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

An 88-mile poker run to raise money for the area branch of the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children will start and end in Victor
this Sunday, July 26. The scenic route through the Finger Lakes kicks
off at Mickey Finn’s Station One, 14 Railroad St., and includes stops
at Steamboat Landing in Canan-daigua, the Valley Inn in Branchport, the
Middletown Tavern in Naples and Lock’s Stock and Barrel in South
Bristol before heading back to Mickey Finn’s.

“This is our second year starting in Victor, but this will actually be
our 10th year hosting this event,” said Kathy Aspenleiter, special
events coordinator for the center.

“We are hoping to have 800 participants this year,” Aspenleiter said.

During a presentation Aspenleiter gave Monday, Village Trustee Tim
Acquilano asked where all the motorcycles would park. Aspenleiter said
the bikers arrive at different times, anywhere between 10 a.m. and
noon, and depart shortly after registering.

“We were just wondering because church services will be letting out
between 10 a.m. and noon, but hopefully cars will give right of way to
the motorcyclists,” said Trustee Gary Hadden.

Last year, the event included about 650 participants and raised over
$15,000, but Aspenleiter noted that the hard economic times have had an
impact on corporate sponsorship levels.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which holds
education and Internet safety programs in Victor schools, was
established in 1984 to help prevent child abduction and sexual
exploitation, to help find missing children and to assist victims of
those crimes.

Rochestarians became acutely aware of this problem in late April with
the national coverage of 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel, a junior at
Chili High School, who disappeared from Myrtle Beach, S.C., while on a
spring break trip with friends.

Drexel, whose case is still unsolved, is one of a 2,200 children reported missing in the United States each day.

Registration is $20 for rider/driver and $10 for passenger.
Registration includes a pork barbecue and live music at Mickey Finn’s.

The race start is anytime after 11 a.m. and must be completed by 4 p.m.

Prizes are awarded for best/worst poker hand (riders pick up cards at
the stops for a full hand at the finish), oldest bikes and
miscellaneous door prizes.

The general public is welcome to attend pre-race and post-race festivities.

For more information on this event and the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children, contact Kathy Aspenleiter at (585) 242-0900 or
visit www.motorcyclesforthemissing.com.

Brittanee Drexel’s grandmother, Carol Wagner, says she plans on returning home to Rochester, N.Y. on August 22nd.

Wagner has been in Myrtle Beach, looking for her missing granddaughter, since April 26th.

“Brittanee’s little brother is going to be six-years-old in about
three weeks and he wants us home for his birthday,“ Wagner said.

Drexel, 17, hasn’t been seen in the past three months, since she was in Myrtle Beach vacationing with her friends.

“I just think somebody has just abducted her and just taken her against her will,“ Wagner said.

Myrtle Beach police say they’ve received hundreds of tips since
Drexel disappeared from the Blue Water Resort. None of those tips have
led to Drexel.

Wagner says she thinks someone knows where Drexel is but has not come forward with that information.

“Somebody knows she got into a vehicle. Somebody must have seen her
on the 25th, the day she went missing, between 8 at night or 9:30
because that last cell phone ping was in McClellanville. We just don’t
know if somebody took the cell phone and threw it and took her in the
opposite direction. We just don’t know where she is,“ said Wagner.

Wagner spent the weekend passing out fliers at the Walmart in
Surfside Beach. She says she’ll continue to hand out fliers and ask
people to look for Drexel until she returns home.

Saturday marked exactly three months since a 17 year old
teenager from New York disappeared in Myrtle Beach while on spring
break.Three months later, Brittanee Drexel remains missing. She
was last seen, Saturday night, April 25th in Myrtle Beach, leaving the
Blue Water Resort on Ocean Boulevard.Her cell phone last gave off a signal on the Charleston--Georgetown County line the night she disappeared.A
handful of police and missing persons agencies have been working
together in the search -- from Myrtle Beach police all the way down to
Charleston County.In June, Drexel was featured on America's Most
Wanted Missing Persons segment. Police say tips and potential sightings
come in every day and the search has taken authorities across the
entire country.Myrtle Beach police say teen disappearances on
the Grand Strand, unfortunately, are not unusual. Though, they add that
Drexel's case is different than any other, but won't release why.If you have any information, you're asked to call Myrtle Beach Police at (843) 918-1382.

More than three months after a 17 year old girl
from New York disappeared while on spring break in Myrtle Beach police
say they continue to follow up on regular tips and leads into the
Brittanee Drexel search only to come up short.But one local teen's unmistakable resemblance has had many people believing they've spotted Drexel.

Miranda Flinchum says she gets stopped, questioned, and stared at almost
everywhere she goes and it's because she looks so much like Brittanee
Drexel.On April 25th, 17 year old spring
breaker Brittanee Drexel walked out of the Blue Water Resort in Myrtle
Beach and hasn't been seen since.Although, Miranda Flinchum says, she experiences a Brittanee Drexel sighting almost every time she goes out."Two
mornings ago I went to breakfast with my friend and the waitress asked
if, said I looked just like her and then last week at McDonald's it
happened. Then a couple of nights ago at Wal-Mart," recalled Flinchum,
a high school student at St. James High School.Miranda's mother, Debbie, fields phone calls from friends and family whenever Drexel's picture is seen on TV or posters.Recalling
the first time she saw Drexel's picture on television, Miranda's
mother, Debbie said, "I got a phone call, and then I got another phone
call and I probably had about, probably 20 phone calls within 30
minutes, wondering if that was my daughter because she looked so
identical."So identical, Debbie questioned it herself."When I saw the picture I actually went in to make sure that my daughter was in and safe in her room," said Debbie."It
has been weird," admitted Miranda, "Everybody asking is me and saying I
look just like her, and it's been sad, you know, they can't find her.
People think it's me and they get hope when they see me," she continued.[/size][size=9]"Having
my daughter tell me that she's always stared at and pictures are taken
of her, it just breaks my heart to know that someone's missing their
daughter and she looks so much like mine," Debbie said.But
while Miranda may look like Brittanee Drexel, she is not Brittanee
Drexel. And Brittanee's mother, Dawn Drexel, continues searching for
her daughter."I'm just thankful everyday
when I see my daughter's face, and hopefully one day (Brittanee's)
mother will be able to see her daughter's face," said Debbie.The
Flitchum's added, all the attention her daughter Miranda gets proves
something -- people out there remember what Brittanee Drexel looks like
and they haven't forgotten that she's still missing.Authorities
say the search for Drexel has not let up. If you have any information
-- you're asked to call police at (843) 918 1382.

Chili teenager Brittanee Drexel has been missing since April 25 when
she disappeared while on spring break in Myrtle Beach. As one can
imagine, it has taken an enormous emotional toll on her family but
there are programs designed to help families just like the Drexels.
“January 26, 1999 my 17-year-ld son Tommy didn't return home.” Vicky
Kelly knows all too well what the Drexel family is going through. For
the last 10 years she has only wondered what happened to her 17 year
old son. “For a year and a half years we searched. We searched wells,
we searched every cave, every creek every road we could think of on
horses. A year and a half later, my son's skull was recovered.”
Kelly joined Team Hope, a program sponsored by the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children. She helps people like the Chili
family of missing teen Brittanee Drexel. She has been assigned to work
with the Drexels. “98-percent of kids are found and we're here to
support them through this nightmare that has come true for them.”
Like Kelly, Rochester resident Ahmad Rivasfar knows all too well
what that feels like. Twenty years ago his daughter Sara was raped and
murdered. He too is a member of team hope. He wishes this program had
existed years ago, but he's thankful he can pass along his wisdom to
others. “Friends family, law enforcement, everybody has great
intentions to help a family going through their struggles but you can't
even understand the scope, the magnitude of their pain, for someone
who's experienced it's easy to understand.”
The training is going on all weekend at the national center.
Thirty-five people are signed up. A total of 300 people have been
trained through Team Hope.

After months of searching, the family of a missing New York teen will soon be returning home.

17-year-old Brittanee Drexel was vacationing in Myrtle Beach back in April when she went missing. Since
her disappearance, Drexel's family has been helping to look for the
teen by passing out flyers to businesses across the area and hitting
local events, looking for tips on the teen's whereabouts. Dealing
with the pain, that no grandparent should have to face, Al and Carol
Wagner packed their minivan Thursday, preparing to leave at the
beginning of next week. "It's gonna be hard to leave Brittanee behind," said Carol, with tears in her eyes. "It's gonna be tough to leave here," explained Al. The
Wagners say there are still many questions about their
granddaughter's disappearance. They say they think someone can
answer them, and believe in their hearts she is still alive. "I
think she's being held against her will. If they do have her, I hope
they see what we're going through and just turn her back over to us. I
mean, she's precious to our family," said Carol. The Wagners
say they can't name every one who's helped them with this search,
because the list is far too long. As they return home, they say part of
them will be missing. "We left a piece behind. We're gonna
pull through, but Brittanee, grandma and grandpa love you, so much,
please, if anybody knows anything, please let us know," cried Carol. The Wagners say the most important thing is for their granddaughter's name and picture to stay at the front of people's minds. On
Thursday, the Wagner family says someone has agreed to donate a
billboard and vinyl to help keep Brittanee's presence in the Grand
Strand and to let people know that the search for the teen continues.

A large roadside billboard will go up sometime in the next
week that features what has become one of Myrtle Beach's only unsolved
missing persons cases.The billboard will be placed near the
North Santee community in Georgetown County and feature a large picture
of 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel who vanished from Ocean Boulevard in
Myrtle Beach on April 25.The CUE Center for Missing Persons in Wilmington worked with Next Media Group to get the design and billboard donated.CUE,
along with scores of law enforcement and volunteers, combed dozens of
acres in Georgetown County in the weeks that followed Drexel's
disappearance.Drexel was on spring break in Myrtle Beach when
she disappeared on the night of April 25. She was last seen leaving the
Blue Water Resort on the south end of Ocean Boulevard.Myrtle
Beach detectives were able to track her cell phone signal to a tower in
rural Georgetown County, but they never recovered the phone, and while
hundreds of tips have been generated, no solid leads have been formed.Detectives
say they are continuing to work on the case, but right now there are no
suspects and no persons of interest. They have said in the past that
they consider the case to be an abduction and not a runaway.Members
with the CUE Center said they are considering a new search in the North
Santee area sometime this Fall when the leaves fall and the terrain
becomes a little easier to maneuver.If you've got any
information that could help police, you're asked to call Crimestoppers
or Myrtle Beach police at 843-918-1382. A reward is being offered, and
you can remain anonymous.To learn more about Brittanee's case, and other missing persons, visit the CUE Center's web site at www.ncmissingpersons.org.

Three digital billboards with information about 17-year-old
Brittanee Drexel began running Thursday morning, according to Carol
Wagner, Drexel's grandmother.

Two of the digital billboards are located along US-17 Bypass, with a third along US-501 near Forestrbrook Road. According to Wagner, another billboard will be going up near the Georgetown area with Brittanee's information. Drexel
was last seen in the area of 11th Avenue South and 20th Avenue South in
Myrtle Beach after meeting up with friends from her hometown. Drexel
was in Myrtle Beach on spring break, against the will of her mother. Police say a number of leads surfaced on her whereabouts, but have led to a dead end. CrimeStoppers
is encouraging anyone with information regarding the disappearance of
Drexel to contact the agency at 1-888-CRIME-SC, the Cue Center for
Missing Persons at 910-343-1131, or the Myrtle Beach Police Department
at 843-918-1963.

The mother of a missing New York teenager is back in Myrtle Beach
this week, hoping new developments will answer questions about her
disappearance. "I miss my daughter. I miss her so much," Dawn Drexel said Thursday. "I just want her to come back home." Brittanee
Drexel, 17, went missing in April while on vacation in Myrtle Beach for
spring break, and Dawn Drexel got back into Myrtle Beach around 5 a.m.
Thursday to continue the search for her daughter. "You have to keep their name out there," she commented. "A lot of people don't do that." However, the
Community United Effort (CUE) Center for Missing Persons does, and
that's part of the reason why Dawn Drexel is back. The CUE Center is
profiling Brittanee this weekend, and hopes to get some attention from
the Larry King Live show. "It's hard, but you know if I can get
coverage for Brittanee and keep her name out there and keep people
looking, maybe something will come," said a spokesman for the teen's
hotel. It hasn't just been hard on Brittanee's mother. Her brother celebrated his 6th birthday without his sister. "He
actually got some balloons for his birthday and he ended up writing on
them 'I love you Brit' and sent them up in the air thinking his sister
may get them," Dawn Drexel said. Though it has been tough for Dawn Drexel, she still has her hope, and that's what gets her through. "We
did have to come to the realization that she may not be alive," she
said. "But we're still hoping that we'll be able to find her."

It's an amazing story. Eighteen years after being kidnapped, a
California girl is found safe. The return of Jayce Lee Dugard, while
rare, gives extra motivation to the family of Brittanee Drexel to
continue their search.

The 17-year-old disappeared in April
while on spring break in Myrtle Beach. Her mother, Dawn Drexel, is back
in South Carolina, where she is renewing the search.

"You just hope and pray that they're okay and they'll come home," Drexel said.

In
Myrtle Beach, S.C., there are three billboards with Brittanee Drexel's
photo and information, donated by local business leaders to help in the
search.

"The billboards are wonderful," Dawn Drexel said. "It keeps her face out there. It keeps people looking for her."

Drexel
says at this point, there are no new leads in the investigation. While
in South Carolina, she is working with the Cue Center for Missing
Persons, stopping at three towns to remind people that Brittanee is
still missing. The three stops are actually part of a larger
cross-country tour by the Cue Center called the "On the Road to
Remember" tour. It focuses on more than a hundred missing persons cases
in which the investigations have run out of leads. The goal is to get
photos and information out there to generate new leads for police.

Drexel says there is always hope. On Thursday, she heard the news that Jayce Lee Duguard was found alive.

"I'm
very happy that they found this girl, you know," she said. "Especially
for her parents and their families because they've been through such
torment. When your child goes missing, it's the worst thing you could
ever go through. I mean, you wouldn't wish that on your worst enemy.
It's horrible."

For Drexel, the news is also proof that Brittanee could still be out there.

"We
hold out hope and hope that she would come walking through the door or
call us and say, 'Hey Mom, come pick me up,'" Drexel said.

The
Executive Director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children said of the news, "This really is why we never stop looking
and why we encourage families to never give up hope...because you just
never know, when a child goes missing, how long it's going to take to
bring them home."

Drexel says she'll keep searching for however long it takes.

"I just want my baby back," she said.

Myrtle Beach Police begin a renewed effort to find Brittanee Drexel, a
missing teen from New York. Officials say they are working several new
leads to find the teenager, but they still need help in the
investigation.
Family, friends and strangers gathered at a park in Myrtle Beach
Saturday morning to release balloons for Brittanee Drexel. It is a sign
of faith in a time when hope is hard to come by.
“It’s not knowing where she is. I want to get her back; I want to hold
her and touch her,” Brittanee’s mother, Dawn Drexel said.
Today was a chance to remember the 17 year old and remind the public
that she is still missing.
“We are beside ourselves and we miss her so much,” Dawn Drexel added.
Brittanee disappeared from Myrtle Beach on April 25. Police say she was
last seen at the Blue Water Resort.
“She was pretty much in plain sight when she went missing,” Monica
Caison, Founder of CUE Center for Missing Persons, said Saturday.
Since her disappearance, authorities have searched from the Grand
Strand to Georgetown. Police say Brittanee’s cell phone gave off a
final signal in Georgetown shortly after she vanished. Clues led police
to search in McClellanville, but they came back empty-handed.
“It’s like she vanished and all we have is the trail of a possible cell
phone,” Caison added. “If someone has picked up that phone and they’re
scared to turn it in, please call someone and let them know you have it
because it is vital. We need to know where that phone was found if it
was found.”
Officials say it is not enough to retrace Brittanee’s steps. They say
four months into the investigation they now need someone who saw
anything the day Brittanee disappeared will come forward.
“The challenges are we get less and less people that show interest and
less and less information comes in,” Joe Graham with the Myrtle Beach
Police Department explained. “It makes it harder to follow up on the
information.”
“She didn’t disappear off the face of the earth,” Dawn Drexel said.
“Someone has to know something.”
Until the next lead comes, the push to find Brittanee will continue.
Authorities are planning another full scale search for the missing teen
this fall. If you have any information about Drexel’s whereabouts, call
the Myrtle Beach Police Department at 843-918-1300 or 843-918-1382.

More than four months after her disappearance, Brittanee Drexel's whereabouts remain a mystery.Drexel, 17, of New York, disappeared April 25 after leaving the Blue Water Resort on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach.Almost
from the very beginning detectives theorized Drexel was abducted and
feared she was in danger. During the first few weeks of her
disappearance, police and volunteer searchers with the C.U.E. Center
for Missing Persons initiated exhaustive searches.The main
search focused on the North Santee Community in Georgetown County, an
area where Drexel's cell phone last gave a signal the night she
vanished."Law enforcement stepped right up and said we got
something wrong here. A lot of times (missing persons) cases will be
downplayed for a week or two until they realize they really have a
problem. And then what happens is they realize it's too late. You don't
capture the media and attention of the community," CUE founder and
director Monica Caison said.Despite heavy media coverage,
inevitably the weeks came and went. The organized searches stopped.
Summer dragged on. Eventually Brittanee's story faded from the
headlines, and there was still no Brittanee.But on Saturday
there was a renewed effort to keep her story front and center among the
Myrtle Beach community at a missing persons awareness tour, and the
person sponsoring that effort knows the pain of a missing person.Angie
Gilchrist's mother is Alice Donovan who was abducted, raped and killed
in November 2002 by Brandon Bashum and Chadrick Fulks.For years
Donovan remained missing, despite the death sentence convictions of her
murderers. In late 2008, Gilchrist ran into Monica Caison with the CUE
Center, and together they decided it was time to find Alice. Previous
searches by CUE, police and others yielded nothing."It is the
most excruciating, tormenting thing to ever have to deal with. Your
life stops," Gilchrist described of her ordeal with her mother's murder
and subsequent disappearance.Caison wrote to Fulks in prison,
and to her amazement, he sent her a package stuffed with maps pointing
to where Alice could be found.Caison's crew jumped into action
and in January 2009 they found human bones that would later be
positively identified as Donovan.Far from a "success" story, it is a story that brings closure, something Brittanee Drexel's mom is desperately searching for."I
still have hope that she's somewhere out there," Dawn Drexel said
Saturday at the Myrtle Beach stop of CUE's "On The Road to Remember
Tour."Dawn left Myrtle Beach at the end of June after spending
two months in Myrtle Beach searching and raising money for her
daughter's cause.Her frustration is growing."I just wish people would come (forward) and call one of the tip lines," Drexel said.Those
tip lines, run by the Myrtle Beach Police Department and the CUE
Center, have lit up in the months past, but no tip has generated the
clue needed to crack the case.Dawn, Monica and police are
determined to keep the tips flowing, and one of the ways to do that,
they say, is through events like the one held Saturday.It was a
small gathering of no more than a dozen folks -- from lead detectives
to Dawn to Monica to a few who didn't even know the Drexels -- but it
was meaningful."The whole purpose of the tour is to get their
information out, tell their stories, show their pictures and to visit
their towns and rally their communities to remind them they're still
missing," Caison explained.As for the investigation by police,
NewsChannel 15 learned that detectives have brought in an FBI agent to
be "thoroughly briefed" on Brittanee's case.Detectives are also
working with the CUE Center to organize a new search sometime later
this Fall when the leaves fall and the terrain becomes easier to
navigate.What won't become easier is Dawn Drexel's anguish."Brittanee's
18th birthday is coming up which is going to be very difficult in
Ocotber," Dawn said adding, "I just want to know something. I know my
daughter didn't just disappear off the face of the earth."Anonymous
tips and information can be called in to the Myrtle Beach Police
Department at 843-918-1382 or to the CUE Center at 910-343-1131.Donations
to the planned search effort can be made to CUE, a non-profit
organization, by visiting their web site www.ncmissingpersons.org or by
calling them.

A national organization is helping the family of a missing Rochester
teen pick up the search, months after she disappeared in South Carolina. Brittanee Drexel, 17, went missing from Myrtle beach on Spring Break back in April. Investigators followed several leads in the initial search and even identified a person of interest, but never arrested anyone. This weekend, the CUE Center for Missing Persons featured Drexel on their Missing Persons' road tour. "If
I can get her on the media any time, just to keep her name and face out
there, that"s what I need to do. I am not the kind of Mother that's
just going to sit around," said Bittanee's mother, Dawn Drexel. "We
will be planning in the Fall, a large-scale search, and I don't want to
disclose the area, but we will bring in multiple teams and quite a few
hundred people to conduct the search effort," said Monica Cason, of CUE
Center for Missing Persons. CUE officials say these events help them solve at least one case every year.

She went on spring break and didn't come back.

Brittanee Drexel, a 17-year-old high school student from Rochester, N.Y
told her mother she was staying at a friend's house, but actually set
off on a weekend vacation with friends to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

And then she vanished.


The last time anyone heard from her was when she sent a text
message the night of April 25, 2009 to one of her friends, authorities
say.

The last person known to have been with Brittanee was Peter
Broswick, a high school friend she went to visit in another hotel that
night. He quickly became a "person of interest," but has since been
cleared in the case.


Dawn Drexel, Brittanee's mother, appeared on The Early Show in April to talk about the ongoing search for her daughter.


"It's been horrible, because I don't know where she is. I don't
know if she's alive," Dawn Drexel said. "She left all her clothing, her
hair stuff. It's just not like Brittanee. Something's wrong."

Brittanee and her friends were staying at the Bar Harbor Hotel at
1010 North Ocean Boulevard in downtown Myrtle, according to her missing persons website. She last telephoned her boyfriend, John Greico, the night she went missing.


Greico says Brittanee was not suicidal.


"She definitely met with foul play," Greico told reporters in May. "I think somebody saw her walking and offered her a ride and she got in the car with the wrong person."


"I don't believe she just ran away," said Dawn Drexel. "She was
going through a lot because my husband, my soon-to-be ex-husband, we
were going through a divorce. So this has been very hard on her."

Brittanee also has a history of depression that her father, Chad Drexel, was especially concerned about.


"She just had emotional issues, very, very stressful emotional
issues. She needed a break from all the drama" of the marital woes, he
said.

Brittanee was last seen on April 25, 2009. She is described as five
feet tall, weighing 103 pounds. She has brown, shoulder-length,
straight hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a multi-colored
striped shirt, black shorts, and flip-flop sandals. She had blonde
highlights in her hair.


Anyone with information is asked to contact the Myrtle Beach Police Department at 1-843-918-1300, or 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678).