Found Deceased SC - Brittanee Drexel, 17, Myrtle Beach, 25 April 2009 - #15

[Peekerfoo]

who is the person who's missing from your town, Peekerfoo? I am sorry to hear about that.

Johnny Lamar Brown went missing from Myrtle Beach, but ended up in Surfside. I spotted him, but he had different clothes on, so I didn't stop, thinking it wasn't him. I then called his sister in GA (because it was bothering me so much) and she said he had been seen wearing different pants. I contacted CUE and they came here quickly, but were unable to locate him. There's a thread abouthim here on WS if you'd like to take a look. I wouldn't have known he was missing if I hadn't been a LONG-time lurker here.

 

[Peekerfoo]

Thanks for all your great posts, Peekafoo.
I totally agree with your descriptions of the terrain there, it is a very remote rural area, and dangerous terrain. I always feel the same way driving that stretch of road. Definitely don't go searching alone anyone. That is sad about the goat, I wonder how he wound up out on his own there? Poor thing.
A lot of times people from other parts of the country don't realize it, but all our bodies of fresh water here are alligator infested. You don't get in them, and you don't stand at the edge of them. I remember when I first moved here and I walked up to the edge of a pond at a golf course to take a picture of a beautiful egret once, and my husband was like "what are you doing?!!" (And I, a person from the midwest, was clueless, I was like "taking a picture?") He explained to me that you never stand by the edge of any body of fresh water here in the lowcountry, in that very body of water there was a very big alligator known to everyone. Even in very developed areas we get alligators in all our little neighborhood ponds eventually (which eventually have to be removed), etc. When you go into the more country areas and large swamps/creeks/rivers you see such such big alligators it's truly scary. But an alligator doesn't have to be very big to be dangerous.

That's all true, Seagull! My mother-in-law has a pond behind her house in a big housing development and she's had several alligators over the years. I only have otters, egrets, turtles, ducks, geese, and two lovely swans. I have also had the misfortune of of killing a few bad snakes around my house.

When I think back at some of the places where I searched, I realize now how dangerous it may have been. I would take several extended family members and make them look, too. They were so great to go with me on my "mission".

My niece looks so much like Brittanee thatwhen she's visiting here she's actually been asked if she's Brittanee. That's a good thing because it meant that people still cared.

 

[Steely Dan]

The only thing I ever read about GHS was that some of the group that seagull65 asked about earlier were rumoured to have family that attended that High school, I dont know if that is the link or just a coincidence.

Incidentally, while I was reading last night, I came across Peter Brozowitz lawyer who stated to the press that the boys car had been searched by LE

I also found an interview with one of the lead detectives in the BD case who said that polygraphs had been carried out on several people including the previous POI TST.

Psychopaths can pass lie detector tests because they have no conscience. If PB is a psychopath he could pass a lie detector test. JMO

 

[fabgod]

Psychopaths can pass lie detector tests because they have no conscience. If PB is a psychopath he could pass a lie detector test. JMO

Steely Dan,
I was meaning the others as in Mcclellanville, Has PB taken a polygraph do we know?

 

[Steely Dan]

Steely Dan,
I was meaning the others as in Mcclellanville, Has PB taken a polygraph do we know?

No, I don't know.

 

[Christina691]

Forgive me if this sounds like a dumb question:

Just a quick thought & for my own curiosity- Since the disappearance took place in SC, is LE LEGALLY able to continue questioning the "friends", even though they are in a different state? I would think something like that wouldn't matter.. but I'm not familiar with how the legal procedures work when it comes to situations like this. Do they have to have all the kids come back to SC just to question them? Or are they able to travel to NY to question them? (that is, as long as they have probable cause to do so).

Not sure about the rest of the kids she traveled with, but I've heard LE mention numerous times that they have cleared PB as a POI... I would imagine they did that by either examining phone records, and possibly surveillance footage from the hotel? I think I've mentioned this before, but is there like a back entrance/exit route that visitors could easily access? I've never stayed at that specific location, so I have no idea if it's even possible. From what I've heard/read, it seems like there is one way in, and one way out, through those main lobby doors that we see Brittanee arriving & leaving shortly after on the surveillance camera. Not suggesting PB did it, like I said, I'm sure they've already examined phone records & other evidence they may have to tell the public that he is cleared.. but, if there is a back exit route, maybe someone saw Brittanee while she was at the hotel (a stranger) and followed her around but possibly went out through a back door or something so she wouldn't be suspicious of their activity if they were indeed following her.

The camera quality is so grainy, I highly doubt they would be able to narrow suspects down by studying the traffic camera(s) in the area. I understand that it's basically looking for a needle in a haystack at this point. I wish LE could just somehow take the estimated abduction time and match it up with whatever cell tower she would be closest to and search through every bit of activity on that certain tower and see if any of the activity matches up with any POI's. I think they would have to subpoena that information from each and every individual that had activity on that one tower, and I'm nearly positive that its impossible.

& just a side note.. LE has said that PB has been cooperative with their investigation, blah blah blah, etc.. but what about his buddies?

Last point and then I'm going to stop: The boys claim to have been watching the Red Sox game when Brittanee first arrived, and continued watching the game while she was there with them. I'm looking at the game schedule right now, the game that day began at 4:10. From my understanding, the game had ended close to 7:45 or so.. Brittanee is seen heading torward the blue water resort at 8:15 on the traffic camera. We've been told she left the BW resort at 8:48 pm approximately. I'm just wondering how PB & friends managed to watch the Red Sox game with Brittanee when the game had been finished for well over 30 mins or so..

 

[fabgod]

Forgive me if this sounds like a dumb question:

Just a quick thought & for my own curiosity- Since the disappearance took place in SC, is LE LEGALLY able to continue questioning the "friends", even though they are in a different state? I would think something like that wouldn't matter.. but I'm not familiar with how the legal procedures work when it comes to situations like this. Do they have to have all the kids come back to SC just to question them? Or are they able to travel to NY to question them? (that is, as long as they have probable cause to do so).

Not sure about the rest of the kids she traveled with, but I've heard LE mention numerous times that they have cleared PB as a POI... I would imagine they did that by either examining phone records, and possibly surveillance footage from the hotel? I think I've mentioned this before, but is there like a back entrance/exit route that visitors could easily access? I've never stayed at that specific location, so I have no idea if it's even possible. From what I've heard/read, it seems like there is one way in, and one way out, through those main lobby doors that we see Brittanee arriving & leaving shortly after on the surveillance camera. Not suggesting PB did it, like I said, I'm sure they've already examined phone records & other evidence they may have to tell the public that he is cleared.. but, if there is a back exit route, maybe someone saw Brittanee while she was at the hotel (a stranger) and followed her around but possibly went out through a back door or something so she wouldn't be suspicious of their activity if they were indeed following her.

The camera quality is so grainy, I highly doubt they would be able to narrow suspects down by studying the traffic camera(s) in the area. I understand that it's basically looking for a needle in a haystack at this point. I wish LE could just somehow take the estimated abduction time and match it up with whatever cell tower she would be closest to and search through every bit of activity on that certain tower and see if any of the activity matches up with any POI's. I think they would have to subpoena that information from each and every individual that had activity on that one tower, and I'm nearly positive that its impossible.

& just a side note.. LE has said that PB has been cooperative with their investigation, blah blah blah, etc.. but what about his buddies?

Last point and then I'm going to stop: The boys claim to have been watching the Red Sox game when Brittanee first arrived, and continued watching the game while she was there with them. I'm looking at the game schedule right now, the game that day began at 4:10. From my understanding, the game had ended close to 7:45 or so.. Brittanee is seen heading torward the blue water resort at 8:15 on the traffic camera. We've been told she left the BW resort at 8:48 pm approximately. I'm just wondering how PB & friends managed to watch the Red Sox game with Brittanee when the game had been finished for well over 30 mins or so..

Christina691
All very good points imo
Farmhand addressed the entrance question a little way back on this thread, he found that the resort is quite large and there are other entrances and also if I am not mistaken other buildings?
So it would be likely be possible to get in and out withoout using the same entrance used by BD.

The traffic cam is grainy, but there must be a way of recognising vehicles I would have thought, but, at the time, did LE have suspects that they could check vehicles against? and also would LE have been able to keep this footage or was it lost after a time?

I have wondered about POI RM, did he go to the area on the following day to check such things as CCTV and Camera locations?
I heard he had 3 vehicles at that time, he went to the area the next day on a motorbike, that wasnt picked up on the original W/S posts,
Now, he seems to have got rid of 2 of the vehicles in the meantime, perfectly natural to change vehicles but also a possible way of gtting rid of something else?

RE the Red Sox,
I checked the game here
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS200904250.shtml

I know nothing about Baseball but it says game started 4.10pm and has a game time of 4.21, that would make it 8.31pm if those numbers are what I am presuming, even at that, the game was over almost 20 minutes before BD left the hotel, good find Christina

 

[fabgod]

The cell phone records that we all keep mentioning,
The TV reporter that was on the Investigation Discovery show about Brittanee, he talked about the cell phone travelling south?
Would anyone have a contact for him, maybe we could get some information on the cell phone pings and narrow down the location a little more?

If the cell tower and times were published on the show, I cant see why there would be a problem in releasing the information, I am not asking for personal information or what texts said, I would be looking at times and towers.

I am presuming that LE will have already done that and that is why the searches were concentrated in the Pole yard area, but, its also possible that Pole yard was key because it was simply the last area that pinged.
I've said this before but we know from the TV show that the phone didnt stop moving almost as far as Georgetown and we know it ended at Pole Yard, but we need to know if it stopped for any period and where.
This would help with suspects and also search areas in my opinion

Any ideas?

 

[Farmhand]

Christina691
All very good points imo
Farmhand addressed the entrance question a little way back on this thread, he found that the resort is quite large and there are other entrances and also if I am not mistaken other buildings?
So it would be likely be possible to get in and out withoout using the same entrance used by BD.

The traffic cam is grainy, but there must be a way of recognising vehicles I would have thought, but, at the time, did LE have suspects that they could check vehicles against? and also would LE have been able to keep this footage or was it lost after a time?

I have wondered about POI RM, did he go to the area on the following day to check such things as CCTV and Camera locations?
I heard he had 3 vehicles at that time, he went to the area the next day on a motorbike, that wasnt picked up on the original W/S posts,
Now, he seems to have got rid of 2 of the vehicles in the meantime, perfectly natural to change vehicles but also a possible way of gtting rid of something else?

RE the Red Sox,
I checked the game here
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS200904250.shtml

I know nothing about Baseball but it says game started 4.10pm and has a game time of 4.21, that would make it 8.31pm if those numbers are what I am presuming, even at that, the game was over almost 20 minutes before BD left the hotel, good find Christina

I wouldn't think a Major League baseball game would last 4 hours. I wouldn't think anyways. You have the time schedule for when it was played at Fenway Park. It might have been taped and then played later at a time when more people could watch it on TV since it was the weekend. It might have been taped since it was a Red Sox and Yankees game. Depending on what network it was on there might have been a post game show which would last for a while. If you could find out what network it was on you could possibly check their TV schedule as to what time it was on TV. Probably ESPN.

 

[waltzingmatilda]

Hi Everybody! I love the critical thinking that is going on here for Brittanee! YOU sleuths are awesome!

Farmhand, I just want to chime in about the Redsox game. We have the direcTV baseball package and games played on the east coast are shown in real time, especially in such a high profile game as the RS and Yankees. It may be delayed for those in the MW/West tho.

fabgod, I hope LE has the whole traffic cam video so they can troll for any suspicious vehicles in the area the night Britt disappeared. The Mickey Shunick case was solved by LE in a few months using traffic cams. It was a random guy trolling for a victim. My fear is that MBPD didn't take Brittanee's disappearance seriously in the beginning. I live in a coastal beach town and wonder if the MBPD had the attitude in the beginning that 'Oh it's just another spring breaker who hooked up with some guy and didn't inform her friends'.

I have so many questions about the actions of her friends but no time to address them at this time.

Good reading you all! It's been a busy summer for me but I've been following along but not posting. Hope everyone had a nice labor day.

wm

 

[Farmhand]

Yeah I suppose it would depend on what kind of cable package they had at the hotel they were staying at and whether the baseball game was real time or not. DirectTV is satellite TV right? I wonder if the hotel they were at had satellite TV or just regular cable TV.

 

[Farmhand]

Hi Everybody! I love the critical thinking that is going on here for Brittanee! YOU sleuths are awesome!

Farmhand, I just want to chime in about the Redsox game. We have the direcTV baseball package and games played on the east coast are shown in real time, especially in such a high profile game as the RS and Yankees. It may be delayed for those in the MW/West tho.

fabgod, I hope LE has the whole traffic cam video so they can troll for any suspicious vehicles in the area the night Britt disappeared. The Mickey Shunick case was solved by LE in a few months using traffic cams. It was a random guy trolling for a victim. My fear is that MBPD didn't take Brittanee's disappearance seriously in the beginning. I live in a coastal beach town and wonder if the MBPD had the attitude in the beginning that 'Oh it's just another spring breaker who hooked up with some guy and didn't inform her friends'.

I have so many questions about the actions of her friends but no time to address them at this time.

Good reading you all! It's been a busy summer for me but I've been following along but not posting. Hope everyone had a nice labor day.

wm

The bad thing about that traffic cam video is the spot in which the camera is placed. That stupid Super 8 sign blocks most of the view on the one side. If that Super 8 sign wasn't there you would be be able to see down the Boulevard a block or two. I often wonder if something would have recorded if the view wasn't better.

 

[Christina691]

Yeah I suppose it would depend on what kind of cable package they had at the hotel they were staying at and whether the baseball game was real time or not. DirectTV is satellite TV right? I wonder if the hotel they were at had satellite TV or just regular cable TV.

In the locations we've stayed at while on vacation, we've always had just regular cable- basic channels 1-80ish, and also had paperview available to rent movies and what not. BW resort isn't all that nice, so I don't think they would have anything super fancy. I suppose they could have been watching the very end of the game, and then maybe watching the post-game show(s) on the networks like ESPN when Brittanee arrived.

Even though his statement about watching the game together could possibly be a little "off", it unfortunately doesn't prove anything other than the fact that he's changed his story multiple times. I don't know why he would lie about something as irrelevant as that, but it's possible. If they had a laptop, they could have maybe been watching it over the internet using the wifi at the hotel, but I don't think so.

 

[fabgod]

In the locations we've stayed at while on vacation, we've always had just regular cable- basic channels 1-80ish, and also had paperview available to rent movies and what not. BW resort isn't all that nice, so I don't think they would have anything super fancy. I suppose they could have been watching the very end of the game, and then maybe watching the post-game show(s) on the networks like ESPN when Brittanee arrived.

Even though his statement about watching the game together could possibly be a little "off", it unfortunately doesn't prove anything other than the fact that he's changed his story multiple times. I don't know why he would lie about something as irrelevant as that, but it's possible. If they had a laptop, they could have maybe been watching it over the internet using the wifi at the hotel, but I don't think so.

The potentially important thing is,
it could be something as seemingly unimportant as a baseball game and timings of who was watching it when and where, that bring this whole case crashing down.
I am not saying for one minute that PB did anythng, but I do think its very valid to question everything we can about the stories around Brittanees disappearance.

 

[Farmhand]

I looked at the BlueWater Resort website and is says they have cable TV. I might just call them and ask. Maybe I can get a list of channels that they have while I'm at it. I also googled the average length of a major league baseball game in 2009 and found it to be pretty close to 3 hours. I see in the link posted above the game didn't go into extra innings.

 

[Chili Fries]

I wouldn't think a Major League baseball game would last 4 hours. I wouldn't think anyways. You have the time schedule for when it was played at Fenway Park. It might have been taped and then played later at a time when more people could watch it on TV since it was the weekend. It might have been taped since it was a Red Sox and Yankees game. Depending on what network it was on there might have been a post game show which would last for a while. If you could find out what network it was on you could possibly check their TV schedule as to what time it was on TV. Probably ESPN.

It wasn't shown on tape delay, games are shown live, and it did last 4 hours and 21 minutes. At the time, it was the sixth longest game in Major League Baseball history that didn't go into extra innings. So it was a historically long game. It was so long because there were so many runs and pitching changes. You can read about it here:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=290425102

Probably was a fun game to watch.

 

[Farmhand]

It wasn't shown on tape delay, games are shown live, and it did last 4 hours and 21 minutes. At the time, it was the sixth longest game in Major League Baseball history that didn't go into extra innings. So it was a historically long game. It was so long because there were so many runs and pitching changes. You can read about it here:

http://espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=290425102

Probably was a fun game to watch.

Excellent find. Wow! 4 hours and 21 minute baseball game. OK I think I misunderstood what game started versus game time meant.

 

[Peekerfoo]

It would have made so much sense to have checked the "friends" (hate using that word on them), we just dont know what was done do we?
It would have been an obvious choice to have checked the cars they travelled down in for evidence, again we dont know if they did test them.

It just seems that LE kind of missed the window of opportunity with Brittanee, its easy with hindsight, but they must have been thinking for quite a while that she was a runaway and by the time it became clear that it was much worse than that, the crucial times had gone

I was thinking back on when I first heard about Brittanee and what you said about hindsight. I wonder if the issue of depression and medications were not in the first stories if it would've made a difference in gathering tips. At first, it sounded as if Brittanee ran away from home and was depressed. The focus was on the fact that she didn't tell her Mom that she was even coming here. I think it gave people the idea that she was some kind of "wild child". I think Brittanee is a normal, beautiful , young girl who loved soccer. She made a bad choice (like most teens do at one time or another), but she certainly is not a bad girl. Perception is reality in MB and I feel like time was lost by focusing on her mental status and the fact that she came here without permission. She was taken-and whoever took her is still out there and sadly, so is Brittanee.

 

[CanManEh]

Excellent find. Wow! 4 hours and 21 minute baseball game. OK I think I misunderstood what game started versus game time meant.

Hey Thought I would throw my 2 cents in since this is one area i can say iam quallified to awnser. I was drafted as a baseball player but never got out of the farm system anyway. Yes that is a long baseball game but not anything out of the ordinary exspecialy for a boston game all games at Fenway are knowen to last alot longer then any other team in baseball .It all depends on the score really and how many pitchers were used a fast ball game is gonna be 2 and a half to 3 hours and thats a normal to somewhat fast ball game ..

 

[fabgod]

So, going back to Christinas post about the baseball game, if the game, did finish around 8.30pm that night and it was on the standard cable that the hotel shows, would those channels have an aftershow programme or would it be likely that the broadcast had finished by 8.48 when BD left the hotel?
What I am trying to say is after all that time watching the game, would there still be anything to stop PB taking BD back to her hotel?