Criminology - Brittanee Drexel

Episode Date: June 5, 2022

17-year-old Brittanee Drexel, disappeared from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in 2009. She remained missing for 13 years, until in May 2022, when her body was found. 62-year-old Raymond Moody led the police to Brittanee's body and confessed to her murder. Moody was on police radar but they couldn't put anything solid together against him. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel. Brittanee lied to her mother so that she could go on a trip to Myrtle Beach with some other teenagers. When Brittanee stopped picking up the phone, her boyfriend got worried and told Brittanee's mother Dawn the truth. Dawn frantically began the search for her daughter, moving to South Carolina over the years. Police couldn't solve the case until Raymond Moody came forward. But, many questions remain. Why did he confess to the crime and lead authorities to Brittanee's body? Moody has not had his day in court, so it's possible that the answers to some questions will come out later. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Everyone and welcome to episode 210 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Mike Morford. What's going on with you, man? Not a whole lot. Just got done to a little bit of water aerobics, so I'm nice and fresh and ready to hit this episode. How about you? Well, now I'm trying to get that image out of my mind of you doing water aerobics.

but I'll be all right. And from what you're saying before we started, you're not in a good condition to do any water aerobics. No, I probably need to do water aerobics because I hurt my back yesterday and it's all seasoned up on me. But we'll make it through. Yeah,

that's what happens when you get old. Yes, it absolutely is. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Katie, Natalie Ruiz jumped out at our highest level, Tracy Baxley, and Deborah Mann.

So that's some great new support. really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you to all of you for that support. It means a lot and we can't thank you enough. And if there's anyone else that would like to help support the show, you can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy, it's time to jump into this episode. And the case we're discussing involves a scenario that I think a lot of us can identify with. I'm sure probably most people listening as a teenager lied to their parents, maybe even more than once, if they managed to get away with it with no consequences. For some teens growing up, it's almost a right of passage.

You know, if you want to go to a party, hang out with your friends, see someone you were dating, for most of us, those little lies we told us teens, likely didn't have any life-changing consequences. In this episode, we're talking about a young woman who did exactly what a lot of us have done before, told a little lie. but unfortunately it had major consequences and played a role in her disappearance and eventual death. This week we're talking about 17-year-old Brittany Drexel who disappeared from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in 2009.

She remained missing for 13 years until early last month when her body was found. Brittany Drexel was born in Rochester, New York on October 7, 1991. Her mom, Dawn, and Brittany's biological. father were very young and weren't married. Their relationship fell apart, leaving Don to raise Brittany on her own. Soon, though, she met Chad Drexler, and they hid it off. Before long, they were married, and Chad adopted young Brittany. Don and Chad went on to have a daughter together named Marissa and a son named Camden. Brittany grew up in upstate New York and attended Gates Chilai High School in the Rochester area. Brittany had been born with something called

persistent hyperplastic primary vitress in her right eye. That condition caused Brittany's eye to wander, and she had multiple surgeries to correct it. Despite the surgeries, Brittany was left blind in her right eye, but she wore a contact lens that would keep it from wandering, and sometimes wore her bangs down in front of that eye to help conceal the condition. Despite her eye condition, she didn't let it slow her down. Brittany played soccer and dreamed of either becoming a cosmetologist or a nurse. She had friends and was outgoing and was dating a young man named John Grieco.

Things were going good for Brittany, but in 2008, her parents, Don and Chad, separated and eventually started divorce proceedings. The breakup was tough on the family, and Brittany's grades began to suffer, and her interest in school and her normal activity seemed to take a back seat. In April 2009, just before spring break started, Brittany, who was a junior, asked her mom, Don, for permission to. to take a trip from her home in Chilai, New York, just outside of Rochester to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A road trip of about 800 miles. Brittany told her mom that her boyfriend, John, was going as well as some of her other friends. Don knew John, but she wasn't familiar with any of the other friends that were going,

and that made her nervous. Brittany was honest from the beginning with Don, telling her there would be no adult supervision on the trip. It would just be a few teenagers together on their own, something Don was not okay with. But it was more than just the idea that Brittany would be unsupervised, 800 miles away. Don also had a bad feeling that something bad was going to happen. She would later say it was like a premonition. Despite Brittany urging Don to give her permission, Don finally put her foot down and said no to Britney. And naturally, with Britney being 17 years old,

She was pretty upset about it. I think we have all as teenagers been shot down by our parents when we really wanted to do something. We may have looked at it as them being mean or wanting to give us a hard time when in reality they were simply looking out for safety and best interest. And it was clear that this is what Dawn was doing for Brittany.

Not being able to go was extremely disappointing to Brittany. She and Don argued over it for two full days, with Brittany trying to convince her to change her mind and let her go on the trip. Finally, Brittany upset. set with the whole situation told her mom that she just wanted to go away and cool off. On April 22nd, 2009, she asked Don if she could go to her friend's house for a few days, and Don had no problem with this.

She knew the friend, and it was close to home, and if it helped Brittany get over not going to Myrtle Beach, she was all for it. The problem was Britney didn't actually go to her friend's house. On April 22nd, she went on a spring break vacation to Myrtle Beach that her mom had told her she couldn't go on, and Don had no idea. And more if Myrtle Beach is a fun place. I've been there a number of times. But I do want to go back to this being a teenager,

wanting to do something so badly. You know, I think for a lot of us, we can probably go back to that point in our lives and remember it. It's almost like it becomes all consuming. It's the only thing you can think about. How do I get to do X? whatever that is and I'll be honest you know when I was that age I told some white lies to be able to do some of these things that you know I had my heart set on not saying it was right but I did it

yeah I'm right there with you there were times when I sort of did the same thing now I can see teenagers wanting to go to the beach and hang out and have fun there and I was fortunate that I grew up near the Jersey Shore and there were some great beaches there and I could be there in 30 minutes. So getting away didn't require an 800 mile trip. But, you know, Myrtle Beach is a fantastic place. It's one of our family getaways where we can go and enjoy ourselves. And it's a little bit different from some of the party atmosphere places, I think. You could compare against, but still has nice beaches.

It's a family atmosphere for the most part. but there are bars and, you know, they do host like big motorcycle meetups and stuff like that there. So it is, it does have a mix of things going on there. But I could see why it would be something that would draw teenagers there to have some fun. Oh, sure. It's a great place, right, to go and have some fun. But if you think about Brittany, everybody else is in. Everybody else is going.

Do you want to be the only person not allowed to go? do you want to miss this trip? I'm just trying to think of some of the things that were probably running through her mind. Yeah, and I'm sure there was some kind of peer pressure like, oh, come on, you know, it'll be fun. She won't even know. I'm sure there's some of that going on. And as her mom, I, you know, maybe I'm a funny study in my old age as a parent, but I'd have an issue with my child going 800 miles away too without any kind of parental supervision. So I can understand where both of them were coming from and what they wanted to do in this situation.

Well, you and I also talk about true crime for a living. And I think that probably seeps into some of our decision making. Yeah, no doubt. Three days later on April 25th, Brittany called home and spoke to Don. At the time, she was at the Bar Harbor Hotel in Myrtle Beach and Don was back home in Chilai, New York. Brittany told Don that she was at the beach. Well, she was at the beach, but it was Myrtle Beach where she was not supposed to be. Don thought that Brittany was talking about the beach at Lake Ontario, about a half an hour from Chilai.

Don didn't even think to clarify because it had been so hot in New York for the days that Brittany had been supposedly staying at a friend's house. at 83 degrees in April, it was definitely hot enough to want to get to the shore. It all made sense, and Brittany was checking in, which put Don at ease. They ended their call, and Don was happy that Brittany was having fun. Later that night, Brittany's boyfriend, John Grico, was frantically trying to locate her. He was supposed to go to Myrtle Beach with Brittany and the other teens, but he had to stay back in Rochester, New York, and work. He and Brittany had been keeping in contact by text. until 9.15 p.m. when she suddenly stopped replying and wouldn't answer her phone.

He contacted the friend she was with in Myrtle Beach, but none of them knew where she was, and none of them had seen her since around 8 p.m. when she left the group at the Barra Harbor Hotel. He texted Brittany one last time, warning her that if she didn't respond to him, he was going to tell her mom that she was in Myrtle Beach. He thought clearly that would get her attention no matter what she was doing. But still, John got no response. He knew that he had no choice but to call Don and let her know what was going on. The entire call was a shock to Don. She learned that not only was her daughter missing, but she was missing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 800 miles away, a good 13-hour drive, and that distance had to have caused a sinking

feeling in Don. But Don wasted no time and jumped into action. Immediately she called her husband and Brittany's adoptive father, Chad Drexel, and then called the Rochester Police Department to inform them of the situation. They were hoping that the Rochester police would be able to contact the Myrtle Beach Police Department and get an investigation going very quickly. It wasn't until the next morning, April 26th, that the Myrtle Beach Police investigation started.

Frantic, Don drove to Myrtle Beach to help search for Brittany. That morning, authority started off with a strong clue. They were able to obtain surveillance footage of Brittany at the Blue Water Resort, about one and a half mile south from the Blue Harbor Hotel, where her friends had last seen her the night before. She was seen on camera leaving the Blue Water Resort at 8.45 p.m. She was wearing black shorts, a black and white patterned tank top, white flip-flops,

and she had a beige purse slung over one shoulder. From Brittany's last appearance on surveillance footage, and the time she stopped texting with her boyfriend John, there was about a 30-minute gap in time where it's unclear exactly where Brittany was. The surveillance videos were a good starting point for police. Police searched the hotel room Brittany had stayed in and all of her belongings were still there, except their cell phone and her beige purse. It looked to investigators like Brittany had never made it back to her room after being spotted, leaving the Blue Water Resort. Her phone pinged until early the morning that the investigation started,

with the final ping around 60 miles south of Myrtle Beach down U.S. Route 17. That was a concerning clue for police, and they were worried that she had been abducted. They began searching for her, but they were concerned that they might find Brittany dead. The search for Brittany was launched, not only in areas of Myrtle Beach that could easily conceal a body, but also around the Georgetown Charleston County line, where the last ping from Brittany's phone was located. The search continued daily in the hot North Carolina's sun for 11 days until it was called off after police found no clues or evidence.

Investigators questioned the friends that Brittany had been with in Myrtle Beach, as well as the last person known to have seen her. As she left the Blue Water Resort, a man named Peter Brosowitz. Peter was a 20-year-old from Rochester, New York, and he and Brittany knew each other, and both happened to end up on vacation at the same spot in Myrtle Beach, which was, by all accounts, a coincidence. Peter was a nightclub promoter, which is how Brittany knew him from Rochester. He was questioned, and so were his friends who were staying at the hotel with him.

The two men staying with Brozowitz had seen Brittany and one of her. female friends, a girl named Jen, arguing because Brittany was wearing Jen shorts. And while this tip was intriguing, no other solid information came from these interviews. While police were doing their investigation, Don Drexel, desperate to find her daughter, was sort of doing her own and was able to put together her own timeline of events. Brittany had been at the beach near the Bluewater resort for most of the day, and someone in a car dropped her off at the Bar Harbor. One of her friends texted her that she left her flip flops behind. So she walked back to the Blue Water Resort to get them and to give her friend Jen her shorts back.

And she left about 10 minutes later. This confused Don. And she later told my hoary news, no matter how close something was, she would have to drive her. Brittany didn't walk. This would have been a 40-block total walk. And Don didn't think that Brittany would make that walk. A lot of people took up Brittany's case online. And, you know, really most of the sentiment online has been negatively focused on the so-called friends that Brittany traveled with to Myrtle Beach.

These friends were over 18 and they seemed from at least what is swirling around out there online to have been pretty mean to Brittany. As we mentioned earlier, Don had never heard of these friends and they apparently weren't close with Brittany. the two friends also brought their boyfriends on the trip, but Brittany didn't bring hers, seemingly making her a major third wheel for the group, or I guess you could call it a fifth wheel. Some people believe that these girls were going to ditch Brittany in the middle of the night and change hotels and leave her stranded. They also were said to have left for Rochester in the middle of the night directly after being questioned about Brittany, leaving behind clothing and other belongings and even forfeiting their

deposit. So I think more if you really have to feel for Brittany here. She stocked 800 miles from home with people that really are not all that close to her and by some accounts were being mean to her. She likely felt the tenseness coming from these so-called friends didn't want to be anywhere where these girls were, but at the same time, she had to wait for them to leave to get a ride home. Brittany couldn't call her mom to ask for help, at least not without getting in trouble. So she likely stuck to herself and bided her time until the trip was over.

On October 10, 2009, over five months after Brittany vanished, Chad Drexel received the phone call from Brittany's cell phone, which was missing along with her. For a moment, Chad was excited. He thought that this might be a break in the case or perhaps Brittany was calling from wherever she was and she was okay. Sadly, this turned out to be a heartbreaking letdown. Apparently, the phone company had given Britney's phone number to a new customer.

Now, details surrounding this call are a bit murky and we don't have all the answers. But a question that came to my mind was that even if Britney's phone number was assigned to a new customer, how was it that that customer came to have Britney's dad's number? why did they call them in the first place? And I think this is a very puzzling detail, right? I mean, we know cell phone numbers get reassigned all the time. But when they are reassigned, it's not like that person gets the other person's contact information, the contacts in their phone, none of that.

So, you know, you really have to ask the question, how did this person have Brittany's dad's number. And then on top of that, why did they make the decision to call? It's a little bit of a head scratcher. And they, you know, we don't have all the information. Unfortunately, the only thing that I was sort of spinning around in my mind was that perhaps, you know, at one time, a lot of times family members will have a similar number like the, the parents are one, two, three, four, mom is one, two, three, five, and the daughter could be one, two, three, six. And that was the only thing I was thinking maybe that person called a number similar to theirs for whatever reason and somehow got, but I don't see any other, you know,

scenario where that person would have information to call him in the first place. It was just one of those weird things that we unfortunately can't explain. In 2010, with Brittany missing for almost a year, Gates Chilai High School, Brittany School gave her an honorary diploma, the first in its history as her classmates walked for their graduation. It was a bittersweet moment for Brittany's family. In April of that year, a never-before-seen video of Brittany was released, a man from Illinois who had been vacationing in Myrtle Beach in April 2009 had met Brittany. When she needed a ride as she walked down the street, she was uncomfortable.

She had been cat-called, and this man seemed friendly and, trustworthy. She invited him back to her hotel room to hang out. She was obviously lonely with the other girls not in the hotel room or doing any activities with her. The two talked and he filmed a few videos of her smiling and talking on his cell phone and then he left. When he heard later about Britney's disappearance and realized it was the girl he had met, he called the police and handed over his video. Now, the video was not really all that helpful for police other than to explain that Brittany may have gotten into someone's car if the driver seemed trustworthy. The new video wasn't the only news in Brittany's case in the spring of 2010. In May, Britney's grandmother

received the phone call from a restricted number. When she answered, she could hear a muffled conversation. Brittany's grandmother listened carefully trying to decipher whatever she could from the garbled call. After a moment, the call disconnected. She called police and told them that she thought the call might have been from her granddaughter. When police checked out the call, it was another letdown. They determined that the call was from Brittany's mom, Don. It turns out she had inadvertently made the call. It was essentially a butt dial. Once again, Britney's family had their hopes dashed. the old butt dial. You know, we all get them. I don't think a week goes by that my dad doesn't call me without meaning to. And I sit there and I say, hi, dad, and I know, I don't hear any,

I hear a bunch stuff in the background. Eventually, I hang up. I call him back later and say, hey, you butt dialed me. We all get them and they mean nothing. You know, we might have a laugh about it with a friend or a family member. But here you have a. one that takes on, you know, a real significance, at least for a little bit until the particulars are figured out because you have a missing loved one. So any call that comes in like that where nobody's answering back and you can hear things in the background, you're naturally going to go to that place of, well, it must be Brittany. She's out there. She's trying to get our attention, but she can't talk.

Yeah, it's got to be a tough situation and to get your hopes up and have some glimmer that maybe this is it, maybe this is the break we've been waiting for, only to find out that no, it's simply a butt dial. And then you've got to, you've got that big letdown. So that's got to be an awful feeling

for the family to have to endure that. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved

until new technology allowed investigators to do but had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. In early June 2010, just a month later, 16-year-old Timothy Deshaun Taylor

was arrested in Myrtle Beach for the attempted kidnapping of a 20-year-old woman. According to the victim, two men jumped out of a van and tried to take her away. She elbowed one of them and ran off. Authorities initially believed this attempted abduction may have been related to Brittany's disappearance, but the charges against Taylor and another man for the alleged abduction attempt were later dropped. And police at the time came to believe that the cases, were not related. This would not be the last time that Timothy Deshawn Taylor's name would come up in this

case. Other things happened in 2010, either connected to or inspired by Britney's case. The city of Myrtle Beach installed 20 surveillance cameras throughout the city in August 2010. This was in response to Britney's disappearance. A few months later, in November 2010, an area of Charleston was searched after authorities received an anonymous tip related to Brittany's case, but nothing was found. In total, this was the 47th search conducted in relation to Britney's case. Just a year later in August 2011, authority searched a hotel room in Georgetown, South Carolina, related to Brittany's disappearance, but again, nothing was found. They were looking for evidence left over from when a previous resident, a man named Raymond Moody, had lived there.

They also executed a search warrant at the Sunset Lodge apartments in Georgetown where Moody had lived. Despite nothing being found connected to Brittany's case, police named Moody as a person of interest. Moody had a troubling and lengthy record. In 1983, Moody abducted and sexually assaulted in the eight-year-old girl in Vallejo, California. The girl, who has since come forward and spoken out publicly, Carrie Harding, was at a playground waiting for a friend when Moody grabbed her and shoved her into his car. He claimed she was in trouble for being at the playground alone,

so he was going to take her right to the police station. Instead, he parked at an empty construction site and told her to get into the backs of the car. Carrie told Yahoo News that Moody said, We're going to screw. and of course the little girl didn't know what he meant. For hours, Moody assaulted Carrie. She begged multiple times for him to let her go to the bathroom.

She had hoped if they got out of the car, she could run away from him. But when he did let her out to relieve herself, he kept a very strong grip on her. Soon, he noticed that she was bleeding. And for some reason, he let go of her. She took her chance. and she ran. A couple in their realtor saw Carrie running toward them as Moody drove off. Investigators couldn't figure out who had abducted and attacked Carrie until after three months, she remembered that there was a specific bumper sticker on his car that led investigators to Moody.

The very next day, officers arrested him. It turned out that Moody had six other young victims in Northern Kelly. California that had been sexually assaulted by him. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but was released after just 21 years in 2004. His parole ended three years later in 2007, and he moved to Georgetown, South Carolina, where he was originally from. In 2008, Moody was charged with indecent exposure. In February 2009, he was charged with failing to register as a sex offender, and then it was on April 25th. 2009 that Brittany was last seen in Myrtle Beach and the next day on the 26th,

Moody was pulled over for a traffic infraction in Surfside Beach not far from where Brittany was last seen. Despite police coming up empty with Raymond Moody, he remained on their suspect list in Brittany's case. And later, their suspicion of him would prove to be justify. I think one thing we have to stop for a second talk about is this pattern of these guys that do these horrible things. They go to prison for, you know, seems like a good amount of time, 40 years. You're saying, okay, here's some justice. Someone's going to be off the streets. And then here they are out 20 years. And before long, they're doing other deviant things like exposing themselves or not registering as a sex offender. So how these guys continue to,

to be out on the street, despite these things happening, always boggles my mind every time we talk about it. Well, I think the one thing that it shows me is that some of these individuals just do not change. They don't stop their behavior. Now, it might stop because they're incarcerated for long periods of time. But in a lot of the cases that we do morph, essentially the minute they're let out of prison.

they're right back to doing these horrible things. Yeah, and we can debate and argue all day long about the justice system, what needs to be fixed, what works good, that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, in my eyes, if someone is out 20 years into a 40-year sentence for a sexual assault of multiple children, and not long after he's out, he's already exposing himself, in my eyes, he should go back to prison.

immediately and serve the rest of the term that he was scheduled for because it's obvious that this guy has not changed and, you know, it's only a matter of time before he may strike again and do something else to another child. So it's just one thing that sort of gets under my skin that these guys are able to be out and about and do these kind of things despite such a terrible history. The divorce between Don and Chad Drexel became final while Brittany was missing, after which Don moved from Chilai, New York to Myrtle Beach. Beach, South Carolina, permanently, to search for Brittany and be able to be in better contact with the local police there. Don told my hoary news that her plan was to stay on top of law enforcement,

saying, because I'm not going to stop searching for Brittany until I find her. Don's parents, who were Brittany's maternal grandparents, also moved to Myrtle Beach. Despite being closer to where Brittany vanished, the move didn't bring any answers for Britney's family, only more anguish as time passed with no answers. 2014, it was clear in Don Drexel's interactions with the media that she believed Britney had been trafficked. In her mind, Brittany had gone to Myrtle Beach without permission, and she told My Hoary News it was because she was promised something, like a modeling job. She said girls can be lured. Maybe they were grooming her. She also expressed her suspicion of Peter Brozowitz, the man

that Brittany knew from New York that happened to be in Myrtle Beach the same time Brittany was there, what were the chances that a familiar face to Brittany, someone she would have trusted when she was 800 miles away from home, just happened to be in Myrtle Beach and just happened to be one of the last people to see Brittany on the night that she disappeared. For his part, Brosewitz strongly maintained his innocence. And he even appeared on Dr. Phil to try and clear his name. Don said she asked him multiple times why he didn't offer Britney a ride that night. As reported in My Hory News, she asked him why he wasn't looking out for her.

And he just said he wasn't a babysitter. He quickly retained an attorney, which made some people suspicious of him, but he claimed it was in response to the questioning, not out of him being guilty, of a crime. What also frustrated Don was that after all this time, none of the supposed friends Brittany was with in Myrtle Beach ever reached out to Don to try and answer questions or to show support. And more, you know, I've seen some clips of this Peter Brozowitz. He doesn't come off real well. And I think you can see that by a lot of comments. People have made. about him online over the years.

You know, just that line alone. Well, I'm not a babysitter. Okay. Is it true? Yeah, sure. Is it crass? Is it kind of really rough to say to the mother of a girl that's gone missing? Yeah, I would say it is.

And then you have him retaining an attorney and a lot of people see that as being very suspicious. Normally I don't. And I think you and I have talked about it before. There are times when, you know, having your attorney kind of jump in, step in and do things for you makes a lot of sense when you believe that police are kind of focusing in on you. Yeah, Brousowitz definitely didn't come off as someone that was caring or sensitive, anything like that. He definitely came off as a jerk, but I think we ought to remember being a jerk doesn't make you a killer or an abductor of of Britain in this case. And I don't know if part of that had to do with his age, he was 20 years old at the time, maybe looking back now years later, maybe he has a different perspective, maybe he has

children of his own by this point, and he would take a different tone, you know, if he was older at the time. But I think in the end, there was nothing connecting him to the case, despite suspicion on him and despite how he looked to some people. In June 2016, almost seven years after Brittany Drexel vanished, the FBI held a press conference and announced that it was their belief that Brittany had left Myrtle Beach and gone to an area near McClellanville and Georgetown, South Carolina, where she was then possibly abducted and held for several days before being killed.

They also announced a $25,000 reward for information in Britney's disappearance and presumed murder. Despite the reward money, most locals wouldn't talk. One McClellanville resident even told a WMBF news correspondent, if we wanted to be in the spotlight, we wouldn't live in McClellanville. While it seemed at first like local residents wouldn't talk, leads did start to come in. And one in particular caught the attention of investigators,

an inmate named Tuan Brown, who had been sentenced to 25 years in a six, South Carolina prison for manslaughter admitted to an FBI agent named Garrick Munoz that he knew what happened to Brittany. Brown claimed that he had been at a home in McClellanville to deliver money to Timothy Deshawn Taylor's father. Authorities were familiar with Taylor, who by this point was 26 years old. We talked about Taylor earlier. He was just 16 years old when Brittany disappeared and had been at the center of a kidnapping allegation in the Myrtle Beach area in June 2010. The home mentioned by tipster toquan Brown was what's generally called a stash house or a trap house,

a residence where drugs are prepared, guns and money from illicit sales are stored, and sex work occurs. Brown had to walk through the house to get to the backyard where Taylor's father was, and while he was walking through the house, he said he saw Brittany. According to him, she was being sexually abused by Taylor and a few other men. But Brown said he walked by and went to the backyard and talked to Taylor's father, ignoring the situation. After Brown handed over the money, they chatted for a few minutes and saw Brittany bolt from the house. He said that she had escaped.

The men from inside followed her and caught her. Brown claimed he then saw Taylor hit Britney in the face with a gun before he pulled her back inside the home. Brittany said that a moment later, he heard two gunshots, the sound of Brittany being murdered. Before long, a body wrapped up in something, a shower curtain or a carpet was hauled out of the house and taken straight to an area nearby infested with alligators, and it was dumped in. DeQuan Brown's story to authorities was bone-chilling. A second unidentified inmate in South Carolina came forward, partially confirming Brown's story. This inmate claimed that Taylor had driven.

driven Brittany to McClellanville from Myrtle Beach and tried to traffic her to his friends. However, Brittany's disappearance made the news quickly and Taylor did not want to get caught, so he killed her. Brittany's father, Chad Drexel, believed these allegations, even releasing a public statement, which was carried by a number of news outlets. The statement partially read, We have no doubt. Timothy Deshaun Taylor played a significant. role in the abduction and murder of my daughter. Based on evidence, the FBI and the Myrtle Beach Police Department has gathered along with facts and specific information gathered from a team of private investigators. An article on Dr. Phil's website claims that he also believe that when he traveled to

Myrtle Beach in 2012, he handed a one-armed man, a flyer about Brittany, who then then balled the flyer up, tossed it out the window, and drove away as the other men in the car laughed. Chad would later learn that Timothy Taylor had one arm, but at the time of the incident, he had no idea who Taylor was. In August 2016, Timothy Deshawn Taylor was federally indicted on charges of interfering in interstate commerce by threat or violence. This incident occurred in 2011 when he acted as the getter. driver after McDonald's robbery in Mount Pleasant. Incredibly, Taylor had not only already been

charged by South Carolina authorities and convicted for this crime, but he had been sentenced to probation, and he had served all of it. Now the charges were federal. Federal authorities wanted answers in Brittany's disappearance, and these new charges were part of how they planned to find his answers. The McDonald's robbery was serious, too, in fact. A cashier was shot twice during the robbery. Federal law allows the federal government to bring charges and situations where prosecution by the state did not lead to a fair verdict. Probation for Taylor didn't seem fair to the federal authorities for such a violent crime, so they were able to charge him again without any kind of double jeopardy rules applying. In June 2017, Taylor was administered a polygraph test. He agreed

to take this polygraph test as part of a plea deal for the federal charge. If he told the truth to investigators during the test. He would get a deal. But if he lied during the test, he would face a minimum of 10 years in prison. The polygraph administrator, according to his own opinion, could see that the test indicated Taylor was not telling the truth when he answered questions related to when and where he had seen Brittany, as well as who was involved with her murder. His answers were marked deceptive.

and the polygraph was ended early due to Taylor's frustration and anger. And from what I understand, Morp, they couldn't continue because he wasn't calm. And you have to be calm to get a good baseline for the test. And as such, he faced the minimum 10 years for his role in the 2011 robbery. Taylor's legal problems didn't end there. Before Taylor could be sentenced on the federal charges, he was charged with a bail violation for crossing county lines that was taken to a jail in Charleston County. In February 2019, behind bars, the original tipster that accused Taylor, DeQuan Brown, did an interview

with WHEC TV in Rochester. He changed his story claiming that he saw Brittany four separate times over the span of a month after she was last seen in Myrtle Beach. Now he was claiming that the last time he saw was in late May 2009 and that she was killed. The first time he saw her on April 27, 2009, he didn't know who she was at the time, only later learning who she was through news coverage. But he did see her being sexually assaulted by between eight and 12 men in McClellanville. He then claimed to have seen her again in the McClellanville house and stuck to a story of hearing two gunshots and seeing a body being carried out of the house in a rug.

But he claimed to see Brittany a third time alive five days after this incident. This time, he said he saw her on. a dirt road 80 miles south of McLoughamville in Jacksonborough, South Carolina, near his cousin's house. This area in Jacksonborough is where he claimed to have seen Brittany a fourth and final time in late May when he witnessed a man named Nate shoot Britney twice in the head with a shotgun. Brown said he immediately left the area after Britney's murder to avoid being an accomplice. This interview with Brown was interesting for a number of reasons. First, he added more sightings of Brittany to the story, but still included his original story that he told the FBI. W.H.E.C.

did its own report on stash houses in McClellanville in 2016. And they believed that Brown's description matched one of those houses. However, none of the friends of Browns who had allegedly seen Brittany with him could be located. And his cousin had passed away. Brown filed a lawsuit. Brown filed a lawsuit against FBI agent Garrick Munoz, federal prosecutor Winston Holiday, and other officers who had participated in identifying him publicly as a snitch, directly endangering his life behind bars and beyond them. In August 2017, Timothy Deshaun Taylor was released on house arrest due to a pending Supreme Court trial, Gamble v. the United States, which had yet to be decided. And it was up in the air whether this dual sovereignty, the ability for federal

authorities to charge after state authorities do, would still be legal. It wasn't until June 2019, almost two years later, that the Supreme Court did rule in Gamble v. United States. Dual sovereignty was upheld by the Supreme Court. This meant that Taylor could still be sentenced. So in December 2019, federal district judge David C. Norton sentenced Taylor to 319.9.7, days in prison, with his time served to be counted, and he also got three years of probation. While many people believe that Brittany Drexel had met her demise at the hands of Timothy Deshaun Taylor and company, nothing as far as physical evidence tied into the crime, only the word of an informant with a shady history and an ever-changing story.

It wasn't until May 22, almost 13 years after Brittany vanished, that the truth would finally emerge. On May 4th, while speaking to authorities about an obstruction of justice charge from an event back in April 2009, 62-year-old Raymond Moody confessed to the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office that he had murdered Brittany Drexel and he gave them the location of Britney's remains. Moody had been on police radar for some time in connection to Britney's case. We talked about it. He was a logical suspect based on his long criminal record, which we outlined earlier, a record that included kidnapping and sex charges.

For days, the FBI used excavators to search the wooded area just outside of Georgetown around 35 miles away from Myrtle Beach until on May 11th, a body was found, buried about four feet deep. Once recovered, it took four days. but on May 15th. The remains were positively identified through dental records and a DNA match as Brittany Drexel. The Georgetown County Sheriff's Office arrested Moody on charges of kidnapping, first-degree sexual misconduct, rape, and murder. All of this was announced on May 16, 2002 at a press conference with the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office,

who were accompanied by Britney's family. As quoted by the Washington Post, Don said the search for Brittany is now a pursuit of Britney's justice. The details in the arrest warrant for Raymond Moody explained that Brittany had been held by Moody against her will in Georgetown, McClellanville, where her phone had pinged, as well as the north part of Charleston. She was abducted in Myrtle Beach and taken to the Santee River, raped and then strangled to death by Moody. He then drove the Old Town Avenue, after which he buried her in a four-foot grave in the woods down a private road with a gate, all by the morning. of April 26, 2009. Moody was pulled over just before 3.30 p.m. that same day and given a traffic ticket for speeding 15 miles over the speed limit in Surfside Beach. At the time, he was on his Harley Davidson motorcycle. Brittany wasn't with him. Instead of going to court in May, Moody paid a $133 fine

and moved on. The mention of the Santee River is very interesting because of the statements of a private investigator in 2019. Steve Pickering told WHAM news that in 2009, he traveled to a rural road near the Santee River where cadaver dogs alerted. Pickering's team searched the area and sifted through soil and found physical evidence. They said was tied to Brittany's disappearance. Now, it's unclear exactly what that physical evidence was, but after 10 years, it was still in Pickering's office. Untouched by agents, Pickering's team may have found the area where Moody assaulted and killed Brittany, but he buried her somewhere else, which explains why his team was unable to find her body in that same area near the Santee River. It turns out, Moody, in addition to being a person

of interest in Brittany's case was also a person of interest in another disappearance, that of 28-year-old Crystal Souls. Detective Philip Hanna, with the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office, confirmed to the media in 2012, as reported by Live Five News, that Moody is not cooperating with law enforcement and has refused to speak with investigators regarding both Brittany Drexel and Crystal Souls. On January 24, 2005, 28-year-old Crystal Souls needed a ride from Shaw's Corner Store in Andrews, South Carolina, to her home just about a five-mile drive away. She called her dad Wingate, but he was sick and he couldn't come get her, so she told him not to worry

and that she would just walk. She never showed up at home, and she's never been seen again. She may have been picked up in a red pickup truck. Crystal's mom, Gale, told Live Five News. My heart tells me Moody was not involved in Crystal's case. I don't know why, but I just know it. way back in 2011 there were numerous threads on sites like web slews with people discussing Raymond Moody as a possible suspect in the disappearance of Brittany Drexel. This is a very interesting thread to go back and read, following the rest. And you got to give kudos more to all of the people who put real information together in that thread.

addresses that matched the existing timeline, the specific charges in his past, everything, even down to moon phases. Perhaps the saddest part in all of this is that if Raymond Moody had served all of his sentence or even the majority of it, Brittany Drexel would likely be alive today. It leads to the question we asked too many times on criminology, what is this guy doing out on the street when he should have been locked up? Yeah, obviously that's a question that you and I. wrestle with time and time again, I don't think there are always perfect answers. You know,

there are times when we say, wow, you know, this person or that person, you know, got out very early or they got a light sentence. And a lot of times it's because of their past criminal record. It's almost as if at certain points in time, some of that stuff was, you know, it's, it's almost as if, it's doesn't take it into account or, you know, sentences weren't harsh enough. But, you know, on the flip side of that, there are people that are let out. They're deemed to no longer be a danger to society. And they go on to lead very productive lives. So, I mean, maybe we're biased because we know what's about to happen, what this person does later on. But I do think there are times when you lay all of the facts out, it's pretty clear that a person was let out way too early.

And it's hard not to make that argument that if they had not been, their victim or victims would most likely be a lot. And I think if you're Brittany's family or the family of a similar victim to her and you find out that she's been raped and murdered in this horrible way and there's no history of violence, then you could almost say, okay, no one saw this coming. It was the first time this happened, and that's bad enough, but to see that this person had a violent history of doing this multiple times in the past and should have been in prison, I just don't know how you even get over that fact and how that wouldn't eat at you that that she should still be here and this

guy should have never been on the streets it just the more I talk about it the more it it really gets under my skin yeah I mean it inflames us and you know what you said is just what is known right that's just what people are caught for you know who knows exactly how many victims some of these individuals had because you have to believe they probably got away with something before they were caught. Now, there are some questions that still remain. The glaring one being, does this guy Raymond Moody have other victims out there, just like I just talked about, that have not yet been connected to him? To me, that seems very possible. The other question is, what made him turn himself in for Brittany's murder? And, you know, and, you know, he's, and, you know,

and confessed to what he did. It seemed as though there was no physical evidence that was found that connected him to the case. He was never arrested in connection with her murder. And it's not as though her body had been unearthed. He was the one who led them to her body, buried four feet underground. So in trying to answer that question,

or if I think you have to wonder if what he did, weighed on his conscience in some way, you know, over the years. And he finally felt as though he needed to get it off his chest. I mean, obviously we're going to have to stay tuned because there is more to come in this case. The court proceedings and all that will likely give us more details, which in turn will answer more questions as they emerge. Brittany's obituary reads in part, Brittany was a bright and spirited young woman with a heart of gold. Brittany has been and will continue to be deeply missed by everyone who knew her.

Her bright smile and infectious laughter will live on in the memories of all who had the honor of knowing her. Brittany's family plans to have two separate celebrations of Brittany's life in early June, one in Rochester, New York, and one in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. If anyone out there listening would like to contribute to Brittany's memorial, Fund. You can do so by visiting gives and go.com backslash Brittany Drexel Memorial Fund. So Morph, as we wrap up this case, you know, obviously like I just said, it's one that we're going to have to keep an eye on. Raymond Moody has not yet been convicted in a court of law. Now, he's confessed, but will he recant? Will he, you know, say something different down the road?

we don't know. I think it's pretty tough to confess to the murder and then try to recant after you've led authorities to your victim's body. I'm not really sure how you backtrack on that. Yeah, I hope there's by some awful circumstance that he doesn't somehow recan or somehow walk free, at least her family has Brittany home with them now and they're able to give her a proper goodbye and not wonder where she's at. So that hopefully gives them some kind of peace. But hopefully he is held accountable and is put behind bars where he can never do this again, because again, you can't touch on it enough. He's got a history of this. And, you know, if he stays out on the street somehow, it's,

seems clear that there's a good chance this would happen again. So I hope he never gets the chance to hurt someone else's child. Well, the one thing I will say is I doubt that same mistake will be made again. You know, I believe that after he's convicted, if he's convicted, assuming he's convicted, he will never see the light of day again. I don't think that mistake will be made again. Now, keep in mind, he's 62 years old. So, you know, again, the chances of him ever getting out just seemed very, very slim to me if he's convicted. Yeah. And the tragic thing in this whole case is just the fact that this was just an unfortunate trip to South Carolina that, you know, Brittany was wanted to go on so badly.

Her mom didn't want her to go on. And the circumstances unfolded the way that they did. did and maybe Brittany would have returned home. You know, if one or two things were different, maybe she would have made it back home and at worst, her mom would have found out she would have gotten trouble, but she'd still be here. But it was just this one running with him, however they happened to cross past and we'll have to wait to see how that happened. That was what led to her being abducted and killed.

And that's got to be just something awful that her parents are going to think about, you know, we didn't want her to go. And they're probably wishing somehow they could have stopped her. But obviously, as parents, we do the best we can. We can't be there 24-7 holding our kids' hands. And we just have to do the best for them that we can. And hopefully something like this doesn't happen. But we also know that you don't have to go 800 miles short tragedy like this to happen. This could happen right in your neighborhood. Thanks goes out to Sunny Landon for help with research and writing in this episode. As always, if you love the show, but haven't done it yet, go out, give us a five-star rating,

you can leave a review. But keep telling your friends that word of mouth about the criminology podcast really goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with a handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast, Discussion and Fans. To more, if that is it, for our episode. episode on Brittany Drexel. Again, another one where we're really going to have to keep an eye on it to see how things play out in the court system. But we'll be back with everyone next Saturday night

with an all new episode of criminology. So until then for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone. When a wealthy woman is found brutally murdered, there's only one suspect. her handsome young lover. An open and shut case, right? Not so fast. The Shaw Festival presents Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution, a courtroom drama full of plot twists

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