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 this rural property in Harmony Township.

Drexel was missing for 13 years before her killer eventually confessed to the crime and provided investigators with the location of her burial site.

During that period, many people, including her mother, theorized that she had been trafficked. There were also false claims that she had been murdered at a stash house and fed to alligators.

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

On the night of Saturday, April 25th, 2009, the teenager left her room at the Bar Harbor Hotel and visited friends at the Blue Water Resort.

After only staying for 10 minutes, she left the Blue Water Resort at 8.43 p.m. and began walking back to her hotel.

At some point during her journey, she crossed paths with a convicted rapist named Raymond Moody and his girlfriend, Angel Vause.

During his confession, Moody said that he and Vause were smoking marijuana in their Ford Explorer on Ocean Boulevard when Drexel came walking along the sidewalk. After smelling what the couple were smoking, the teenager allegedly walked over to their window and remarked, "That smells like good weed."

Moody said that she got into the back seat of their SUV after he offered her some. The group then made small talk before Moody eventually invited Drexel to accompany them to his campsite at the Pole Yard public boat landing in Georgetown.

Moody told the police that Drexel willingly went with them and that things didn't go "bad" until after his girlfriend had left to bring a set of keys to her son.

Moody made a sexual advance toward Drexel while they were alone at the campsite. When she rejected him, he forced her to undress and sexually assaulted her.

Moody claimed that he "panicked" after the attack and strangled Drexel to death.

"Things got out of hand. And I panicked, and she panicked. And I strangled her."

Initially, he hid Drexler's remains in some bushes near the boat landing. However, he returned and moved the body to a more secluded location after he spent the night worrying that it would be discovered.

After burying Drexle in a six-foot grave near a dirt road off Old Town Avenue, he dropped both her clothes and the clothes that he had been wearing into a Salvation Army donation box in Georgetown. He also threw her cellphone into a river and burned her identification.

Moody confessed to the crime in May 2022. He agreed to lead investigators to the body on the condition that Vause would not face criminal charges.

Five months later, he pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Photos

Photos of the site and other related images.

Drexel went missing after she left the Blue Water Resort

Brittanee Drexel left the Blue Water Resort at 8.43 p.m. and started walking north along Ocean Boulevard. She had a 1.4-mile journey back to her hotel.

It is unclear where exactly she encountered Raymond Moody and Angel Vause.

Cell tower records and surveillance footage from the corner of Ocean Boulevard and 11th Avenue indicated that she was picked up roughly halfway to her destination. Cellular analysis by the FBI showed that her phone went from a walking speed to a driving speed at 9.06 p.m.

Coordinates: 33.669523, -78.905711

Google Maps

Pole Yard public boat landing

Image source: Google Maps

The murder took place at the Pole Yard public boat landing. Moody knew the area, as he liked to fish at a small campsite in the woods near the parking lot.

At some point during the evening, Moody's girlfriend, Angel Vause, got in the couple's Ford Explorer and drove away, as she needed to meet her son and give him a set of keys.

Cell tower data and phone records corroborated her story that she left the campsite for a period of time.

While Vause was gone, Moody raped Drexel and strangled her to death. Afterwards, he wrapped her body in a blanket and hid it in some nearby bushes.

When Vause returned from her errand, she asked Moody where Drexel had gone. In response, he said that some of her friends had come by and picked her up.

Although the police believe that Vause was not present during the killing, she did lie to detectives, as she claimed in earlier interviews that she had never met Drexel.

Coordinates: 33.209971, -79.382932

Google Maps

Burial site

Moody confessed to the murder on May 4th, 2022, after he was charged with obstruction of justice.

He agreed to provide investigators with the location of Drexel's burial site on the condition that they would not prosecute his ex-girlfriend.

The search team consisted of officials from the FBI, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office, and the Myrtle Beach Police Department.

Skeletal remains were found after three days of excavating the site.

Drexel had been buried face down in a grave that was 4-6 feet deep.

Note that this road may be labeled Old Town Avenue or Pickerel Road, depending on the map.