The location where Brittanee Drexel was found

This is the location where Brittanee Drexel was found.

It is situated off Old Town Avenue in Georgetown, South Carolina.

Drexel was a 17-year-old from Chili, New York, who disappeared in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, during the spring break of 2009.

In May 2022, the authorities discovered her skeletal remains buried near a dirt road on a rural property in Harmony Township.

Drexel remained missing for 13 years before her killer eventually confessed to the crime and led investigators to the site. During that period, it was theorized that she had been trafficked. There were also false allegations that a group of drug dealers had murdered her at a stash house before feeding her to alligators.

Disappearance

In April 2009, Drexel accompanied a group of friends to Myrtle Beach without telling her mother.

On the night of Saturday, April 25, 2009, the teenager left her hotel to visit friends at the Blue Water Resort.

After staying for roughly 18 minutes, she left at 8:48 p.m.

Drexel intended to walk the 1.4-mile (2.25 km) journey back to her hotel. However, FBI cellular analysis determined that her phone switched from walking to driving speed at 9:06 p.m., indicating she was picked up halfway to her destination.

Abduction

While Drexel was walking along Ocean Boulevard, she encountered a sex offender named Raymond Moody and his girlfriend, Angel Vause. Although earlier accounts suggested that the meeting was a chance encounter involving marijuana, it later came to light that the couple had gone "hunting" that weekend.

Vause, who was aware of Moody's history, had texted him earlier that week about "grabbing a girl."

That evening, the couple drove up and down Ocean Boulevard multiple times, noticing Drexel on at least two occasions.

When they saw Drexel walking along the sidewalk for the third time, Vause approached her and pretended to be a friendly tourist. She then lured the teenager to Moody's vehicle by promising her a ride back to her hotel.

Once Drexel got into the vehicle, Moody veered off Ocean Boulevard and pretended to be lost. Shortly afterward, he pulled over, jumped into the back seat, and restrained the teenager.

Meanwhile, Vause climbed into the driver's seat.

At that point, the couple drove to the Pole Yard public boat landing in Georgetown, where they had a tent.

Murder

Moody said that he sexually assaulted Drexel in the tent while Vause was present. He then strangled the teenager with a yellow nylon rope.

To ensure that she was dead, he stabbed her with a pickaxe and held her head underwater.

Although Vause did not directly take part in the sexual assault or murder, she did withhold the victim's phone and help keep her captive.

Following the murder, the couple put Drexel's remains in their truck and drove to their apartment at the nearby Sunset Lodge.

When Vause expressed fear about the situation, Moody realized that he couldn't fully trust her to keep Drexel's burial site a secret. Consequently, he got in the truck and went looking for a suitable location by himself.

After burying Drexel in a grave near a dirt road off Old Town Avenue, he dropped both her clothes and the clothes he had been wearing that night into a Salvation Army donation box in Georgetown. He also allegedly threw the victim's cellphone into a river and burned her identification.

Confession and trial

Moody confessed to the murder on May 4, 2022, after he was charged with obstruction of justice. He agreed to lead investigators to the body on the condition that Vause would not face criminal charges.

A search team consisting of the FBI, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, and local police spent three days excavating the site before they found Drexel's remains. She had been buried face down, roughly four to six feet underground.

In October 2022, Moody pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Angel Vause

In his first confession, Moody had claimed that Vause did not know anything about the murder. However, he eventually told the truth after federal authorities agreed to preserve a portion of his property in a trust that would benefit his grandchildren.

In March 2024, Vause was charged with three counts of making material misrepresentations and false statements. She pleaded guilty to the charges six months later.

On February 13, 2025, a judge sentenced her to 18 years in federal prison. Vause is currently appealing her sentence.