Found Deceased SC - Brittanee Drexel, 17, Myrtle Beach, 25 April 2009 - #16

[Steely Dan]

I haven't contributed to this thread before, but I have been following the case.

It seems clear to me that she got into a car with someone that she knew or was at least acquainted with. She was walking along, so they probably just pulled up, said hi, and offered to give her a ride to her destination.

What isn't in the slightest bit clear is who the person in the car was. It could have been anyone who she had met during her time there, or one of her friends.

The friends behavior after she went missing. Seriously, what would anyone here do if you went on vacation with a group of friends and couldn't find one when it was time to go home?

On another note. My video currently has 53 hits. I hope a lot of them are people she went with and/or saw while she was down there.

 

[VeryVeritas]

MO - This was a grab and run. The phone was tossed later when the perp could get to it. I am sure when he grabbed her he was able to get the phone put it aside and drive for a while until he could get rid of the phone. The fight she had with these girls was normal teenage stuff that happens daily and it is clouding the details of the case IMO. I hope she is still alive as we have seen with women being held captive, but I think she was taken by someone who had done this before and very near Myrtle Beach. MO

What makes you so certain? I have serious problems with this.
If it was a kidnapping, I would think she was targeted.
She is exceptionally attractive.
One guy pulls over and just totally subdues her a few hundred feet from her hotel and no one sees a thing?
I can see reedus's point about not wanting to leave anything behind... but that's a further risk... if the phone dropped he would have to stop and pick it up while simultaneously keeping her subdued. This would lead me to think that such an operation involved more than one person.

Seems far more likely she got into a vehicle because she knew the person even just slightly. For example, one of the dudes getting high and doing the roommates pulls up and says hey I'm going to the hotel - get in. But then he goes right past the hotel... too late.

Its not impossible that some lone person just out of the blue grabbed her without knowing even what she looked like, odds just seem against it.
Stats show that most people do know their abductors somehow. So, I see the possibilities like this:
1) Someone connected to her roommates (directly, indirectly, or just in the background) 80%
2) Someone that she briefly met and who stalked her. 19.9%
3) Totally random snatch and grab. 0.1%

 

[CanManEh]

personally at this day in age I find it really hard to believe that someone doesn't know about the cell phone and pings .Seems to me like that is the very first thing one would worry about if u have abducted someone its common knowledge that they can follow the pings and thats gonna lead them to her or very close to her or the perp.So that tells me 2 things one being the perps
went one way and the cell phone was placed in a random truck or something that took the cell another way without the drivers knowing he took it away from the scene by unknowingly driving home .Pings are helpfull but only to with in a few hundred yards there not gonna find the actuall cell just the area its in.So if they put it in say the inside of a bumper of a car or truck its hidden they drive away showing the pings going i forget the direction but i know they have it and it leads them to the general area but like i said it could be hidden so no one is ever gonna find the phone it was really just a wild goose chase..Or second she got in and nothing happend bad right away she had her cell on her and she was thinking everything was fine which let the phone give off pings as normal untill they got to a certin spot and then did what they did and tossed the cell.

 

[VeryVeritas]

I found this statement(bolded) in the above article very strange.


"Hahn found all of Brittanee’s belongings still inside her hotel room, he also found Drexel’s clothes and liquor inside Broswick’s hotel room."

That's a contradiction isn't it? ALL of her belongings could not be at her hotel room if her clothes and liquor were at PB's room. However I wasn't aware of these clothes and liquor. What clothes were these? I could easily see her abandoning liquor and maybe forgetting about some clothes if she had changed there then got upset about the roommate *****ing about the shorts. If the clothes were significant, then it would seem like she intended to come back... Any chance she was thinking maybe she would go back with PB?

 

[reedus23]

I found this statement(bolded) in the above article very strange.


"Hahn found all of Brittanee’s belongings still inside her hotel room, he also found Drexel’s clothes and liquor inside Broswick’s hotel room."

Yes. That is a very strange statement. How can ALL of her belongings be insider her hotel room and yet SOME be in "Broswick's" hotel room. Kind of impossible if you ask me. What I don't doubt, is that "Broswick" had liquor in his hotel room.

 

[reedus23]

The friends behavior after she went missing. Seriously, what would anyone here do if you went on vacation with a group of friends and couldn't find one when it was time to go home?

On another note. My video currently has 53 hits. I hope a lot of them are people she went with and/or saw while she was down there.

In all honesty Steely....I'd probably go home. I would have expressed concern. I wouldn't have been such a cold hearted a**h*** about someone going missing. But if I was a kid, with work or school beckoning and the fact that I couldn't just stay down there indefinitely, yes the harsh reality is I probably would have gone back home. Add to that, that I would figure that LE would be responsible for solving a crime, not a kid, I just can't say with certainty that I would have stayed. What I do know, is that as a parent, there isn't a chance in hell I'd let my kid stay down there one moment longer after one went missing. I'd be scared beyond belief for their safety. So while I'd want them to cooperate fully...allowing them to stay 14 hours away in an area where a "friend" went missing without me being present to protect them would not have been an option. I really don't think I'm a bad person, but I just think it's easier to say that I would have stayed when the harsh reality is that I'm not so certain it is so clear cut.

 

[reedus23]

personally at this day in age I find it really hard to believe that someone doesn't know about the cell phone and pings .Seems to me like that is the very first thing one would worry about if u have abducted someone its common knowledge that they can follow the pings and thats gonna lead them to her or very close to her or the perp.So that tells me 2 things one being the perps
went one way and the cell phone was placed in a random truck or something that took the cell another way without the drivers knowing he took it away from the scene by unknowingly driving home .Pings are helpfull but only to with in a few hundred yards there not gonna find the actuall cell just the area its in.So if they put it in say the inside of a bumper of a car or truck its hidden they drive away showing the pings going i forget the direction but i know they have it and it leads them to the general area but like i said it could be hidden so no one is ever gonna find the phone it was really just a wild goose chase..Or second she got in and nothing happend bad right away she had her cell on her and she was thinking everything was fine which let the phone give off pings as normal untill they got to a certin spot and then did what they did and tossed the cell.

Don't think as much was known then as is known now. Go back and read some early threads here. Not even us here on WS understood pings and I like to think we are all a pretty smart bunch. Many confused pings with GPS in fact or thought pings only occur if texting/calling. Having said that, I still wouldn't be surprised if the phone was taken on a journey to throw off LE from the direction of where Brittanee is, though I'd imagine she is in the same "general" direction.

 

[wvredhead]

I wouldn't have gone home. Not until the absolute last moment. I would have looked for my friend. I think Brit had surrounded herself with bad people...because I know the friends I have would have stayed as long as possible to look for me. I find it unprecedented and suspicious that BD's 'friends' high-tailed it home. And not a single word from any of them since then. Even if they do know nothing...that in itself is pure narcissism and those people are not individuals whom I'd like to know or be associated with. They'll be parents one day. I hope they never experience what Dawn has gone through because I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

My personal thoughts aside I feel they're all suspects until they prove otherwise and should be considered such. They brought it on themselves.

 

[CanManEh]

Hey steely what video are you talking about ...where can i watch it i take it that it is about this case ?

 

[hoshizora]

Yeah it's always hard to tell with the "friends" and whether or not they had something to do with it, or they were just a very uncaring bunch because if I were in their circumstances, even if I didn't know the person very well, I'd stay down and help with the investigation as much as I could (and if I had to go back to work or school, I would try to provide as much details as I could to the LE back at home). Didn't Dawn say that the friends she went with haven't even said much to her since that day? I would at least say that I feel so sad that this happened to her.

I am glad that the detective said that they're always getting tips and leads on Brittanee's case. I don't want her case to become another one that goes into the double digits.

 

[Farmhand]

4:10 Red Sox game starts
8:15 BD seen on cam walking to Blue Water
8:31 Red Sox game ended
8:48 BD leaves PB's hotel
8:57 JG texts BD telling her to make the best of it
8:58 BD texts JG saying, "F" that, I'm packing and going to bed.
9:06 Text to BD asking if back from Myrtle Beach yet
9:15 JG text saying he's concerned
9:27 BD's phone pings near Surfside
9:53 BD's phone pings tower at 209 Firehouse St (Georgetown)
9:54 BD's phone pings the same tower
9:56 Text to BD asking where she is
9:57 Another text to BD asking where she is
10:00 JG text saying he will call her mom if he doesn't hear from her
11:00 PB and friends to a "college" party
11:58 BD's phone pings tower 332 (7 Mile Road?)
1:00 PB and friends return to Rochester
4:51 JH files missing persons report

I was trying to put my own timeline of known facts together. Does this look accurate? Anything need altering/removal/adding? TIA As an aside, and I'm sure this has been discussed before, and again correct me if I'm wrong, but if my math is right, BD had to have been taken somewhere within about 500 feet of that camera location. LE said it takes 15 minutes to make the walk from Blue Water to the camera location. The average human walks 3 miles/hour (5,280 feet/60 minutes or 88 feet/minute). She left Blue Water at 8:48 and sent the last text at 8:58. That accounts for 10 of those minutes. In 5 minutes, a person would walk 440 feet at the above rate. Working backwards, that means the abduction occurred within 440 feet of that camera location assuming pace and continuous walking. Probably spent time working out the math that's been done 1000 times already, but does that sound right?

I think there were a couple of texts between 8:58 pm and 9:06 pm. 5,280 feet equals 1 mile. 3 miles per hour would be 15,840 feet/60 minutes or 264 feet/minute. 88 feet/minute is 1 mile per hour. I've calculated the numbers in the past and have come up with her being near the Landmark Resort when she texted last. The Landmark Resort is at the intersection of Ocean Boulevard and 15th Avenue South which is still about 1 mile from her hotel. The total distance between the 2 hotels was 1.4 miles. If she walked 3 miles per hour and the total distance was 1.4 miles it would take her a little less than 30 minutes to walk the distance. If BD had been walking for 10 minutes she would have only walked 1/3 of the total distance. It is about 19 or 20 city blocks from the BlueWater to the Bar Harbor hotel. 1.4 miles = 19 or 20 city blocks which would be around 390 feet per block. BD wouldn't have been in visual contact with her hotel because of the distance (1 mile) and Ocean Boulevard curves a bit further north. I would agree with you on BD being about 5 minutes from the surveillance camera. BD would have been about 3 or 4 blocks away from it. 1.4 miles is a long distance for someone to be walking alone at night. It leaves someone very vulnerable.

 

[Vinny]

Don't think as much was known then as is known now. Go back and read some early threads here. Not even us here on WS understood pings and I like to think we are all a pretty smart bunch. Many confused pings with GPS in fact or thought pings only occur if texting/calling. Having said that, I still wouldn't be surprised if the phone was taken on a journey to throw off LE from the direction of where Brittanee is, though I'd imagine she is in the same "general" direction.

BD was taken sometime after about 9:00. The first ping is at 9:27 which was about 7 miles south of MB. This means whoever took her high tailed it out of there. The last ping is at 11:58. I believe that during this 2 1/2 hours is when the crime took place. The actual drive time from MB to Georgetown is about 50 minutes, so that leaves plenty of time for the crime to take place and then dispose of the phone somewhere else.

It would seem that the perp(s) would've taken US-17 which is the busier but faster route to take. I really think whoever did this would know the area pretty well.

 

[Steely Dan]

Hey steely what video are you talking about ...where can i watch it i take it that it is about this case ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV1ukinNaFo&r=1

 

[reedus23]

BD was taken sometime after about 9:00. The first ping is at 9:27 which was about 7 miles south of MB. This means whoever took her high tailed it out of there. The last ping is at 11:58. I believe that during this 2 1/2 hours is when the crime took place. The actual drive time from MB to Georgetown is about 50 minutes, so that leaves plenty of time for the crime to take place and then dispose of the phone somewhere else.

It would seem that the perp(s) would've taken US-17 which is the busier but faster route to take. I really think whoever did this would know the area pretty well.

I agree. Also why I am really curious if her phone was pinging during that time and if so, where. Was it pinging continuously from the same tower? Just something I'd be interested in knowing.

 

[CanManEh]

steely D ... did you put that up,if so it says and sounds like that was right after britt went missing so its not a recent interview right.

 

[Farmhand]

BD was taken sometime after about 9:00. The first ping is at 9:27 which was about 7 miles south of MB. This means whoever took her high tailed it out of there. The last ping is at 11:58. I believe that during this 2 1/2 hours is when the crime took place. The actual drive time from MB to Georgetown is about 50 minutes, so that leaves plenty of time for the crime to take place and then dispose of the phone somewhere else.

I agree. Also why I am really curious if her phone was pinging during that time and if so, where. Was it pinging continuously from the same tower? Just something I'd be interested in knowing.

Poleyard Landing is located about 15 miles south of Georgetown. As mentioned above if you drove directly to Georgetown it would take 50 or 60 minutes if you continued to drive to Poleyard Landing it would take another 20 to 30 minutes. You would arrive at the Poleyard Landing at approximately 10:30 pm. Instead the cell phone pings the tower at 11:58 pm. There is approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes of time spent somewhere in between those 2 points. You would have to assume the cell phone was pinging the same cell tower for that period of time. For instance if the cell phone was pinging a tower in Charlestown, SC I think it would have been reported.

 

[reedus23]

Poleyard Landing is located about 15 miles south of Georgetown. As mentioned above if you drove directly to Georgetown it would take 50 or 60 minutes if you continued to drive to Poleyard Landing it would take another 20 to 30 minutes. You would arrive at the Poleyard Landing at approximately 10:30 pm. Instead the cell phone pings the tower at 11:58 pm. There is approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes of time spent somewhere in between those 2 points. You would have to assume the cell phone was pinging the same cell tower for that period of time. For instance if the cell phone was pinging a tower in Charlestown, SC I think it would have been reported.

I would like to think so but that doesn't mean LE would have released it. At this point, I can guess that the phone was pinging south of Georgetown for that 1 1/2 hours or it could have pinged in Surfside for 1 1/2 hours before first pinging south of Georgetown. An educated guess would say most of that time was spent south of Georgetown, but with RM being ticketed in Surfside the next day, I do wonder if the phone was actually pinging there for a longer time and possibly he took her belongings toward Poleyard Landing to dump. Makes me wonder if he wasn't in and around Surfside "cleaning" up an area.

 

[Steely Dan]

steely D ... did you put that up,if so it says and sounds like that was right after britt went missing so its not a recent interview right.

Yeah, I put that up and used a variety of sources. Most of them from soon after her disappearance.

 

[Farmhand]

I would like to think so but that doesn't mean LE would have released it. At this point, I can guess that the phone was pinging south of Georgetown for that 1 1/2 hours or it could have pinged in Surfside for 1 1/2 hours before first pinging south of Georgetown. An educated guess would say most of that time was spent south of Georgetown, but with RM being ticketed in Surfside the next day, I do wonder if the phone was actually pinging there for a longer time and possibly he took her belongings toward Poleyard Landing to dump. Makes me wonder if he wasn't in and around Surfside "cleaning" up an area.

The cell phone records still is taken from the Disappeared episode. The cell tower addresses I put on a map using Google Earth. The response of 'I'm going to call your mom' occurred at 10 pm. You can see from the location of the cell towers the phone is headed south.

 

[rtjedarling]

Fairly new to websleuths and so have been looking in on this case also. It seems more likely that someone took the opportunity of her being alone, walking some distance, to pick her up. Being from SC, I remember walking that area at her age, 30 years ago even, and having guys (any age) trying to pick a girl up with promise of drugs and a good time, even when walking with friends. Pretty much, girls with no guys along are going to have someone try to get them to go with them walking that blvd. I also remember at her age, being in a frame of mind at times that I would take chances that I would not generally take. An opportunist would have spotted her vulnerable state easily. A girl walking alone there for anytime at all is likley to have someone attempt to coax her into the car.