Brittanee Drexel’s Body Found 13 Year After She Went Missing

The family of missing teen Brittanee Drexel finally have answers 13 years after her disappearance. The 17-year-old New Yorker vanished in 2009 while on spring break at Myrtle Beach, S.C.

In a press conference on May 16, Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver and other South Carolina law enforcement officials announced that Brittanee’s body was found on May 11 and a suspect—identified as 62-year-old Raymond Moody—has been charged with murder, kidnapping and criminal sexual misconduct in the first degree in connection to her death.

All of Moody’s alleged crimes occurred on April 25, 2009, the same day the teenager was reported missing, according to Weaver.

Appearing alongside authorities who worked on the case, Brittanee’s mom Dawn Drexel told reporters, “This is truly a mother’s worst nightmare. I am mourning my beautiful daughter today, as I have for the last 13 years. We are much closer to the peace that I have been desperately hoping for.”

“I am slowly processing everything that has come to light,” she continued, adding that the tragic discovery of her daughter’s remains “marks the beginning of a new chapter. The search for Brittanee is now a pursuit of Brittanee’s justice.”