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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. It is a story that

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Speaker 1: has now become all too familiar. A beautiful young girl

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Speaker 1: goes missing on spring break in the last days, a stunning,

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Speaker 1: stunning turn of events. I'm Nancy Grace and this is

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at

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Speaker 1: Fox Nation and Serious x one eleven. First of all,

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Speaker 1: take a listen to wbt W N Myrtle Beach authorities

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Speaker 1: now say Raymond Moody confessed to killing seventeen year old

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Speaker 1: Brittany drunk Sel thirteen years ago and then led investigators

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Speaker 1: to her body down in Georgetown County. Back in April

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Speaker 1: of oh nine, Drexel visited Myrtle Beast first spring break.

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Speaker 1: She was with friends from New York State. Investigators think

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Speaker 1: that Moody kidnapped her, assaulted her, and then strangled her

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Speaker 1: to deaths joining me cole boone Special Events anchor wbt

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Speaker 1: W Britney's remains found where well. They were found in

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Speaker 1: a wooded area near the town Harmony Township subdivision, and

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Speaker 1: it had been gone investigator's. Police had gone to the

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Speaker 1: site a few days before when they had gotten information

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Speaker 1: dug on this site in a remote area of Georgetown County,

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Speaker 1: you know, a very wooded rural area, very remote, off

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Speaker 1: the beaten path. And once they got this tip, I

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Speaker 1: spoke with solicitor Jimmy Richardson, came about getting some really

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Speaker 1: good information and went to this site and did the

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Speaker 1: excavation and that's where her remains were found. Very rural

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Speaker 1: area of Georgetown County, South Carolina, along the coast, but

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Speaker 1: in inland, in a remote area. Two special guests joining us.

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Speaker 1: This is Don Drexel. This is Britney's mother, Miss Ducks.

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Speaker 1: So when did you learned that Britney's remains had been found.

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Speaker 1: I had spoken with the FBI. They were pretty much

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Speaker 1: updating me like every day. I knew when they were

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Speaker 1: starting to search. But on Wednesday, probably about three o'clock

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Speaker 1: in the afternoon, they had called me and told me

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Speaker 1: that they had found human remains. When you were told

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Speaker 1: that human remains had been found, what went through your mind?

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Speaker 1: I was kind of I mean, you know, with me,

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Speaker 1: I mean, fighting for as long as I have for Brittany,

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Speaker 1: I was really upset when they told me they had

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Speaker 1: found her. But I can tell you that it was

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Speaker 1: a huge relief to me because now I can bring

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Speaker 1: Brittany home. Did you harbor over the years any secret

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Speaker 1: belief that Brittany was still alive somewhere. No. Early on

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Speaker 1: in her case, they had told us that they believed

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Speaker 1: that this was going to be a homicide investigation, and

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Speaker 1: I mean, I was pretty much set up for it.

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Speaker 1: I think, I just you know, you go back to

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Speaker 1: the numbness in everything from the beginning. Also with me.

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Speaker 1: Jarrett Farantino, Pennsylvania, high profile, a lawyer, a homicide prosecutor. Jared,

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Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. Pleasure to be with you, Nancy,

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Speaker 1: Thank you for having us. Jared. I cannot even imagine

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Speaker 1: what Britney's mother has gone through, and it has dragged

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Speaker 1: out for so long. I mean, that was years ago

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Speaker 1: when I first learned that a girl named Brittany Drexxel

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Speaker 1: had disappeared on a Myrtle Beach vacation and we were

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Speaker 1: trying to find her, and we were sending out her

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Speaker 1: picture and the tip line and just constantly trying to

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Speaker 1: find Brittany. That was a long time ago, in two

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Speaker 1: thousand and nine. As I recall, the suffering her family

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Speaker 1: has been through is really unimaginable. No one can know

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Speaker 1: unless you go through it yourself absolutely managing. First of all,

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Speaker 1: thank you for the coverage you've provided in the attention

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Speaker 1: you brought to Brittany's case. Certainly that has inspired people

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Speaker 1: to continue her search and the quest for answers in

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Speaker 1: the case. In addition to the thirteen years, the investigation

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Speaker 1: itself had taken some twists and turns. In twenty sixteen,

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Speaker 1: there were suspects named. There were certainly rumors and information

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Speaker 1: that came out of what may have happened to Brittany.

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Speaker 1: So Don has been so up and down on this

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Speaker 1: roller coaster of an investigation. But the past several weeks,

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Speaker 1: as we came to learn that things were coming to

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Speaker 1: an end in this phase, Don Drexel is with me.

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Speaker 1: This is Brittany's mother, you know, Dawn. We had been

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Speaker 1: looking for Brittany for so long, and I've got to

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Speaker 1: tell you, when I learned that her remains had been found,

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Speaker 1: I felt like I got punched in the stomach. I

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Speaker 1: guess somewhere deep inside I had always hoped that somehow

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Speaker 1: someone had taken her and she had I don't know

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Speaker 1: what I was thinking in my head. Maybe she was

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Speaker 1: afraid to leave, or she had been Stockholm syndrome. She

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Speaker 1: had been brainwashed and she wouldn't tell anybody, And I

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Speaker 1: always come up with these scenarios in the back of

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Speaker 1: my mind, and then the finality of saying we found

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Speaker 1: her remains. I'm just trying to imagine you in that moment.

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Speaker 1: Where were you when they told I was actually at

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Speaker 1: home when they had called UM. We had met with

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Speaker 1: the FBI UM probably two weeks prior, and you know,

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Speaker 1: at that point things were moving pretty fast, and so

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Speaker 1: I knew they were, you know, they were searching for Brittany,

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Speaker 1: But it's just I don't know at that moment when

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Speaker 1: they when they had recovered um, you know, or had

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Speaker 1: found the human remains, it was like, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: I was just in It's kind of like in disbelief,

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Speaker 1: Like I never knew that we were going to get there.

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Speaker 1: Like thirteen years is a long time. I never thought

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Speaker 1: that that that Brittany was going to be found. Take

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Speaker 1: a listen to our cut eight. This is from WHAM.

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Speaker 1: Brittany was seventeen, a junior at Gates Chili when she

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Speaker 1: left without her mom's permission for spring break in Myrtle Beach.

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Speaker 1: She was last seen alone leaving a motel on the Strip.

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Speaker 1: In twenty ten thirteen, Wham had this exclusive video of

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Speaker 1: the site along a river in South Carolina where Brittany's

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Speaker 1: body was believed to have been left. Crime Stories with

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Speaker 1: Nancy Grace to Cheryl McCollum joining me for expert, Founder

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Speaker 1: and director of the Cold Case Research Institute. A hotel

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Speaker 1: security camera actually captured one of the last known images

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Speaker 1: of teen girl Brittany Drexel. It was just before nine

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Speaker 1: pm and she was leaving a friend's room, a friend

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Speaker 1: girls room at the I think it was the Blue

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Speaker 1: Water Resort. We see her later walking through the lobby.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how many times you've looked at that video,

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Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum. I have studied it. I have slow mode it.

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Speaker 1: I have looked at it screen by screen to see

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Speaker 1: if I saw anybody watching her in the background. Just

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Speaker 1: you know the case of Kelsey Smith who went to

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Speaker 1: a target to pick out her boyfriend an anniversary gift.

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Speaker 1: And when you look back at the video at Target,

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Speaker 1: she doesn't see this guy, but in every still you

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Speaker 1: see a white male not far from her. He may

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Speaker 1: be on the aisle behind her, you know, looking over,

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Speaker 1: he could be at the end of the aisle, looking

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Speaker 1: around at her. He's always right around her, but he

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Speaker 1: never speaks to her. And as Kelsey heads to the

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Speaker 1: checkout at Target, you see him walk passed her and leave,

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Speaker 1: only to ambush her and kidnap her in the garage

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Speaker 1: of the Target. I remember slow mowing Brittany's video and

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Speaker 1: just seeing who was walking by. What can I see?

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Speaker 1: What can I notice? And nothing was really revealed in

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Speaker 1: that video except the time of the date stamp right,

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Speaker 1: which was crucial because it gave us a location, a date,

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Speaker 1: a time, and what she was wearing and the direction

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Speaker 1: she went. So when she left the Bar Harbor Hotel

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Speaker 1: headed to Blue Water, then you know, we knew, you've

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Speaker 1: only got a mile and a half and she should

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Speaker 1: have been there, and she texted her boyfriend and hey,

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Speaker 1: I'm walking back to my hotel, So she should have

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Speaker 1: been back there within a half hour. And it was

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Speaker 1: that critical moment a half an hour, you know, a

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Speaker 1: half an hour, and the whole world changed to Jared

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Speaker 1: Farentino joining US high profile lawyer out of Pennsylvania who

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Speaker 1: is Don Drexel's lawyer. A half an hour. I remember

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Speaker 1: Curly Brusia in Florida, and I'm sure you remember her

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Speaker 1: as well. She had to spend the night with a

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Speaker 1: friend girl and was walking home the following morning, I

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Speaker 1: think it was a Saturday or Sunday morning, and she

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Speaker 1: cut caddy cornered instead of following the street, and in

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Speaker 1: the fifteen minutes it would have taken her to walk,

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Speaker 1: she encountered her killer. In fifteen minutes, the world turned

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Speaker 1: upside down for Curly's family and in Brittany Drexel's case.

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Speaker 1: In that thirty minute segment that Cheryl McCollum just identified,

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Speaker 1: Brittany was taken walking from one hotel to the next,

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Speaker 1: and Nancy that examination of that time frame, the surgical

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Speaker 1: precision that the investigators lays being focused analysis is really

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Speaker 1: what had to be done, what had to be done

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Speaker 1: in the Brushia case, that's the kind of investigation what

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Speaker 1: can be green from the Bar Harbor Hotel to the

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Speaker 1: blue water that we can learn. We knew when we

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Speaker 1: knew what Britney was wearing, we knew what direction she

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Speaker 1: was heading. So the investigators over the past thirteen years

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Speaker 1: and very recently had to examine that footage, that time

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Speaker 1: frame and the technological advances that have been made in

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Speaker 1: the interim certainly aided in their investigation as time went on.

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Speaker 1: Takey listen to our cut. Five of our friends at WCIV.

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Speaker 1: Officials say the teenager was on spring break in April

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Speaker 1: two thousand and nine. Surveillance video shows her leaving the

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Speaker 1: Blue Water Resort in Myrtle Beach, and for the first time,

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Speaker 1: officials are giving details of what happened next. We believe

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Speaker 1: she traveled to this area around mcclellanville and the North

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Speaker 1: Charleston South Georgetown area, and we believe she was killed

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Speaker 1: after that. And we do know that Brittany was in

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Speaker 1: this community for several days. We think she was held

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Speaker 1: here against her will, at least for a portion of

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Speaker 1: the time that she was here. The FBI also announced

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Speaker 1: today it's now offering a twenty five thousand dollar reward

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Speaker 1: for information leading to an arrest. So by being here

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Speaker 1: for several days, other people came in contact with her,

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Speaker 1: saw her, know that she was here, So we know

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Speaker 1: there is information in the community here. We think we're

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Speaker 1: at a point where one or two small pieces of

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Speaker 1: information could put us over the edge. They say, if

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Speaker 1: you do know information and you don't call police, you

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Speaker 1: could be subject even to federal charges at a later time.

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Speaker 1: You know, why were they so convinced that she was

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Speaker 1: held against her will in that area for several days?

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Speaker 1: Jarrett Farantino, Nancy, That's a great question. They were convinced

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Speaker 1: that she was definitely in that area based on some

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Speaker 1: cell phone technology where her phone was paying from in

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Speaker 1: the Moat area, some fifty miles away from the Myrtle

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Speaker 1: Beach area. So whether or not she was being held

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Speaker 1: against her will, that was a little bit of conjecture

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Speaker 1: on the part of investigators, and certainly some information that

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Speaker 1: came out later may have suggested that. But I'm not

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Speaker 1: sure why at that point they felt she was being

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Speaker 1: held against her will for an extended period of time.

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Speaker 1: What about it, Cheryl McCollum. I have no idea why

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Speaker 1: they would say it. I have no idea why they

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Speaker 1: would bring up even the gator pit. There were several

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Speaker 1: things that in that first press comfortence that Donn and

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Speaker 1: I talked about, but I thought was just way over

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Speaker 1: the top and almost sensationalized, and I thought maybe they

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Speaker 1: were trying to beat the bushes to bring other people

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Speaker 1: out to say, hey, that's not what happened. You're making

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Speaker 1: it worse. That's what I believed they would do, and

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Speaker 1: was trying to look for other witnesses to come forward,

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Speaker 1: or maybe they just had a vast aukwards. Now you

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Speaker 1: brought up my next topic, and that was how in

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Speaker 1: the world did a gator slither into this fact scenario

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Speaker 1: who had nothing, had nothing to do with this disappearance,

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Speaker 1: and yet somehow that became the centerpiece of so much

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Speaker 1: of the coverage of Britney's disappearance. Cheryl McCallum, Well, Nancy,

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Speaker 1: I remember years ago you and I were investigating the

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Speaker 1: case and we had to go talk to some near

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Speaker 1: the whales and you said to me, swines don't swim

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Speaker 1: and a throw her. In other words, who do you

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Speaker 1: think I've got to go to to find out about

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Speaker 1: this criminal? Other criminals. So they were getting information from

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Speaker 1: jailhouse informants, criminals, liars, So they have to run that down.

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Speaker 1: If they get information, if they get a tip, they've

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Speaker 1: got to run with it and make sure this is

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Speaker 1: either credible or not credible. But either they got to

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Speaker 1: work that tip. Well, you know another thing, as tough

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Speaker 1: as it is to believe, I have actually had a

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Speaker 1: case where a child was killed and left and a

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Speaker 1: swap infested with gators. So it has happened, but in

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Speaker 1: this case, it just seems so far fetched, the whole

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Speaker 1: the scenario that was being asserted to you, Dawn's directel,

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Speaker 1: Britney's mother. Can you believe it's twenty twenty two and

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Speaker 1: where you're just solving the mystery? Yes, I know it

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Speaker 1: is it this case. I can tell you I believe

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Speaker 1: this case should have been solved a long time ago.

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Speaker 1: But you know that's for another day. Well, you're absolutely

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Speaker 1: right about that. To Nicole Boone joining me from wbt

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Speaker 1: w U, Nicole, again, thank you for being with us.

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Speaker 1: Could you please describe the area where Britney's remains were

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Speaker 1: found and how far away is that from where she

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Speaker 1: went missing at the Blue Water Resort in Myrtle Beach. Yes, Nancy,

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Speaker 1: it was a very remote area, a wooded area along

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Speaker 1: Oldtown Avenue and Harmony Township in Georgetown County. Georgetown County

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Speaker 1: is along South Carolina's coast, and Georgetown itself the city

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Speaker 1: would be about fifty four miles from Myrtle Beach. If

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Speaker 1: you the drive time from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to

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Speaker 1: Georgetown maybe not quite that far, maybe forty, but still

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Speaker 1: a decent distance. And once she went missing in Myrtle Beach,

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Speaker 1: immediately once the cell phone started ring peeing from the

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Speaker 1: cell phone towers, she ended more in that remote area

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Speaker 1: of Georgetown County. And to the fact about the talk

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Speaker 1: of an alligator pit and all of that that was

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Speaker 1: brought up years after she went missing, it's very much

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Speaker 1: an alligator infested area, and some of those things start

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Speaker 1: to come up that may not have merit. But when

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Speaker 1: I spoke with Solicitor Jimmy Richardson, he told me there

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Speaker 1: were so many tentacles in this investigation. You have to

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Speaker 1: keep checking things out, and to the point that when

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Speaker 1: it came up out of speaking with people that were

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Speaker 1: actually jail house snitches, you are dealing with criminals themselves.

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Speaker 1: So a lot of tentacles in this investigation. But the

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Speaker 1: area where Brittany's remains were found very remote in Georgetown County,

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Speaker 1: forty miles or so from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, up

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Speaker 1: the coast where she went missing along the boulevard. Then

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Speaker 1: the search focuses there at Georgetown County, about fifty miles

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Speaker 1: away from where she was last seen. Alive. Now take

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Speaker 1: us to our three our friends at Wham. A hotel

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Speaker 1: security camera captured one of the last known images of Brittany.

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Speaker 1: It was just before nine pm. She was leaving a

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Speaker 1: friend's room at the Blue Water Resort to walk back

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Speaker 1: to the hotel where she was staying. We know that

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Speaker 1: Brittney Drexel made it here to Eleventh Avenue in Ocean Boulevard.

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Speaker 1: How do we know well, one of the few working

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Speaker 1: cameras at the time captured this image of her. She

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Speaker 1: was about halfway through that mile and a half walk

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Speaker 1: back to her hotel when Brittany disappeared. The next clue

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Speaker 1: appears fifty miles away and Georgetown County, where Britney's cell

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Speaker 1: phone gave off its last signal. That's about eight miles

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Speaker 1: from the Sunset Lodge where Raymond Moody had moved in

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Speaker 1: the day before. Moody was stopped for speeding a nearby

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Speaker 1: surfside the day after Brittney disappeared, to doctor Angela Arnold

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Speaker 1: joining me psychiatrist renowned Psychiasti Chris out of the Atlanta jurisdiction.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you recall the name Timothy McVeigh

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Speaker 1: he's Oklahoma City bomber that claimed the lives of so many,

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Speaker 1: including children and that were in a daycare at the

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Speaker 1: Alfred Murrah Federal building that was bombed. He was pulled

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Speaker 1: over the cause of the tail light, as I recall,

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Speaker 1: and when his car was searched there was evidence that

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Speaker 1: he may have been involved in the bombing. In this case,

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Speaker 1: Moody was stopped for speeding in Surfside the day after

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Speaker 1: Brittany disappeared. But I think that it's too far fetched

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Speaker 1: to expect the cops to put two and two together

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Speaker 1: based on a speeding ticket. I can't fault them on that. Well,

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Speaker 1: I do think, Nancy that I mean, let's say said,

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Speaker 1: I think that these things have to be taken very seriously,

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Speaker 1: just knowing I think that we never can let our

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Speaker 1: guard down. Well, I agree with that. I mean, Cheryl McCollum,

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Speaker 1: you pull a guy over for speeding, So day after

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Speaker 1: Brittany disappears, there were rumblings even then. Is Brittany Drexel.

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Speaker 1: They don't run his rape sheet when they pull him over.

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Speaker 1: I mean when I get pulled over for anything. I said,

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Speaker 1: there forever, I don't know what they're running. But You've

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Speaker 1: got a guy who has done hard jail time for

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Speaker 1: raping a little girl in the vicinity where Brittany Drexel

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Speaker 1: goes missing. Another reason that is so important, Nancy I said.

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Speaker 1: When he's questioned later about Brittany, she says, oh, I

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Speaker 1: was gout of jail. They got proved he was not

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Speaker 1: out of jail. He was eight miles away the day

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Speaker 1: after she was kidnapped. Two. Doctor Michelle Dupree joining US

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Speaker 1: former forensic pathologist, medical examiner, detective, author of homicide investigation

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Speaker 1: field guide. Doctor Dupree the moment the remains were found,

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Speaker 1: police immediately identified it, identified them as human remains. How

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Speaker 1: could they do that immediately upon sight? And I think

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Speaker 1: most often it's with a skull, because obviously, you know

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Speaker 1: humans have a very distinctive skull shape. It can also

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Speaker 1: be by other means. Other bones in the body can

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Speaker 1: tell whether it's human or not. Dawn Drexel is with me.

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Speaker 1: This is Britney's mother who has been through pure hell

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Speaker 1: since two thousand and nine. And I can remember the

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Speaker 1: very first time we spoke searching for Brittany, and you

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Speaker 1: would beg and you would cry in commercial breaks when

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Speaker 1: I was at HLN and I could hear you and

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Speaker 1: as somehow when we came back on the air, you

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Speaker 1: are crystal clear and Razor focused on trying to find

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Speaker 1: your daughter. Dawn. What a long, long road this has been,

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Speaker 1: and I just I hate it so much for you.

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Speaker 1: Raymond Moody is a sex offender, okay, and I don't

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Speaker 1: I don't care what anybody thinks. You cannot rehabilitate a

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Speaker 1: sex offender, you know what. That's what I've been saying

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Speaker 1: since day one, when I first started prosecuting. I do

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Speaker 1: not believe child molesters, rapists, sex offenders in general can

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Speaker 1: be rehabilitated. I agree, and Nancy, this is doctor Arnold.

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Speaker 1: This is not a matter of believing it or not.

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Speaker 1: It is that is the truth. They can be watched,

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Speaker 1: and when I was working with sex offenders earlier in

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Speaker 1: my career, we would keep an eye on them very closely.

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Speaker 1: It's I can tell you about it sometime, but they

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Speaker 1: cannot be rehabilitated, Dawn. I'm just thinking back on the

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Speaker 1: very beginning, and I mean, you see a lot of

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Speaker 1: crime shows on TV and in movies. Real life isn't

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Speaker 1: like that. Cops are not Tarot card readers or soothsayers.

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Speaker 1: They can't look into a crystal ball. They can't figure

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Speaker 1: out Oh I started this guy speeding. I wonder if

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Speaker 1: he took Brittany, but they had a bead on him

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Speaker 1: from the beginning. Take a listen to our cut thirteen.

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Speaker 1: This is the Georgetown County Sheriff. The why I may

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Speaker 1: never be known or understood, but today this task force

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Speaker 1: can confidently and without hesitation answer the rest of those questions,

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Speaker 1: along with the who is responsible? The who is Raymond

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Speaker 1: Douglas Moody who lives at fifty five h two Rosehill

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Speaker 1: Road in Georgetown, South Carolina. His date of birth as

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Speaker 1: May the ninth of nineteen sixty and he is a

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Speaker 1: white male with an extensive sex offender criminal history. The

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Speaker 1: Georgetown County Sheriff's Office charges against mister Raymond Moody our murder, kidnapping,

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Speaker 1: criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, all of these

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Speaker 1: charges occurring within the jurisdictional limits of Georgetown County, all

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Speaker 1: of which occurred on April the twenty fifth of two

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Speaker 1: thousand and nine, in all of which detail Brittany Drexel

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Speaker 1: as the victim. Cheryl McCollum way in I agree with Dawns.

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Speaker 1: They not only had a beat on him, they named

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Speaker 1: him in two thousand and twelve as a person of interest.

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Speaker 1: They certainly did. Yeah, and you know he has hurt

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Speaker 1: six young women and children. And it is baffling to

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Speaker 1: me that anybody can rate and harm six young people

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Speaker 1: and walk free, and walk free to be out there

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Speaker 1: to take Brittany, put her through god knows what before

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Speaker 1: he killed her. You're absolutely right. Take a listen to

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Speaker 1: our cut six our friends from Wham. Raymond Moody was

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Speaker 1: first named a person of interest in Brittany Drexel's disappearance

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Speaker 1: in twenty twelve, but was never charged. In the nineteen eighties,

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Speaker 1: Moody was charged with kidnapping and raping a child in

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Speaker 1: California and as a registered sex offender, joining me Nicole

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Speaker 1: Boone special events anchor wbt W n Myrtle beat Nicole.

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Speaker 1: It was around twenty eleven, I believe, just before Moody

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Speaker 1: was named a PY person of interest, and one of

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Speaker 1: wbt w's reporters questioned Moody what happened. It was an

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Speaker 1: interesting confrontation, is how I would have described it. It

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Speaker 1: was he was very much pushing back our reporter at

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Speaker 1: the time, Mason Snyder went to speak with him, and

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Speaker 1: this was after they had searched a hotel room where

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Speaker 1: Moody had been living. And our reporter goes up to

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Speaker 1: Raymond Moody talks to him, say what do you know

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Speaker 1: about Britney Drexel? Do you know anything about her? He said,

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Speaker 1: I know nothing about this. Where were you the night

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Speaker 1: the day that she went missing? He doesn't answer. He

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Speaker 1: just tells them you need to get out of here.

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Speaker 1: You need to leave, and if you don't, I'm calling

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Speaker 1: the police. Do you know anything about the missing teenager? Well?

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Speaker 1: I do not. Can you tell us where you were

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Speaker 1: back in April of nine? Good bye? Here's former News

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Speaker 1: thirteen reporter Mason Snyder confronting now confessed Britney Drexel killer

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Speaker 1: Raymond Moody. August first, twenty eleven, Snyder and a photographer

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Speaker 1: tracked Moody down at work. The same day investigators searched

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Speaker 1: Moody's Georgetown County apartment. Well, I'm called the police and shaking.

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Speaker 1: You got a splid? Can I've got nothing to say

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Speaker 1: to you? Understand that you know Moody was in charged

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Speaker 1: a decade ago because of a lack of evidence, but

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Speaker 1: in the short time Snyder was in his grill. Snyder

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Speaker 1: describes his presence as chilling. And the second I started

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Speaker 1: peppering him with questions, and the second he started getting

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Speaker 1: frustrated with the fact that we were there and that

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Speaker 1: we were asking him questions and that we essentially stormed him.

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Speaker 1: You know, we didn't you know, set up this interview

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Speaker 1: ahead of time. It made me want to get out

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Speaker 1: of there as quickly as possible. Wow, that's a nerve

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Speaker 1: for him to suggest he's going to call police exact

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Speaker 1: because he's having a problem. Very interesting. He was very,

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Speaker 1: in my opinion, belligerent with our reporter and adamant that

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Speaker 1: he leave, in adamant that he knew nothing and for

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Speaker 1: basically to leave or he was calling police. You know,

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Speaker 1: thirteen years this guy has walked free after murdering a

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Speaker 1: teen girl on spring break, just beautiful girl, scrubbed in

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Speaker 1: sunshine on the inside and the out. I want to

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Speaker 1: go back to Jarrett Farentino, high profile Pennsylvania lawyer that

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Speaker 1: is working with Don Direxel. Britney's mom jump in, Well, Nancy,

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Speaker 1: I have to say, you talk about capturing Timothy McGray

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Speaker 1: with a vehicle stop. If we remember the Son of Sam,

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Speaker 1: he got captured with a parking ticket. This was Moody

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Speaker 1: was a fish out of water. He was fifteen miles

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Speaker 1: away from his home. He had rented an apartment in

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Speaker 1: Myrtle Beach the day before April twenty fifth, when Britney

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Speaker 1: went missing. That was suspicious to the officers immediately as well.

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Speaker 1: You have this individual with a record and these downright

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Speaker 1: dangerous homicidal, sexual proclivities in town. When a young beautiful

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Speaker 1: girl disappears, he was on their radar, and the focus

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Speaker 1: has since, as we discussed, gone on to him in

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Speaker 1: great detail, leading to these charges. I mean the coincidence

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Speaker 1: that he shows up and then suddenly she goes missing.

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Speaker 1: I mean, Sharon McCollum, he just got there and suddenly

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Speaker 1: a young girl is kidnapped. You said that there were

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Speaker 1: six victims of his that we know, how explain that

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Speaker 1: we know of? And that's the big question, Nancy, in

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Speaker 1: the past thirteen years, how many more are there. He

427
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:10,840
Speaker 1: hasn't just been sitting in that trailer. He hasn't just

428
00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:17,800
Speaker 1: gone dormant. He's been out free to stalk, harass, harm, rape, kill.

429
00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:22,320
Speaker 1: I would be on it, comparing his m O and

430
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:27,360
Speaker 1: him to every single disappearance or rape or sex attack

431
00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:31,840
Speaker 1: in the area and beyond another issue. Take a listen

432
00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:37,080
Speaker 1: to our cut number nine from WPDE. Carrie Harding was

433
00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:40,160
Speaker 1: only eight years old when she was abducted by Raymond Moody.

434
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 1: Just as I passed, he grabbed me from behind with

435
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 1: his hand over my mouth and around my waist and

436
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:47,680
Speaker 1: put me in the passenger seat in the car. And

437
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:51,440
Speaker 1: he drove from there from two or three miles away

438
00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:55,680
Speaker 1: to an undeveloped housing track, getting the back seat and

439
00:29:55,720 --> 00:29:57,480
Speaker 1: take off your clothes. And when I said why, he said,

440
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:01,800
Speaker 1: because order a screw, which you know you don't telenate

441
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 1: your old child that they don't even know what they

442
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:06,040
Speaker 1: call that mean. Moody served twenty one years of a

443
00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 1: forty year prison sentence after admitting to sexually assaulting Harding

444
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:12,760
Speaker 1: and six other girls. He relocated to Georgetown after his

445
00:30:12,840 --> 00:30:15,640
Speaker 1: release from California State Prison in two thousand and four.

446
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 1: Nobody should get a second chance to her child. Police

447
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 1: suspect Drexel was kidnapped as she walked along Ocean Boulevard

448
00:30:21,600 --> 00:30:24,560
Speaker 1: and driven to Georgetown County. Her cell phone signal was

449
00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:27,360
Speaker 1: last detected in a remote boat landing area near the

450
00:30:27,360 --> 00:30:30,880
Speaker 1: South Santee River. It's roughly eight miles from the Sunset

451
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:34,120
Speaker 1: Lodge apartments in Georgetown County. That's where Moody had been

452
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:52,680
Speaker 1: living at the time. Prime Stories with Nancy Grace thirteen

453
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:59,800
Speaker 1: years This guy has walked free after murdering a tame

454
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:05,440
Speaker 1: girl on spring break. Just beautiful girl. I mean the

455
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 1: coincidence that he shows up and then suddenly she goes missing.

456
00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:16,800
Speaker 1: Take a listen again to our Fransic wbtwes now say

457
00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:20,200
Speaker 1: Raymond Moody confessed to killing seventeen year old Brittany Drexel

458
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:23,280
Speaker 1: thirteen years ago and then led investigators to her body

459
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:25,800
Speaker 1: down in Georgetown County. Back in April of o nine,

460
00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:28,520
Speaker 1: Drexel visited Myrtle Beasts first spring break. She was with

461
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,960
Speaker 1: friends from New York State. Investigators think that Moody kidnapped her,

462
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:35,800
Speaker 1: assaulted her, and then strangled her to death. They had

463
00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:39,240
Speaker 1: a bead on him from the beginning and walk free

464
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 1: and walk free to be out there to take Brittany?

465
00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:47,520
Speaker 1: How did we get here? The focus turned back to

466
00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 1: him because of improved cell phone tracking technology, allowing investigators

467
00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 1: to narrow down Brittany Drexel's whereabouts that night. Matching surveillance

468
00:31:56,080 --> 00:32:00,000
Speaker 1: video with text and cell tower pings, they determined Drexel

469
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:01,960
Speaker 1: got in a car and traveled south out of Myrtle

470
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:06,240
Speaker 1: Beach and into Georgetown County. Investigators also tracked down a

471
00:32:06,320 --> 00:32:08,880
Speaker 1: one minute window the night of Drexel's disappearance when she

472
00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 1: stopped walking on Ocean Boulevard and was instead in a car.

473
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:16,160
Speaker 1: Ruody claims Drexel got in that car Willingly. Prosecutors can't

474
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:19,320
Speaker 1: verify that's true, but took his word for the conviction.

475
00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:22,320
Speaker 1: And the Drexel girl work and walking along the shy walking,

476
00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:27,400
Speaker 1: hush smoking pie. She knows that and walked over through

477
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:32,000
Speaker 1: the door and said something about that exactly. Yeah you

478
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:36,760
Speaker 1: want something, sure, get in. She ought righting her back

479
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:39,000
Speaker 1: right a problem, but she had a vehicle. Do you

480
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:41,400
Speaker 1: know it was for bad purpose? No? Not at all.

481
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 1: How do you even crossed my mind? Don Drexel with me?

482
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:48,600
Speaker 1: This is Britney's mother and this has been a very

483
00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:54,520
Speaker 1: long road for her and she never gave up ever

484
00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:59,040
Speaker 1: in her search for her daughter. You were telling me

485
00:32:59,400 --> 00:33:03,960
Speaker 1: down that it was early on that you believed that

486
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:09,480
Speaker 1: Brittany had been killed. What led you to believe or

487
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:14,440
Speaker 1: think or feel that. Well, shortly after Brittany went missing,

488
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:19,280
Speaker 1: m the Myrtle Beach Police Department had told us that

489
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:24,800
Speaker 1: they believed that they were dealing with a homicide investigation

490
00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:31,640
Speaker 1: at that point. From there, you know, and then what

491
00:33:31,800 --> 00:33:38,560
Speaker 1: came out in twenty sixteen with the FBI. I mean,

492
00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:42,200
Speaker 1: we pretty much knew that, you know, it's it was

493
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:46,040
Speaker 1: thirteen years. We pretty much knew that that Brittany was

494
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:53,480
Speaker 1: most likely deceased. Listen, things got out of Anne and

495
00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 1: a panic? Is she panic? And astronomer guys, take a

496
00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:01,640
Speaker 1: listen to our cut fifteen. This is Solicta Richardson in

497
00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:07,240
Speaker 1: Georgetown County. Justice is never going to be good enough.

498
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:11,879
Speaker 1: That's the fallacy and all of this that somehow we're

499
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:14,280
Speaker 1: going to do our very best to see that Raymond

500
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:19,120
Speaker 1: Moody pays for what he's done here. But that is

501
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:23,759
Speaker 1: not going to replace Brittany. But what we have been

502
00:34:23,800 --> 00:34:29,520
Speaker 1: able to do is to return a body to chadd

503
00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:36,440
Speaker 1: and Down and hopefully start the process of closure. And again,

504
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:40,080
Speaker 1: closure is not nearly as good as justice, and justice

505
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:42,800
Speaker 1: isn't nearly as good as just having it not happen.

506
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:48,920
Speaker 1: But that's all we have to offer. So again to repeat,

507
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:51,640
Speaker 1: Raymond Moody is in custody, is being held. He does

508
00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:56,920
Speaker 1: not have a bond. That original bond was on obstruction

509
00:34:56,960 --> 00:35:00,560
Speaker 1: of justice charge. That's another charge that I fail to mention.

510
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:04,000
Speaker 1: But he remains in custody. Moody confessed that he took

511
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:07,719
Speaker 1: her to a campsite in Georgetown County, raped her, killed her,

512
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:10,360
Speaker 1: and left her there. He said he choked her because

513
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:13,360
Speaker 1: he started to worry after he raped her. Raymond Moody,

514
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 1: he sat through investigators or prosecutors, I should say, explaining

515
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:19,800
Speaker 1: the thirteen year timeline that led up to to Danny

516
00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:24,360
Speaker 1: also heard from Britney Drexel's family. He walked in first

517
00:35:24,400 --> 00:35:27,640
Speaker 1: without showing emotion, but that changed as the hearing went on.

518
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:29,640
Speaker 1: It was about an hour and fifteen minutes long, and

519
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:33,319
Speaker 1: in that hearing, Moody confessed to kidnapping, rape, and murder

520
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:35,440
Speaker 1: of Britney Drexel, and he also did in a May

521
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:39,040
Speaker 1: fifth interview with investigators. The case against him stalled more

522
00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:41,120
Speaker 1: than a decade ago after a search warrant didn't yield

523
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:43,160
Speaker 1: to any results. He was named a person of interest,

524
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:51,040
Speaker 1: but was never charged forty years and four much, and

525
00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:54,920
Speaker 1: I did twenty years and eight munch. I thought that

526
00:35:55,040 --> 00:36:01,040
Speaker 1: wasn't hope, but it wasn't. I was a monster. I

527
00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:07,880
Speaker 1: was a most noon and I was a monster, and

528
00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:19,759
Speaker 1: I took brittany dregs from life. I don't know, I

529
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:25,799
Speaker 1: don't have the words express all horrible fuel and I

530
00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:34,520
Speaker 1: felt ever since that day, very very sorry, dude, Dawn's reck.

531
00:36:34,600 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 1: So this is Brittany's mother. I know it's hard to

532
00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 1: think about it right now because since two thousand and nine,

533
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:49,120
Speaker 1: your goal has been to bring Brittany home. Now Brittany

534
00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:55,880
Speaker 1: has been found. Does this all seem so surrealty? It

535
00:36:56,040 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 1: does that it happened so fast, Um, you know, and

536
00:37:00,920 --> 00:37:04,560
Speaker 1: it just you kind of go back to the numbness,

537
00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:09,000
Speaker 1: and you know that those surreal moments when she first

538
00:37:09,040 --> 00:37:12,759
Speaker 1: went missing. I'll always remember Brittany's last words to me,

539
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:17,239
Speaker 1: I love you, I'll see you tomorrow. Listen now, I

540
00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 1: know that you told your daughter, no, you cannot go

541
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:23,400
Speaker 1: to Myrtle Beach, So she went to Myrtle Beach. That's

542
00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:25,880
Speaker 1: not the worst thing in the world. Many a seventeen

543
00:37:25,960 --> 00:37:28,520
Speaker 1: year old has gone off on spring Bright without telling

544
00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:32,000
Speaker 1: their parents, But she stayed in contact with you. She

545
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:36,160
Speaker 1: stayed in touch with you for many many days until

546
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:41,160
Speaker 1: when until Saturday? Saturday afternoon was the last time I

547
00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:44,080
Speaker 1: spoke with Brittany. And take a listen to cut to

548
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:47,160
Speaker 1: where we hear what Brittany told her mom? What can

549
00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:49,080
Speaker 1: you tell me about the last time you heard from her?

550
00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:51,120
Speaker 1: What did she say? What does she text? When I

551
00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:53,640
Speaker 1: spoke with Brittany, I asked her what she was doing

552
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,600
Speaker 1: and she says, oh, Mom, I'm at the beach and

553
00:37:57,960 --> 00:38:01,919
Speaker 1: it was an eighty degree day in Rochester. So um.

554
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 1: Of course, you know, I thought that maybe she was

555
00:38:04,239 --> 00:38:08,120
Speaker 1: at the beach um in Rochester with one of her

556
00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:12,120
Speaker 1: girlfriends that she had said that it was staying, she

557
00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:16,680
Speaker 1: was staying overnight. Um. And uh. Then I said, well,

558
00:38:16,719 --> 00:38:19,440
Speaker 1: what do you plan on doing later? She said, oh,

559
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:21,040
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna hang off my phone. We're going to

560
00:38:21,080 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 1: watch a movie. Um. And I told her, I said, well,

561
00:38:25,239 --> 00:38:27,640
Speaker 1: please give me a call later, and she said okay, Mom.

562
00:38:28,280 --> 00:38:30,279
Speaker 1: And then you know I told her, I said I

563
00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:32,200
Speaker 1: love you, Brittany, and she says, I love you, Mom.

564
00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:35,799
Speaker 1: And then um, then we hung up the phone. You

565
00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:41,240
Speaker 1: were hearing me speaking to Brittney's mother when Brittany first

566
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:47,000
Speaker 1: went missing. Right now, it's I feel the same way.

567
00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:50,840
Speaker 1: I feel like it's so surreal, Like you know, it

568
00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:55,400
Speaker 1: is this really true, you know, and it just I

569
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:58,080
Speaker 1: don't know. I've always, you know, fought for Brittany and

570
00:38:58,719 --> 00:39:02,719
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to bring her her home. Dawn, I'm curious,

571
00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:09,880
Speaker 1: what is your most vivid memory of Brittany. Just her laugh,

572
00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:14,920
Speaker 1: her smile. Brittany, she just was she was just full

573
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:17,880
Speaker 1: of life, her person She had a great personality, She

574
00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:22,520
Speaker 1: had a lot of friends, and just watching her play

575
00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:27,120
Speaker 1: soccer on that soccer field, she was just amazing. She

576
00:39:27,239 --> 00:39:30,480
Speaker 1: was amazing at the game. She loved the game. And

577
00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:35,800
Speaker 1: Brittany Brittany made like twenty six goals within her season,

578
00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:41,080
Speaker 1: which was pretty awesome. And she was just She's just

579
00:39:41,160 --> 00:39:44,839
Speaker 1: so full of life, you know, And for somebody to

580
00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:48,800
Speaker 1: take that away from us as just it's it's undescribable,

581
00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:54,239
Speaker 1: it really is. We live in an evil world, Nancy.

582
00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:59,879
Speaker 1: As we wait for the registered sex offender Raymond Duck

583
00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 1: Moody and for justice to unfold, w Batw and Myrtle

584
00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:10,440
Speaker 1: beach Well, Moody will get thirty years on kidnapping, and

585
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,440
Speaker 1: criminal sexual conduct in the first degree. Because he pleaded

586
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:16,880
Speaker 1: guilty to all three of the charges against him, including murder,

587
00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:20,480
Speaker 1: in which he will face life in prison without parole,

588
00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:24,040
Speaker 1: the judge sentenced him to that this morning. In the

589
00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:29,400
Speaker 1: state recounted thirteen years of an investigation in about twenty

590
00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:34,120
Speaker 1: five minutes, and Deputy Solicitor for the Fifteenth Circuit Scott Hickson,

591
00:40:34,520 --> 00:40:37,480
Speaker 1: said in court that the passage of time, unlike most

592
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:41,000
Speaker 1: cold cases, actually helped out this case because of the

593
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 1: fact that there were advancements in cell phone tracking technology

594
00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:50,400
Speaker 1: that allowed investigators to pinpoint Brittany Drexel's phone from Myrtle

595
00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:54,320
Speaker 1: Beach on its way south into Georgetown County. Our prayers

596
00:40:54,360 --> 00:41:00,520
Speaker 1: are with Dawn Trexel and Brittaney's family, is they move

597
00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:06,040
Speaker 1: forward and the next phase of their lives. Goodbye friend,