Brittanee Marie Drexel, missing since 4/25/09 from Myrtle Beach, SC

[Lovinlife]

WHERE ARE YOU BRITTANEE?

[Tina Bee]

My thoughts are on Brittanee today. She deserves to come home safely too.

[Edward]

I was always thinking that if any of these cases could have a live victim, this one could be her.
I hope she finds a way home.

[Lovinlife]

Brittanee's father was on Voices for Justice yesterday. His portion is right after Trenton Ducket's father.  He had some interesting things to say.   You can listen to it here.  Michelle Bart is the host, just to warn you.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/helpingheroes/2009/08/20/KIDNAPPED-part-2

[Tina Bee]

Brittanee's father was on Voices for Justice yesterday. His portion is right after Trenton Ducket's father.  He had some interesting things to say.   You can listen to it here.  Michelle Bart is the host, just to warn you.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/helpingheroes/2009/08/20/KIDNAPPED-part-2

Chad answered some important questions I had about this case in that candid interview.

Brittanee fits the human trafficking profile to a tee. With at home issues it's very easy to get sucked into that BS by a smooth talking male or even female. Those older teens she was with know exactly what happened that night. They're just scared because of all the illegal drugs & drinking that was going on.

Is Peter Brozowitz a known cocaine user/dealer? He looks like the type. It's not hard to get into a bad situation when a drug deal goes sour. Maybe Brittanee got caught up and kidnapped and that's why Peter and friends left MB in a hurry that night.

In my heart I believe she's alive, but in grave danger. There are way too many possibilities as to where she could be now and I doubt it's in SC.

[Lovinlife]

http://www.wmbfnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=10962698

Digital billboards now running for missing teen
Posted: Aug 20, 2009 11:03 AM EDT
Updated: Aug 20, 2009 7:59 PM EDT

    HORRY COUNTY, SC (WMBF) - Three digital billboards with information about 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel began running Thursday morning, according to Carol Wagner, Drexel's grandmother.

Two of the digital billboards are located along US-17 Bypass, with a third along US-501 near Forestbrook Road.

According to Wagner, another billboard will be going up near the Georgetown area with Brittanee's information.

"It just keeps everything out in the open, so that she's seen everywhere. We know Brittanee's out there, and we're gonna get her back," said Wagner.

Danny Hoots with Camel City Posters is helping to donate the Georgetown sign, while Mark T. Stocks, the General Manager of NextMedia Outdoor is donating the space for all four billboards.

Hoots says the Georgetown sign should go up at the end of next week, as soon as the sign is printed.

The Wagners say they are extremely grateful to Hoots and Stocks for their help with the donations.

Drexel was last seen in the area of 11th Avenue South and 20th Avenue South in Myrtle Beach after meeting up with friends from her hometown. Drexel was in Myrtle Beach on spring break, against the will of her mother.

Police say a number of leads surfaced on her whereabouts, but have led to a dead end.

CrimeStoppers is encouraging anyone with information regarding the disappearance of Drexel to contact the agency at 1-888-CRIME-SC, the Cue Center for Missing Persons at 910-343-1131, or the Myrtle Beach Police Department at 843-918-1963.

[Lovinlife]

We have not forgotten you Brittanee!

http://www.carolinalive.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=343626

By Graeme Moore
Saturday, August 29, 2009 at 7:43 p.m.


More than four months after her disappearance, Brittanee Drexel's whereabouts remain a mystery.

Drexel, 17, of New York, disappeared April 25 after leaving the Blue Water Resort on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach.

Almost from the very beginning detectives theorized Drexel was abducted and feared she was in danger. During the first few weeks of her disappearance, police and volunteer searchers with the C.U.E. Center for Missing Persons initiated exhaustive searches.

The main search focused on the North Santee Community in Georgetown County, an area where Drexel's cell phone last gave a signal the night she vanished.

"Law enforcement stepped right up and said we got something wrong here. A lot of times (missing persons) cases will be downplayed for a week or two until they realize they really have a problem. And then what happens is they realize it's too late. You don't capture the media and attention of the community," CUE founder and director Monica Caison said.

Despite heavy media coverage, inevitably the weeks came and went. The organized searches stopped. Summer dragged on. Eventually Brittanee's story faded from the headlines, and there was still no Brittanee.

But on Saturday there was a renewed effort to keep her story front and center among the Myrtle Beach community at a missing persons awareness tour, and the person sponsoring that effort knows the pain of a missing person.

Angie Gilchrist's mother is Alice Donovan who was abducted, raped and killed in November 2002 by Brandon Bashum and Chadrick Fulks.

For years Donovan remained missing, despite the death sentence convictions of her murderers. In late 2008, Gilchrist ran into Monica Caison with the CUE Center, and together they decided it was time to find Alice. Previous searches by CUE, police and others yielded nothing.

"It is the most excruciating, tormenting thing to ever have to deal with. Your life stops," Gilchrist described of her ordeal with her mother's murder and subsequent disappearance.

Caison wrote to Fulks in prison, and to her amazement, he sent her a package stuffed with maps pointing to where Alice could be found.

Caison's crew jumped into action and in January 2009 they found human bones that would later be positively identified as Donovan.

Far from a "success" story, it is a story that brings closure, something Brittanee Drexel's mom is desperately searching for.

"I still have hope that she's somewhere out there," Dawn Drexel said Saturday at the Myrtle Beach stop of CUE's "On The Road to Remember Tour."

Dawn left Myrtle Beach at the end of June after spending two months in Myrtle Beach searching and raising money for her daughter's cause.

Her frustration is growing.

"I just wish people would come (forward) and call one of the tip lines," Drexel said.

Those tip lines, run by the Myrtle Beach Police Department and the CUE Center, have lit up in the months past, but no tip has generated the clue needed to crack the case.

Dawn, Monica and police are determined to keep the tips flowing, and one of the ways to do that, they say, is through events like the one held Saturday.

It was a small gathering of no more than a dozen folks -- from lead detectives to Dawn to Monica to a few who didn't even know the Drexels -- but it was meaningful.

"The whole purpose of the tour is to get their information out, tell their stories, show their pictures and to visit their towns and rally their communities to remind them they're still missing," Caison explained.

As for the investigation by police, NewsChannel 15 learned that detectives have brought in an FBI agent to be "thoroughly briefed" on Brittanee's case.

Detectives are also working with the CUE Center to organize a new search sometime later this Fall when the leaves fall and the terrain becomes easier to navigate.

What won't become easier is Dawn Drexel's anguish.

"Brittanee's 18th birthday is coming up which is going to be very difficult in Ocotber," Dawn said adding, "I just want to know something. I know my daughter didn't just disappear off the face of the earth."

Anonymous tips and information can be called in to the Myrtle Beach Police Department at 843-918-1382 or to the CUE Center at 910-343-1131.

Donations to the planned search effort can be made to CUE, a non-profit organization, by visiting their web site www.ncmissingpersons.org or by calling them.

[Lovinlife]

http://www.wciv.com/news/stories/0809/654487.html

Trail Grows Cold, Search Continues for Missing Teen
08/29/09 10:32 pm   |   reporter: Renee Williams   producer: Renee Williams

Myrtle Beach, SC - Myrtle Beach Police begin a renewed effort to find Brittanee Drexel, a missing teen from New York. Officials say they are working several new leads to find the teenager, but they still need help in the investigation.

Family, friends and strangers gathered at a park in Myrtle Beach Saturday morning to release balloons for Brittanee Drexel. It is a sign of faith in a time when hope is hard to come by. 4


“It’s not knowing where she is. I want to get her back; I want to hold her and touch her,” Brittanee’s mother, Dawn Drexel said.


Today was a chance to remember the 17 year old and remind the public that she is still missing.


“We are beside ourselves and we miss her so much,” Dawn Drexel added.


Brittanee disappeared from Myrtle Beach on April 25. Police say she was last seen at the Blue Water Resort.


“She was pretty much in plain sight when she went missing,” Monica Caison, Founder of CUE Center for Missing Persons, said Saturday.


Since her disappearance, authorities have searched from the Grand Strand to Georgetown. Police say Brittanee’s cell phone gave off a final signal in Georgetown shortly after she vanished. Clues led police to search in McClellanville, but they came back empty-handed.


“It’s like she vanished and all we have is the trail of a possible cell phone,” Caison added. “If someone has picked up that phone and they’re scared to turn it in, please call someone and let them know you have it because it is vital. We need to know where that phone was found if it was found.”


Officials say it is not enough to retrace Brittanee’s steps. They say four months into the investigation they now need someone who saw anything the day Brittanee disappeared will come forward.


“The challenges are we get less and less people that show interest and less and less information comes in,” Joe Graham with the Myrtle Beach Police Department explained. “It makes it harder to follow up on the information.”

 
“She didn’t disappear off the face of the earth,” Dawn Drexel said. “Someone has to know something.”

Until the next lead comes, the push to find Brittanee will continue.

Authorities are planning another full scale search for the missing teen this fall. If you have any information about Drexel’s whereabouts, call the Myrtle Beach Police Department at 843-918-1300 or 843-918-1382.

[Lovinlife]

Large-scale search for Rochester teen
National Organization to help in search

Updated: Monday, 31 Aug 2009, 4:40 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 31 Aug 2009, 7:44 AM EDT

Zackary Kineke
Posted by: Emily Lenihan
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WIVB) - A national organization is helping the family of a missing Rochester teen pick up the search, months after she disappeared in South Carolina.

Brittanee Drexel, 17, went missing from Myrtle beach on Spring Break back in April.

Investigators followed several leads in the initial search and even identified a person of interest, but never arrested anyone.

This weekend, the CUE Center for Missing Persons featured Drexel on their Missing Persons' road tour.

"If I can get her on the media any time, just to keep her name and face out there, that"s what I need to do. I am not the kind of Mother that's just going to sit around," said Bittanee's mother, Dawn Drexel.

"We will be planning in the Fall, a large-scale search, and I don't want to disclose the area, but we will bring in multiple teams and quite a few hundred people to conduct the search effort," said Monica Cason, of CUE Center for Missing Persons.

CUE officials say these events help them solve at least one case every year.

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/new_york/Large_scale_search_for_Rochester_teen_20090831

[Tina Bee]

Brittanee Drexel Vanished During Spring Break, Will She Ever Be Found?

September 24, 2009 12:45 PM

Brittanee Drexel, a 17-year-old high school student from Rochester, N.Y told her mother she was staying at a friend's house, but actually set off on a weekend vacation with friends to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

And then she vanished.

The last time anyone heard from her was when she sent a text message the night of April 25, 2009 to one of her friends, authorities say.

The last person known to have been with Brittanee was Peter Broswick, a high school friend she went to visit in another hotel that night. He quickly became a "person of interest," but has since been cleared in the case.

Dawn Drexel, Brittanee's mother, appeared on The Early Show in April to talk about the ongoing search for her daughter.

"It's been horrible, because I don't know where she is. I don't know if she's alive," Dawn Drexel said. "She left all her clothing, her hair stuff. It's just not like Brittanee. Something's wrong."

Brittanee and her friends were staying at the Bar Harbor Hotel at 1010 North Ocean Boulevard in downtown Myrtle, according to her missing persons website. She last telephoned her boyfriend, John Greico, the night she went missing.

Greico told CBS News Brittanee was not suicidal.

"She definitely met with foul play," Greico told The Early Show in May. "I think somebody saw her walking and offered her a ride and she got in the car with the wrong person."

"I don't believe she just ran away," said Dawn Drexel. "She was going through a lot because my husband, my soon-to-be ex-husband, we were going through a divorce. So this has been very hard on her."

Brittanee also has a history of depression that her father, Chad Drexel, was especially concerned about.

"She just had emotional issues, very, very stressful emotional issues. She needed a break from all the drama" of the marital woes, he said.

Brittanee was last seen on April 25, 2009. She is described as five 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 had blonde highlights in her hair.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Myrtle Beach Police Department at 1-843-918-1300, or 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678).

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/24/crimesider/entry5334752.shtml

[cookie]

this is so darn sad!

[linds1980]

http://www.thesunnews.com/news/local/story/1101901.html

Monday, Oct. 05, 2009
Family braces for Brittanee Drexel's 18th birthday

The pain and uncertainty of the last 163 days have been agonizing enough for the family and friends of Brittanee Drexel, the New York teen who has not been seen since leaving a Myrtle Beach hotel room in April.

But Wednesday - Drexel's 18th birthday - will likely be the most difficult of all, her mother said.

"Brittanee loved birthdays, and she loved a big deal being made about her birthday," Dawn Drexel said. "She couldn't wait until her 18th. We had a lot of plans ... a lot of things she really wanted to do."

   
   
      The Sun News - Posters showing Brittanee Drexel's missing status since April 25, 2009 remain posted throughout the area, including some hotels and stores along the S. Ocean Blvd. stretch were she was last seen. Photo by Steve Jessmore sjessmore@thesunnews.co
 

Brittanee Drexel is still missing. She was last seen April 25 leaving the Blue Water Hotel on Ocean Boulevard, and investigators remain puzzled as to her whereabouts. Another search will take place later this month, according to the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons in Wilmington, N.C.

Family members and investigators were encouraged to learn in late August that a missing California girl was found 18 years after she was abducted at a bus stop.

Drexel's family is planning a balloon launch next week in Rochester, N.Y., to coincide with her 18th birthday and the six-month anniversary of her disappearance.

While Drexel has missed several family holidays - Mother's Day, Father's Day and her brother's 6th birthday - along with her high school's homecoming this past weekend, Wednesday will be one of the toughest for family and friends, said Monica Caison, who has been the Community United Effort group director for 16 years.

"The first of everything is the worst," Caison said. "The first birthday, the first Christmas, the first Mother's Day. There's just nothing but questions. That is the torment.

"You just don't know how to treat that day. It's just a reminder of the ugliness of it all."

Caison said that she received "sporadic calls" about Drexel's disappearance after a billboard with her photo was erected in August in the Santee area of Georgetown County.

"Nothing has panned out," Caison said. "We were really hoping to get some information from that."

And the number of tips received by police has decreased during the past few weeks, Myrtle Beach Sgt. Joey Crosby said.

Dawn Drexel said the uncertainty of her daughter's whereabouts or condition has affected her health and has left an emptiness in her other children - sister Myrissa, 12, and brother Camdyn, 6.

"They miss their sister so much," Dawn Drexel said. "For my son's birthday, he released balloons and hoped his sister would get them. They just want her to come home."

Other family members remain optimistic that Brittanee will be found alive and well.

"The hope is not faded because we just don't know where she is," said Carol Wagner, Brittanee's grandmother. "We don't know what happened to her. I have a feeling she's still out there.

"I just think about her every day. I've been sick to my stomach every day knowing she's gone. It doesn't matter if it's her birthday or not. The emotions are still the same."

The CUE is planning another search for Drexel later this month, Caison said. She would not disclose the time or location of the search.

Family and investigators said the story of then-11-year-old Jaycee Dugard, taken from a bus stop in 1991, has provided some extra hope. She was found in August and reunited with her family.

"Those are miracles, but it shows we have to continue to look for people, especially kids," Caison said. "It reminds us to look close to home. I've told Dawn Drexel that we're continuing to look for Brittanee. Without a body, there is always hope."

Wagner said she is happy the Dugard family received "closure," but hopes it won't take so long to find her granddaughter.

"Maybe we'll hear from her on her birthday ... you never know," she said.

Call KURT KNAPEK at 626-0258.

[Tracygirl]

She was on a missing person flyer that comes with store flyers in my mail. Hopefully this will help to bring her home.

[Lovinlife]

 


http://www.carolinalive.com/news/story.aspx?id=360037

Missing teen's family celebrates her birthday
Wednesday, October 07, 2009 at 1:24 p.m.

It's been nearly six months since the search for Brittanee Drexel began, and Wednesday marks a sad milestone for her family - Brittanee's 18th birthday.

The teen from New York was last seen leaving the Blue Water Resort in Myrtle Beach back in April. Her mother has not given up. As days and months go by, the searches, fliers, billboards and fundraisers continue for Brittanee in Myrtle Beach and Georgetown.

"We do have hope that she's still out there, you still always have hope, but in the back of your mind you have to think the worst," said Brittanee's mother, Dawn.

Myrtle Beach police called off the search for Brittanee in June.

The CUE Center for Missing Persons in Wilmington, North Carolina says it will conduct another search later this month.  You can read background stories on Drexel's disappearance through the links below.

[joesamas mama]

  Happy Birthday on your 18th Brittanee. Please know you are in my prayers tonight.  JSM

[Fanny Mae]

Brittanee, I hope you are in peace, where ever you are. Happy Birthday.

[cookie]

thinking of you and your family Brittanee...

[trimmonthelake]

Prayers for Brittanee.      

http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/Brittanee-Drexels-18th-Birthday-Missing-Nearly/NqnJGSRLjEqOn47ZoYcgIg.cspx?rss=102
Brittanee Drexel's 18th Birthday, Missing Nearly Six Months
Reported by: Sean Carroll
Email: scarroll@13wham.com
Last Update: 11:12 am
Gates, N.Y. -- October is a month of sad milestones for the family of Brittanee Drexel.

Wednesday is Brittanee Drexel's 18th birthday, and October 25 will mark six months since the Chili teen was last seen leaving a Myrtle Beach hotel.

Since then, Drexel's family has held six months of searches on land and air, of flyers and vigils, hugs and prayers, and fundraisers and friends and hope.

Six months later, and on the eve of her daughter's 18th birthday, Dawn Drexel is tired, but ready to press on.

"We're going to keep looking for Brittanee… We do have hope that she's still out there,"  Dawn Drexel said. "You still always have hope but in the back of your mind you have to think the worst."

Thinking and hoping fills in the gaps of Drexel's busy days. There are more searches, more fundraisers, more flyers, and more billboards.

"There's three digital billboards in Myrtle Beach, and there's a huge one down in Georgetown," Drexel said.

But on Brittanee’s 18th birthday, all that gets a bit tougher for mom, and for her kid brother and sister.
"It's hard looking at all her baby pictures up until now, we miss her."

After celebrating Brittanee's birthday together, Drexel's family will get busy once again.  They're planning a balloon launch locally in the next few weeks, and Maury Povitch is taping a feature for his show, all of which is aimed at keeping Brittanee's story, and disappearance, in the public eye.

Myrtle Beach Police say they have no current plans to resume an active search for Drexel after calling that off in June. They currently have no fresh leads or clues that explain her disappearance.

[Edward]

Then they better go back to the beginning.

[Lovinlife]

Then they better go back to the beginning.

And start with this piece of work right here,JMO, the last known person to see Brittanee:

Peter Broswick - person of interrest/boyfriend (We now know that he was not B's boyfriend)

http://www.myspace.com/peteybroz

You remember, the one who hired the high profile attny within hours of returning to Rochester!