GEORGETOWN, S.C. — A judge has sentenced a man to life in prison for kidnapping and killing Brittanee Drexel, a teenage girl who went missing in Myrtle Beach in 2009 and was never seen alive again.
Raymond Moody, 62, plead guilty to the murder charge in a Georgetown County, SC court Wednesday morning. Before sentencing, multiple media outlets report Moody cried in court and called himself a "monster."
"I don’t have the words to express how horrible I feel and how I’ve felt ever since that day, and I’m very sorry," Moody said.
The Drexel family was allowed to speak as well, with Chad Drexel, Brittanee's adopted father, telling the court that his daughter was a strong-willed girl. He said the family had gone through torture not knowing what had happened to Brittannee and that the killer was a "sick monster."
Her mother, Dawn Drexel, said she still wears her daughter's picture around her neck. "Today, we know the truth, and you, Mr. Moody, face the consequences of that," she said.
Drexel, a 17-year-old from Rochester, New York, had gone down to Myrtle Beach for spring break in April of 2009. She was reported missing on April 25.
Investigators said Moody kidnapped Drexel and took her to Georgetown County, where he lived. Not long after they arrived, they believe he sexually assaulted her, killed her, then buried her body hours later.
In the intervening years, it had been a mystery of what Drexel's ultimately fate was and there was no justice for the person who took her life. In 2012, Moody was named a person of interest the case but was never charged.
But on May 11, 2022, the critical break came: human remains were found in Georgetown County, about 30 miles from where she was last seen alive, and collected by the FBI. Investigators say she was first identified through dental records and then a subsequent DNA test conducted by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed her identity.
The coroner later said Drexel died from strangulation.
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