Dateline NBC - Did Brittanee Drexel's killer Raymond Moody confess to his crimes?

The 62-year-old registered s*x offender, Raymond Moody, was arrested for the 2009 r*pe and murder of Brittanee Drexel in May 2022. He was initially arrested on an obstruction of justice charge, which was later dropped as part of his guilty plea.

The long-unsolved case involving Drexel's disappearance came to a close as Moody was arrested after confessing to the crime and leading investigators to the remains of the 17-year-old from Chili, New York. The last footage of the teenager saw her near her hotel on April 25, 2009, before she vanished, as per The Cinemaholic.

The investigators later put together surveillance footage and Drexel's cellphone data and learned that Moody was driving a vehicle that crossed Drexel on her walk back to her hotel on April 25, 2009, as per People. The cellphone location data was further used to corroborate his confession.

The Dateline NBC episode titled The Last Walk showcased Drexel's disappearance and murder as it aired on February 25, 2024. The synopsis reads:

"Authorities embark on a 13-year investigation after 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel vanishes during spring break in Myrtle Beach, S.C."

Trigger warning: This article contains mentions of assault. Readers' discretion is advised.

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Brittanee Drexel's killer Raymond Moody was arrested after he admitted to his crimes in May 2022

Brittanee Drexel was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with her friends during her spring break in 2009. However, she told her mother that she would be spending a couple of days at a friend's place in Rochester, New York. At Myrtle Beach, she had been staying at the Bar Harbor Resort Inc. and had stepped out at around 8:45 pm local time on April 25, 2009, to meet a friend at the Blue Water Resort.

Brittanee had been texting her boyfriend, John Grieco, but abruptly stopped responding at around 9:15 pm, as per People. As the investigation into the disappearance continued, the authorities re-examined Drexel's cell phone data and found that she had been moving at a speed of 55 mph.

As authorities looked into the timeline of the cellphone tower pings and matched it with the surveillance footage from where Drexel was last spotted, they found that a vehicle passed Brittanee Drexel's location at that time. The vehicle was traced back to Raymond Moody, who eventually admitted to being the driver of the car.

The police also got in touch with Angel Vause, Raymond Moody's ex-girlfriend, who was present when Moody picked Brittanee up in his car. Vause wore a wire and cooperated with the investigation, including a search of Moody's residence as she was considered a suspect as well.

While investigators from the FBI did not find any evidence of value, they sat down with Moody to have a conversation regarding Drexel's case when he admitted to his crimes in May 2022, as per the Cinemaholic. He was then charged with kidnapping, murder, and first-degree criminal s*xual conduct.

Brittanee Drexel's phone had last pinged at Poleyard Boat Landing south of Georgetown, where Raymond Moody had stopped to smoke cannabis. He confessed that once Angel Vause left the scene, he r*ped and strangled Drexel to death before he buried her, per ABC4 News.

As per ABC4, the FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Reid Davis, spoke about Moody's confession and said:

“Consistent with exactly how Mr. Moody said she would be, face down, six feet in, with her head facing a certain direction. So when I say we were able to corroborate things that only he would know as the true person responsible, we believe that to be true.”

Raymond Moody had been a person of interest in the investigation into Drexel's murder since 2011, per ABC News. He pleaded guilty to all the charges against him on October 19, 2022, and received a life sentence for first-degree murder. He was also sentenced to consecutive terms of 30 years for kidnapping and criminal s*xual conduct, as per The Cinemaholic. He is currently serving his sentence at the Lieber Correctional Institution in South Carolina.