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

Missing teenager Brittanee Drexel's mother said Friday night
that Myrtle Beach police have told her they have three and possibly four
persons of interest and a location in her daughter's disappearance from
a Myrtle Beach hotel last year.Drexel was last seen April 25,
2009, leaving the Blue Water Hotel on Ocean Boulevard. She was here on
vacation.Dawn Drexel, Brittanee Drexel's mother, said from her
home in New York State that police did not give her any specifics of the
tips they have. This is the first reported lead in the case that has
involved searches by law enforcement officers and a private organization
from Brunswick County, N.C.Law enforcement agencies in Georgetown and Charleston counties have
also been involved in the case.Myrtle Beach police could not be
reached for comment Friday night. But an investigator for the department
said last year that the disappearance has circumstances that were
different from any other case he had worked on. He would not give
details."I'm still hoping she's out there and they haven't done
anything to her," Carol Wagner, Brittanee Drexel's grandmother, said
Friday night.Wagner said she plans to be in Myrtle Beach April 24
for a march from the Bar Harbor Hotel, where her granddaughter was
staying, to the Blue Water. Wagner said the march is set to begin at
5:30 p.m. and a candlelight vigil will be held at the Blue Water at 7:30
p.m.Dawn Drexel said she will not be in town for the event.Rather,
she said, she will be attending a separate event in Rochester, N.Y., to
mark the one-year anniversary of her daughter's disappearance. The New
York event also will aim to raise awareness of missing persons, Dawn
Drexel said.Dawn Drexel said the news of the break in the case
has caught the attention of Rochester media and that she is exhausted
from talking with them. "It takes a lot out of me," she said.

Friends of a missing Chili teenager got the devastating news today.
Police now believe Brittanee Drexel is dead.
"It makes it worse knowing that someone actually made the choice to
hurt her," said Charlene Capo.
Capo's daughter, Casey, was best friends with Drexel.
Investigators believe the 18-year-old was murdered while on spring
break in South Carolina. Capo says her heartaches for Drexel's family.
"As a parent I can't imagine the horror that they've gone through and
that they are going to spend the rest of their lives going through,"
said Capo.
Casey Capo did everything she could to find her friend.
She organized fundraisers and even went to Myrtle Beach to help
search.
Police now think they know what happened to Drexel and are close to
making an arrest.
"They took away one of my closest friends and one of my best
friends.
I really pray they get their karma," said Casey Capo.
Police say they have several persons of interest in this case.

Investigators looking for ‘key’ piece of evidence in Brittanee Drexel case

By Landon Sears

Published: April 12, 2010
Updated: April 12, 2010

Excerpt:

GEORGETOWN—Lt. Neil Johnson with the Georgetown County Sherriff’s Office says investigators are looking for a key piece of evidence to establish probable cause to obtain arrest warrants in the Brittanee Drexel case. He says 3 or 4 “persons of interest” have been identified in the case.

. . . . .

“What we’re hoping is people who may associate themselves with these individuals will stop and think about britanee’s family, put theirself in britanee’s family’s shoes and think about it as if it was happening to them. Turn the whole scenario on them and please come forward and please give us information. What we’re also hoping for is these individuals that are responsible. that think they’re men and claim to men need prove theirselves and just come forward and tell us what they did and tell us where britanee is so we can put closure to this case.“


READ MORE: http://www2.scnow.com/scp/news/local/grand_strand/article/investigators_looking_for_key_piece_of_evidence_in_brittanee_drexel_case/118048/

Investigators in Georgetown County say that for months, they've been
interviewing persons of interest regarding the disappearance of a
missing teen from New York.
Lt. Neil Johnson, spokesman for the Georgetown County Sheriff's
Office, says a cell phone signal is what originally led the search for
18-year-old Brittanee Drexel out of Myrtle Beach and into the Santee
area of Georgetown County.
Myrtle Beach Police say the Rochester, NY, teen disappeared after she
was last seen in the area of 11th Avenue South and 20th Avenue South in
Myrtle Beach. Drexel, who was 17 at the time of her disappearance, was
in the area against the will of her mother.
Contact was lost between Drexel and her family in New York on April
25, 2009, the same night authorities say she disappeared. The last
signal from her cell phone came the next night near the South Santee
River.
Johnson says because Drexel was a heavy user of her cell phone, and
in the hours after her disappearance, her cell phone signal stopped in
Georgetown County. That's the exact reason why investigators believe
whatever happened to Drexel occurred within Georgetown County.
Ryan Graham with HTC says GPS tracking technology has evolved over
the last 10 years and continues to get better.
"It's all becoming more compressed into one device. Obviously with
technology, making things smaller and more robust, cell phone technology
has grown by leaps and bounds," said Graham. "It makes it much harder
in areas like that where you've only got a few cell towers along a
particular route and you don't have them geographically scattered in
certain areas."
He says that certain areas don't have a good of cell phone coverage
as others do but most technology can lead to as close as meters away
from where someone is.

After hearing about new developments in her daughter's disappearance,
Dawn Drexel decided she needed to be in Myrtle Beach next week to mark
the one-year anniversary that Brittanee vanished.

Drexel
postponed a local event here to honor her daughter and will instead take
part in a march and candlelight vigil in South Carolina during spring
break next week.

Drexel also hopes to talk to police there about
three to four persons of interest, who are being questioned in
connection with Brittanee's disappearance. Investigators tell us the
people are all from the South Carolina area and did not know Brittanee
before she vanished.

Though police say they do not believe the
17-year-old is alive. Her mother tells us: "I'm not ready to go there
yet...I don't know how to deal with that."

Drexel says she tries
to hold out hope that someone has her daughter and feels that right now
she needs to be in Myrtle Beach to get some more answers.

She
will also take a message to other teens on spring break, to be careful.
"They need to see this, Drexel says, they need to know this can happen,
it is real."

Family and friends will gather along the Grand Strand in two weeks,
hoping to bring new light to the case of a missing New York teenager
who vanished while on Spring Break in Myrtle Beach last year.
Those closest to 18-year-old Drexel will gather on Saturday at the
Bar Harbor Motel at 6 p.m. for a march to Hurl Rock Park, where family
members are expected to hold a candlelight vigil in honor of the missing
teen.
Drexel's family will also be hosting a classic car show at the Myrtle
Beach Harley Davidson on South Kings Highway, where volunteers will be
passing out flyers to the public in hopes of generating new leads in the
case.
Myrtle Beach Police say Drexel, of Rochester, NY, disappeared after
she was last seen in the area of 11th Avenue South and 20th Avenue South
in Myrtle Beach. Drexel, who was 17 at the time of her disappearance,
was in the area against the will of her mother.
Contact was lost between Drexel and her family in New York on April
25, 2009, the same night authorities say she disappeared. The last
signal from her cell phone came the next night near the South Santee
River.
Lt. Neil Johnson, spokesman for the Georgetown County Sheriff's
Office, says a cell phone signal is what originally led the search for
18-year-old Brittanee Drexel out of Myrtle Beach and into the Santee
area of Georgetown County.
Investigators have pinpointed three or four people of interest in the
disappearance of the 18-year-old New York girl. Johnson said all
persons of interest have been previously questioned by authorities, but
could not confirm an exact time frame in which they were questioned.

Almost a year after 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel disappeared while on
spring break in Myrtle Beach, S.C, the mother of the missing girl says
she's not giving up hope - and she's not at all happy with South
Carolina police.
On Tuesday, Dawn Drexel said she won't stop
looking for her daughter, and says she is "appalled" police are now
saying they believe Brittanee is dead, even though "they don't have a
body or remains." Authorities in Georgetown County, S.C. recently said
prospects of finding the Rochester, N.Y. girl alive do not look good.




Brittanee Drexel (Personal Photo)



Police said Friday they have identified "persons of interest" in
the case, and hope to find evidence that will lead to an arrest. Asked what she knows about those "persons of interest," Drexel
said, "We weren't told much by the police at all... they told us that
they also have a location of interest. They aren't saying anything about
that either." Citing the reported new leads in
the case, Brittanee Drexel's family has postponed a safety awareness
event in her honor, which was intended to mark the one-year anniversary
of her disappearance. The family also announced on its website, www.helpfindbrittaneedrexel.com,
that they will travel to Myrtle Beach for a pre-planned march and
candlelight service in honor of the anniversary. . Brittanee
Drexel hasn't been seen since leaving a Myrtle Beach hotel April 25,
2009. Dawn Drexel said that although it's been a year, she "will
never stop looking... we need to find her." If you have
information concerning this case, please contact the Myrtle Beach Police
Department at (843) 918-1963.

The distressed mother of a missing New York teen is scheduled to
appear on the Today Show in New York Friday concerning her daughter's
missing persons case.
Officials with the CUE Center in Wilmington say Dawn Drexel is
expected to appear on the nationally televised show between 7-8 a.m. to
bring awareness to the disappearance of her daughter, Brittanee Drexel.
Keri Drexel, a relative of Brittanee, will also attend a conference
at 10 a.m. in collaboration with Brittanee's awareness campaign in
Florida to reveal a new deck of playing cards featuring her niece.
Drexel was chosen as the 2 of clubs to honor her lengthy love for the
sport of soccer and her last known jersey number.
On April 23, an additional new deck of cards will be released at the
Myrtle Beach Police Department at 2 p.m., featuring Brittanee as the 2
of diamonds.

Myrtle Beach Police have not released any new details in their
investigation of missing Chili teenager Brittanee Drexel.
The teen's mother is scheduled to appear on NBC's Today Show Friday
morning. Dawn Drexel will be joined by the founder of Community United
Effort Center for Missing Persons.
Her daughter disappeared nearly a year ago while on spring break in
Myrtle Beach. She's upset that police won't reveal more information on
why the case is now being investigated as a homicide.
Also tomorrow, Brittanee's aunt will reveal a new deck of playing
cards featuring missing children. Brittanee is the 2 of Clubs in honor
of her love for soccer.

The mother of a New York teen who was last seen in South Carolina
nearly a year ago says she's been told little about new information in the case.

New video of Brittanee Drexel, who was 17 when she was last seen in
Myrtle Beach on April 25, 2009, was shown before "Today" show host Matt
Lauer interviewed Dawn Drexel, the teen's mother. The video from
"Investigation Discovery" shows Drexel the day before her disappearance
in a hotel room and texting on her phone.

Drexel told NBC's "Today" show on Friday she thinks police in South
Carolina are trying to find her daughter.

Police have indicated they think Brittanee is dead and Drexel said
Friday the only real possibilities are that her daughter is being held
against her will or that she is dead.

"She's either being held against her will, she's been trafficked or
she's not alive," Drexel said on "Today."

Police anniunced last week they have identified
several people of interest. The Rochester-area, NY, mother says that's also
about all police have told her.

A vigil is planned in Myrtle Beach next week to mark the one-year anniversary of Brittanee's disappearance.

Hope is hard to hold onto after your
daughter has been missing for almost a year; however, Dawn Drexel,
mother of missing teen Brittanee Drexel, told Inside Edition Friday that
hope is one of the few things she still has.

“I have to hold out hope,“ said Dawn Drexel. “She’s my daughter.“

Dawn’s daughter, then 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel from New York, was
vacationing in Myrtle Beach last spring break when she vanished.

Video surveillance from the Blue Water Resort captured the last images of the teen.



Now, Investigation Discovery released new images of Brittanee at a
Myrtle Beach hotel the night before she vanished.

The video shows her texting on her cell phone and laughing.

With three or four person’s of interest in her daughter’s
disappearance, Dawn Drexel is hoping she will see Brittanee again.

“I want to bring her back,“ said Dawn Drexel. “I want her to be back
in our lives. She’s our family. I want my daughter back.“

So far, police have not arrested anyone in connection with Brittanee
Drexel’s disappearance.

Captain Neil Johnson of the Georgetown County
Sheriff’s Office and Lieutenant David Knipes of the Myrtle Beach
Police Department, both say, they have no new information on the case.

Almost a year after Chili teen Brittanee Drexel went missing on
spring break, her family is returning to Myrtle Beach.

"When this first happened and when I went down there, I thought I would be
able to go down there and get her and bring her back," mother Dawn
Drexel said.

Tuesday night, Dawn Drexel left for Myrtle Beach.
She and Brittanee's father Chad will be meeting with Myrtle Beach
police for the first time since they announced a possible break in the case.

Eighteen-year-old Brittanee disappeared while on spring break in Myrtle Beach last April.

This coming Sunday, it will be one year since Brittanee disappeared, and her mother is
hoping that a march and candlelight vigil will encourage someone with
information to come forward.

"It's hard going down there," Dawn Drexel said.
She has packed for Myrtle Beach too many times in the
search for her daughter, but this trip is different.

It is a terrible anniversary, marking one year since Brittanee left a hotel in
Myrtle Beach and disappeared.

This weekend, her mother says they will retrace her steps.

"We're going to travel the same way Brittanee traveled down to that hotel," Dawn Drexel said. "We're
going to walk from the Bar Harbor Hotel down to the Blue Water Hotel."

There, she says, they'll hold a candlelight vigil, something she
says is difficult but important to do.

"When your child goes missing, you have to keep them in the media no matter what," she said.
"Youhave to because then people will still be looking for them."

Brittanee's younger brother Camden and younger sister Myrissa will be a part of
that march. It will be their first time in the city where their sister disappeared.

"It may help them to feel a little bit closer to her," Dawn Drexel said.

The family will also meet with Myrtle Beach police and the Sheriff's office for the first time since
they announced they were investigating this case as a homicide.

Earlier this month, police said they had three to four people of interest and
an area of interest along the Georgetown/Charleston County line.


"We'll be going in there with a lot of questions," Dawn Drexel
said. "We both have questions, Chad and I."

It's been a year of questions for the Drexel family, and now they are ready for answers.

"I just want to find her, you know," Dawn Drexel said. "I want to find her and bring her back home."

Dawn Drexel says local police will be holding a press conference on Friday
afternoon to talk about Brittanee's case.

Brittanee Drexel went missing almost one year ago, and searchers
hope billboards, fliers, and now playing cards will help get the word
out about the case.
The South Carolina CrimeStoppers Council put together a list of 52
cases, highlighting Drexel and others, including Crystal Soles, who went
missing from Andrews in 2005. Each playing card has a picture and
description of either a missing person or an unsolved case.
Gail Soles, Crystal's mother, says she is glad to have her daughter
featured.
"I just hope [with] all this publicity, people see and know that
she's still missing," said Soles. "She's still out there somewhere and
I'm never going to give up. I've still got my hope."
This is the second edition of the deck of cards, and Tom Lucas of the
CrimeStoppers Council says they have gotten several breaks in cases
before. Lucas says they sell the cards to inmates.
"In the prison system, there's a lot of information. People know
things. You're constantly seeing a victims' family, victims' faces,"
explained Lucas of the benefit of putting the cases on playing cards.
Dawn Drexel, Brittanee's mother, says she does think having her
daughter's picture on these cards will help in the search. Brittanee is
featured on the 2 of diamonds.
"We're very thankful that they did think of Brittanee," said Drexel.
Brittanee Drexel went missing nearly a year ago from a Myrtle Beach
hotel while on spring break. Her family is in town for a candlelight
vigil this weekend and say this deck of cards can only help in their
search for her.
"All we can do is hope," said Drexel.
If you have any tips about any of these cases, you're asked to call
888-CRIME-SC.

Brittanee Drexel and Crystal Soles are among 50 other cases featured in a
campaign to increase awareness about missing people and unsolved
homicides in the state.
The missing women are featured in a deck of cards that are sold to
prison inmates throughout the state through a program by crime stoppers.
Drexel also was featured in a deck of cards released in Florida.

Brittanee Drexel was last seen on video surveillance leaving the Blue
Water Hotel on Ocean Boulevard while on spring break in the area on
April 25, 2009. Dozens of searchers have scoured Myrtle Beach and wooded
areas in Georgetown and Charleston counties looking for clues in the
teen's disappearance.Searches began about nine months ago after
officials learned Drexel's cell phone gave off its last known signal on
April 26 around U.S. 17 Bypass and the South Santee River in the
Georgetown County.Also from the Georgetown County area, the case
of Crystal Soles, who was 28 when she was last seen Jan. 24, 2005 at
Shaw’s Corner Store in Andrews, is featured in the card campaign.The
cards were unveiled Friday and families of the women will gather along
Ocean Boulevard today for a march and candle light vigil to mark the
year anniversary since the Drexel was last seen in Myrtle Beach.“It’s
hard to come back down here, very emotional,” said Dawn Drexel,
Brittanee’s mom. “I think it’s wonderful to get her name and face out
there. We need information about her. We’re very thankful to them for
putting her in that deck of cards.”Brittanee’s dad, Chad Drexel,
said he hopes the cards, which are sold in state prisons and in some
county detention center, will generate some information that can be left
anonymously with state crime stoppers.“We’ll do anything to help
to bring our daughter home,” Chad Drexel said. “Criminals know
criminals. Someone knows something out there.”More than 20 people
came from the Rochester, N.Y., area where Brittanee lived to support
her family. Those supporters included two of Brittanee’s friends.“We
came to show her that we care and for support,” said Jessica Nice, who
has known Brittanee her entire life. “We want to show her we haven’t
given up yet.”Chad and Dawn Drexel said the year since their
daughter was last seen has been “hell.”“It’s been a roller
coaster ride of endless nightmares,” Chad Drexel said. “I just want to
wake up and it’s not there, not real.”“The not knowing where she
is or is she hurt, is she not alive has been the worse,” Dawn Drexel
said. “We need someone to come forward with that key piece of
information so we can get some resolution to Brittanee’s case.”Soles’
mother, Gail Soles, said she understands how the Drexel family feels as
the anniversary approaches.“We know what it’s like. Lord, I wish
I could find my child, just to have closure. It’s hard. It’s really
hard not knowing,” Gail Soles said. “Somebody please come forward and
give us some more information. Let us bring her home because we really
need closure.”Monica Caison, director of the Community United
Effort Center for Missing Persons, said the cards do generate leads in
cases.“I know it solves cases and it brings forth tips,” Caison
said. “This is reassurance that no one has forgotten them. This is just
another outlet to get their information out there.”Anyone with
information about Brittanee Drexel's disappearance can call Myrtle Beach
police at 918-1300 or go to the Web site at
www.helpfindbrittaneedrexel.com.Anyone with information about
Crystal Soles’ disappearance can call Andrews police at 264-5223 or go
to the Web site at www.findcrystalsoles.com.

For the families of missing persons, anniversaries can evoke fond
memories or devastating reminders of the past.The Drexel
family understands that today likely will involve both emotions.
Three hundred and sixty-five days ago today, Brittanee Drexel walked
through the sliding doors of the Bar Harbor Motel in Myrtle Beach, S.C.,
sporting brown hair with blond highlights and wearing a multi-colored
shirt, black shorts and flip-flops.That image of Brittanee — at the time a 17-year-old
junior at Gates Chili High School — walking out of the South Carolina
motel during an impromptu spring break trip remains frozen in relatives'
minds."One of the greatest challenges when you reach that one-year anniversary is
maintaining hope because that ... tends to be a very powerful moment
for families. They have to go through a whole host of emotions that get
brought back to the forefront," said Ed Suk, executive director of the
New York chapter of the National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children. "It's one of those absolute markers that remind you that a
year's worth of hard work has not resulted in your child being found."

A difficult milestone
The Drexel family traveled to South Carolina
this weekend and participated in a 20-block march Saturday from the Bar
Harbor Motel to Hurl Rock Park in Myrtle Beach. A candlelight vigil and
a video montage on a projection screen showing Brittanee interacting
with family members were also parts of the tribute. The first
anniversary is hitting family members hard."It's just a horrible feeling, and our stress and
anxiety level is off the chart," Keri Drexel, Brittanee's aunt, said
Saturday afternoon."I'm actually staying right next to the
hotel where Brittanee was last seen, and it just makes us feel so
frustrated and upset that we don't have any answers and that we don't
understand what happened."Family members have met with Myrtle Beach police, but
no new information was released.Suk said it's common for
families to go back to the last place where their child was seen, such
as the highway where a drunken driver killed them or a particular
location, such as a hotel. Experts believe it brings a connection to
families, knowing their loved one was there, and sometimes they dream of
finding unseen clues there.
For the Drexel family, the year has been filled with some hope that
turned to anguish as promising leads resulted in disappointing
dead-ends.
Five days after her disappearance, police said they received a tip
that a young woman, believed to be Brittanee, had been on a bus. After
another tip alleging she was seen a week later in a grocery store didn't
pan out, police thought they had their best lead yet when her cell
phone gave off a signal about 55 miles south of Myrtle Beach. After
using canine, boat, aerial and foot patrols, neither Brittanee nor her
cell phone has been found.At least 10 smaller searches were conducted during the
past year with the same results.In the past month, more
leads surfaced. Lt. Neil Johnson from the Georgetown County Sheriff's
Department said there are three to four people that police are now
interviewing. Their names have not been released.South Carolina police have said they are now
investigating the case as a homicide.

Looking ahead
"You can't take hope from the (families) because that is the only thing they
have. It's what they have when they wake up, and it's what keeps people
moving through the day," said Monica Caison, founder for the Center for
Missing Persons in North Carolina, who has become the liaison for the
Drexel family."And
it's not about false hope, either. It is the hope that something will
be found or an answer will come one day."As days go by,
another challenge is keeping people as connected to the cause as
Brittanee's parents are.In
missing person cases, distant relatives or friends' attention to the
cause often starts to wane, and they spend less time with the family
during search efforts. If family members feel like they are receiving
less support, their optimism can fade, said Suk. That's when they need
even more positive support."Even during tough days, families don't want to think
anything horrific has happened to their child. They need to feel like
their child is going to come back," said Suk. "That is what's going to
keep this challenging anniversary somehow manageable."