Found Deceased SC - Brittanee Drexel, 17, Myrtle Beach, 25 April 2009 - #6

[Novice Seeker]

The FBI was involved in the search yesterday, so that means that MB has asked them for their assistance. I don't believe it was just for the search.

The FBI should have been involved in this case from the moment this crime had been committed. Please don't feel that my anger is directed at you b/c it's not. My anger is for this territory games local LE play that keeps the FBI out of the loop.

I know that if I or GOD forbid a family member of mine was abducted I would want the FBI taking charge immediately. They're much more trained for these crimes and have gadgets which are accessible to them.

Sometimes, especially within small communities or family's with prestige, the local LE is emotionally involved with the local town folk which prevents them from working a crime as professionals who have no loyalties or ties to the community.

Novice Seeker
My Own Opinion especially if it involves my loved one

 

[MBLover]

The FBI should have been involved in this case from the moment this crime had been committed. Please don't feel that my anger is directed at you b/c it's not. My anger is for this territory games local LE play that keeps the FBI out of the loop.

I know that if I or GOD forbid a family member of mine was abducted I would want the FBI taking charge immediately. They're much more trained for these crimes and have gadgets which are accessible to them.

Sometimes, especially within small communities or family's with prestige, the local LE is emotionally involved with the local town folk which prevents them from working a crime as professionals who have no loyalties or ties to the community.

Novice Seeker
My Own Opinion especially if it involves my loved one

It makes you wonder if this case wouldn't have already been solved if FBI had been brought in immediately.

 

[Debbie Miller]

The FBI should have been involved in this case from the moment this crime had been committed. Please don't feel that my anger is directed at you b/c it's not. My anger is for this territory games local LE play that keeps the FBI out of the loop.

I know that if I or GOD forbid a family member of mine was abducted I would want the FBI taking charge immediately. They're much more trained for these crimes and have gadgets which are accessible to them.

Sometimes, especially within small communities or family's with prestige, the local LE is emotionally involved with the local town folk which prevents them from working a crime as professionals who have no loyalties or ties to the community.

Novice Seeker
My Own Opinion especially if it involves my loved one

With Missing Person cases, it is hard to tell if a crime has been committed unless you have a witness that saw the crime. With BD's case, noone saw anything that can be noted. The people she was with were doing their own thing and saw her before she disappeared. Maybe with information that the police received led them to believe that BD just took off, it is really hard to know what they were told as fact. As it is well known that alot of MP cases the person turns up soon after and they left on their own and not meaning to upset anyone or the teens that do it on purpose and do return. I think it is hard for LE to know on all cases which is going to require the FBI's help at the start of the investigation, in some cases as I said before. The police had alot to deal with and people to talk with on BD's case, they have to work the process of illimination on people close to the missing person. The groups she was with, and so on. It takes them time due to investigation and research on other angles to go with "what could have happened?" It is alot of work and I am sure they are making progress, we must just have faith in them. Patience is a virtue.

 

[sawbuck44]

Yesterday I got a flyer from WEMOCO where they are holding a day of services offered by the students. The cosmetology class has a paraffin wax for your hands. I remember on the way home from school, Brittanee got in the car and said, "feel my hands." I touched them and at first was thinking she meant how cold they were. Then she explained the paraffin wax to me and how much she loved it. Her hands were very soft.

I am not real close to Brittanee and do not know her family. I am not claiming to have any "inside" information. I tell you this because it is hard for me to deal with. I cannot imagine how her family and true friends are doing through this. Six months seems to have flown by. It is just insane that no one knows what happened. I guess another thing I'm saying is that in the short time I've spent with Brittanee, she seemed very happy and excited about cosmetology, friends, and all the things coming up in senior year.

Again, if anyone wants me to edit this for personal reasons, please let me know asap.

 

[SkewedView]

I didn't mean to insinuate that there was some hinky or weird business going on and wasn't about to go off into a hollywood thriller script regarding anything to do with this phone #.

Oh, I didn't think that you were - I was refering to the weird scenarios that were running through my own mind when I first saw that - I write a lot of fiction, so I often have to :banghead: until I calm my imagination down and can use the KISS principal. Sorry for any misunderstanding.

 

[SkewedView]

With Missing Person cases, it is hard to tell if a crime has been committed unless you have a witness that saw the crime. With BD's case, noone saw anything that can be noted. The people she was with were doing their own thing and saw her before she disappeared. Maybe with information that the police received led them to believe that BD just took off, it is really hard to know what they were told as fact. As it is well known that alot of MP cases the person turns up soon after and they left on their own and not meaning to upset anyone or the teens that do it on purpose and do return. I think it is hard for LE to know on all cases which is going to require the FBI's help at the start of the investigation, in some cases as I said before. The police had alot to deal with and people to talk with on BD's case, they have to work the process of illimination on people close to the missing person. The groups she was with, and so on. It takes them time due to investigation and research on other angles to go with "what could have happened?" It is alot of work and I am sure they are making progress, we must just have faith in them. Patience is a virtue.

You make some great points in here - particularly about the fact that the excessive number of runaways out there make MP cases (particularly involving teens) really hard for LE to judge and prioritise (I just got done giving my brother in law a grilling over that the other day after he pulled a runner - I made him feel so guilty he almost cried). I also heavily agree on the patience angle - with a case with no witnesses or physical evidence, peicing things together is always going to be a slow and agonising process, even if they think they know what might have happened.

 

[MBLover]

Oh, I didn't think that you were - I was refering to the weird scenarios that were running through my own mind when I first saw that - I write a lot of fiction, so I often have to :banghead: until I calm my imagination down and can use the KISS principal. Sorry for any misunderstanding.

NP Skewed! I know what you mean!

 

[MBLover]

Funny thing in reading some of these last posts...

We don't know that there weren't any witnesses. We don't know what anyone saw or didn't see. We don't know exactly what happened the minute BD disappeared from view of the BWR cam and didn't appear in front of the MB street cam...

So to exclude anyone from knowing anything is a bit of a mistake in my opinion.

We don't know who all was in the room at the BWR. Was all 5 of the guys there? We don't know which exit (and when) PB & crew chose when they left BWR to go to the supposed 'college party'.

We don't know where any of the group that BD came with was at that time. Someone wanted a pair of ummmmm...shorts...and someone could have been riding OB looking for her if those...ummmmm shorts...were wanted badly enough.

As the MBPD has said - no one is really a POI, but no one has really been cleared yet either. And IMO no one can be cleared until BD shows up and tells the story or until her body is found.

 

[SkewedView]

From what we have observed recently with the Robert Manwell case, local LE does not have the exptise to deal with complex missing person cases. Yet, the FBI can't become actively involved in the case without the sole permission of the local LE. This is always an issue of territory which prevents or hinder the FBI from becoming heavily involved. This is one strict guideline that really needs to be removed with something else that allows the FBI quick and total control of the search for a missing person.

Novice Seeker

There are some very sound reasons for the limits that are placed on the FBI, but esoteric arguements over federal vs state powers etc do pale in comparison to young lives being lost when they might not have been...unfortunately, the only way to really let the feds jump in like that would be to allow families to request that the FBI take control of the cases, and if that happened the feds would be inundated with such requests and swiftly overwhelmed. It is very frustrating that there really seems to be no way of effectively dealing with these issues short of pulling a homeland security style reorganisation of all US LEAs, which would of course have its own problems.

 

[SkewedView]

Funny thing in reading some of these last posts...

We don't know that there weren't any witnesses. We don't know what anyone saw or didn't see. We don't know exactly what happened the minute BD disappeared from view of the BWR cam and didn't appear in front of the MB street cam...

So to exclude anyone from knowing anything is a bit of a mistake in my opinion.

We don't know who all was in the room at the BWR. Was all 5 of the guys there? We don't know which exit (and when) PB & crew chose when they left BWR to go to the supposed 'college party'.

We don't know where any of the group that BD came with was at that time. Someone wanted a pair of ummmmm...shorts...and someone could have been riding OB looking for her if those...ummmmm shorts...were wanted badly enough.

As the MBPD has said - no one is really a POI, but no one has really been cleared yet either. And IMO no one can be cleared until BD shows up and tells the story or until her body is found.

And that right there is a perfect overview of the challenges of this case really, at least for anyone in the general public - we just have to hope that LE has at least a little more to go on than our base of pure speculation, or if not, then hopefully that situation will change soon.

 

[Novice Seeker]

With Missing Person cases, it is hard to tell if a crime has been committed unless you have a witness that saw the crime. With BD's case, noone saw anything that can be noted. The people she was with were doing their own thing and saw her before she disappeared. Maybe with information that the police received led them to believe that BD just took off, it is really hard to know what they were told as fact. As it is well known that alot of MP cases the person turns up soon after and they left on their own and not meaning to upset anyone or the teens that do it on purpose and do return. I think it is hard for LE to know on all cases which is going to require the FBI's help at the start of the investigation, in some cases as I said before. The police had alot to deal with and people to talk with on BD's case, they have to work the process of illimination on people close to the missing person. The groups she was with, and so on. It takes them time due to investigation and research on other angles to go with "what could have happened?" It is alot of work and I am sure they are making progress, we must just have faith in them. Patience is a virtue.

Since this involved a child under the age of 18 and several state lines that had been crossed it should have fallen into the FBI's jurisdiction. Regardless of knowing if a crime had been committed as far as an abduction, there's a underage who crossed state lines. That in itself should be enough to bring the FBI in.

BTW somewhat o/t why does the FBI have to place nice with the local LE so that they can be allowed by so local LE to remain on a case?

Novice Seeker

 

[Sweet Lila]

http://www.democratandchronicle.com...o+revisit+area+in+search+for+Brittanee+Drexel

 

[Debbie Miller]

Funny thing in reading some of these last posts...

We don't know that there weren't any witnesses. We don't know what anyone saw or didn't see. We don't know exactly what happened the minute BD disappeared from view of the BWR cam and didn't appear in front of the MB street cam...

So to exclude anyone from knowing anything is a bit of a mistake in my opinion.

We don't know who all was in the room at the BWR. Was all 5 of the guys there? We don't know which exit (and when) PB & crew chose when they left BWR to go to the supposed 'college party'.

We don't know where any of the group that BD came with was at that time. Someone wanted a pair of ummmmm...shorts...and someone could have been riding OB looking for her if those...ummmmm shorts...were wanted badly enough.

As the MBPD has said - no one is really a POI, but no one has really been cleared yet either. And IMO no one can be cleared until BD shows up and tells the story or until her body is found.

Exactly, we as public don't know any of these things and I was just stating rules as the information that is out there for us (the public) I work with the facts and the facts as I know them. We don't know what the police know.

As far as I know Brittanee was 17 and in most states they can do what they want at that age. Plenty of parents have been told "sorry there is nothing we can do."

 

[SkewedView]

Since this involved a child under the age of 18 and several state lines that had been crossed it should have fallen into the FBI's jurisdiction. Regardless of knowing if a crime had been committed as far as an abduction, there's a underage who crossed state lines. That in itself should be enough to bring the FBI in.

BTW somewhat o/t why does the FBI have to place nice with the local LE so that they can be allowed by so local LE to remain on a case?

Novice Seeker

To clear up a few misconceptions - the FBI is only automatically involved in cases where the age is twelve and under, not the commonly refered to 'minor' status (the definition of a minor is rather fuzzy with the exception of the death penalty). As far as border crossings - BD's only known crossing of state borders was by her own free will, so the feds can't use that one either.

Finally, the FBI has the limits that they do with regards to interacting with state level LE because the Constitution places strict limits on interferance of the Federal Government in State level affairs, and that document has yet to be entirely shredded and tossed in the trash. That's one of the reasons why there is a certain amount of overlap between a number of federal laws and state ones, such as specific types of kidnappings - it allows the Feds to step in when they otherwise wouldn't be able to - the other main reason of course being that it allows for additional charges and sentences to be tacked on in particularly nasty cases (with seperate trials to boot).

 

[Autumndreams]

CD was on news last night. He said Saturday night was a bad night. His cell phone rang and it came up with Brittanee's name. The phone company re-assigned her cell number and the person that got it called CD to tell him. How did he get CD's number? I can only imagine he wanted CD to know in case someone tried to call Britt's cell number again just to see who would answer.

I'm sorry but this makes no sense at all!

1) How in the world would the person even know that the number they got was her number????
2)How would they know CD's cell phone number???


I spent over an hour looking for this info that you say was on the news last night and can't find anything.
What news station reported this???
I watch the news at 11pm every night and saw nothing about BD or CD last night. Now, that could be the news channel i was watching didn't report it.

But you caught my attention and I would really like to see this myself.

And as for anyone even possibly having her cell number .. i would have to say is NOT recycled! And would be having LE ping that number ASAP!!

 

[MBLover]

I'm sorry but this makes no sense at all!

1) How in the world would the person even know that the number they got was her number????
2)How would they know CD's cell phone number???


I spent over an hour looking for this info that you say was on the news last night and can't find anything.
What news station reported this???
I watch the news at 11pm every night and saw nothing about BD or CD last night. Now, that could be the news channel i was watching didn't report it.

But you caught my attention and I would really like to see this myself.

And as for anyone even possibly having her cell number .. i would have to say is NOT recycled! And would be having LE ping that number ASAP!!

Chances are BD's cell phone account was cancelled - why - I have no idea. I personally would have never cancelled/closed this cell phone account until closure had been brought to this case.

2nd - Since it appears this # was 'recycled', more than likely one of BD's friends or family member had been calling this number on and off: 1) just to hear BD's voice on voice mail message or 2) just to see if anyone would answer.

If this is the correct scenario - then I would expect this person has had several phone calls and was probably wondering why he/she kept getting calls and either asked someone who called or asked their cell phone provider what was up.

Wouldn't be hard to get CD's #. I'm sure he's in the 'book' so to speak and I'm sure his # is out there somewhere for people to call if they have info regarding BD.

I'm sure CD or DD or LE is checking into this to make sure this is what has happened - that the account was closed and # has gone to someone else. At least I would hope that is what is taking place.

 

[MBLover]

I'm not trying to be picky to trying to be difficult where this under age thing comes into play with BD.

It's stupid with all of these missing person cases - the fact that most states take the stance that 17 yr olds (and sometimes 16 yr olds) are basically adults when something like this happens... But yet...

Let that same 16 or 17 year old damage someone's vehicle, home, child...and the parents are held responsible for that 16 or 17 year old's actions.

Can't have it both ways - either they are 'legal' and are responsible for their own actions; or they are not legal and not responsible for their own actions - Doesn't matter what the action is - and all states need to be on the same page - especially where children are concerned!

 

[Autumndreams]

Chances are BD's cell phone account was cancelled - why - I have no idea. I personally would have never cancelled/closed this cell phone account until closure had been brought to this case.

if the account was canceled when you call the number it would say so... ie: this is no longer a working number / the subscriber you have called is no longer available



2nd - Since it appears this # was 'recycled', more than likely one of BD's friends or family member had been calling this number on and off: 1) just to hear BD's voice on voice mail message or 2) just to see if anyone would answer.

Also if the number was recycled the voice mail would have been deactivated.. I know this because my husband has a recycled # and was getting calls from bill collectors looking for the person who used to have the number. But he had to set up his voice mail.. if the other person who owned the number still had voice mail he would not have been able to set it.

If this is the correct scenario - then I would expect this person has had several phone calls and was probably wondering why he/she kept getting calls and either asked someone who called or asked their cell phone provider what was up.

Wouldn't be hard to get CD's #. I'm sure he's in the 'book' so to speak and I'm sure his # is out there somewhere for people to call if they have info regarding BD.

I'm sure CD or DD or LE is checking into this to make sure this is what has happened - that the account was closed and # has gone to someone else. At least I would hope that is what is taking place.

.....

 

[MBLover]

.....if the account was canceled when you call the number it would say so... ie: this is no longer a working number / the subscriber you have called is no longer available

You've got a point!

Maybe the cell phone provider told this person the number belonged to BD and to possibly be expecting odd/weird calls? If that be the case, then maybe this person called CD out of respect to tell him that he/she had BD's old #. IDK...just throwing things out that could be plausible...

 

[sawbuck44]

I'm sorry but this makes no sense at all!

1) How in the world would the person even know that the number they got was her number????
2)How would they know CD's cell phone number???


I spent over an hour looking for this info that you say was on the news last night and can't find anything.
What news station reported this???
I watch the news at 11pm every night and saw nothing about BD or CD last night. Now, that could be the news channel i was watching didn't report it.

But you caught my attention and I would really like to see this myself.

And as for anyone even possibly having her cell number .. i would have to say is NOT recycled! And would be having LE ping that number ASAP!!

Chad was on the news and said this himself. FOX WUHF Channel 7 "Fox First at 10" - News at 10:00 p.m. on Monday 10/12.