Brittanee Drexel
51:53 Share

This podcast is supported by FX's English Teacher, a new comedy from executive producers of What We Do in the Shadows and Baskets. English Teacher follows Evan, a teacher in Austin, Texas, who learns if it's really possible to be your full self at your job, while often finding himself at the intersection of the personal, professional, and political aspects of working at a high school. FX's English Teacher premieres September 2nd on FX. Stream on Hulu.

To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, please visit patreon.com slash Forensic Tales. This episode is brought to you by EditPods, an amazing podcast editing service. What I love about EditPods is that their services are subscription-based, so they have great pricing options.

Not only do they offer podcast editing, but they also create videos, audiograms, social media captioned videos, show notes, thumbnails, and so much more.

If you're a podcaster and looking to get your time back, then check them out at editpods.com. And don't forget to use my promo code, Tails, to save on your first month. That's editpods.com, promo code, Tails. This episode of Forensic Tales is sponsored by Podcorn.

When I first started looking for sponsors to feature on the show, it was really important to me that the brands I worked with were not only a good fit for me, but for my listeners. That's why I choose Podcorn to find sponsorships for Forensic Tales. Within just a couple short days, I found my first sponsorship. And since then, I found so many more.

Podcorn is a marketplace connecting podcasters to amazing podcast sponsorship opportunities, such as host red ads, interview segments, topical discussions, and more. And because I'm a one-woman show, I need to be able to quickly and efficiently share with you trusted products and services. I just don't have the time to search the dark corners of the internet for trusted sponsors.

With Podcorn, there is no middleman, which I love. Podcasters of all sizes can browse and choose opportunities right there on the platform, set their own rates, and collaborate with brands directly. To learn more about what Podcorn can do for you and your podcast, click the link in my show notes to sign up to Podcorn and start browsing today.

Podcasting is one of the most popular ways to consume content, and it's only going to continue to grow. If you want to get in on the action, She Podcasts Live is the event for you. This four-day event on October 11th through the 14th will teach you everything you need to know about podcasting, from refining your skills to growing your audience.

You'll learn from some of the top female podcasters in the world and walk away with all the tools you need to take your podcasting career to the next level. She Podcast Live is committed to bringing a diverse and inclusive lineup of speakers with the team working hard in order to make sure that those chosen are 50% women of color, LGBTQIA+, or both.

They also highlight industry experts as well as leaders so attendees get an inside look at what it's like being at the top.

Register now and join us in Washington, D.C. this October. You won't regret it. They promise that you'll leave feeling inspired, motivated, and ready to take on anything. Purchase your ticket today. That's at shepodcastlive.com. And don't forget to use promo code FT to save $50 off your ticket.

That's shepodcastlive.com, promo code FT to save $50 off your ticket. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. Students always look forward to spring break. It's a much needed time for friends, fun, and relaxation.

In the spring of 2009, all of Brittany's high school friends headed to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Anyone who was anyone was going to be there, and Brittany was no exception. She asked, pleaded, and begged for permission. But her mom didn't feel quite right about the trip, so she said no. But Brittany decided to go anyway. When she does, she's never seen again.

This is Forensic Tales, episode number 128, the story of Brittany Drexel. ♪♪

Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola.

Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.

As a one-woman show, your support helps me find new exciting cases, conduct in-depth fact-based research, produce and edit this weekly show. As a thank you for supporting the show, you'll get early ad-free access to weekly episodes, shout-outs and episodes, priority on case suggestions, and weekly bonus content. Before we get to this week's episode, we've got a few new supporters that I want to thank.

Thank you so much to Lauren M. and Nikki A. for supporting the show. To support Forensic Tales, please visit our Patreon page at patreon.com slash Forensic Tales or simply click the link in the show notes. You can also support the show by leaving a positive rating with a review. Now, let's get into this week's case.

In the spring of 2009, 17-year-old high school student Brittany Drexel was your typical All-American teenager. She was born in New York on October 7, 1991, to Don and John. When Brittany was a young girl, her mom left John and remarried Chad Drexel. After they married, Chad legally adopted Brittany, becoming her legal father.

Because Chad was in the military, the family moved around a lot while Brittany was a kid. After Chad left the military, the family eventually settled into Rochester, New York. In 2008, Brittany underwent surgery on her right eye to correct a birth defect, persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous, or PHPV. Because of her condition, Brittany was legally blind in her right eye.

One of the common symptoms of PHPV is for one or both of the eyes to wander or drift side to side. To prevent people from noticing her condition, Brittany was known to wear distinctive colored contact lenses. She would often wear big, bright blue colored contacts that stood out against her blonde highlights. During high school, Brittany's parents, Don and Chad, briefly separated and discussed getting a divorce.

This was difficult on Brittany, who considered Chad to be her father. Although he wasn't her biological dad, he was the only dad she ever knew. Her biological father, John, left when she was only a baby. During the separation, Brittany continued to stay with her mom in Rochester when Chad left. Even though he moved out, Brittany remained close with her stepfather.

But the separation was harsh. Brittany, who once had dreams of becoming a model and cosmetologist, struggled to keep her grades up in school. Before the split, she was nearly a straight-A student. She was also a star on the high school soccer team. But by the end of 2008, she was barely getting by. She was also prescribed antidepressants to help deal with her parents' separation.

But life got worse for Brittany after her parents filed for divorce in 2009. Around this time, Brittany had also recently reconnected with her birth father, John. As a baby, she never knew her father. He left when she was too young to remember him. But the two of them had recently gotten into contact. They shared a couple of conversations over the phone, and they also had plans to meet face-to-face soon.

In April 2009, spring break was fastly approaching at Brittany's High School. For students of Brittany's age, spring break isn't only an opportunity to get away from the books. It's also a time to pack your bags and get out of town. And for teenagers at Brittany's High School, a popular spring break spot was Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Every spring, thousands of tourists flock to Myrtle Beach to soak in its 60-mile stretch of beaches. Trendy restaurants, bars, nice beachfront resorts, arcades, and outlet-style stores along the beach's boardwalk. For years, Myrtle Beach has been a popular spring break spot for eager high schoolers looking for a fun break.

On April 22, 2009, Brittany asked her mom if she could go on a trip for spring break. She had been feeling down lately about her parents' divorce and her slipping grades. She told her mom, Dawn, that she wanted to take a break and get away with some of her friends. She said anyone who was anyone at her school was going down to Myrtle Beach for spring break.

But Dawn wasn't thrilled about the idea. So when Brittany asked about going, she said absolutely not. She gave her daughter three reasons why she wasn't allowed to go to Myrtle Beach. Number one, there wouldn't be any adults or parents with them. She said she didn't feel comfortable with Brittany going to a different state if there weren't going to be any parents there to supervise and look after them.

Number two, Dawn didn't know any friends that Brittany said she was going with. She had never met any of them before. Brittany told her mom that they were new friends that she had just met, which is why her mom didn't know any of them. But Dawn didn't feel comfortable with Brittany going so far away with people that she'd never met before.

Number three, Dawn didn't feel comfortable with the entire situation. She told Brittany she didn't want her to go to Myrtle Beach because she just had a bad feeling. She said if she went, she thought something terrible would happen to her. Brittany was furious when her mom said no. All of her friends were going and she didn't want to be the only one who was staying home for spring break.

Upset, Brittany stormed out of her mom's house and went to one of her friend's houses. Not an uncommon move for a 17-year-old girl who's mad at her parents. When Brittany got to her friend's house, she called her mom and told her that she was going to stay at her friend's house for a few days. During the phone call, she even got someone to talk to Dawn and tell her that Brittany was allowed to stay at the house for a few days.

Now, it's unclear who exactly Brittany got on the phone to talk to her mom. Still, according to Dawn, the person sounded like an adult. So Dawn assumed that it was one of Brittany's friend's parents who said it was okay for Brittany to spend the night for a few days. The next day, April 23rd, 2009, Brittany and a couple friends arrived in Myrtle Beach.

Instead of staying at her friend's house in Rochester like her mom thought, she decided to go to Myrtle Beach, with or without her mom's permission. That afternoon, Brittany and her friends checked in to Myrtle Beach's Bay Harbor Resort on North Ocean Boulevard. They booked a room and planned to stay there while on the beach. Shortly after arriving, she used the phone to call her mom.

She apologized to Dawn for the fight about not letting her go to Myrtle Beach with her friends. But Brittany didn't tell her mom where she was making that call. So Dawn assumed her daughter called from her friend's house in Rochester. Besides the friends she traveled with, only Brittany's boyfriend, John Greco, knew where she was.

John couldn't go with Brittany to Myrtle Beach because he had to work that weekend, but he knew Brittany planned on going. He also knew that she had lied to her mom about it. On Friday, the following day, Brittany and her friends went to a nightclub. At the club, she met up with a friend from back home in Rochester, Peter Brozowitz, and some of his guy friends.

Peter and his four friends stayed at the Blue Water Resort, a hotel only 1.5 miles away from Brittany's hotel. After the club, Brittany returned to her hotel, the Bay Harbor Resort, and Peter and his friends returned to the Blue Water. The following day, on April 25th, Brittany walked the 1.5 miles to the Blue Water Hotel to hang out with Peter and his friends.

After spending some time with the guys inside of their hotel room, she left the blue water and went down to the beach. For most of the day, Brittany laid out in the sun at the beach. Sometime that afternoon, Brittany called her mom for the second time. She called her mom to check in and told her that she was lying out getting some sun at the beach.

Dawn assumed that Brittany referred to the beach along the Lake Ontario shoreline near Rochester, where she thought her daughter had been this whole time. She didn't think anything of Brittany's comment about the beach because it was 80 degrees in Rochester that day and they call the lake the beach there.

Before hanging up the phone, Dawn told Brittany that she loved her. And Brittany said she loved her too and that she would see her tomorrow. After the sun went down that afternoon, Brittany returned to her hotel for a little bit. Then around 8 o'clock p.m., she left her friends at the hotel to walk the 1.5 miles south down Ocean Boulevard back to the Blue Water Resort where her friend Peter was staying and where she went earlier that day.

She needed to return to the Blue Water Resort because she had forgotten a pair of flip-flops inside of Peter's hotel room. So she walked over there to go pick them up. Security cameras inside the Blue Water Resort showed Brittany walking into the hotel's lobby at 8.15 p.m.

The security footage showed that Brittany arrived alone and seemed completely normal. She was wearing the same outfit she wore all day, a white, gray, and teal tank top, a pair of shorts, flip-flops, and she had a brown purse draped across one of her shoulders. On this security footage, no one else is seen walking into the Blue Water Resort except for Brittany.

When Brittany arrived at Peter's hotel room, she told him that she was fighting with one of her friends, Jennifer. She said that she had borrowed a pair of shorts from her and that Jennifer didn't like it. Jennifer was mad that Brittany didn't ask for permission before borrowing the pair of shorts. She just took them.

Brittany stayed at the Blue Water Resort for around 10 minutes before another security camera inside the hotel captured her leaving at 8.45 p.m. wearing the same outfit. She continued to text her boyfriend, John Greco, as she left the hotel. Throughout her time in Myrtle Beach, she regularly texted back and forth with him.

At 9.15 p.m., she sent John a text that said she was going to see some other friends that night. But after that text message, the messages suddenly stopped. John continued to text Brittany, but she never responded. In fact, Brittany would never respond to anyone ever again.

Hi, this is Ross, the host of Smells Like Humans, a show about interesting and quirky human behavior. We bring humor, empathy, and warmth to topics such as relationships, dating, work, self-compassion, weddings, phobias, aging parents, travel mishaps, death, and many more. Ever wonder what happens at a cuddle party? We talk about it. Free

Free range kids and restaurants. We've got some thoughts. Bedtime stories for adults. We're on it. Light, fun, unscripted conversation and personal stories. Please join us by clicking the link in the show notes. Over the next hour, John Greco continued sending text after text to Brittany. But all of the messages were left unanswered.

John knew this was entirely out of character for Brittany. This entire time she'd been in Myrtle Beach, they constantly texted each other. Why had she suddenly stopped responding to his phone calls and text messages? After failing to get in touch with Brittany, John decided to call her friends to see if they knew what was happening.

But when he spoke with her friends, he was surprised to learn that Brittany wasn't with them. In fact, they had no idea where she was. They hadn't seen her all day. John sent Brittany another message that said she needed to call him right away and tell him what was happening. And if she didn't call him, he was going to call her mom Dawn and tell her everything.

He knew that Dawn had no idea that Brittany was in South Carolina, so he thought the threat would convince her to finally respond. But even after that threatening message, Brittany didn't respond.

John followed through on his threat and decided to call Dawn. He didn't want Brittany to get in trouble with her mom, but he was really worried about her. Especially after discovering that none of Brittany's friends knew where she was and it wasn't like her not to respond to him. When John called Dawn, she was shocked. This was the first time she heard anything about her daughter being in Myrtle Beach.

She thought that she'd been staying with her friend in Rochester for the last three days. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. What are some of your self-care non-negotiables? Maybe you never skip leg day or therapy day. When your schedule is packed with kids' activities, big work projects, or podcasting like me, it's easy to let your priorities slip. Even when we know it makes us feel good, it's hard to make time for it.

But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever. Therapy can help with things like how to set healthy boundaries or find ways to be the best version of yourself. So if you're thinking about starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule.

Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist or switch therapist anytime for no additional charge. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash tails to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash tails. After the initial anger wore off, Dawn called Brittany's stepfather, Chad.

Chad told her that she needed to call the police and see if they could find Brittany. Dawn called the Rochester Police Department, who turned around and contacted the Myrtle Beach Police Department in South Carolina. Because Brittany was only 17 years old, the police immediately launched a missing child investigation. And by 6.30 a.m., she was entered into the National Crime Information Center as missing.

This was approximately 10 hours after she was last captured on the Blue Water Hotel security cameras. When police officers in South Carolina began searching for Brittany around Ocean Boulevard, Dawn and Chad continued to call and message her cell phone. They called nearly 100 times trying to get in touch with her, but all of their calls and messages went unanswered.

By the following morning, South Carolina police had launched a full-scale search to find Brittany. Her parents, Chad and Dawn, as well as her boyfriend, John Greco, also arrived in Myrtle Beach to help look for her. Brittany's friends who went with her to South Carolina were scheduled to drive back to Rochester later that day, but some of the friends decided to stay back and help with the search.

At the same time, a search team was formed to look for Brittany and a handful of other Myrtle Beach police officers sat down with Brittany's friends and interviewed them. They wanted to find out about her last known whereabouts as much as possible. And there are no better people to interview than her friends. Initially, Brittany's friends weren't too concerned about her being missing.

All of her clothes and bags were still inside their hotel room. So they figured maybe she went off somewhere, but eventually come back because all of her stuff was still there. She wouldn't return to Rochester without returning to the hotel room to pick up her bags. They also told the police that Brittany was the kind of person known for being someone who would wander off and do their own thing.

Her friends said she wasn't the type of girl who constantly needed to surround herself with people. She was even okay with spending time alone. So when she didn't return to the hotel the night before, they said they weren't worried. They figured maybe she met some guy and would come back sometime later in the afternoon. The police also interviewed the boys Brittany had spent time with right before her disappearance.

Brittany's friend Peter had checked out of the hotel the night before, but the other guys were still there, and the three of them agreed to sit down with investigators. The boys all had the same story. They said that Brittany came to their hotel room the night before around 8.30 p.m. She only stayed in the room for about 10 minutes, then she left to return those clothes back to her friend.

Their story aligned with the hotel's security cameras. The cameras also showed that Brittany left the hotel alone. Investigators searched the hotel at the Bay Harbor Hotel where Brittany was staying with her friends. The room matched everything Brittany's friends had said. They found all of her belongings inside the room, except for two things, her purse and her cell phone.

Everything the police found inside of the room suggested that Brittany intended to return. During the first few hours of the search for Brittany, South Carolina investigators received Brittany's cell phone records. Cell phone records can be very critical to a missing person investigation.

If Brittany had her cell phone on her, it could help point investigators to her exact location or, at the very least, tell the police where she was right up until her disappearance. Investigators followed Brittany's cell phone along a path leading over 70 miles south of Myrtle Beach. The first cell phone ping was about an hour and a half after Brittany was last seen on the hotel's surveillance cameras.

The ping was captured about seven miles south of Myrtle Beach. The second cell phone ping came around midnight when her cell phone reached a cell phone tower near the South Santee River between McClellanville and Georgetown, South Carolina. This cell phone tower is around 75 miles from where Brittany stayed in Myrtle Beach.

It was a spot along U.S. Route 17 near the Georgetown-Charleston County line. It's a very rural area where only a few hundred people live. After that ping, Brittany's cell phone activity suddenly stopped around midnight. And after midnight, there was zero activity coming from her cell phone. The police and Brittany's family desperately searched for her for the next 11 days.

All of Brittany's family had traveled to South Carolina to help in the search. They did everything they could by talking to the locals of Myrtle Beach to find out if anyone saw anything the night she vanished. They put up flyers with a picture of Brittany on them, asking the public if anyone had seen her. The family also conducted searches of their own, focusing on areas around the spot where Brittany's cell phone pinged south of Myrtle Beach.

For almost two weeks, South Carolina police officers used all of their resources available to look for Brittany. They conducted air, water, and ground searches of the area. They also called in local volunteers to help search areas. But the searches turned up empty. There was no sign of Brittany Drexel. By May 5th, Brittany had been missing for almost two weeks.

Some people speculated whether Brittany simply ran away. Maybe her parents' divorce was too much and she used this trip as an opportunity to run away. But Brittany's parents, Don and Chad, as well as her boyfriend, John Greco, were convinced that Brittany would never do that.

Dawn told ABC News reporters, quote, I think something has happened to her. I just have a funny feeling. It's not like her to not call her family, end quote. Reporters asked her what she would say to her daughter if she were out there and she did run away.

Dawn said this to ABC News, quote, I want her to know that she's not in any kind of trouble. We just want her to come home, end quote. To help generate new leads, the police released surveillance images of Brittany entering and leaving the hotel the night she disappeared.

The hope was that people who stayed at the hotel that weekend would see the image of Brittany and might know something about what happened to her that night. Maybe someone saw her after she left the Blue Water Hotel. Maybe someone saw her talking to someone suspicious that night. But, unfortunately, nobody saw anything.

The next day, May 6th, Brittany's boyfriend, John Greco, appeared on the CBS News early show. He stressed to everyone following Brittany's case that she wasn't a teen runaway. Instead, he wanted everyone to know that her family and friends believed that she was a victim of foul play. She's missing because someone made her go missing.

As the one-month mark approached in June, South Carolina police officers were still no closer to discovering what happened to Brittany Drexel. She seemed to have left the Blue Water Hotel and vanished into thin air. Besides the cell phone tower evidence, the police didn't have any solid clues about where she might have gone or who could have taken her there.

For the next six months, searches for Brittany continued. Brittany's mom, Dawn, even moved close to Myrtle Beach so that she could be closer to the investigation. But as the months went by, the searches happened less frequently. Sadly, the investigation shifted from a missing person investigation to a body recovery.

For 12 long months, Brittany's case sat on the brink of turning cold. Until 2010, when the investigation heated up again. In early April 2010, Myrtle Beach Police announced that they had identified a few people of interest and a specific location they were investigating further.

Georgetown County investigator Chris Bailey told Fox 57 News Station that his department had received a tip back in December 2009 that put their investigation on the right track. When asked about the specific details of this tip, he declined to go into any further detail. He only said that new evidence warranted both search warrants and polygraph tests.

Investigator Chris Bailey said that this tip led him to believe that, quote, three or possibly four people of interest were identified as being present with Brittany or knowing her whereabouts or possible whereabouts, end quote. Following this announcement, everyone waited for the police to announce that arrest had been made. People waited.

And then they waited some more. But after months of waiting, nothing came. Despite the police's claim that the investigation was on the right track, no arrests were ever made. Following the April 2010 announcement, little progress was made in the case. And as a result, Brittany's whereabouts remained a mystery for the next six long years.

In the summer of 2016, the FBI took over as the lead agency in the case. Shortly after the FBI took over the investigation, authorities received the tip that they had waited years for. In early 2016, a jailhouse informant came forward claiming to have information about Brittany Drexel. This jailhouse informant was a guy named Tyquan Browne.

Tyquan Brown was a South Carolina inmate who had recently begun serving a 25-year prison sentence for manslaughter. According to FBI agent Jarek Munoz, Tyquan Brown told him he knew what happened to Brittany. He said that Brittany was kidnapped near the Blue Water Resort on the night she disappeared.

After being kidnapped, she was taken an hour south to the city of McLennanville. Once she arrived in McLennanville, Brown claimed Brittany was held captive inside a house for four days.

According to Brown's statement to the FBI, the plan was to traffic Britney into sex work. But that plan was ruined when the perpetrators realized how much media attention surrounded her disappearance. They worried that they wouldn't be able to go through with their plan with so many people out there looking for Britney.

According to Brown, the group took turns sexually assaulting her before shooting her to death. Once they shot and killed her, they got rid of her body by tossing it into a local alligator pit. This part of McLennanville was known to have several alligator infested swamps.

When the FBI asked Brown who these men were, who the men were behind Brittany's kidnapping, he pointed the finger at Timothy Deshaun Taylor. Brown said that in 2009, shortly after Brittany disappeared, he went to visit a McLennanville stash house to drop off some money for Timothy Taylor's father.

He told the FBI that inside of this stash house, he saw Timothy Taylor and a few other guys sexually assaulting Brittany. After seeing Brittany, he made his way to the house's backyard where he gave the money to Taylor's father. Brown told the FBI that while he was making the payment, he saw Brittany try to run out of the house but was quickly chased down by Taylor and a couple of his friends.

Then that's when he said he heard two gunshots and assumed that's when they shot and killed Brittany. Since Brittany's disappearance, investigators felt like they finally had something here for the very first time. FBI agents immediately went to question Timothy Taylor about the Brittany Drexel case. Immediately, he denied having anything to do with her disappearance.

He claimed that he didn't even know who Brittany Drexel was, and on top of that, he had never met her before. But the FBI wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily. At the same time federal officials questioned Timothy Taylor, the FBI sent agents out to the alligator ponds near McLennanville, where Tyquan Brown had said that Taylor dumped Brittany's body.

During their search of this alligator area, local cops and FBI agents searched up to as many as 40 alligator ponds. Still, they didn't find any sign of Brittany. So if Brown was right about where he said Taylor dumped her body, none of her remains were left.

For the next several weeks, Timothy Taylor denied having any involvement in Brittany's disappearance. But the FBI was persistent. This was the closest they had ever been to finally finding Brittany since she disappeared over seven years earlier. And according to court documents, the FBI administered Taylor a polygraph test, which he failed when he was asked if he had ever seen Brittany.

Federal prosecutors got creative to try and persuade Timothy Taylor to admit his involvement in Brittany's disappearance. Five years earlier, in 2011, Taylor was arrested and charged in state court for a robbery case. In that case, he pleaded guilty to being the getaway driver in state court. In exchange for his guilty plea, Taylor was sentenced to state prison.

Fast forward to 2016, to persuade Taylor to open up about the Brittany Drexel case, federal prosecutors charged him again for that 2011 robbery. However, this time they weren't charging him in state court. It was now in federal court.

This move by federal prosecutors doesn't violate Taylor's constitutional right against double jeopardy because back in 2011, he was charged in state court. Now, in 2016, prosecutors were charging him in federal court with different charges.

Although it was related to the same crime, this 2011 robbery, he was now being charged with federal charges of interfering in interstate commerce by threat or violence, all stemming from his role as the getaway driver in the 2011 robbery case.

The FBI hoped that by bringing these new federal charges against Taylor, he would change his mind and eventually admit to his involvement in Brittany's disappearance. Then maybe he would work out a plea bargain with prosecutors. But Timothy Taylor didn't budge. Even if he knew what happened to Brittany Drexel, he wasn't going to say.

And without any solid physical or forensic evidence linking him to Brittany's disappearance, there wasn't much that law enforcement could do.

In December 2019, Taylor went in front of a federal judge for his sentence for the new federal charges. Judge David Norton in the case sentenced Taylor to time served and ordered him three years on formal probation. He was not charged with any crimes related to Brittany's disappearance now 10 years earlier.

After 2019, the case went cold again. And for the next three years, people wondered if we would ever find out what happened to Brittany on that spring break trip. But in May of 2022, the wait was finally over. On May 4th, 2022, South Carolina police arrested 62-year-old Raymond Moody of Georgetown on obstruction of justice charges.

On the official charging document, Moody is alleged to have committed this crime on April 25, 2009, the same day Brittany disappeared. Before his May 2022 arrest on obstruction charges, Raymond Moody was no stranger to South Carolina police. According to police and court documents, Moody had a long history as a violent sexual predator.

His crime spanned from South Carolina all the way out west to California. In December 1983, Raymond Moody was sentenced to a 40-year prison sentence in California for sodomy of a child under the age of 14 while inflicting great bodily injury. He was also convicted of rape with force, lewd or lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14, and assault with intent to commit mayhem.

When he was released on parole in June of 2004, he was required to register as a sex offender with the National Sex Offender Registry. But he failed to do so. Four years after his release, he was arrested again in 2008. In 2008, he was charged with indecent exposure in the city of Georgetown. When the case went to trial, the charges were ultimately reduced to disorderly conduct.

Two years later, in 2010, he was arrested again for his failure to register as a sex offender with the National Sex Offender Registry for that 1983 conviction. By 2012, the police considered Raymond Moody to be a person of interest in two separate missing person investigations. One was Crystal Soles. The other was Brittany Drexel.

Crystal Souls was last seen in early 2005 in front of a Shaw's Corner store in Andrews, South Carolina, a place about an hour away from where Brittany Drexel was last seen. In 2012, South Carolina police named Moody as a person of interest in both Crystal Souls and Brittany Drexel's disappearance.

But at the time, the police didn't have any physical or forensic evidence linking to either woman's disappearance. And without tying him to either case, he was never arrested. Not for Crystal Soles' disappearance and not in the case of Brittany Drexel. Today, Crystal Soles is still missing. Although he wasn't officially arrested, the police kept a close eye on him in both investigations.

On May 4th, 2022, the same day the police arrested Moody on obstruction charges, he confessed. Inside the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office, he confessed to kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and killing Brittany Drexel on April 25th, 2009. He also told the police exactly where he dumped her body.

Following his confession, South Carolina prosecutors immediately upgraded the charges from obstruction of justice to kidnapping, murder, and criminal sexual conduct. While Moody sat in jail without bond, investigators went to the location where he said he dumped Brittany's body. It was a location 30 miles south of Myrtle Beach in Georgetown County.

For the next three days, investigators searched the area looking for Brittany's remains. Finally, on May 11, 2022, human remains were located, buried four feet into the ground, slightly off a gated private road outside of Georgetown. The remains were sent to a forensic lab to determine whether the remains belonged to Brittany Drexel.

Since it had been 13 years since her murder, the remains were almost entirely skeletonized. On average, a human body takes around 10 to 15 years to fully decompose into a skeleton. Sometimes this process can happen quicker if the body is exposed to the elements or if the body is subjected to other elements like animals.

In this case, all investigators had to work with to identify the remains were skeletons. Human teeth have always been an extremely reliable way to identify people, even decades after they've died. To generate an identification, scientists had to rely on dental records.

To match dental records, scientists have several different options. One, a forensic dentist can extract DNA from the tooth's pulp chamber to cross-match the DNA with a relative or, if available, the victim's own DNA.

Second, forensic dentists can look at enamel rod patterns. Just like with fingerprints, enamel rod patterns are unique to each person. But unlike fingerprints, those tooth patterns are highly resilient. They can't be altered in any way. They can't be burned or they can't be cut. Then number three, investigators can examine dental records and then match them to the remains.

Forensic dentists have recently begun using radiographic tooth and jaw identification. This process involves comparing post-mortem radiographs taken when the person was still alive. From a forensic standpoint, teeth have always been a valuable source of DNA. Teeth become especially helpful when sometimes that's all that's left of a victim.

Investigators identified the teeth just four days after they were discovered on May 15, 2022. Through DNA and dental records, the remains were identified as Brittany Drexel. Brittany was buried four feet underground in a location 30 miles away from where she was last seen 13 years earlier.

On May 16, 2022, authorities in South Carolina announced that they had recovered the long-missing remains of Brittany Drexel. Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver also announced that the police have charged Raymond Moody in the case, and if convicted, he faces the death penalty. Brittany's parents were present at this press conference.

In an article published by People magazine, they said, quote, 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've been hoping for. End quote. The hunt for Brittany Drexel may be over, but the pursuit of justice is only just beginning.

To share your thoughts on the Brittany Drexel story, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook. To find out what I think about the case, sign up to become a patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales. After each episode, I release a bonus episode where I share my personal thoughts and opinions about the case. Because this is a recent case, I will bring you any updates in a future episode of this show.

To check out photos from this case, be sure to head to our website, ForensicTales.com. Don't forget to subscribe to Forensic Tales so you don't miss an episode. We release a new episode every Monday. If you love the show, consider leaving us a positive review or tell friends and family about us. You can also help support the show through Patreon.

Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please join me next week. We'll have a brand new case and a brand new story to talk about. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.

Thank you.

In addition, for supporting the show, you'll become one of the first to listen to new ad-free episodes and snag exclusive show merchandise not available anywhere else. To learn about how you can support the show, head over to our Patreon page, patreon.com slash forensic tales, or simply click the support link in the show notes. You can also support the show by leaving a positive review or spreading the good word about us.

Forensic Tales is a podcast made possible by our Patreon producers. If you'd like to become a producer of the show, head over to our Patreon page.

Or send me an email at Courtney at ForensicTales.com to find out how you can become involved. For a complete list of sources used in this episode, please visit ForensicTales.com. Thank you for listening. Your support means the world to me. I'll see you next week. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings.