What happened to Brittanee Drexel? Raymond Douglas Moody sentenced to life in prison for 2009 murder of missing teen

On Wednesday, October 19, 2022, a man was sentenced to life in prison following his confession to the 2009 murder of 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel. Brittanee was vacationing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in April 2009.

Raymond Douglas Moody, a 62-year-old convicted s*x offender, pleaded guilty to the kidnapping, murder, r*pe and strangulation of Brittanee Drexel. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and was handed two consecutive 30-year terms for the counts of criminal s*xual assault and kidnapping.

Addressing the courtroom, Moody said that he was a "monster when I took Brittanee Drexel’s life." He also said that he didn't have "the words to express how horrible" he felt about the murder and apologized to Brittanee's family.

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Brittanee Drexel vanished after meeting a friend, while on vacation

Nearly 13 years ago, Brittanee Drexel, a teenager from New York, was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for Spring Break. She reportedly went without her parents' knowledge, and following her disappearance, Drexel's mother, Dawn Pleckan, revealed the same in a statement.

On April 22, 2009, Pleckan said that she didn't know that Drexel was going as the latter was angry with her mother who had refused her permission to go. Dawn added that she said no because there were no adults and she didn't know who the other people going were.

She continued to say:

"I told her I just felt something was going to happen to her. I just felt it."

However, Drexel went to South Carolina and on April 25, 2009, she went to the Blue Water Resort on Ocean Boulevard to visit a friend staying there. Authorities said that she was last seen leaving the hotel at around 8:45 pm in a black and white tank top, shorts, and flip-flops.

Authorities also said that Drexel had been in constant touch with her boyfriend back in New York. It was the boyfriend who flagged her disappearance after Drexel hadn't responded to a number of his texts.

Brittanee Drexel's disappearance quickly garnered global attention and sparked a thorough search inquiry. The day she disappeared, Drexel's phone reportedly pinged for the final time near to the boundary between Charleston and Georgetown County.

During the investigation, authorities identified Raymond Douglas Moody as a person of interest after examining his hotel room in Georgetown.

The FBI announced during a press conference in June 2016 that they suspected the teen was no longer alive. Earlier, they believed that the teen may have been a victim of human trafficking and was being held captive in McClellanville at a stash house.

After searching for her for several years, her remains were found buried in some woods in South Carolina in May 2022.