BRITTANEE DREXEL - 17 yo (2009) - Rochester NY / Myrtle Beach SC

Mounted horse search teams are beginning to
arrive in Georgetown County for a renewed search effort for missing
17-year-old Brittanee Drexel.[/size]The Laura
Recovery Center for Missing Children out of Texas and the CUE Center
for Missing Persons sent out alerts to volunteer horse units on
Wednesday, and they expect as many as 100 teams could be on the ground
by Saturday.The Darlington County
Sheriff's office sent its Mounted Patrol Unit with two horses, and
three officers. River View Farms out of Little River has four horses,
and two volunteers from Loris have arrived.The
searchers are scouring areas around the North Santee River community in
southern Georgetown County for any signs of Drexel. The Rochester, NY,
native was on Spring Break in Myrtle Beach when she vanished around
8:45 p.m. Saturday, April 25, after leaving the Blue Water Resort on
Ocean Boulevard. Myrtle Beach Police were able to pick up a signal that
Drexel's cell phone beamed to a tower a few hours later near the Santee
Rivers in Georgetown County. The cell phone communicated with the tower
the following day, on Sunday, but there has been no activity from it
since.That's been the strongest lead
according to detectives, and it led searchers to begin combing the area
by Tuesday of that week, but an exhaustive search by foot, on boat and
on ATVs for the better part of the week turned up nothing.The
next step will be using the horses which searchers say provides a
better viewpoint. "Right now they are best resource, and we are going
to continue utilizing them through Saturday," said Monica Caison with
the CUE center. Caison is asking for more horse patrols and asks anyone
interested in volunteering to call the CUE Center at 910-232-1687.

This doesn't sound good, if this girl was alive and well I am sure she would have contacted someone by now to let them know she was alright....I sure hope they come up with something soon.

Thanks for keeping us updated TomT...we appreciate it.

This doesn't sound good, if this girl was alive and well I am sure she would have contacted someone by now to let them know she was alright....I sure hope they come up with something soon.

Thanks for keeping us updated TomT...we appreciate it.

By Aisha Khan
WBTW Reporter

Published: May 9, 2009

Family
and friends of missing New York teen Brittanee Drexel came together
Friday night for a candle-light vigil on S.Ocean Blvd behind Bluewater
Resort.

Family members said they wanted to have the vigil in that particular
spot because that was the place where Brittanee was last seen.

Drexel’s father John John Kahyaoglu said he wasn’t sure if he was
going to attend Friday night’s vigil because the emotions were too
strong but he said he wanted to pay respect to his daughter and say a
prayer for her safe return home.

“I’m going to pray just like I’ve been doing every night, besides
what Myrtle Beach Police has been doing the great job they’ve been
doing, everybody has been praying and I’m going to continue praying,“
said Kahyaoglu.

Family, friends, several members of the community and vacationers
taking part in the vigil wore t-shirts with Brittanee’s picture whiel
handing out white candles provided by St Andrew’s Catholic Church.

Along with the candle-light vigil, Monsignor Joseph Roth of with the church offered a prayer service followed by a hymn.

Among the several dozens attending were parents with small children,
some of whom told News 13 they could not imagine the crisis Brittanee’s
parents were going through but wanted to offer their prayers.

“We have some years till our daughters are that age but we just want
to show our support and let them know that our thoughts and prayers are
with them,“ said Mike Christy who was visiting from New York with his
wife and three young daughters.

Brittannee’s mother Dawn Drexel told News 13 that the vigil was
important because it gives her and the family hope that her daughter
will return home soon.

“God does many things he’s there for you, praying has a lot to do
with bringing her back home, we need to bring her home,“ said Drexel.

“I’m not going to give up I love you I want you back,“ said Kahyaoglu.
.
Stay with News 13 for the latest developments on the search for Brittanee Drexel.

Anyone with information on the missing teen’s where abouts is asked to call Myrtle Beach police at 918-1300.

MCCLELLANVILLE — Brittanee Marie Drexel would have gone to her junior prom tonight in Rochester, N.Y. Instead,
her family held out hope Friday that searchers scouring a swath of
dense, forested wetlands in Charleston County would find some trace of
her. "I'm just really hoping Brittanee is out there," her mom
Dawn Drexel said Friday. "It's starting to wear on me. It's very
difficult. Torture. It's been horrible not to know where your kid is.
It's the most horrible feeling, it really is."Brittanee, 17, 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. Police also are looking for a pink cell phone related to the case, according to a banner at Healing
Farm Ministries where family and searchers gathered. Her phone last
gave off a signal in the area where the search continued Friday just
north of here, family members said. A helicopter from the
Charleston County Sheriff's Office searched the area. The Myrtle Beach
Police Department continued to follow leads from around the country,
including a tip that she could have been seen at a truck stop in
Tucson, Ariz. Nothing credible has emerged since Brittanee vanished
more than a week ago during a trip to Myrtle Beach with friends. "We're
chasing a lot of ghosts," said Capt. David Knipes. Brittanee
wanted to go on the Myrtle Beach trip with friends. Her mother said no.
She went anyway but told her mother she was spending a weekend with
friends in Rochester. Her mother didn't learn the truth until a phone
call April 25 from one of the teens who went on the trip. Brittanee was
missing, her mother learned. "She didn't run away. There's no way she would hurt everybody like that," her mother said. On
Friday, law enforcement searched difficult terrain that is home to
snakes, alligators and wild hogs from 11 miles south of the North
Santee River bridge to six miles above the bridge, said Monica Caison,
founder of Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons. Two
horse teams worked the area. Cadaver dogs were on standby if needed,
she said. Brittanee's father, John Kahyaoglu, of Tampa, Fla.,
said he and Brittanee had reunited just 18 months ago. "It was love at
first sight," he said. "Now she's gone again. It breaks my heart." He
said Brittanee planned to visit him in Florida this summer. Kahyaoglu
said Brittanee made the trip with two girls and three guys, all from
Rochester. She left behind her clothes, makeup and luggage at the
Myrtle Beach hotel where she and her friends were staying when she
disappeared. Brittanee was described by family as a good student,
socially active and a soccer player. "She never wandered off.
She had people with her constantly," said Carol Wagner, her
grandmother. "It's not like her to meet someone and go with them."Brittanee's
grandfather, Al Wagner, said the situation doesn't add up. "It just
doesn't make sense. Somebody knows something that they don't want to
say," Wagner said. "I don't know how to comfort my wife and my daughter
and my niece anymore. We're not leaving until me and my wife do find
out what happened to Brittanee. Some kook might have grabbed her, I
don't know."

McClellanville, SC - The search for 17 year old Brittanee Drexel was
called off Saturday night at 7 p.m. Officials have been looking for the
missing New York teen since she disappeared from her Myrtle Beach
apartment on April 25. So far their search has turned up nothing.
It has been another day of searching and waiting.
“It is horrible because you don’t know where she is or what is going on
or if she’s hurt,” Dawn Drexel, Brittanee’s mother said.
Police on horseback, ATV’s and in the air searched the woods outside
McClellanville, but there is still no sign of Brittanee.
“My personal opinion is that she’s not in this area,” Brittanee’s
boyfriend John Grieco said. “I believe they are searching for clues to
where her stuff was last located.”
Grieco and Brittanee have dated for the past three years. He was the
last person to speak with her.
“We were mid conversation about what she was going to do that night,”
Grieco added. “I knew once I didn’t receive a response from the text
message I sent her, I knew something was up.”
Brittanee was last seen walking back to her Myrtle Beach hotel by
herself.
“I know she didn’t run away,” Drexel added. “Foul play, I don’t know,
but I hope not.”
There are more questions than answers tonight for Drexel’s family, but
for now they continue to search for answers.
Investigators say even though the search is over, they will continue to
work more than 200 new leads they have received.

Two weeks after she first went missing, the
search for Brittanee Drexel is called off in Georgetown and Charleston
Counties, and the investigation moves back to Myrtle Beach.

Authorities have been searching an area just outside if
McClellanville for the past 11 days in the area where Brittanee’s cell
phone last gave off a signal.

They’ve used helicopters, ATV teams, K-9 units and ground searchers
to make sure they left no stone unturned. While the search in that area
has been called off, Brittanee’s mother, Dawn Drexel, isn’t giving up.

“I don’t want to leave here without my daughter.”

Since learning of her daughter’s disappearance, she’s been holding on to hope that there’d be a break in the case.

“It’s horrible, it’s horrible. Because you don’t know where she is,
you don’t know what’s going on, if she’s being hurt, you don’t know.”

John Grieco, Brittanee’s boyfriend, says now is the time for people to pitch in if they have any information at all.

“I want to stress to the nation that Brittannee Drexel, Britannee
Marie Drexel, is more than a name that you read on a flyer, it’s more
than a picture that flashes across the TV screen, she’s an actual
person that people love and care about.”

Authorities are not giving up on the investigation, and are continuing to follow new leads.

Drexel was reported missing April 26, a day after police say she was
last seen after leaving a group of friends. The group had traveled from
Rochester, N.Y., to visit people in Myrtle Beach for Spring Break.

Police have pulled back on their search for Brittanee Drexel, the Gates
Chili High School junior who has been missing since her spring break in
Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Drexel, 17, disappeared April 25.Over the weekend,
police officials had slowly started shifting their investigation from
Myrtle Beach to Charleston County, about 55 miles south of Myrtle
Beach, near where her cell phone gave off its last signal. That final
signal had also led authorities to Georgetown County, about 35 miles
south of Myrtle Beach. After using canine, boat, aerial and foot
patrols, neither Drexel nor her cell phone has been found."It's
getting to the point where we don't have any more clues," said
Georgetown County Sheriff Lane Cribb. The search there was temporarily
suspended early last week.Police will continue to investigate Drexel's disappearance.While
missing persons cases are not always solved in the first 14 days,
experts say that the longer police go without clues or new information,
the graver the situation becomes."When
a person goes missing, you have to talk with relatives and see if they
have noticed a shift in behavior coming from depression," said Thomas
Lauth, who works for the National Center for Missing Adults."After that, you can't solely depend on law enforcement because they don't have the resources or large numbers of detectives to handle the case."Drexel's
family and friends have been in Myrtle Beach since her disappearance,
working with police, posting fliers and searching for the teen. Family
members say Drexel had had bouts of melancholy after hearing her
parents were going through a divorce.The family held a candlelight vigil Friday at the Bluewater Resort, the last place Drexel was seen."We just hope that she hears about everyone looking for her so she can just come back home," said Carol Wagner, Drexel's grandmother.A
total of $11,000 is now being offered for information that could help
locate Drexel. Crime Stoppers in South Carolina is offering a $1,000
reward.An additional $10,000 is being offered by the Rev. Charlie Muller of Victory Christian Church in Albany."I
just want to keep this thing going, keep it in people's minds," Muller
said, adding that no one really knows what happened to Drexel, so any
amount of information does help.Anyone
with information about Drexel is asked to call the Georgetown County
Sheriff's Office at (843) 546-5102 or the Myrtle Beach Police
Department at (843) 918-1382 or (843) 918-1952.

Friend and relatives of a missing New York teen spent Monday trying to enlist visiting bikers in their search for the girl.Brittanee
Drexel's family members said they wanted to take advantage of the
Harley-Davidson Cruisin' the Coast spring rally to continue to get the
word out about her disappearance, so they spent Monday passing out
fliers to bikers along Kings Highway.The action comes two days
after one group that had been helping to look for her called off its
search, after spending 11 days in the effort.
"We're trying to get fliers out because we know when they leave
here, they are going to go all over the country," said Renee Friedman,
a family friend and family spokeswoman.Individuals
have also set up benefits and candlelight vigils in Rochester, N.Y., to
raise awareness that 17-year-old Drexel is missing, Friedman said.Drexel, who is from Rochester, N.Y., was last seen April 25 during a trip to Myrtle Beach.Her family has been in the area since then."We're staying here until it's over," said Carol Wagner, Drexel's grandmother. "I'm not leaving without her."Several
groups and law enforcement agencies have been searching for her in
areas in Myrtle Beach, Georgetown County and Charleston County.The
groups and agencies include the Myrtle Beach Police Department, the
Georgetown County Sheriff's Office, the Laura Recovery Center, the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and the Community
United Effort Center for Missing Persons, which stopped searching
Saturday evening.The Myrtle Beach Police Department is still investigating the case."We
haven't ruled anything out," Capt. David Knipes with the Myrtle Beach
Police Department said Monday, regarding whether police think Drexel
still might be in the area and whether foul play may be a factor. "We
don't have anything leading us one way or the other. We get [leads] on
a daily basis and have police follow them up."Monica Caison, of
Community United Effort, an N.C.-based organization that searches for
missing people, said the group has called off its search for Drexel to
wait for new information in hopes it leads to new search areas, Caison
said.Friedman said the family is encouraged that search groups would look into any leads.The
case has "brought as many resources to the area as it could," she said.
"Efforts people have put into the case have been exceptional."

Dawn Drexel says she wants to set the record straight-- her daughter did not run away.

"Somebody took her," she said.

After weeks of searching for her daughter Brittanee in Myrtle Beach, Dawn
Drexel has returned to Rochester to keep hope alive in her hometown.

"As you can probably tell, I'm exhausted," Drexel said. "We've been just
handing out flyers, getting Brittanee's name out there."

It's a bittersweet homecoming-- Drexel has returned to Chili for her
youngest daughter's birthday. It's the first break Drexel's taken from
the search for her daughter Britannee since she disappeared April 25th
while on spring break in Myrtle Beach.

Drexel says her two other children keep asking about the latest news on their sister-- especially her son, Camden.

"He would say, 'Mommy, did you find BritBrit yet?'" Drexel said. "And of
course I'd have to tell him 'No, but we're still looking for her.'"

For Drexel, it's heartbreaking to come home with no news about Brittanee.

"It's hard because we don't know where she is or what she's doing," Drexel
said. "The only thing we can do is plea that she'll come back to us."

She's spent weeks in Myrtle Beach, handing out flyers and talking to locals
about Brittanee. Drexel says she believes her daughter was abducted by
someone who knew she'd be alone.

"She was walking by herself a lot down there," Drexel said. "So...from Wednesday
to Saturday, she was by herself a lot. Someone was probably watching
her and..either she got in the car with somebody that she thought she knew, just from meeting them there, or they took her."

The possible Brittanee sightings, like at a convenience store eight miles south of Myrtle Beach, are tough to take.

"A lot of people they say they've seen Brittanee there," Drexel said of
the many false sightings in South Carolina. "But there's a lot of girls
that look like Brittanee."

So Drexel holds onto reminders of her daughter, like a necklace with Brittanee's picture on it.

"I had this pendant made to wear around my neck, so Brittanee's close to
my heart," she said. "It's a picture of Brittanee and it says, "Love
you Brittanee."

And she holds onto a belief that she will find her soon...and bring her home.

"You know, I'm very hopeful that she's going to come back," she said. "We still have a lot of hope."

Drexel says she's heading back to South Carolina on Sunday, where she says the
search is moving south of Myrtle Beach to Georgetown and McLellanville.

Saturday night, there will be a candlelight vigil for Brittanee at Gates-Chili High School, where Brittanee is a junior.