then she vanished.

The last time anyone heard from her was when she sent a text message the night of April 25, 2009 to one of her friends, authorities say.

The last person known to have been with Brittanee was Peter Broswick, a high school friend she went to visit in another hotel that night. He quickly became a "person of interest," but has since been cleared in the case.

Dawn Drexel, Brittanee's mother, appeared on The Early Show in April to talk about the ongoing search for her daughter.

"It's been horrible, because I don't know where she is. I don't know if she's alive," Dawn Drexel said. "She left all her clothing, her hair stuff. It's just not like Brittanee. Something's wrong."

Brittanee and her friends were staying at the Bar Harbor Hotel at 1010 North Ocean Boulevard in downtown Myrtle, according to her missing persons website. She last telephoned her boyfriend, John Greico, the night she went missing.

Greico told CBS News Brittanee was not suicidal.

"She definitely met with foul play," Greico told The Early Show in May. "I think somebody saw her walking and offered her a ride and she got in the car with the wrong person."

"I don't believe she just ran away," said Dawn Drexel. "She was going through a lot because my husband, my soon-to-be ex-husband, we were going through a divorce. So this has been very hard on her."

Brittanee also has a history of depression that her father, Chad Drexel, was especially concerned about.

"She just had emotional issues, very, very stressful emotional issues. She needed a break from all the drama" of the marital woes, he said.

Brittanee was last seen on April 25, 2009. She is described as five feet tall, weighing 103 pounds. She has brown, shoulder-length, straight hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a multi-colored striped shirt, black shorts, and flip-flop sandals. She had blonde highlights in her hair.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/24/crimesider/entry5334752.shtml

People Magazine Features Brittanee Drexel

Last Update: 11/13 9:23 am

Chili, N.Y./Myrtle Beach, S.C. -- The issue of People magazine hitting newsstands Friday features an article with Brittanee Drexel's story.



Drexel is one of six missing people the magazine is featuring in the article called "Vanished." Drexel was last seen leaving a hotel in Myrtle Beach while on spring break in April.

The magazine draws a link with Jaycee Dugard, who had been kidnapped 18 years ago until being found alive this year.

The hope is for a quicker and better resolution with the cases of these six young people.

http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/People-Magazine-Features-Brittanee-Drexel/bX8MHe6VXUGfi-51qx6O7w.cspx

Lost, but never found in South Carolina

MYRTLE BEACH -- Dawn Drexel gingerly stepped over mounds of pine needles, gnarled roots and empty beer cans as she ventured into a scrubby patch of woods where searchers looked for her teenage daughter's body.

The team had come up empty, just as they had in similar dark corners tucked away from the bright lights and crowds of this bustling resort city. Still, Drexel needed to see the spot last week, to get a sense of the land and the efforts to find Brittanee.

It's been a daily struggle for Drexel since her 17-year-old daughter disappeared on a trip here in April. The Rochester, N.Y., woman has left her family, work and home for weeks at a time to look for Brittanee. She's unsure what to say when her younger children ask when their sister is coming home. On every trip down U.S. 17, her gaze drifts to the ditches and hollows on the side of the road, looking for a sign.

"It consumes your life, and there are a lot more bad days than good days," Drexel said. "It's always so close to your heart. You just never think your kid will go missing until ithappens to you."

Hundreds of people are reported missing each year in South Carolina, some of the more than 800,000 folks who disappear across the nation. Most are found sooner rather than later, the majority unharmed. Of the 80 people reported missing in Myrtle Beach this year, for example, all but Brittanee have been accounted for, police said. But it is cases such as hers that can haunt family members, investigators and searchers for years.

"It can be very frustrating," Charleston County Sheriff's Maj. John Clark said. "When you sit down and look into the face of a family member who is devastated because someone they love is missing, you can't help but put yourself in their place. It makes you want to work even harder to bring some resolution to them."

Charleston County sheriff's deputies have located all but 12 of the 62 people reported missing to their office since January. But each year, some cases remain stubbornly difficult to solve.

One such case is the disappearance of Theodore Watson, a 46-year-old man whose car was found abandoned near the bridge to Edisto Island in August 2007. The keys were in the ignition, the trunk was open and Washington's wallet was left behind, along with some blood. He hasn't been heard from since.

"We've had no leads to go on," Clark said.

Watson's case joins other perplexing and enduring Lowcountry mysteries, such as the disappearance of 12-year-old Annette Deanne Sagers, who vanished in October 1988 while walking from Mount Holly Plantation to a school bus stop. Or the case of Kevin McClam, a 14-year-old boy who disappeared from the Charleston Naval Weapons Station in 1997.

Such mysteries can be torture for the families of the missing. Just ask Donna Parent, whose daughter, Brandy Hanna, vanished from her apartment in North Charleston on May 2005, leaving her money, her clothes, her entire life, behind.

Each year, Parent holds vigils and birthday celebrations for Brandy, but she is no closer to learning her daughter's fate than she was four years ago.

"One word says it all: Hell," Parent said. "When your child dies, you at least have some type of closure or somewhere you can go to visit them. But when you don't know what happened, it's a never-ending nightmare."

Every so often, a story comes along that brings new hope to families of the missing. Such was the case in 2003 when Elizabeth Smart returned home to her family nine months after her abduction in Salt Lake City. Or Jaycee Dugard, who resurfaced in August in California after being abducted in 1991 at the age of 11.But for every story of hope, there are other tales that end badly, such as the case of 34-year-old Edwina Sims, a Virginia mother of two who disappeared on a trip to Charleston in April 2001. It was three years before she was found slain in a wooded swamp in Berkeley County.

Brittanee Drexel's family hangs on to the hope that she will be found alive, even if that hope is fading with time. Her mother is determined to find her -- one way or another -- and bring her home.

http://www.thesunnews.com/news/local/story/1200974.html

By Graeme Moore
Sunday, December 06, 2009 at 7:31 p.m.

A new tip has reignited the search effort in Georgetown County for missing spring breaker Brittanee Drexel who vanished from Ocean Boulevard in April.

While Georgetown County investigators won't elaborate on the new tip, it was enough to bring in cadaver dogs, special dive teams and search crews.

The efforts began Friday when two cadaver dogs from the CUE Center for Missing Persons were brought in to work an area along the North Santee River.

The dogs, specifically trained to detect human remains, spent a couple of hours on and around a 25-foot dock that juts into the river.

Once those dogs were done working, the CUE Center requested a third and fourth cadaver dog to search the same area, but those dogs didn't arrive until Saturday. Myrtle Beach detectives -- the lead agency in the investigation -- also arrived on Saturday.

The second set of dogs searched the same wooded and swampy area but concentrated around the waters of the same dock which sits in an alcove of the river.

The dogs' work produced further developments which prompted police and searchers to request a dive team, CUE Center found Monica Caison said.

Members of the Horry County Fire Rescue's dive team suited up around 10:30 Sunday morning, and the three divers worked for close to four hours.

Around 11:45 a.m., one of the divers found some sort of hard material that piqued interests among the group of searchers and law enforcement.

No one at the scene could definitively classify what it was, but it will be sent to the Medical University of South Carolina on Monday morning to determine if it is a human bone.

The divers called the search for the day around 3:00 Sunday afternoon, but they are scheduled to return Monday morning.

A native of Rochester, NY, Drexel traveled to Myrtle Beach against her parents' wishes and vanished April 25 from Ocean Boulevard.

She was last seen leaving the Blue Water Resort and was reportedly headed back to where she was staying at the Bar Harbor Hotel.

Myrtle Beach detectives tracked Drexel's cell phone signals from Myrtle Beach to Georgetown County in the first days of her disappearance. As previously reported, the cell phone made a bee line from Myrtle Beach to somewhere near the North Santee Community around the hour Drexel was last seen.

A substantial reward is being offered for any information leading to Brittanee, and detectives are asking for the public's help. Anonymous tips can be phoned in to the Myrtle Beach Police tip line at 843-918-1963.

Tips can also be made by calling the CUE Center for Missing Persons at 910-232-1687.

http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=386560

Discovery of sunglasses heats up search for missing NY teen

http://www.wtoctv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11665031

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - A pair of knock-off Prada sunglasses discovered near a body of water in Georgetown could provide a crucial clue into the disappearance of 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel.

Monica Caison with the CUE Center for Missing Persons says the sunglasses were located by a group of people collecting wood for a fire on Monday. Officials say the sunglasses match those worn by the teen in a photo taken with friends in Myrtle Beach before her disappearance.

Drexel, of New York, was last seen in the area of 11th Avenue South and 20th Avenue South in Myrtle Beach on April 25 after meeting up with friends from her hometown. Drexel, who was 17 at the time, was in Myrtle Beach on spring break against the will of her mother.

Contact was lost with Drexel and family members in New York on Saturday evening, the same night authorities say she disappeared.

Since her disappearance, multiple search efforts have been executed by law enforcement agencies in Horry, Georgetown and Charleston counties. While investigators have searched throughout all three counties, each search effort has left police with insufficient leads.

Throughout the week, a search group of approximately 70 people combed through an unidentified area of Georgetown County for more clues into the teen's disappearance. The search occurred from Dec. 3-10.

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 Prada sunglasses were found.

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

The WMBF News Network has spoken with Chad Drexel, the father of the teen, who says the family has no plans to return to Myrtle Beach unless warranted by further DNA testing.

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.whec.com/news/stories/S1345185.shtml?cat=572

Friends, family members, and authorities will return to the Georgetown County area this weekend to continue the search for missing Chili teenager Brittanee Drexel. Monica Caison of the CUE Center for Missing Persons tells News 10NBC Drexel’s mother, Dawn, will participate in the search. Drexel’s aunt and grandparents are also expected to team up with the search team.

Brittanee Drexel went missing while on spring break in Myrtle Beach in April.

The Drexel family recently teamed up with the CUE Center for Missing Persons to launch an official website for the search. The website was created after law enforcement officials and the Drexel family learned about several people posing as Brittanee on the Internet.

Last month, crews searching near the Santee River found a pair of sunglasses similar to those belonging to Drexel. The family is still waiting to hear the results of DNA tests on those sunglasses.

Caison says authorities did not conduct any searches during the holidays, but she and a small team continued weekly searches near the Santee River, where Drexel’s phone gave off its last known signal.

I just can't imagine what this poor mom is going through..... it must be so hard.....
I sure hope Brittanee is found alive, but after all this time, it doesn't look good.

Pawleys Food Lion worker reports seeing Brittanee Drexel

http://www.gtowntimes.com/story/Pawleys-Food-Lion-worker-reports-seeing-Brittanee-Drexel

Published on 1/20/2010

Georgetown County investigators tracked down a woman a worker at Food Lion in Pawleys Island was Brittanee Drexel, the missing New York girl.
The worker called deputies to the store at about 9 p.m., Jan. 13, because he thought he saw Drexel shopping that evening.
He said he “was certain” the person he saw in the store was Drexel because he passed by a billboard displaying her photo every day.
The worker said the woman he saw in the store was with a man.
He also said she was hesitant to show her identification at the register. Instead, the man she was with showed his ID.
The employee said he asked the woman if she was Drexel and she said “no.”
“The way she replied seemed suspicious,” the worker told deputies, the report states.
He said the couple left in a white Ford Mustang.
Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Neil Johnson said investigators obtained information from the store and were able to locate the woman Wednesday night and it was not Drexel.
Drexel was last seen leaving a Myrtle Beach hotel in April. Since then numerous searches have taken place in Horry, Georgetown and Charleston counties.
A Website for Drexel has been created and can be found at www.helpfindbrittaneedrexel.com.

Detective Agency to Search for Missing Teen Brittanee Drexel

Tony Santaella
Feb. 8, 2010 4:03:44 PM

Myrtle Beach, SC (WLTX) - A detective agency has been hired to assist in the search for Brittanee Drexel, a New York teen last seen near Myrtle Beach last year.

Drexel, who's from Rochester, New York, was last seen in April of 2009 leaving a Myrtle Beach hotel on a trip she took without her parents' permission. According to police, her cell phone's last signal was reported about 40 miles south of the area she was last seen, in an area near the Santee River. Related link: Brittanee Drexel Missing Page

Police said the girl left her hotel room with all of her belongings inside and never returned. Dawn Drexel, her mother, also said Brittanee's bank account was near empty when she left.

Frank Del Vecchio, the leader of Amber Ready, a group that helps find missing teens, says Benson Agency Investigations has been brought in to help. Del Vecchio told the Associated Press that he's hoping the group can bring a fresh perspective, and generate new leads. The CUE Center for missing persons is also involved.

Since then, her parents have been searching for her, but with no luck. A pair of sunglasses was found on a beach in Georgetown County last October, but that lead turned up nothing. Previous Coverage: Brittanee Drexel Case Feature on America's Most Wanted | Brittanee Drexel Missing in SC | Sunglasses Found by River Renews Search for Brittanee Drexel

If you have any tips in this case, call 1-800-THE-LOST.

http://www.wltx.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=83799&catid=2

Biker run to highlight search for missing NY teen

Mar 17, 2010 5:53 PM EDT

MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - It's been a fruitless search for a New York teenager who vanished while on spring break in Myrtle Beach in 2009, and now family and friends of the missing teen will return to the Grand Strand to bring new light to the case.

Investigators say Brittanee Drexel, of Rochester, NY, 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, the same night authorities say she disappeared from the area. 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.

Drexel's grandmother says the family is organizing a biker run on April 24, stretching from Georgetown to the Blue Water Resort in Myrtle Beach where she was last seen.

The teen's family says they also plan on holding a candlelight vigil at the Blue Water in honor of Drexel.

http://www.wmbfnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=12158126

Drexel case on minds of spring breakers

By Graeme Moore
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 10:39 p.m.

Several spring breakers in Myrtle Beach say the case of a spring breaker thought to have been abducted this time last year made them think twice before coming to the Grand Strand.

Kate Ruberry and her friends from Maryland are down for the week, and said their parents warned them about a couple of high-profile missing persons cases.

"They told us about Natalee Holloway and (Brittanee Drexel)," Ruberry said.

Drexel vanished from Ocean Boulevard on April 25, 2009, and police have said in the past they think she was abducted.

"We never like do our own thing. We always go out together. We always have our phones on us. And we're always like in contact with each other," Ruberry said.

As for police, they say Drexel's disappearance will not affect protocol on the boulevard.

"One incident's not going to change the way we police Ocean Boulevard. We've done it the same in the 20 plus years that I've been here," said Cpt. David Knipes with the Myrtle Beach Police Department.

"We have officers. They are visible. They make numerous cases. They try to keep the peace down there. Obviously we ask for voluntary compliance on everybody's part. Don't do anything here that you wouldn't do at your own home," Knipes said.

Knipes said the March spring break crowds are usually the older college-aged students, and he said they don't typically cause too many problems.

He said it's the high school students who flood Myrtle Beach beginning mid-April through June who get the rowdiest.

http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=432439

Does anyone know if they ever found her phone in that area where it last pinged? or was it just a ping?

I wonder about this girl alot - I hope that she is found safe one day...

I don't believe the phone was ever found.

Drexel photo found on Net
Missing girl's picture posted on Facebook

By Tonya Root
Thursday, Apr. 01, 2010

A photo of a New York teen last seen in Myrtle Beach nearly a year ago was flagged on a social networking site earlier this week, according to authorities.

Myrtle Beach police received a tip from America's Most Wanted that someone had Brittanee Drexel's photo posted on Facebook as their profile picture, Capt. David Knipes said Wednesday. The photo was one that police initially used when the teen from Rochester, N.Y., disappeared last April.

The tip is among many police routinely check out about Drexel, who was 17 when she was last seen April 25 leaving the Blue Water Hotel on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach.

"There are very little restrictions or regulations as to who can put what on the Internet," Knipes said. "We're aware of it. The information was sent to us earlier this week through a tipster who contacted America's Most Wanted."

Volunteers and law enforcement authorities have focused their searches around U.S. 17 Bypass and the South Santee River in the Georgetown County area where Drexel's cell phone gave off its last known signal on April 26, police said.

Officials also are using the Internet to solicit information about the teen. An official Web site for the missing teen was launched earlier this year after officials and family members learned about several people posing as Drexel on the Internet, according to Monica Caison, director of the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons based in Wilmington, N.C. The organization conducts nationwide searches for missing individuals.

Anyone with information about Drexel's disappearance can call Myrtle Beach police at 918-1300 or go to the Web site at www.helpfindbrittaneedrexel.com.

http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/04/01/1398332/drexel-photo-found-on-net.html

I was thinking at first that maybe it was a way to get her pic out there, but if someone is posing as her on FB - that's just sick!!!

and cruel to her family too!!!

1 year later, missing girl's mom warns of spring break

By PRENTISS FINDLAY - postandcourier.com
Friday, Apr. 02, 2010

Dawn Drexel, of Rochester, N.Y., thinks one of three things happened to her missing teenage daughter, who vanished last year when she disobeyed her mother and left with friends for a spring break trip to Myrtle Beach.

Brittanee Marie Drexel is being held against her will, she is being trafficked or she is dead, her mother said. "My main focus is to find my daughter. She's in our thoughts every day. We're just trying to get her home and hope that she's still alive," Dawn Drexel said last week.

Brittanee, then 17, was last seen alone on a security camera as she walked out of a Myrtle Beach hotel lobby on April 25, 2009. She had her purse and cell phone with her. Her luggage was left behind. "They don't know what happened to her when she walked out of that hotel. They need to start thinking outside the box," her mother said.

Dawn Drexel, 37, said she has hired a private investigator.

Brittanee's disappearance continues to draw national media attention on shows such as "America's Most Wanted." Hundreds of tips have poured in on the case, including one from a viewer that Myrtle Beach police received early this week, said Capt. David Knipes. Investigators continue to pursue leads.

The Investigation Discovery show, "Disappeared," has contacted Dawn Drexel about her missing daughter and plans to feature the case. Monday, Brittanee's disappearance was part of a show about spring break safety for high school and college students that was broadcast on "The Doctors" on WCSC-TV.

Dawn Drexel said a child goes missing every 40 seconds. "Nobody ever thinks that this will happen to their child, but it does. These kids need to be more aware that this happens all the time," she said.

Drexel said someone could have been following her daughter or watching her. "You don't know if that same person is out there. They could be lurking and trying to find someone else," she said.

Spring break starts today for many school districts, including most in the Midlands.

Pam Bailey, communications director for Berkeley County schools, said counselors talk to students about being safe and having a partner and traveling in groups no matter where they go. Student safety and teaching kids to make good decisions is a collaborative effort between schools, families and churches, she said.

"There's always that opportunity for that bad decision. Teenagers are in that wilderness of discovery. And they think they are invincible," she said.

Brittanee's disappearance struck a nerve with Matthew Latta of Charleston, who said he convinced three West Ashley print shops to donate paper and ink for 1,000 flyers asking for information about the case. Latta, 30, said he hopes to raise awareness of the search for Brittanee by distributing and posting the flyers April 17-18 on the Grand Strand. "Maybe they will remember something that they thought was trivial at the time. There's obviously people out there who have an answer to this but none of them have stepped forward," he said.

Brittanee was last seen wearing a white, black, teal and gray top, black shorts and white flip-flops. She is 4 feet, 11 inches tall, weighs 103 pounds and has blue eyes and blond hair with highlights. Her ears and nose are pierced.

http://www.thestate.com/2010/04/02/1226258/1-year-later-missing-girls-mom.html

Brittanee Drexel's Family: "Stop The Cruel Postings On Facebook."

Last Update: 3:41 pm 4/05/10



Dawn Drexel says she is grateful for the support her family has received since her 18 year old daughter disappeared.

Drexel says she misses her daughter everyday and still holds out hope. But she says now she has to deal with insulting posts on Facebook. In one case, she says a girl set up a site pretending to be Brittanee, even going as far as to use pictures of the missing girl in her profile.

Drexel says "it's cruel and it's sick and it has to stop." She has contacted Myrtle Beach Police to investigate the postings and Facebook has removed four of them.

But Drexel says others keep popping up. She says there have also been insulting remarks about her family and her daughter posted on other social networking sites.

She says no one can understand what it feels like to have a child disappear, unless they have been through it.

She begs those who have used her daughter's name and pictures in an insulting way to stop.

Dawn Drexel says the investigation into Brittanee's disappearance continues with police and a private investigator looking at new leads and investigating tips that come in.

Drexel will mark the one year anniversary of Brittanee's disappearance with an awareness event on April 25th at the Culver Road Armory. It begins at 1 pm.

http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/Brittanee-Drexels-Family-Stop-The-Cruel-Postings/511y8iZXDkir-Nf7rT5xug.cspx

NEW LEADS IN MISSING TEEN CASE
Detectives have leads, persons of interest in Drexel disappearance

Posted: Apr 09, 2010 7:14 PM EDT
Updated: Apr 09, 2010 8:01 PM EDT

(WCSC) - Myrtle Beach Detective Vincent Dorio said Friday they have developed multiple persons of interest in the case of missing teen Brittanee Drexel.

He 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 are 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.

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

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

This doesn't sound like good news....I was hoping that she was just a runaway and still alive...If they can locate her remains at least it will bring a bit of closure to her parents...I'm sure they will have a hole in their hearts and suffer even more than they already have but at least they will have some answers...

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.

Brittanee still hasn't been found. There were a few articles around the two year anniversary of her disappearance recently, but there wasn't much new information.

http://www.wect.com/story/14557534/former-investigators-speak-about-drexel-case

http://www.carolinalive.com/neighborhood/story.aspx?id=609387

http://www2.scnow.com/news/grand-strand/2011/apr/19/5/new-tip-leads-surprise-search-missing-ny-teen-ar-1737455/

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S2075243.shtml?cat=566

Potential developments in search for Brittanee Drexel

Updated: Aug 03, 2011 9:20 AM EDT
By Natalie Caula

GEORGETOWN, S.C. (WCIV) – They know her name and her face from the headlines. Monday, those living at a Georgetown apartment complex sat on their front porches and watched state investigators sweep an apartment in connection to the case of the missing woman.

State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) agents arrived at Sunset Lodge Monday and spent several hours searching through an apartment they blocked off with crime scene tape in connection to Brittanee Drexel's disappearance on April 25, 2009.

Seventeen at the time, Drexel was last seen leaving the Blue Water Hotel in Myrtle Beach. The teenager from Rochester, New York was on spring break with her friends.

Read more: http://www.abcnews4.com/story/15185786/potential-new-developments-in-search-for-brittany-drexel

Volunteers launch new search for missing teen Brittanee Drexel

Updated: Nov 18, 2011 9:48 PM EST
By Rachel West, WMBF News Online Journalist

MCCLELLANVILLE, SC (WMBF) After fisherman alerted them to an odor of decay, investigators in the case of missing teen Brittanee Drexel have taken to the water in their search.

About 30 volunteers and investigators spent about four hours Friday searching an island seven miles off the coast of McClellanville with K-9 units for human remains that could have been those of Drexel.

Read more: http://www.wmbfnews.com/story/16077703/odor-of-decay-leads-investigators-on-new-search-for-drexel

I feel so sad for all missing people, just makes me want to cry. Where is this young girl Her family must be devastated

Drexel impostors on Facebook

By Allyson Bird
Sunday, December 18, 2011

~Snipped~

"I don't know what it is that people want to do this type of thing, but they don't understand how it destroys a family," she said.

Drexel's mother, Dawn Drexel, said she gives every tip a close and hopeful look and wonders what prompts the fake pages. She said some teenagers contacted her younger daughter, 14, saying they had locked Brittanee in a basement.

"She has a hard enough time, day by day, dealing with being a teenager and having her sister missing," Dawn Drexel said on Friday. "It's pretty sick that people do that and think nothing of it."

Read more: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/dec/18/drexel-impostors-on-facebook/

Three years after Brittanee Drexel’s disappearance, a victim of ‘person of interest’ speaks out

By Cristina Corbin
Published April 25, 2012

Police say Raymond Moody is a “person of interest” in the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel, the 17-year-old from upstate New York who vanished in South Carolina exactly three years ago today.

But to Kerri Harding, Moody is the monster who abducted and raped her in 1983, when she was just 8, and she’s convinced he should be the prime suspect in the Drexel case.

Harding survived the attack in California, but the terrifying memory of her ordeal has never left her. Drexel disappeared from South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach on April 25, 2009, and is presumed dead. Police told FoxNews.com there are similarities between the two cases, and said they confirmed Moody was in the area near where Drexel was last seen. But authorities don’t have enough evidence to declare him a suspect, and to Harding’s horror, he refuses to speak to them.

“My biggest fear is that he’ll do it again,” said Harding, now 38. “You should never get a second chance to hurt a child.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/25/three-years-after-brittanee-drexels-disappearance-past-victim-person-interest/#ixzz1vvs3FdVw

High-profile missing person cases in Horry County

by Kaila DeRienzo
Posted: 1 hr, 45 mins ago
December 27, 2013

Several people have gone missing from our area since 2007. The searches for all of them continue today.

Kareem Ward, 22, was last seen in Aynor on June 16, 2007. Ward's car was pulled from a boat landing on the Pee Dee River three days later, but he was nowhere to be found.

Brittanee Drexel, a 17-year-old from Rochester, New York, disappeared while on a spring break trip to Myrtle Beach in 2009. Her case was featured on many national media outlets.

A former trainer for the Coastal Carolina University football team, Brandon "Peanut" Graves, was last seen at a Sumter nightclub on January 30th, 2010.

In August, 19-year-old Zachary Malinowski went missing in Aynor. His burned out car was found not far from his Horry County home, but Malinowski is still missing.

Most recently, there is the case of Heather Elvis, a 20-year-old Socastee woman who was reported missing by her father, Terry Elvis, on December 19. Her car was found at Peachtree Landing in Socastee, and the search for her has been going on ever since.

Read more:

http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=987925

High-profile missing person cases in Horry County

WPDENewsChannel15

Published on Dec 27, 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dF55AdWMio

Horry Police: Skeletal Remains Found in Myrtle Beach

7:54 PM, Dec 29, 2013

Michelle Frizalone

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WLTX/WBTW) - The Horry County Police Department said skeletal remains were found Saturday.

According to our affiliate WBTW, Lt. Robert Kegler with the Horry County Police Department said skeletal remains were found on Tidewater Drive near Waccamaw Boulevard in Myrtle Beach Saturday around 12:40 p.m.

Lt. Kegler could not confirm whether they are human remains but he said they're in the possession of the Horry County Police Department and will be taken for analysis.

Read more:

http://www.wltx.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=259925

___________________

Update: Remains found near Myrtle Beach believed to be human

Updated: 12/30/2013 11:20 AM
Created: 12/30/2013 10:32 AM WHEC.com

Skeletal remains found near Myrtle Beach in South Carolina are believed to be human. That’s according to a report from our NBC affiliate, WMBF.

The report says the Horry County Coroner believes skeletal remains found over the weekend are those of a human. They were found scattered about six miles from where Brittanee Drexel of Chili was last seen when she went missing during spring break in 2009. Drexel was 17 at the time.

The remains have been sent to a lab in Texas for DNA testing. It's not confirmed yet that the bones are human but we're told they looked like they had been there for years and were perhaps spread around by an animal.

Read more:

http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S3263721.shtml?cat=565

Search intensifies for 2 missing South Carolina women, while police discover human skeletal remains

By Cristina Corbin / Published December 30, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Police searching for two women who recently vanished in South Carolina came upon a set of human skeletal remains near where a third woman disappeared three years ago.

The discovery came as a reward for missing 20-year-old Heather Elvis, of Myrtle Beach, was increased to $20,000. Authorities intensified their search for Elvis and another young woman -- both of whom disappeared from the same area within a week of each other. While scouring a heavily wooded area for Elvis on Saturday, authorities found "adult skeletal remains," said Lt. Peter Cestare of the Horry County Police Department. It is not yet known whether the bones, which have been there "for some time," are male or female, he said.

The bones were found about 25 miles from where 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel was last seen in 2009. Drexel, a high school junior from the Rochester area, went with friends and without her mother's permission to Myrtle Beach on April 23, 2009. Authorities have long said they suspect Drexel is dead, but exhaustive searches for the teenager have never turned up remains.

~Snipped~

Another young woman, 24-year-old Jamie Lynn Cross, was reported missing five days after Elvis. Cross was last seen leaving her Myrtle Beach home in her green Volkswagen around 5 p.m. on Dec. 23. There is no indication the two disappearances are related, according to authorities.

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/30/search-intensifies-for-2-missing-south-carolina-women-while-police-discover/