Woman reported by witnesses on bus not missing teen
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Missing teen: Team Adam
The person police witnesses reported as a missing New York teenager and who police actively sought along Ocean Boulevard wasn't Brittanee Drexel, police officials said.
Jody Barr/WBTW
Posters scatter Ocean Boulevard on Tuesday with a picture of Brittanee Marie Drexel, the 17-year-old high school student from Rochester, NY, that has been missing since Saturday.
MYRTLE BEACH – The person police witnesses reported as a missing New York teenager and who police actively sought along Ocean Boulevard wasn’t Brittanee Drexel, police officials said.
Police and family scoured the area around Ocean Boulevard earlier in the week, passing out fliers with Drexel’s information on it, looking for any answers to her disappearance.
No one claims to have seen Drexel since Saturday night.
According to police, the woman who busriders thought was Drexel was actually a woman who works at one of the hotels on the boulevard.
“Even though this lead did not pan out, we are still hopeful that we locate Ms. Drexel safe and sound,“ Knipes wrote in a Thursday morning press release. “We continue to investigate all leads and appreciate the assistance of other agencies and organizations in our search.
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO
Dawn Drexel drove from New York on Monday to come to Myrtle Beach to look for her missing daughter, 17-year-old Britannee Marie Drexel. She spoke exclusively to News 13’s Aisha Khan on the events that led up to the disappearance and her efforts to find her daughter.
Click here to watch.
WHAT OTHERS ARE REPORTING
CBS: Harry Smith talks with the missing teen’s mother
Democrat and Chronicle: Chili teen possibly seen on S.C. busy today
Police: Witness may have spotted missing teen
WHAM: Missing Chili teen reported sighted
Witness questioned in missing teen case
Click here to watch coverage of this story on CNN’s Nancy Grace.
WROC: Monroe County NY Sheriff Department investigating missing teen case
WHAM: Mother of Missing Teen: A Parent’s Worst Nightmare
WHAM: The Brittanee back story
Brittanee Marie Drexel, 17, of Rochester, NY was last seen around 8 p.m. Saturday.
Investigators have also tracked her cell phone, Knipes said.
The search came as family members from upstate New York arrived at the beach to help in the search.
The mother of a missing New York state high school student hit the streets with friends, family and flyers to find out any information that could lead to the safe return of her daughter.
Drexler’s mother, Dawn Drexler, along with other family members and friends spent several hours Tuesday handing out and posting flyers of the missing teen along Ocean Boulevard.
They went to businesses along the Boulevard looking for anyone who might have seen Brittanee Drexler inside their businesses.
The group received several leads and are working with Myrtle Beach Police Department detectives in trying to track her down.
One of those leads came from wait staff at the Oceanfront Bar and Grill, who said she was there on Sunday about 3 p.m., which would be the last known sighting of the teen.
Police are also looking for surveillance video to try to piece together where she went Saturday night.
Dawn Drexel says Brittanee is a junior at Gates Chili High School in Rochester, and was in Myrtle Beach with a group of older friends. Dawn Drexel says her daughter did not have her permission to travel to Myrtle Beach.
“I last talked to her Saturday around two o’clock. Her boyfriend spoke to her around eight o’clock,“ Drexel said.
“She sent a text message to one of her friends around 9:15 p.m. and said she was going to see another friend who was staying at another hotel. She never came back,“ Drexel said. “It’s been almost 48 hours, and I’m really worried. We need everyone to be looking out for her.“
John Hahn a friend of Drexel’s family and a Marine stationed at Camp LeJeune, NC, contacted police on the family’s behalf to report her missing. Hanh drove down to Myrtle Beach to help Dawn Drexel and her parents look for the missing teen.
“I’ve been friends with Britannee for a really really long time, we are very close friends. I’m trying to pray for the best but prepare for the worst,“ said Hahn.
Hahn and Drexel both tell News 13 that it is very unlike Brittanee to not keep in contact with family or friends. Drexel added that she has a bad feeling about what may have happened to her daughter.
“It’s horrible because all I can think about is that someone could’ve taken her, someone could’ve taken her out of state she could be laying dead somewhere. She is my first born and it’s just tearing me up inside, I’m just very very upset,“ said Drexel.
“I know for a fact that she wouldn’t just pack up and leave, leaving all of her belongings behind and not calling anybody,“ said Hahn.
According to the report, Drexel was staying with a group of friends at the Bar Harbor Hotel, 1010 N. Ocean Blvd. Since her disappearance, the group moved to the Boardwalk Hotel, located at 2301 N. Ocean Blvd.
Authorities handed out printed flyers of Brittanee’s picture to the beach’s watch patrol. Crews there said they are pretty heavily staffed at this time of the year, which makes it easy to do a search of any missing persons.
“With the water being as cold as it is and temperatures dropping at night it’s you know it’s very unlikely that she went for a swim or anything of that nature. We haven’t had any leads or any luck, we’ve been going up to different patrons doing pretty much everything that we can do out here to make sure she is not out on the beach or if she is we would definitely have found her by now,“said beach manager Wesley Cox.
“With the water being as cold as it is and temperatures dropping at night, it’s very unlikely that she went for a swim or anything of that nature.
Drexel is described as 5-feet tall, weighing 103 pounds. She has brown, shoulder-length, straight hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a multi-colored striped shirt, black shorts, and flip-flop sandals. She reportedly suffers from depression.
Police entered Drexel’s description into the National Crime Information Center database on Sunday.
Anyone with information on Drexel’s disappearance or whereabouts should contact the Myrtle Beach Police Department at (843) 918-1382.
Stay with News 13 and scnow.com for more on this story as details become available.
—News 13’s Jody Barr and Aisha Khan contributed to this report.
Britannee Marie Drexel
Photo courtesy Myrtle Beach Police Department
Britannee Marie Drexel seen on the lobby camera of the Bluewater Resort Saturday between 8:40 to 8:45 pm.
Photo courtesy Myrtle Beach Police Department
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( wings ) on May 02, 2009 at 4:11 am
“The car the Rochester guys traveled to & from MB has been searched and returned. “
Do you have a link to support this? The one you provided does not work.
Posted by ( Tipp ) on May 01, 2009 at 9:35 am
Me too Mr. Mookie. I feel like MB needs to ramp it up and find this child. Now, earlier I was turned off by the bickering about the city of MB, but at this point it does have me thinking. Number one, there was this big push to change the image of MB, get rid of the rallies and bring in more family crowds. If they don’t get on the ball with this, they will be begging for the bikers to come back because no family with children are going to come here or allow their kids to come here.
I want to see searches. I want to see every dumpter in the 20+ block area she was walking checked, landfills checked and the supposed hit on her cell phone towards Georgetown explored.
If MB wants to be taken seriously about their direction for the city and tourism, they better ante up. I don’t care who did it, whose permission she had or not. Fact is, she came to MB and no, the city of MB didn’t kidnap her, but they have an obligation to do what’s right and find the person who came to their area and spent money.
Are they looking for her? I think so, to an extent. But walking up and down the boulevard, posting flyers and asking kids at Broadway Arcade if they have seen her is not as much effort as I would expect at this point.
My suspicion is still very high of the kid in NY, I’m sorry to say. Has the oom they were staying in been searched? Has his car been searched? Has he offered to take a polygraph? I know there is only so much MB police can do with that kid in NY, but the word is they are working with authorities in NY, so why are we not hearing about things that would seem obvious, if nothing else to rule people out. Obviously she didn’t run away.
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Wow. Y’all are really behind on the news.
The car the Rochester guys traveled to & from MB has been searched and returned. Peter has submitted his DNA. He ID’d the flipflops in her hand when shown BD’s exit video.
http://rochesterhomepage.net/content…ext/?cid=88642
Also, you might want to check out how many freaking law enforcement agencies are involved in the search.
HER family is the one walking up & down posting flyers. Good freaking grief.
She suffers from depression. She was on new medication less than 1 mo. She doesn’t have the medication with her. She claimed to leave the 20yo male’s hotel room to take the black shorts she was wearing back to one of her pals. She texts the pal that she is going to see another friend first? What happened to returning the shorts? Why did someone from Camp LeJuene have to report her missing to LE on Sunday am? Her mom found out from BF in Rochester Sat nite that she was missing in MB.
Sat on the strip. Anything could have happened. I hope for the best possible outcome for this beautiful young girl.
It’s not LE’s fault she went missing. Having concrete information certainly gives them something to work from. But having to piece together a timeline and trail. Could it get any more complex?
It’s so obvious to you that she didn’t run away? Uh, she was on the run when she traveled to MB w/out her parents knowledge or permission.
MB/Horry Co does a great job considering the character of the general public they are paid to protect.
What happened to my comment detailing the search of the North Santee River area in Georgetown County?
RESPONSE TO (FREAK)
Obviously you do not watch the news much because its not always “pretty young white women” Its anyone who goes missing.
Actually you can go to http://www.missingkids.com and see for yourself the three missing children on the page are all NOT white.
My friend who went missing from my college olamide adeyooye google her name you will come to find once again grabbed MUCH national attention and was not white either. Please do think about what you say before humiliate yourself by saying its only white young women. And We should all be hoping and praying for safe return not knocking religion, race, age, sex, or anything like that. Think about what you say this is someones child that they love dearly and you are making a stand about racism?! Seriously!? Think before you speak.
Please go back and re-read the time-line of what happened and when. I’m not goin to repeat it. I wouldn’t have expected her mom to immediatley go from NY to MB, I mean Britannee is already there and she’s with some 15 of her friends. You would assume she wouldn’t ever be alone. She phoned a friend at 9:15pm at Bar Harbor where everyone was staying, that she was going to meet a friend at another hotel. At 8:45pm she’s on the video at the Blue Water Resort. Who was she going to see there? Who is the friend at the “other hotel”? Where was she from 8:45pm to 9:15pm? Sat night at 9:00pm I would expect there were a few people out and about. Someone had to see something. Or, that many people could have been a distraction also. If she did disappear on her own, why would she have even called the friend at 9:15pm?
Hmmm… alone, young, beautiful, and naive…. What could possibly go wrong?!?
After the parents are charged for some type of child endangerment, they should be taken out back and beaten severly for being so stupid and neglectful.
I am going to play Devils advocate here. Why is it every time a young pretty white woman goes missing, suddenly the media jumps on board as though the world must stop until she is found? For any other ethnic group? We never hear about any girl gone missing and we certainly do not hear of any males gone missing. This is hype up BS and you folks have been had hook, line, and sinker. Every year some new pretty white girl goes missing and Foxnews, CNN, etc jump on board with 24/7 news coverage.
Me too Mr. Mookie. I feel like MB needs to ramp it up and find this child. Now, earlier I was turned off by the bickering about the city of MB, but at this point it does have me thinking. Number one, there was this big push to change the image of MB, get rid of the rallies and bring in more family crowds. If they don’t get on the ball with this, they will be begging for the bikers to come back because no family with children are going to come here or allow their kids to come here.
I want to see searches. I want to see every dumpter in the 20+ block area she was walking checked, landfills checked and the supposed hit on her cell phone towards Georgetown explored.
If MB wants to be taken seriously about their direction for the city and tourism, they better ante up. I don’t care who did it, whose permission she had or not. Fact is, she came to MB and no, the city of MB didn’t kidnap her, but they have an obligation to do what’s right and find the person who came to their area and spent money.
Are they looking for her? I think so, to an extent. But walking up and down the boulevard, posting flyers and asking kids at Broadway Arcade if they have seen her is not as much effort as I would expect at this point.
My suspicion is still very high of the kid in NY, I’m sorry to say. Has the oom they were staying in been searched? Has his car been searched? Has he offered to take a polygraph? I know there is only so much MB police can do with that kid in NY, but the word is they are working with authorities in NY, so why are we not hearing about things that would seem obvious, if nothing else to rule people out. Obviously she didn’t run away.
At first, I thought she was a run away. I’m now having second thoughts. I fear someone has kidnapped her or killed her.
Oceanfrontview, I know that she can’t come get her before she is missing. From what I gathered from what the mother said, she had talked to her daughter since she had gotten to MB. If that is not the case, then you are right and she couldn’t come get her then. But I would think that after talking to her on Sat. and the text msgs to her boyfriend that she would have told someone that she was in MB and she should have come got her then.
Still hopeing that she is found safe and sound and returned to her mom because I’m sure she is worried sick about her.
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