Brittanee Drexel: How Advances in GPS Technology Cracked Spring Break Murder Case a Decade Later

Mar. 15, 2025

Brittanee Drexel.

For years, authorities came up empty in the search forBrittanee Drexel, the teen who vanished on a spring break trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C., in 2009.

This week, prosecutors explained how advances in cell phone tracking technology helped them convict Raymond Moody, 62, who pleaded guilty Wednesday in the disappearance and death of the star soccer player from Chili, N.Y., near Rochester.

The 17-year-old high school junior was last seen on April 25, 2009, at about 8:45 p.m., on surveillance footage as she left the Blue Water Resort on Ocean Boulevard, the busy main drag in the spring break mecca.

She texted her boyfriend back home that she was walking back to the Bar Harbor motor inn a mile and a half down the road where she and her friends were staying.

No one ever heard from her again and authorities, for years, had no idea what happened to her.

“I was a monster,” he told the court.

Brittanee Drexel and Raymond Moody.AP Photo/Myrtle Beach Police Department, Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office

The judge then sentenced him to consecutive terms of 30 years on the charges of kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct and a life sentence on the first-degree murder charge for kidnapping, raping and strangling the teen who dreamed of becoming a nurse or cosmetologist, theDemocrat & Chroniclereports.

Prosecutors explained how they finally learned what happened to the missing teen more than 13 years ago.

In 2019 and 2020, investigators took a fresh look at surveillance footage from Ocean Boulevard and cell phone data from Drexel’s phone, Chief Deputy Solicitor Scott Hixson said in court before Moody’s sentencing,WAVYreports.

Thanks to advances in GPS tracking technology, authorities were able to determine that the teen’s cell phone was moving at walking speed — but then began moving at a speed of 55 mph, showing that she had gotten into a vehicle, he explained,ABC Newsreports.

Doing that allowed investigators to find a “one-minute window” when Drexel got into Moody’s car at about 9 p.m., he said,WSPAreports.

AP

Surveillance footage showed only one vehicle passing the location where Drexel’s cell phone last pinged at a walking speed, ABC News reports.

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“Between walking speed and driving, something had to happen in a very narrow window that was probative to solving the crime,” Hixson said, WAVY reports.

Police tracked the vehicle in the footage to Moody, who was already a person of interest in the case. Back in 2011, authorities had executed a search warrant on the motel where he was living but found nothing at the time to link him to the teen’s disappearance, WAVY reports.

The case came to a head in April 2022 when Moody’s girlfriend, Angel Vause, agreed to help the FBI and wear a wire and talk to Moody about what had happened to Drexel, WMBF reports.

On May 5, 2022, Moody admitted his crimes, Hixson said, WMBF reports.

He told authorities he and Vause were driving in Myrtle Beach when they saw Drexel and asked her to party with them, Hixson said, theDemocrat & Chroniclereports.

He said she got into the car voluntarily, which her family disputed, the newspaper reports.

He said he drove Vause and Drexel to a campsite in Georgetown County, where they smoked marijuana.

When Vause left, Moody said he wanted to have sex with Drexel. When she refused, he raped her.

Worried that he might get in trouble for raping Drexel, he strangled her, wrapped her body in a blanket and hid her in the woods, Hixson said.

When Vause returned, he told her Drexel’s friends had picked her up.

He returned to the campsite later on, moved Drexel’s body and buried it in another location, Hixson said, theDemocrat & Chroniclereports.

According tothe Democrat and Chronicle, Moody is a registered sex offender who spent 21 years in prison following a 1983 abduction and rape case in California involving a 9-year-old girl.

The guilty plea and sentencing are bittersweet for Drexel’s family.

“I’ll never be able to walk Brittanee down the aisle and neither will her blood father or Dawn,” her stepfather, Chad Drexel said,News 10 NBCreports. “She’ll never be able to see my granddaughter, her niece who is amazing, all that’s snatched away from us.”

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go torainn.org.

source: people.com