Speaker 1: Sword and Scale contains adult themes and violence, and is
Speaker 1: not intended for all audiences.
Speaker 2: Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 3: This is the case you warn people about.
Speaker 4: It's your child walking down the street and being snatched
Speaker 4: up by someone with malevolent homicidal proclivities.
Speaker 1: It's a Sword and Scale summer again, Go get your hat.
Speaker 1: This is season eleven, episode two hundred and sixty nine
Speaker 1: of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the
Speaker 1: worst monsters are real. Didn't think I was going to
Speaker 1: get those words in. Did you see a professional broadcaster
Speaker 1: always HiT's their post. By the way, we don't do
Speaker 1: this very often, but if you're in search for a
Speaker 1: new app, check out the iHeartRadio app. These guys have
Speaker 1: been really, really kind to us, even though we're canceled,
Speaker 1: Super based, and they're actually the largest podcast network in
Speaker 1: the world. Like two decades ago, they went around buying
Speaker 1: every radio station in America, so there's lots of stuff
Speaker 1: there that's exclusive iHeartRadio. So yeah, go check out their app.
Speaker 1: Also check out our app at Sword and Scale dot com,
Speaker 1: available in iOS and android varieties. Alongside the eastern edge
Speaker 1: of South Carolina is a sixty mile strip of sand
Speaker 1: and Ocean. This long stretch of beach is known as
Speaker 1: the Grand Strand, and right in the middle of it
Speaker 1: is the resort city of Myrtle Beach. I'm sure you've
Speaker 1: heard of it. Myrtle Beach is mostly known for being
Speaker 1: a destination for tourists. It's a vacation spot with golf courses,
Speaker 1: beachfront boardwalks, huge arcades, an amusement park in one of
Speaker 1: America's tallest ferris wheels. But for young adults, perhaps the
Speaker 1: most attractive thing about Myrtle Beach is the nightlife. When
Speaker 1: the sun goes down, the city offers karaoke bars, beach bars,
Speaker 1: live music venues, nightclubs, and all the riff raft that
Speaker 1: comes with it. For this reason, many college students in
Speaker 1: America make Myrtle Beach their preferred destination for spring break.
Speaker 1: Woo who Well, there is plenty of fun to be
Speaker 1: had in Myrtle Beach. The city also has a dark side.
Speaker 1: Like any other popular vacation spot, there's no shortage of crime,
Speaker 1: and most of that crime is dealt with by the
Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach Police Department. Back in April of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: several police investigators in Myrtle Beach, along with a few
Speaker 1: FBI agents questioned a middle aged woman named Angel Voss.
Speaker 5: During the course of.
Speaker 6: Our investigation, we were able to inters conversation, So.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna do it. I'm going to read to you
Speaker 5: a couple of quotes, because if you try to accuse
Speaker 5: you anything, then I'm happily involved it.
Speaker 7: Do I say, I think he didn't know I'm here.
Speaker 7: That's what that was. I'm strike, we just know. I'm
Speaker 7: straightforward to I don't think you did, and you're not
Speaker 7: very involved in it. I was, yeah, I'm not with
Speaker 7: you yet me, you know, I know.
Speaker 1: Shortly after investigators began asking their questions, Angel became very
Speaker 1: upset and hurried out of the interview room. These questions
Speaker 1: the investigators were asking related to a thirteen year old
Speaker 1: cold case that was first opened in April of two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine.
Speaker 3: Jon, I'm going to take.
Speaker 8: You back in time, back around April twenty second to
Speaker 8: twenty third of two thousand and nine. I'm in not
Speaker 8: a young individual named Britney Drexel. She's seventeen years of
Speaker 8: age from Rochester.
Speaker 7: New York.
Speaker 8: The scientist she wants to come to Myrtle Beach around
Speaker 8: the spring great time around in April with a group
Speaker 8: of friends of hers from Rochester, she came and arrived
Speaker 8: and had a good time for the most part.
Speaker 1: In April of two thousand and nine, seventeen year old
Speaker 1: Britney Drexel drove to Myrtle Beach with two of her
Speaker 1: girlfriends for spring break. On the night before they planned
Speaker 1: a return to Rochester, Brittany went missing and the local
Speaker 1: police were quickly notified. As part of the investigation, Brittany's
Speaker 1: eighteen year old boyfriend, John Greco was questioned by police.
Speaker 9: Talk to me about about her.
Speaker 10: Well, we we have put up and down, but.
Speaker 9: Overall we were really a really good.
Speaker 11: Sat relationship, even though we argued and everything else. And
Speaker 11: hurl law right, I mean I helped over the house,
Speaker 11: I believe, and dinner with it.
Speaker 9: She talks about going to college. Yeah, she coming iron
Speaker 9: and I mean to go through a computer she was
Speaker 9: looking at work at HOS.
Speaker 1: Brittany Drexel was born on October seventh, nineteen ninety one,
Speaker 1: and she had two younger half siblings. All of them
Speaker 1: were raised Bytney's mother, Dawn and her adoptive dad, Chad.
Speaker 1: The Drexel family lived in a middle class suburb of Rochester,
Speaker 1: New York. Throughout her life, Brittany dealt with a condition
Speaker 1: known as persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous. I think I said
Speaker 1: that right. It's a mouthful, but in short, Brittany was
Speaker 1: blind in her right eye, and she often wore contact
Speaker 1: lenses to mask the fact that one of her eyes
Speaker 1: would sometimes wander. By two thousand and nine, Brittany was
Speaker 1: in her junior year at Gates Chile High School, where
Speaker 1: she played soccer and loved it. With her senior year
Speaker 1: just around the corner, Brittany was starting to think about college.
Speaker 1: She planned to continue dating John Greco and hopefully attend
Speaker 1: nursing school in whatever area John ended up going to college.
Speaker 1: In April of that year, Brittany's high school let out
Speaker 1: for spring break, and Brittany told John that she was
Speaker 1: planning a vacation to Myrtle Beach with friends. She invited
Speaker 1: John to go with them, but John's work schedule didn't
Speaker 1: make that possible. When Brittany told her mom about her
Speaker 1: vacation plans, Don Drexel quickly shut those plans down.
Speaker 12: She asked me if she could go and I told
Speaker 12: her no, and she asked me why. I said, because
Speaker 12: I don't know the kids you're going with. I don't
Speaker 12: there's no parental supervision, and something's going to happen.
Speaker 1: Understandably, don Drexel wasn't about to let her seventeen year
Speaker 1: old daughter drive down to Myrtle Beach without any adults.
Speaker 1: That would be stupid. This led to a heated argument
Speaker 1: between her and Brittany that ended up with Brittany storming
Speaker 1: out of the house.
Speaker 9: I picked up her house that she's gone with.
Speaker 5: It was a huge argument if.
Speaker 11: She actually ran away from her house, and I think
Speaker 11: she's really.
Speaker 9: She said, I'm going to Myrtle. I don't care what
Speaker 9: my parents say.
Speaker 11: I'm going. I agree that you need a break because
Speaker 11: her family life is terrible. It's absolutely he worked.
Speaker 9: I've seen this all. My mom has been going off
Speaker 9: without a year. Yes, her and her mom never really
Speaker 9: saw I.
Speaker 11: That I've known her, and that's typical her, Okay, but
Speaker 11: it was a little bit more sting because her.
Speaker 13: Hands are going to divorce. I mean, I'm not saying
Speaker 13: to show anybody under the bus with his parents because
Speaker 13: your parents really don't care about her. Obviously, it's all
Speaker 13: going through a difficult time too, you know.
Speaker 9: Oh everything is.
Speaker 1: Don and Chad Drexel were in the middle of a
Speaker 1: divorce and Brittany was having an especially hard time dealing
Speaker 1: with the whole thing. Her boyfriend John was aware of that,
Speaker 1: so he encouraged Brittany to go down to Myrtle Beach,
Speaker 1: clear her head, have some fun and just relax. So
Speaker 1: Brittany lied to her mom and told her that she
Speaker 1: would be spending spring break at a friend's house in Rochester.
Speaker 1: Then Brittany linked up with two of her girlfriends and
Speaker 1: the three of them made the fourteen hour drive to
Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach.
Speaker 14: How did she end up coming down here with you, folks?
Speaker 15: She was originally supposed to go with another group of guys,
Speaker 15: and then one of them veiled out to have enough
Speaker 15: money and the other she didn't have cars, so and
Speaker 15: then she like asked to come with us.
Speaker 5: When did you get here?
Speaker 16: Thursday?
Speaker 17: Around like nine time in the morning.
Speaker 11: Okay, and model until yesterday.
Speaker 14: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Brittany and her friends stayed at the Bar Harbor Motel.
Speaker 1: But these two friends were more acquaintances to Brittany than
Speaker 1: anything else. The three of them had partied with each
Speaker 1: other before, but they weren't exactly close, and they didn't
Speaker 1: stick together during the time at the beach. Instead, Brittany
Speaker 1: met up with different friends from Rochester while she was there.
Speaker 1: On the night before Brittany planned to return home, she
Speaker 1: left her hotel to meet up with these other friends.
Speaker 1: As she did this, Brittany was wearing a pair of
Speaker 1: shorts that didn't belong to her.
Speaker 15: Okay earlier and on to get her say, and then
Speaker 15: I was like, I'm my breast were fire farms to
Speaker 15: war the other night?
Speaker 17: She said, she went job there.
Speaker 16: We were in a field.
Speaker 1: Brittany received a text message from her friend asking her
Speaker 1: to return the shorts she was wearing. Brittany agreed to
Speaker 1: come back to their hotel to drop them off, but
Speaker 1: Brittany never made it there.
Speaker 17: No, so then we weren't down there.
Speaker 14: She wasn't there.
Speaker 15: Be how text messages of the night she never came
Speaker 15: back to, or maybe that she'd come back in the
Speaker 15: morning she went out with company.
Speaker 1: After Brittany was reported missing, Myrtle Beach detectives were able
Speaker 1: to confirm that Brittany did arrive at and then leave
Speaker 1: the Blue Water Resort hotel. Which was where her other
Speaker 1: Rochester friends were staying. The surveillance camera in the lobby
Speaker 1: captured Brittany walking in and then a few moments later
Speaker 1: walking out. Presumably Brittany was on her way back to
Speaker 1: her own hotel to drop off the shorts.
Speaker 8: We know when she leaves the Blue Water because at
Speaker 8: eight forty eight pm we get to see mister Exel
Speaker 8: leaves the Blue Water and we know she's perfectly fine
Speaker 8: at that time, and that's the last time that we
Speaker 8: get to lay eyes on the the Brittany DRUGSLM.
Speaker 1: The surveillance footage from the Bluewater Resort Hotel was the
Speaker 1: last known sighting of Brittany. From that point, nobody seemed
Speaker 1: to know where she went or why she never arrived
Speaker 1: back at her hotel. That surveillance footage was captured on
Speaker 1: the evening of April twenty fifth, two thousand and nine.
Speaker 1: It would take Myrtle Beach investigators and the FBI thirteen
Speaker 1: years to determine what happened after Brittany left the Blue
Speaker 1: Water Resort hotel. In April of twenty twenty two, these
Speaker 1: authorities revealed to Brittany's family and the public that when
Speaker 1: Brittany left the hotel, she had the horrible misfortune of
Speaker 1: crossing paths with a monster. In April of two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine, seventeen year old Brittany Drexel was vacationing in
Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for spring break. Brittany was from Rochester,
Speaker 1: New York shout out WATP, and she had traveled to
Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach with two girlfriends even though her mom had
Speaker 1: forbidden Brittany from going there. Brittany's boyfriend, John Greco, stayed
Speaker 1: in Rochester because he had to work that week, but
Speaker 1: he was in constant contact with Brittany while she was
Speaker 1: in South Carolina. The couple texted each other continuously, according
Speaker 1: to John. As spring break was winding down, Brittany reflected
Speaker 1: on her vacation and realized that she really hadn't enjoyed herself.
Speaker 1: She felt isolated by her friends and was eager to
Speaker 1: come home.
Speaker 11: She said that she really wasn't wrong because I wasn't
Speaker 11: found there with them. She said that she really looking a.
Speaker 9: Lot and that her friends would being terrible to her.
Speaker 9: The friend that she came downdy coming down.
Speaker 1: During her time at Myrtle Beach, Brittany separated from the
Speaker 1: girls she traveled with and linked up with other friends
Speaker 1: from Rochester who were also vacationing there. On the night
Speaker 1: before Brittany planned to return home, she walked about a
Speaker 1: mile from her hotel to the Blue Water Resort hotel,
Speaker 1: where these other friends were staying. But after she got there,
Speaker 1: Brittany was called back to her hotel to return a
Speaker 1: pair of shorts.
Speaker 8: There was a discussion about wearing a pair of black
Speaker 8: shorts that another friend of hers was going to wear
Speaker 8: that night, and then she needed to get back to the.
Speaker 3: Bar harbor to take those shorts backs or a friend
Speaker 3: could wear them.
Speaker 8: We know this also because fortunately, I'm like so many
Speaker 8: teenagers in this eight age.
Speaker 3: She loves to use her cell phone and she loves
Speaker 3: a text message.
Speaker 1: Brittany walked along the Myrtle Beach strip back towards her hotel,
Speaker 1: all the while she was texting her boyfriend, but their
Speaker 1: text exchanges abruptly stopped. Brittany was no longer responding the last.
Speaker 9: I patched back and forth where her coming. She hated
Speaker 9: it down there. She excremely avid her friend that.
Speaker 5: She was really outrack.
Speaker 9: So I touched her you know, be right, one more
Speaker 9: data to good night.
Speaker 8: Her last text message acknowledges that she's on the way
Speaker 8: back to the hotel and she's going to see him
Speaker 8: for the night because she's going back to Rochester the
Speaker 8: next day.
Speaker 3: That's the last.
Speaker 8: Electronic communication we know of family and friends. Within seven
Speaker 8: to fifteen minutes, right away realized because she used her
Speaker 8: phone so much that.
Speaker 3: That she wasn't communicating. They became concerned and wored about it.
Speaker 8: And the text message continue and continue, Brittany, where are you?
Speaker 3: Are you okay? Are you okay? She never responds.
Speaker 1: After about an hour of waiting for Brittany to respond,
Speaker 1: John decided to tell Brittany's mom that he couldn't reach her.
Speaker 1: At the time, Don Drexel didn't know that Brittany was
Speaker 1: six states away in South Carolina. As far as she knew,
Speaker 1: Brittany was spending the weekend at a nearby friend's house
Speaker 1: in Rochester.
Speaker 12: We didn't find out that she was there until Saturday
Speaker 12: evening when I got a phone call you know stating
Speaker 12: that from John Greco that her which is her boyfriend,
Speaker 12: stating that she was in South Carolina and that they
Speaker 12: couldn't find her.
Speaker 1: After don Drexel was told that her daughter was in
Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach, she spent the night trying to reach Brittany.
Speaker 1: For the first few hours, her phone calls rang several
Speaker 1: times before going to voicemail, but eventually they started going
Speaker 1: straight to voicemail. This was obviously concerning, especially because Brittany
Speaker 1: was known for being glued to her phone. The next morning,
Speaker 1: Down and Brittany's boyfriend drove to Myrtle Beach, where they
Speaker 1: spoke with local authorities after learning about the strained relationship
Speaker 1: between Brittany and her mom. The prominent assumption among investigators
Speaker 1: was that Brittany had simply run away, but John Greco
Speaker 1: insisted that Brittany wouldn't do that without contacting them.
Speaker 9: She did not run, I think be suld you rule
Speaker 9: out a relation to certain in her hand. She could
Speaker 9: not not have come with.
Speaker 1: Brittany's boyfriend was concerned that Brittany might have accepted a
Speaker 1: ride from someone while walking back to her hotel, and
Speaker 1: maybe whoever that someone was had bad intentions. John knew
Speaker 1: that Brittany was overly trusting and often impulsive, a very
Speaker 1: bad combination, and he feared that she might have gotten
Speaker 1: into a car with strangers or a stranger extremely coughing.
Speaker 10: That's what's very new and something offers. They drink and
Speaker 10: arrived in for a group of good looking white guys.
Speaker 10: They had a nice something and said, hey, you got
Speaker 10: all right? We got drinks do here. She did play
Speaker 10: very corgized when it.
Speaker 9: Comes to that.
Speaker 1: Shortly after investigators began their search for Brittany, they learned
Speaker 1: that John's theory may not have been far fetched. Cell
Speaker 1: phone data and cell towers were used to track Brittany's movements.
Speaker 1: This data revealed that shortly after Brittany's last text message
Speaker 1: to John, her cell phone began moving much faster.
Speaker 8: That phone is moving fifty five to sixty five miles
Speaker 8: an hour southbound, heading down towards the pole Yard by
Speaker 8: that time, by ten oh one pm, her phone, beyond
Speaker 8: any reasonable battle is native to Georgetown.
Speaker 3: We don't know where she is.
Speaker 8: That we make the circumstantial assumption that she is with
Speaker 8: her phone, and the phone ultimately comes stationary around around
Speaker 8: the Poleyard landing More Santina River area for whatever reason.
Speaker 8: At eleven fifty eight PM is the last ping contact
Speaker 8: that we have at that phone. After that, all that
Speaker 8: source of information is exhausted as a relation to her phone.
Speaker 1: Brittany's phone pinged for the last time off of cell
Speaker 1: tower in Georgetown, about forty miles south of Myrtle Beach.
Speaker 1: While Georgetown is a city, the particular area of that
Speaker 1: cell tower was quite isolated, rural, and extremely swampy. It
Speaker 1: was a location where you're likely to find hunters, fishermen,
Speaker 1: wild boars, snakes, and giant house flies, all the great
Speaker 1: things that make the South the South. It certainly wasn't
Speaker 1: a place that a seventeen year old girl on spring
Speaker 1: break would likely want a visit. Within twelve hours of
Speaker 1: Brittany's disappearance, this isolated area of Georgetown was descended upon
Speaker 1: by multiple law enforcement agencies and volunteers. Large search parties
Speaker 1: combed through thick brush and waded through alligator infested swamps
Speaker 1: in hopes of finding Brittany or at least some sign
Speaker 1: of her. Unfortunately, they came up mostly empty handed. The
Speaker 1: only thing of note that was ever found was a
Speaker 1: pair of knockoff produce sunglasses, which may or may not
Speaker 1: have belonged to Brittany.
Speaker 8: Many many volunteer organizations were come in the woods in
Speaker 8: the area around the pole yard ran.
Speaker 3: During that period of time, all of.
Speaker 8: Our local law enforcementations, the Sheriff's Apartment, Merby's Police Apartment FBI.
Speaker 3: Were working and searching and hopes that we could turn them.
Speaker 3: As the months went by, it became were more concerning.
Speaker 3: If there were no concrete ladies to determine where exactly
Speaker 3: she went.
Speaker 8: We knew off the phone where we really didn't have
Speaker 8: anything else, So the investigation turned a known associates video,
Speaker 8: anything we could do to try to find out what happened.
Speaker 1: Investigators eventually turned their attention to the friends that Brittany
Speaker 1: met up with at Myrtle Beach Again. Brittany didn't spend
Speaker 1: much time with the girlfriends that she shared a hotel with. Instead,
Speaker 1: she met with other friends from Rochester who were also
Speaker 1: going on spring break. One of these friends was a
Speaker 1: young man named Pete Brosowitz.
Speaker 15: I don't know him personally, but I know of him
Speaker 15: to Rochester, so.
Speaker 7: He didn't come down with no she When we all
Speaker 7: went out.
Speaker 17: I don't remember if it was Thursday or Saturday. He
Speaker 17: left us sixth night, and she left everybody she loved
Speaker 17: with him.
Speaker 16: He invited her own in her.
Speaker 17: Until I at fires and staff.
Speaker 1: Twenty year old Pete Brosowitz lived in Rochester, New York,
Speaker 1: and worked as a nightclub promoter for his parents' company.
Speaker 1: He was the kind of guy you might find on
Speaker 1: an episode of The Jersey Shore if you watch that
Speaker 1: sort of trash. You know the type, spiky gelled hair,
Speaker 1: popped collar, overly proud of his bottle of Captain Morgan.
Speaker 1: That kind of guy. Pete knew Brittany Drexel, and when
Speaker 1: he ran into her at a club at Myrtle Beach,
Speaker 1: he seemingly took a lot of interest in her. According
Speaker 1: to Brittany's friends, Pete invited her to a VIP area
Speaker 1: of the club and feed her drinks. The next day,
Speaker 1: Brittany went missing after leaving Pete's hotel room suspiciously. When
Speaker 1: the hours of Brittany's disappearance, Pete drove back to Rochester.
Speaker 1: He left Myrtle Beach at two o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: and had seemingly done so in a hurry. Hmm curious.
Speaker 1: He left behind belongings and a hotel deposit, so concerning.
Speaker 1: As soon as he got back to Rochester, Pete hired
Speaker 1: a criminal defense attorney Huh.
Speaker 18: Myrtle Beach police say Peter Brosowitz was one of the
Speaker 18: last people to see Britney Drexel before she walked out
Speaker 18: of the Bluewater resort and disappeared. Rumors swirled about his behavior,
Speaker 18: and Drexel's mother, Dawn, even wrote a letter to our
Speaker 18: sister station in Myrtle Beach, questioning if he told police everything.
Speaker 18: In the letter, she accuses Brosowitz of going home to
Speaker 18: Rochester just hours after Drexel disappeared. She alleges he left
Speaker 18: his belongings and a deposit behind and gave multiple stories
Speaker 18: about what happened. According to the letter, Brozowitz quickly hired
Speaker 18: an attorney and displayed no empathy or concern.
Speaker 19: The letter reads, my daughter.
Speaker 18: Made mistakes, and one of the largest ones she ever
Speaker 18: made was when she trusted this group of people with
Speaker 18: her life.
Speaker 1: When the police and the media questioned Pete about Brittany's disappearance,
Speaker 1: it claimed that the last time he saw he was
Speaker 1: when Brittany left his ho tel room.
Speaker 20: The last time I saw her she came up to
Speaker 20: our hotel room. We were watching the Yankees Red Sox game,
Speaker 20: and she was on the phone arguing with her friend
Speaker 20: Jan about returning a pair of shorts. She said, I'll
Speaker 20: give you a call later if I want to come
Speaker 20: out and party, and she walked out, and that's the
Speaker 20: last time I saw her.
Speaker 1: Pete was heavily scrutinized by Brittany's friends, family, and media.
Speaker 1: His attitude and personality made him an easy target. Still,
Speaker 1: the scrutiny of this young man wasn't completely unjustified. After all,
Speaker 1: he gave a seventeen year old girl alcohol, invited her
Speaker 1: to his room, and allowed her to walk the Myrtle
Speaker 1: Beach Strip by herself. Not exactly a modeled citizen.
Speaker 20: Okay, First of all, I did talk to Brittany about
Speaker 20: why she was walking the strip by herself, and earlier
Speaker 20: that day, you know, he said, oh, for the last
Speaker 20: three nights, I walk by myself.
Speaker 1: Oh, it doesn't bother me.
Speaker 20: I'm fine, I'm like and I'm like, well, I didn't
Speaker 20: even go anywhere by myself because it's it's pretty bad
Speaker 20: down there.
Speaker 21: I'm not I'm on spring break.
Speaker 20: I'm not there to babysit anybody.
Speaker 1: During his media interviews, Pete didn't do himself any favors.
Speaker 1: He came across as arrogant and didn't seem to care
Speaker 1: about Britney's well being at all, though he did have
Speaker 1: a plausible explanation for why he left Myrtle Beach when
Speaker 1: he did.
Speaker 20: As anything, I'm from New York Rochester. It's a you know,
Speaker 20: a fourteen fifteen hour drive. We're there for a whole week.
Speaker 20: Our checkout time was in the morning, Sunday morning, so
Speaker 20: we decided to leave at two o'clock, because why would
Speaker 20: you want to leave Sunday in the middle of a
Speaker 20: day when it's a tourist town.
Speaker 1: According to Pete, he left Myrtle Beach at two am
Speaker 1: simply because he wanted to beat the traffic. Makes sense.
Speaker 1: I guess most some of us have done some early
Speaker 1: morning driving to beat rush hour, right, but two in
Speaker 1: the morning it's a weird time to suddenly pack up
Speaker 1: and go. While still keeping an eye on Pete and
Speaker 1: attempting to verify or discredit his story, investigators also looked
Speaker 1: at several registered sex offenders in the Myrtle Beach area.
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, there's quite a few of them.
Speaker 1: There was one in particular that caught their attention, though,
Speaker 1: forty nine year old Raymond Douglas Moody.
Speaker 22: Now taking a look at Moody's record, he's got quite
Speaker 22: a pass. He's a registered sex offender for things that
Speaker 22: happened while he was out in California, in which he
Speaker 22: was charged with committing a leude act on a minor
Speaker 22: under the age of fourteen. He also was charged with
Speaker 22: asrodomy with a child under the age of fourteen, rape
Speaker 22: and kidnapping to commit rape.
Speaker 23: Now for those charges, he went to prison for twenty years.
Speaker 22: Last August to Georgetown County Police and the South Carolina
Speaker 22: Law Enforcement Division searched an apartment did they say that
Speaker 22: Moody lived in at or around the time when Brittany
Speaker 22: went missing. The apartment was at the Sunset Lodge Hotel
Speaker 22: in Georgetown, which is pretty close to the cell phone
Speaker 22: tower where Britney's cell phone last and gave off signal.
Speaker 1: Like Pete Brosowitz, Raymond Moody was heavily scrutinized by the
Speaker 1: media after being named as a person of interest. In fact,
Speaker 1: one reporter went to Moody's work and shoved a camera
Speaker 1: in his face. Do you know anything about the missing teenager?
Speaker 24: Well?
Speaker 23: I do not.
Speaker 3: Can you tell us where you were?
Speaker 5: Back in April of nine.
Speaker 10: Good bye.
Speaker 23: Do you know what? Can you go?
Speaker 5: Fine?
Speaker 8: Do you tell us where you were on it?
Speaker 21: Bye?
Speaker 12: April of nine?
Speaker 3: Goodbye?
Speaker 22: Can you say it's a couple pluses?
Speaker 25: Right?
Speaker 3: Can we talk to you for a minute the police?
Speaker 3: You better split? Can I got nothing to say?
Speaker 19: Don you understand that?
Speaker 1: In most cases, I'd say it's completely unacceptable for a
Speaker 1: news outlet to go to someone's job and put them
Speaker 1: on the spot like that. But Ray Moody was a
Speaker 1: convicted sex offender that raped a child, so fuck them.
Speaker 1: In any event, The police had two potential suspects in
Speaker 1: Brasuwitz and Moody, but in both cases they couldn't find
Speaker 1: any significant evidence to link either one of them to
Speaker 1: Britney's disappearance. Typically, when a teenager goes missing, the truth
Speaker 1: about what happened to them comes out pretty quickly. Rarely
Speaker 1: these days do these kinds of cases drag on. But
Speaker 1: that was unfortunately exactly what happened here. The investigation into
Speaker 1: Brittany Drexel's disappearance lasted for years, all the while Brittany's
Speaker 1: mom pleaded for her daughter's safe return.
Speaker 12: Please give us back our daughter. I mean, we have
Speaker 12: so many people that loved Brittany and her brother and
Speaker 12: sister miss her dearly. It hurts me very much when
Speaker 12: I see her. Younger brother and sister asked me. You know,
Speaker 12: they say, Mommy, please bring Brittany home. We miss her,
Speaker 12: we love her. Brittany may be scared. I don't know
Speaker 12: what the you know, I don't know what they may
Speaker 12: have done. If someone does have her, you know, I
Speaker 12: want them to return her home. She's ours and we
Speaker 12: need her.
Speaker 1: In June of twenty sixteen, over seven years since Brittany
Speaker 1: went missing, investigators seemingly got a break in the case.
Speaker 1: A prison inmate and FBI informant in South Carolina came
Speaker 1: forward and claimed to know what happened to Britney Drexel.
Speaker 1: This informant told investigators that Brittany was abducted and taken
Speaker 1: to a drug stash house. Once there, she was raped
Speaker 1: and murdered.
Speaker 19: In open court, an FBI agent testifies an informant Salt
Speaker 19: and others raped the young girl at a drug stash house,
Speaker 19: then she was killed and her body dumped into an
Speaker 19: alligator pit.
Speaker 1: According to the FBI, their informant named twenty year old
Speaker 1: tim Deshaun Taylor as the culprit behind Brittany's disappearance and murder.
Speaker 1: Tim had a criminal history and was arrested in twenty
Speaker 1: eleven for acting as a getaway driver for an armed robbery.
Speaker 1: He pled guilty to multiple charges and was sentenced to
Speaker 1: eighteen years of probation, but these charges were only resolved
Speaker 1: in state court. After the informant named Tim accused him
Speaker 1: of being responsible for the killing of Brittany Drexel. The
Speaker 1: FBI charged Tim federally for the same crime so that
Speaker 1: they could arrest him and question him, which is bullshit.
Speaker 1: The FBI shouldn't be allowed to do that if you
Speaker 1: believe in the constitution. That is, in any event, just
Speaker 1: like Pete Broswitz and Raymond Moody before him, the media
Speaker 1: dug their claws into Tim DeShawn Taylor, so they.
Speaker 24: Arrested you for this conspiracy. Regarding this prior, he said,
Speaker 24: you had already been convicted of a state court. Yes, sir,
Speaker 24: And were they asking you about that case?
Speaker 9: Not at all. What were they asking about Britta Drexel?
Speaker 3: Did you find that straining?
Speaker 1: Yes, sir?
Speaker 3: Did you kill Britney Drexel?
Speaker 9: No, sir.
Speaker 24: Were you involved in the kidnapping of Britney Drexel. Were
Speaker 24: you with Britney Drexel the nighte she was she disappeared
Speaker 24: in April of two thousand and nine.
Speaker 1: No, Sir Tim claimed that before Britney Drexel's disappearance, he
Speaker 1: didn't even know who she was and that he had
Speaker 1: never been in her presence. He explained that everything he
Speaker 1: knew about Brittany came from the authorities and the media.
Speaker 24: You heard the allegations from this informant. He says he
Speaker 24: saw you in this stash house sexual assaulting Britney Drexel.
Speaker 24: You know, recounts this whole detailed story. What do you
Speaker 24: What do you have to say about that story?
Speaker 26: There's not then too much that I can say about
Speaker 26: the story. I just think it was not true. It's
Speaker 26: very very disorientated.
Speaker 1: Okay, Forrest, why don't you tell us about your chocolates now?
Speaker 24: Anything that you would want to say to the family
Speaker 24: of Britney Drexel.
Speaker 9: I would tell him deeply.
Speaker 26: I apologize for their loss, and I sincerely do apologize
Speaker 26: for their loss, and I honestly hope that they find
Speaker 26: who've done this and give them justice. But I honestly
Speaker 26: don't have anything or have any information to help them,
Speaker 26: because I honestly don't know anything.
Speaker 1: Tim was unwavering in his denial, and once again, the
Speaker 1: authorities were unable to find any significant evidence to charge
Speaker 1: him with any crimes related to Britney Drexel. More than
Speaker 1: a decade after Britney's disappearance, the case remained unsolved and
Speaker 1: quite cold. The Myrtle Beach Police and the FBI still
Speaker 1: had no answers for Brittany's mom.
Speaker 20: Because I told them, I said, look, I said, Brittany
Speaker 20: didn't just to scare up these there.
Speaker 16: She's down there somewhere. I mean, it's surprising that, you know,
Speaker 16: none of the hunters or anything like that during hunting
Speaker 16: season ever came.
Speaker 9: Across any remains or anything like that, you know what
Speaker 9: I mean.
Speaker 16: I'm just so frustrated. I mean, at this point, it's
Speaker 16: just it's.
Speaker 12: Just I want answers, and they better start coming, you know,
Speaker 12: because you know, because to me, I mean, you know,
Speaker 12: I've been in this for a long.
Speaker 16: Time, right along with you guys.
Speaker 1: Don Drexel was desperate, and who could blame her. Her
Speaker 1: daughter left the house one day and never came home,
Speaker 1: and nobody seemed to know where she went. Or why
Speaker 1: what a nightmare can you imagine? In her desperation and
Speaker 1: given the authorities were unable to provide any answers, Dawn
Speaker 1: turned to the unorthodox and spoke to several self proclaimed psychics.
Speaker 1: One psychic told Down that Brittany was still alive and
Speaker 1: that she was being held captive by a clean cut
Speaker 1: man in his late twenties.
Speaker 17: She had stated it Britney or when she was reading it.
Speaker 17: She says she was randomly targeted. She says there was
Speaker 17: a man setting in his chair offering the girls.
Speaker 16: Offering them a joint.
Speaker 17: She had said something about a drugphyut in.
Speaker 27: The drink, but she wasn't.
Speaker 17: Sure if it may have been a mixed drink or
Speaker 17: maybe just a coke or something like that.
Speaker 16: She heard what she was instructed.
Speaker 17: He had made it, this gentleman that when she was
Speaker 17: talking about Hidney contacts with all three of these girls,
Speaker 17: he was watching her out. Okay, he's the young, he
Speaker 17: is clean cut, and she looks like he's in the
Speaker 17: age of twenty five to twenty eight. She is in
Speaker 17: love with her. She doesn't want to hurt her. She
Speaker 17: wants to make her his princess.
Speaker 1: I'd like to take this opportunity to say, fuck these people.
Speaker 1: If someone wants to play make believe, pretend they have
Speaker 1: magic thinking powers and con gullible people out of their money.
Speaker 1: Gullible usually broke people, I might add, well, that's just
Speaker 1: fucking gross. You're a piece of shit. Do you hear me,
Speaker 1: I'm talking to you, psychic, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know
Speaker 1: your magic crystals tell you things. I know you can
Speaker 1: hear the voice of your grandfather or some shit. That's
Speaker 1: because you're mentally ill. Got it, good, Let's continue. When
Speaker 1: you start blatantly lying and giving made up false hope
Speaker 1: to desperate parents or suffering some very very real pain,
Speaker 1: you've crossed the line of being a swindler, a grifter,
Speaker 1: a whatever you want to call it, and now you've
Speaker 1: become a full blown, absolute fucking monster. Shame on you
Speaker 1: if you even know what that word means. These so
Speaker 1: called psychics are sick people with no empathy, and they
Speaker 1: should be called out at every fucking turn. Listen to
Speaker 1: the desperation in Don Drexel's voice. Listen to the desperation
Speaker 1: of this mother who would do anything to find her
Speaker 1: missing daughter, and this piece of shit comes by to
Speaker 1: grift on that How could anyone listen to that desperation
Speaker 1: and decide to take advantage of it. It's just shameless.
Speaker 17: She's a well known, normal person.
Speaker 7: Believe me, I don't believe in but you know why,
Speaker 7: you can.
Speaker 16: Give me some powers of my daughter and every single
Speaker 16: one that we talked.
Speaker 17: She's alive.
Speaker 7: But I mean are making her? I mean I was
Speaker 7: watching her you see before?
Speaker 16: Yeah, and then we're looking into you know, your mother
Speaker 16: leaking her you know, I mean, you know I want
Speaker 16: to pay her for my yars.
Speaker 7: You had a name, you know.
Speaker 1: For thirteen years, don Drexel did all she could in
Speaker 1: hopes of one day being reunited with her daughter. For
Speaker 1: thirteen years, she searched relentlessly for answers. Then in April
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty two, she finally got some of those answers. Unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: they didn't come from a psychic. They came from the
Speaker 1: girlfriend of the murderer. They came from the woman who
Speaker 1: was dating Brittany Drexel's killer. By April of twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: thirteen years had passed since seventeen year old Britney Drexel
Speaker 1: went missing while on spring break in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Speaker 1: Throughout the investigation, the local police and FBI took a
Speaker 1: close look at several potential suspects, one of which was
Speaker 1: Pete Brazowitz. Pete was twenty years old when Brittany went missing,
Speaker 1: and he was the last person to see her before
Speaker 1: she disappeared. Pete garnered a lot of suspicion through his actions.
Speaker 1: He left Myrtle Beach within hours of Britney's disappearance, and
Speaker 1: had seemingly done so in a hurry, leaving belongings and
Speaker 1: a hotel deposit behind. He also hired a criminal defense
Speaker 1: attorney when he returned to his home city of Rochester
Speaker 1: and New York, and seemed to show no concern for
Speaker 1: Britney's well being. Despite all this, authorities did eventually clear
Speaker 1: Pete as a potential suspect.
Speaker 18: Myrtle Beach police say Peter Brosowitz was one of the
Speaker 18: last people to see Britney Drexel before she walked out
Speaker 18: of the Bluewater resort and disappeared, But new emails we
Speaker 18: obtained detail why Myrtle Beach police say they eventually cleared him.
Speaker 18: Police say it wasn't Brozowitz's decision to go back to Rochester,
Speaker 18: and that while he did leave clothes behind, it was
Speaker 18: only wet bathing suits on the balcony, and the emails
Speaker 18: show they were at a party at Coastal Carolina, all
Speaker 18: while Drexel's phone was heading south. Police also found nothing
Speaker 18: suspicious in their room or cars. Eventually, authorities announced another
Speaker 18: suspect in the case.
Speaker 1: Years later, the FBI began investigating a young man named
Speaker 1: Tim DeShawn Taylor, who was named as Brittany's kidnapper and
Speaker 1: murderer by an FBI informant. Eventually, it was determined that
Speaker 1: this information was not true at all, and Tim had
Speaker 1: nothing to do with Britney Drexel at all. Despite this,
Speaker 1: the FBI never publicly set the record straight, and a
Speaker 1: cloud of suspicion followed Tim for years.
Speaker 19: Tim was never charged in the Drexel case, but for
Speaker 19: the next six years, the court of public opinion presumed
Speaker 19: he was guilty.
Speaker 21: They wanted so badly for this to be Timothy and
Speaker 21: his submedia didn't look for anybody else. It didn't look
Speaker 21: for the real killers.
Speaker 19: Britney's father was horrified that the FBI had let them
Speaker 19: believe Tim Taylor was responsible for all of these.
Speaker 3: Years the FBI specifically that they killed her.
Speaker 28: This is how they did and she's dead and oh yeah,
Speaker 28: by the way, this really didn't happen five years later.
Speaker 1: Think about that one.
Speaker 4: That's where I get heeded?
Speaker 29: Are you?
Speaker 3: And they don't even want to talk about it.
Speaker 1: The accusations that the FBI made about Tim reaked havoc
Speaker 1: on Tim's life and the lives of his family members.
Speaker 1: But the FBI maintained that they did nothing wrong. And
Speaker 1: I mean, let's face it, who do they have to
Speaker 1: answer to anyway, So yeah, go fuck yourself.
Speaker 20: It wouldn't really be anything that the FBI would need
Speaker 20: to apologize for because we didn't.
Speaker 30: We didn't leak that information.
Speaker 3: We're just exploring a whole investigative.
Speaker 19: They didn't leak the information, They set it in open
Speaker 19: chort and never set the record straight, even after dropping
Speaker 19: Tim as a suspect.
Speaker 21: If they would take the time, they wouldn't know us
Speaker 21: a lot to apologize. We lost livelihood, we lost income,
Speaker 21: I lost my job. They blasted us all over the world,
Speaker 21: and you just don't do it as somebody will walk away.
Speaker 1: The disappearance of Brittany Drexel had a ripple effect that
Speaker 1: devastated countless lives, and for over a decade there was
Speaker 1: still no explanation of what happened to her. Then, finally,
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, Myrtle Beach detectives were able to
Speaker 1: crack the case. In April of that year, they were
Speaker 1: able to speak to a fifty four year old woman
Speaker 1: named Angel Vaz. According to yet another informant, there's lots
Speaker 1: of them. I guess maybe everybody's an informant anyway. According
Speaker 1: to yet another informant, during a night of heavy drinking,
Speaker 1: Angel confessed to killing Brittany.
Speaker 8: A confidential source to come forward to law enforcement and
Speaker 8: said that an intoxicated Angel Lass had made shockingly shocking
Speaker 8: admissions to them, specifically claiming that she was concerned about
Speaker 8: Raymond constantly being accused of things that he didn't do.
Speaker 8: As a matter of fact, she knows he didn't do
Speaker 8: it because she killed were and Raymond held hid the body.
Speaker 1: Angel Oz was the girlfriend of Raymond Douglas Moody, who
Speaker 1: was another potential suspect that the police had not crossed
Speaker 1: off their list. Moody was a registered sex offender who
Speaker 1: had spent twenty years in prison for raping a child
Speaker 1: in California in two thousand and nine, when Britney Drexel
Speaker 1: went missing. Moody was living in an apartment not far
Speaker 1: from where Brittany's cell phone signal died. After the police
Speaker 1: were made aware of the admission that Angel made about Brittany,
Speaker 1: they questioned her about them. At least they tried to.
Speaker 6: During the course of our investigation, we were able to
Speaker 6: interced conversation between individuals, and these individuals was the person
Speaker 6: that was responsible?
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, I saw how I'm gonna do it. I'm
Speaker 5: going to read to you a couple of clothes.
Speaker 7: What if you try to accuse you anything involved in
Speaker 7: and I say he didn't, Okay, I say he didn't
Speaker 7: know about I'm not here, you are. That's what that
Speaker 7: was about me. I'm straight No, I'm straightforward to I
Speaker 7: don't think you did, and you're not very involved in.
Speaker 9: It with it?
Speaker 7: No, I'm not getting no, please, no, I got no.
Speaker 1: Before investigators could read the admissions that Angel allegedly made
Speaker 1: to their informant, Angel stormed out of the interview room.
Speaker 16: No.
Speaker 1: Within minutes, she was convinced to go back inside, and
Speaker 1: the questioning continued.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I did say what I see and I was
Speaker 7: talking to care and a friend of mine and I
Speaker 7: was highly dropping it hour and I drinking and she
Speaker 7: kept asking me what he's about Ray and everybody that
Speaker 7: I was a king and Ray. So yeah, I did
Speaker 7: say nothing. No, I would never heard of anybody. No, no,
Speaker 7: don't know, no truth. But I don't know if it
Speaker 7: was that night, Like.
Speaker 5: There's no chance of getting an information.
Speaker 7: Don't want to promise you with my children's life. When
Speaker 7: I lost the son of the guard, I don't know
Speaker 7: where I don't want.
Speaker 1: According to Angel, the only reason she confessed to killing
Speaker 1: Brittany was so that people would stop accusing her boyfriend
Speaker 1: Raymond Moody. Sounds like a solid plan. Angel claimed that
Speaker 1: she had no idea what happened to Brittany, but based
Speaker 1: on her earlier admissions, the FBI pursued her and conducted
Speaker 1: another search of the apartment that she shared with Moody.
Speaker 1: During that search, something interesting happened.
Speaker 8: Nothing ab evidentry value was particularly found in the search
Speaker 8: warm and what did happen is there was a face
Speaker 8: to face conversation with mister Mudy and that BI agent's
Speaker 8: concerning the direction of the investigation and the effort of
Speaker 8: building a case towards MISSUS laws based on that, mister
Speaker 8: Moody had retained an attorney and agreed to coming to
Speaker 8: how to set down discussion with.
Speaker 3: Law enforcement OFSTROS concerning his involvement in.
Speaker 1: That Since the FEDS were pursuing his girlfriend, a now
Speaker 1: sixty two year old Raymond Moody finally decided to come clean.
Speaker 1: Throughout multiple interviews with authorities, Moody described the night that
Speaker 1: he came upon Britney Drexel.
Speaker 3: He told this story.
Speaker 5: The only person I've ever told this story too is
Speaker 5: my angel. Never even knew the real story.
Speaker 2: Anyway. Well, I was going down Ocean Boulevard and very
Speaker 2: slow driving. I was driving and uh, I'm pretty walking.
Speaker 2: She and I saw the jets were working on walking
Speaker 2: on the sidewalking. I was smoking pot. She knows that
Speaker 2: walked in through the dorm said.
Speaker 30: Something about us.
Speaker 3: I was likely we.
Speaker 10: Yeah, you want some?
Speaker 3: Sure?
Speaker 16: Damn?
Speaker 3: She hopped right in her back.
Speaker 5: Problem.
Speaker 3: Did she asked for a rider? Did you ask her
Speaker 3: for and you asked.
Speaker 4: Her if you wanted to ride?
Speaker 2: You remember, I was sure she might required this.
Speaker 3: Okay, She's sure when she had a vehicle with you know,
Speaker 3: it was for bad purpose.
Speaker 4: No, not at all.
Speaker 5: Had you even crossed my mind?
Speaker 9: Okay?
Speaker 1: According to Moody, he was driving on the main Myrtle
Speaker 1: Beach Strip with his girlfriend Angel, who was in the
Speaker 1: passenger seat. The traffic was so bad that night that
Speaker 1: they were only moving at a walking pace. Moody claimed
Speaker 1: that Brittany noticed them and from the sidewalk jokingly called
Speaker 1: them out for smoking pot. When Moody offered Britney some weed,
Speaker 1: she willingly climbed into the back seat of his suv. Supposedly,
Speaker 1: Angel didn't have a problem with this because she and
Speaker 1: Moody had an open relationship.
Speaker 5: To other plays like were you an Angel would be
Speaker 5: there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 14: She paid up, grew and we had done that before,
Speaker 14: so we ended up we end up relatively open entire relationship.
Speaker 14: We have very strust in relationship.
Speaker 1: Now that Moody was cooperating with the authorities, Angel Vaz
Speaker 1: did as well, and she also provided her version of
Speaker 1: what happened that night. According to both Angel and Moody,
Speaker 1: after Brittany got into the suv, the three of them
Speaker 1: drove to Georgetown. During that drive, they collectively got to
Speaker 1: know each other.
Speaker 7: I know there was a conversation like, hey, my name
Speaker 7: is so and so.
Speaker 5: You know, we introduced your sale.
Speaker 3: And then she said about where she's just from River,
Speaker 3: New York. That's about he is.
Speaker 6: And she says about where she.
Speaker 3: Went to Soul.
Speaker 7: What did show? She said, she was like eighteen or
Speaker 7: something like that, and you know, but it was.
Speaker 5: Just like manner party a little bit with this. We
Speaker 5: get some cocaine, you know.
Speaker 9: She sure.
Speaker 2: Driving, We're just driving around, was fucking talking. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: went right in Georgetown, went right. She spot where we
Speaker 2: used to camp out down by the river.
Speaker 1: Moody, Angel and Brittany arrived at a desolate campsite in Georgetown.
Speaker 1: Not long after they got their Angel recalled that her
Speaker 1: son had the keys to her apartment and she needed
Speaker 1: to get them before the night got ony. Later, I
Speaker 1: called my.
Speaker 9: Son, or he called me.
Speaker 3: I can't remember the called you, but he had the
Speaker 3: keys to the apartment. So after a little bit I
Speaker 3: walked back to call. We all walked back to where
Speaker 3: the like the.
Speaker 31: Car ripon parks and I said I had to meet
Speaker 31: him to get the keys, and h I said, out
Speaker 31: went back in a little while, and nobody said anything.
Speaker 32: Doesn't know all from anybody, Brian, And so you'll get
Speaker 32: in a car with her and you drive out fine,
Speaker 32: and then you have to leave, right, So what is
Speaker 32: that conversation?
Speaker 3: Well, I'd just say him in her I was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: well we're I'll staying there.
Speaker 7: When I left, I just said it up.
Speaker 12: I had you go to meet my son to get
Speaker 12: keys before he went back over to the races, and
Speaker 12: I just wanted me and.
Speaker 3: I got a car and drove off.
Speaker 1: Angel drove away, leaving seventeen year old Brittany alone with
Speaker 1: a forty nine year old convicted child rapist. Within ten
Speaker 1: minutes of Angel leaving, Raymond Moody was raping Brittany.
Speaker 5: When I made a decision? Did you have any inclination
Speaker 5: at that point? When Angel left?
Speaker 25: What was going to happen next?
Speaker 5: What can you describe it all? Just kind of what that?
Speaker 29: What happened there?
Speaker 25: Was it?
Speaker 3: I want the words in your mouth?
Speaker 25: But was it?
Speaker 23: Sunnan?
Speaker 9: There's something just like.
Speaker 5: I knew that I was that I wasn't really like
Speaker 5: I have that character at.
Speaker 1: Moody described that Brittany was terrified as he forced her
Speaker 1: to remove her clothes and that she tried to resist
Speaker 1: him as he raped her. When the assault ended, Moody
Speaker 1: realized that what he had done was probably going to
Speaker 1: put him back in prison for the rest of his life.
Speaker 1: The only way he might be able to protect himself
Speaker 1: was to silence Brittany forever. So he strangled her.
Speaker 25: To death and they take her clothes off.
Speaker 5: He is she saying?
Speaker 25: Specifically at that time she still did you start the
Speaker 25: aspxr Did something happen to stop that?
Speaker 23: I did?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 25: Yeah?
Speaker 14: Do you remember what she was like at a point
Speaker 14: after you rader?
Speaker 9: Or she.
Speaker 5: And then afterwards it happened?
Speaker 9: Did she?
Speaker 29: Did?
Speaker 14: She say?
Speaker 9: Like? What cost? Did it?
Speaker 5: Other than VERA had began?
Speaker 14: Because I started just playing the whole thing through my mind?
Speaker 14: What was gonna have I was you know that a
Speaker 14: prison again and the rest of my life? When you
Speaker 14: strangled with Brittany with it? Did you use your hands
Speaker 14: or did you use part of her clothing?
Speaker 5: Or did you have to hold her down at all?
Speaker 5: Or was she just pretty compliant or traveling?
Speaker 1: Brittany fought for her life, but Moody overpowered her. He
Speaker 1: wrapped his hands around her neck and squeezed until Brittany's
Speaker 1: life left her body. She was dead. Realizing that Angel
Speaker 1: would be returning at any minute. Moody carried Brittany to
Speaker 1: a nearby wooded area and dumped her behind a.
Speaker 5: Tree out where they had of like roway treees and stuff,
Speaker 5: you know. And true, I was all shook up because
Speaker 5: what had happened. I didn't want to do.
Speaker 14: I'm trying to her an almah shits back. So I
Speaker 14: came out this story at I can't remember exactly that
Speaker 14: she hooked up show with her friends of the phone.
Speaker 5: And they came and picked her up.
Speaker 14: When I got to the.
Speaker 3: Pole yard, he was standing in the parking lot of
Speaker 3: the pole yard. I asked him where she was.
Speaker 28: He said that she.
Speaker 7: Called somebody or somebody called her.
Speaker 3: Was there a way I don't remember, uh.
Speaker 6: And she left and I said okay, And we left
Speaker 6: the pole yard and went to the apartment.
Speaker 3: Do you remember anything about after, like after you got
Speaker 3: to the apartment.
Speaker 16: I would be.
Speaker 1: After Angel went to bed. Moody returned to the scene
Speaker 1: of the crime, collected Brittany, and took her body to
Speaker 1: a heavily wooded area about two miles from his apartment.
Speaker 1: Once there, he dug a shallow grave and buried Brittany.
Speaker 1: Angel claimed that She initially believed Moody when she said
Speaker 1: that Brittany's friends picked her up, but she began questioning
Speaker 1: that story when Brittany's face appeared on the news.
Speaker 31: Never made me suspicious one a little bit until things
Speaker 31: came on TV and I'm like, okay, what's going on?
Speaker 3: And he said, I told you was she there? And
Speaker 3: that was my answer I got every time I want
Speaker 3: to say anything about it, because even to this day,
Speaker 3: if I asked him anything, he would eat straight out
Speaker 3: tell me was she there when you got there? And
Speaker 3: I'm like, no, she wasn't there, And he said, I
Speaker 3: told you she left. He never said one word about
Speaker 3: the night or anything after that.
Speaker 1: If Angel's story was true, it means that she kept
Speaker 1: quiet for thirteen years and never told police that she
Speaker 1: saw Brittany on the night that she disappeared. Nonetheless, the
Speaker 1: agreement that Moody and Angel made with the authorities was
Speaker 1: that they would cooperate if and only if Angel didn't
Speaker 1: face any consequences. Of course, there's always consequences.
Speaker 2: I did this, Angel would have been a victim of
Speaker 2: mind for a long fucking time.
Speaker 5: Okay, Yeah, of course that's the kind a piece of
Speaker 5: shit that I am. I didn't turn into a good
Speaker 5: person until.
Speaker 25: Two.
Speaker 3: I can be a man of my word, and you
Speaker 3: all can be a man of your word.
Speaker 9: You can be a man of your word.
Speaker 5: Then I'll shay, I'll take him. I really lock you
Speaker 5: because I feel like you in an org. Never get
Speaker 5: that body.
Speaker 1: Moody claimed that the recent birth of his grandchild transformed
Speaker 1: him into a good man all of a sudden. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like when some of you say I can't
Speaker 1: listen to those stories about kids because I have kids.
Speaker 1: You're assuming that everybody that doesn't have kids doesn't give
Speaker 1: a shit. It's kind of insulting. Anyway, This so called
Speaker 1: good man used the hidden location of his seventeen year
Speaker 1: old murder victim as a bargaining chip to save his
Speaker 1: own ass. Raymond Moody was, is, and will always be
Speaker 1: a disgusting and evil piece of shit.
Speaker 8: After that interview with law enforcement was completed, he agreed
Speaker 8: to take investigators most of the Pullyard and point of
Speaker 8: the campsite locations, and he agreed to go to the
Speaker 8: area off Penny rail Road and pointed to investigators still
Speaker 8: location where he placed instructures. Morever remains her mortal remains
Speaker 8: will prove be on a reasonable doubt to be hers
Speaker 8: through general records as well as DNA testing.
Speaker 23: Tonight from Myrtle Beach, investigators say they have found the
Speaker 23: remains of missing teenager Brittany Drexel. It has been thirteen
Speaker 23: years since she disappeared. Police arresting a man last week
Speaker 23: who they say was once a person of interest in
Speaker 23: the case. Well today they confirmed that man Raymond Moody,
Speaker 23: is responsible for her death.
Speaker 4: This is the case you warn people about. It's your
Speaker 4: child walking down the street and being snatched up by
Speaker 4: someone with malevolent homicidal proclivities. Raymond Moody had no prior
Speaker 4: connection to Britney Drexel.
Speaker 1: In May of twenty twenty two, thirteen years after Brittany
Speaker 1: left for Myrtle Beach, her mother, Don Drexel, brought Brittany
Speaker 1: back home to Rochester, New York.
Speaker 12: I've been waiting for this day for thirteen years, ever
Speaker 12: since the you know, the day Brittany disappeared.
Speaker 3: I never thought we would get to this place.
Speaker 12: And we're finally here, and now I can get Brittany
Speaker 12: back and lay her arrest.
Speaker 1: Dawn finally got some answers about what happened to her daughter,
Speaker 1: but not everything made sense? How could it? The respective
Speaker 1: versions of events given by Angel and Moody were mostly consistent,
Speaker 1: but there seemed to be some potential contradictions in what
Speaker 1: they told police. For one, both Moody and Angel told
Speaker 1: investigators that Brittany initially took an interest in them because
Speaker 1: they were smoking pot. Yet according to her friends and
Speaker 1: her boyfriend, Brittany didn't smoke weed at all, and she
Speaker 1: was one of.
Speaker 9: The party ear that I do when you say partyville.
Speaker 9: Were just talking drinking or we talked in a little
Speaker 9: bit of everything or anything.
Speaker 11: Everything was probably she never never smoked on marijuana, never
Speaker 11: done anything.
Speaker 1: Also, according to one of the girlfriends who went to
Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach with Brittany, when the option to smoke weed
Speaker 1: was offered, Brittany declined.
Speaker 14: I'm not an I don't know.
Speaker 15: I actually asked her a professional figure and I asked
Speaker 15: her as a J.
Speaker 21: Saul.
Speaker 7: She was like wow, that she show me.
Speaker 5: Anything, She's like wow.
Speaker 1: If Brittany did get into Moody's SUV willingly, it seems
Speaker 1: very unlikely that marijuana was her motivation. It's possible that
Speaker 1: Moody simply offered Brittany a ride and she accepted, but
Speaker 1: it's also possible that she was abducted off the street.
Speaker 1: If Brittany was abducted, it means that Angel was a
Speaker 1: willing participant in the crime and now she had immunity.
Speaker 1: Something else that didn't make any sense was that Brittany
Speaker 1: didn't text or call anyone while she was with Moody
Speaker 1: an Angel. This was extremely out of character for her.
Speaker 1: Brittany was constantly on her phone like most teenagers, and
Speaker 1: almost always texting her boyfriend. Yet both Moody and Angel
Speaker 1: claim that they never prevented Brittany from using her phone.
Speaker 3: Did she have her phone the whole time? Or did
Speaker 3: someone take her phone and she hit an answery?
Speaker 5: I never told her one time.
Speaker 2: She didn't answer if he never told her, she'd been answering.
Speaker 3: Okay, Now, her phone riding a couple of times, but
Speaker 3: she didn't answer it, and but she said it was
Speaker 3: her boyfriend or something and she would call him.
Speaker 1: Was set back her again. These potential problems with their
Speaker 1: respective stories suggest that Angel may have acted as Moody's accomplice,
Speaker 1: but investigators were able to use Angel's phone records to
Speaker 1: confirm that she did in fact leave the campsite where
Speaker 1: Brittany was supposedly murdered and returned a short while later,
Speaker 1: So part of her story seemed to be true. Other
Speaker 1: than that, everything else remains a mystery. Did Brittany get
Speaker 1: into Moody's suv willingly or was she abducted off the street.
Speaker 1: If she did go willingly, why maybe she was tired
Speaker 1: of walking and accepted a ride. Maybe she felt she
Speaker 1: was safe because there was another adult female in the
Speaker 1: passenger seat. But if that was the case, why did
Speaker 1: she suddenly stop using her phone? Why didn't she tell
Speaker 1: her boyfriend that she had accepted a ride from two strangers?
Speaker 1: It doesn't really add up.
Speaker 8: Unfortunately, we may never never know exactly what happened that
Speaker 8: day because mister Exel can't tell us what happened. So
Speaker 8: to some degree we are compelled to listens to the
Speaker 8: version is provided by mister Moody, and then it's incumbent
Speaker 8: upon law enforcement to determine the credibility or not on
Speaker 8: certain points and not certain points.
Speaker 1: The consensus among law enforcements seemed to be that Brittany
Speaker 1: did get into Moody's suv voluntarily, but the only thing
Speaker 1: they could say with certainty was that Moody did murder
Speaker 1: Brittany Drexel. His confession and the fact that he led
Speaker 1: investigators to the body were the final pieces that allowed
Speaker 1: investigators to close the case and hand things off to prosecutors. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: Moody didn't fight the criminal charges against him. He pled
Speaker 1: guilty to kidnapping and murder, and with those pleas came
Speaker 1: the inevitable impact statements from Brittany's parents.
Speaker 3: When I found out that she went missing, I didn't
Speaker 3: know what to think. I didn't know. I just felt wrong.
Speaker 30: I mean, I'm gonna be here, adopted did I won't her?
Speaker 33: At first I thought she would be found because like
Speaker 33: Don don and mentioned that she was going down there
Speaker 33: in searching, They're going to bring her home, and that's
Speaker 33: what I thought would happen. However, days turned the months,
Speaker 33: and those months turned into years, years of torture, wondering
Speaker 33: where my daughter was. Now, thirteen years later, I find
Speaker 33: out the horrible, disgusting and senseless.
Speaker 3: Way she was abducted and murdered.
Speaker 28: Every part of my being wants to say and do
Speaker 28: something about that, but my heart knows that I will not,
Speaker 28: and Brittany would not want me to go to jail
Speaker 28: over that, so I internalize it.
Speaker 30: That's all I do is it's sickening. The defendant was
Speaker 30: and is, and I'm sorry, a perverted, sick monster.
Speaker 1: I think we can all agree that Brittany's adoptive dad
Speaker 1: has absolutely nothing to apologize for. After Chad Drexel addressed
Speaker 1: the court, it was Brittany's mom's turn to do the same.
Speaker 31: For thirteen years, I have searched for Brittany and suffered
Speaker 31: the loss of a child. Today we know the truth,
Speaker 31: and today, mister Moody, you face the consequences for that.
Speaker 3: That's all I have left.
Speaker 31: That's all we have left after what you did to her.
Speaker 31: Brittany was a beautiful seventeen year old with her full
Speaker 31: life ahead of her from the moment I gave birth
Speaker 31: to her.
Speaker 3: Brittany was my life. She had a beautiful soul. She
Speaker 3: was our soccer star.
Speaker 31: She was loved by everyone in our family, by her
Speaker 31: friend's classmates.
Speaker 3: In an entire community.
Speaker 31: What gave you the right to put your hands on
Speaker 31: my daughter? You are a serial rapist and a child predator.
Speaker 31: The criminal justice system has failed my daughter. As it
Speaker 31: continues to fail so many other victims, and frankly, mister Moody,
Speaker 31: it failed you because you never should have been released
Speaker 31: from prison. The loss of my daughter has ignited a
Speaker 31: fire and meat and set me on a mission to
Speaker 31: strip away the rights and freedoms of people like you.
Speaker 31: My daughter's tragic and senseless murder has inspired me. Britney's
Speaker 31: life and memory are now the driving force behind the
Speaker 31: initiative to make changes in sex offender laws and to
Speaker 31: keep monsters like you where they belong, in cages so
Speaker 31: they can never harm again.
Speaker 1: Raymond Moody will indeed spend the rest of his life
Speaker 1: in a cage, which is exactly where he should have
Speaker 1: remained after being convicted the first time for raping a child.
Speaker 1: For fuck's sake, how are we not electing better people
Speaker 1: to run this shindig. In the case of Britney Drexel,
Speaker 1: Moody was given two consecutive sentences, thirty years for kidnapping
Speaker 1: and another thirty years for murder. If Moody wants to
Speaker 1: see the outside of a prison, he'll need to live
Speaker 1: to be one hundred and twenty two years old. Good luck,
Speaker 1: shit bag. The Britney Drexel case took thirteen years to solve,
Speaker 1: and that long investigation, as well as its resolution, offers
Speaker 1: plenty of lessons and takeaways. For one, the general population
Speaker 1: is way too quick to presume guilt. The mild association
Speaker 1: that Pete Brozowitz had with Brittany Drexel has all but
Speaker 1: defined his life even to this day, and despite the
Speaker 1: resolution of the case, you can't Google him without seeing
Speaker 1: his photo next to a picture of Britney Drexel. There
Speaker 1: are countless blogs about him, probably a bunch of Facebook groups,
Speaker 1: and I can't even imagine what's on Reddit. Many of
Speaker 1: the authors of these comment areas are completely certain that
Speaker 1: Pete murdered Brittany despite all the evidence. Okay, okay, granted,
Speaker 1: Pete didn't do himself any favors. I mean, during his
Speaker 1: media interviews he came across as arrogant and uncaring. He
Speaker 1: was really easy to dislike. But then again, what twenty
Speaker 1: year old isn't a little self centered and kind of
Speaker 1: an asshole. I mean, I haven't met one yet. Also,
Speaker 1: Pete was in a no win situation. If he feigned
Speaker 1: sympathy and offered to help, he would have been accused
Speaker 1: of trying to get inside information about the case. Pete
Speaker 1: was crossed off the potential suspect list very early on
Speaker 1: in the investigation, and frankly, the authorities should have made
Speaker 1: more of an effort to make that clear. The same
Speaker 1: is also true for Tim DeShawn Taylor, but in his
Speaker 1: case things were much worse. Not only had the court
Speaker 1: of public opinion pretty much convicted him, but so did
Speaker 1: the FBI. Tim committed a robbery before he was investigated
Speaker 1: for possibly murdering Brittany. He pled guilty to that robbery
Speaker 1: charge in state court and was sentenced. When that kind
Speaker 1: of thing happens, the FEDS should not be allowed to
Speaker 1: reuse the same crime as leverage against someone and charge
Speaker 1: them again. That's a very very dirty practice, and the
Speaker 1: FBI knows it. But again, who's going to stop them anyway. Finally,
Speaker 1: and perhaps the most frustrating element of this case is
Speaker 1: that Raymond Moody was a registered sex offender and a
Speaker 1: previously convicted child rapist. Once again, we have a case
Speaker 1: where a predator is released from prison and surprise, surprise,
Speaker 1: they sexually abuse another child. It's almost like we can
Speaker 1: predict that it's going to happen. It's almost like it's
Speaker 1: a given. It's almost like we've known this for decades. Huh.
Speaker 1: This is a complicated issue that we have covered extensively
Speaker 1: in prior episodes of this show, and there are many
Speaker 1: conflicting opinions on how child rapists should be dealt with.
Speaker 1: A wood chipper is a popular suggestion, But one thing
Speaker 1: is clear. The system we have in place right now
Speaker 1: simply isn't working, and our kids are paying the price
Speaker 1: for that failure. Again, why pay for a safety net
Speaker 1: if there's no safety In this particular case, seventeen year
Speaker 1: old Britney Drexel paid the ultimate price. She paid with
Speaker 1: her life, her parents paid with their grief. And until
Speaker 1: we make reforms to the way that our government handles
Speaker 1: child sex offenders, this kind of thing is going to
Speaker 1: continue to happen again and again again. And you could
Speaker 1: be anywhere in the country, anywhere, because once these predators
Speaker 1: are released in whatever state they're released in, they travel
Speaker 1: to whatever state they want to and maybe that's where
Speaker 1: your child is. Maybe one of those times it happens again,
Speaker 1: it'll involve a child that you know, Maybe, just maybe
Speaker 1: it'll be your child. And I'm not saying that to
Speaker 1: scare you. I'm not saying that to scare monger. I'm
Speaker 1: saying because it's fucking reality. If you look around for
Speaker 1: half a second, it's just the world we live in now.
Speaker 1: Bad decisions lead to bad outcomes, and here we are.
Speaker 1: The Drexels were a typical suburban family, and the events
Speaker 1: that led to Britney ending up in Myrtle Beach is
Speaker 1: a story as old as time. She lied to her
Speaker 1: mom about where she was. Kids do that all the time.
Speaker 1: I mean, hell, I did it. All my friends did it.
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody who didn't do it. Actually, now
Speaker 1: that I think about it, everybody lies to their parents.
Speaker 1: Everybody goes out and sneaks out and does stuff when
Speaker 1: they're a teenager that they shouldn't be doing.
Speaker 14: So.
Speaker 1: The thought that it can't happen to you is a
Speaker 1: dumb one, no matter how good your kid is. Usually
Speaker 1: when kids lie about their whereabouts, things don't end badly
Speaker 1: like they did this time. But every once in a
Speaker 1: while a monster comes along and waits for the perfect
Speaker 1: opportunity to strike on their prey. The frustrating part is
Speaker 1: that it's not just any monster. It's a monster we
Speaker 1: can see coming. It's a monster that our laws and
Speaker 1: our government released from a cage. Don't be sad. This
Speaker 1: isn't the end. There's more true crime available at swordscale
Speaker 1: dot com. Go check out Sword and Scale Television episode
Speaker 1: four Angeli bloods Oh boy, Even when you're doing well,
Speaker 1: sometimes you're not doing well, you know what I mean. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it's an amazing story that our television team put together.
Speaker 1: They get in an RV, they stuff in all their
Speaker 1: cameras and all their gear, and they travel all around
Speaker 1: the country, all year around to do this. You've got
Speaker 1: to check it out.
Speaker 9: Stay sick.
Speaker 29: Guess why do I have to upgrade from plus to
Speaker 29: plus two to watch season Learn to listen to season two?
Speaker 27: That makes no sense.
Speaker 29: I've been paying ten bucks this whole time, and then
Speaker 29: you put out a new episode for season two to
Speaker 29: listen to.
Speaker 7: But yeah, you want me to upgrade.
Speaker 3: To twenty bucks now, Like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 5: Guys?
Speaker 16: Oh my god, people kicks up fuck over it.
Speaker 27: I understand that you are limited in what you can
Speaker 27: say on air and in private to those very special
Speaker 27: customers that you have that don't seem to understand that
Speaker 27: you don't get more shit without paying for it.
Speaker 3: You know, there's a thing called inflation, and there's things.
Speaker 17: The thing called people need to make a living, and
Speaker 17: that's what Mike in.
Speaker 16: History do and that's why he's created more tears.
Speaker 27: So I thought i'd talked directly to them so that
Speaker 27: you didn't have to and I could say some of
Speaker 27: the things that we should all know.
Speaker 7: If you can't afford it, you can't afford it. But
Speaker 7: get with the time.
Speaker 17: You are going to get what you used to get
Speaker 17: for the same price.
Speaker 16: Things are changing.
Speaker 7: It's called life, it's called progress.
Speaker 27: The number of sort and scale episodes on your feed
Speaker 27: for regular subscriber and plus subscriber has not changed. The
Speaker 27: shows that are additional in your seed are the offerings
Speaker 27: and hard work of Mike and his team on new
Speaker 27: projects that, if you so please, you can listen to
Speaker 27: for an appropriate expense.
Speaker 17: I'm so sick of him people complaining on social media and.
Speaker 14: On the voicemails about what hopeing you bok boss here?
Speaker 7: Get that buck over it?
Speaker 27: How do I put this gently? You fucking idiots. You
Speaker 27: can't get a bunch of more shit for free. Mike,
Speaker 27: keep doing what you're doing. We'd love you for it.
Speaker 27: Don't listen to our special friends
Speaker 9: Incl