5 chilling details about Brittanee Drexel's murder
Viewers looking to revisit the Brittanee Drexel investigation can tune in when Investigation Discovery airs Fatal Destination at 10 pm ET on Tuesday, June 17, 2025. The chapter Missing in Myrtle Beach retraces how Brittanee Drexel vanished from Ocean Boulevard on April 25, 2009, and how technology, persistence, and new testimony finally exposed her killer.
Cell-phone mapping in 2022 matched Brittanee Drexel’s handset to the SUV of convicted sex offender Raymond Moody, prompting his confession and a life sentence plea. As per a Court TV report dated October 19, 2022, Moody admitted he strangled the 17-year-old after driving her to a Georgetown County campsite.
Investigators later learned, as per a press release dated February 13, 2025, by the United States District of South Carolina Attorney's office, that Moody’s longtime partner Angel Vause misled the FBI for years. She is now serving an 18-year term. A civil jury subsequently ordered Moody to pay the Drexel estate $700 million, Spectrum News noted on February 25, 2025.
5 key details about Brittanee Drexel's murder explored
1) Drexel left for a quick walk that turned into a 13-year mystery
As per a March 16, 2025, report by the New York Post, on the night of April 25, 2009, 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel left for the Blue Water Resort in Myrtle Beach to meet a friend and never made it back. Security footage captured her in a multicolored shirt and flip-flops, the final public image that launched a search stretching from hotel corridors to coastal swamps.
As per a Court TV report dated May 17, 2022, Myrtle Beach Police Chief Amy Prock reflected on the department’s long struggle to find answers for the crime.
“Every police officer has that one case that frequents their every waking thought,” she said.
2) Digital breadcrumbs cracked the cold case
For years, investigators sifted through false leads, including an informant’s alligator-swamp tale, until cell-site and GPS advances in 2022 mapped Brittanee Drexel’s phone to a Ford Explorer driven by registered sex offender Raymond Moody, as per the March 2025 New York Post article.
Investigators discovered that Moody disposed of Brittanee's phone in a nearby water body and buried her in a "shallow grave," ending years of search.
3) Moody confessed to the crime and received a life sentence
Court TV’s October 19, 2022, coverage reported that confronted with the data, Moody admitted he offered Brittanee marijuana, drove her to a Georgetown County campsite, raped and strangled her, then buried her body. He gave a statement that read:
“I was a monster. I was a monster then and I was a monster when I took Brittanee Drexel’s life.”
He was sentenced to life in prison, plus 60 years on related charges, and is currently housed in South Carolina’s correctional system.
4) Angel Vause lied to the FBI for years
Moody’s longtime girlfriend, Angel Vause, initially told the FBI the teenager “voluntarily” joined them to smoke drugs. Agents later proved she helped lure Drexel into the vehicle and remove the victim’s phone, before leaving her alone with Moody, as per a March 28, 2024, article by Court TV.
U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel sentenced Vause to 18 years in federal prison in February 2025 after she was found to have misled investigators. As per the press report by the District of South Carolina Attorneys, Special Agent-in-Charge Steve Jensen commented on the case after the hearing.
“This sentence underscores the gravity of lying during an investigation. The FBI and our law enforcement partners will always investigate the facts and hold accountable anyone who distorts the truth to obstruct justice,” he said.
5) Brittanee Drexel’s estate is liable for payment by Moody
While Moody serves out his life sentence, legal fallout continues. In February 2025, a Georgetown County jury awarded Brittanee Drexel’s estate $700 million in damages, finding Moody liable for years of emotional anguish inflicted on her family, as per the February 2025 Spectrum News article.
The case now reaches a wider audience through Investigation Discovery’s Fatal Destination. Missing in Myrtle Beach will be broadcast on June 17, 2025, at 10 pm ET, bringing together Brittanee Drexel’s family members with investigators Kin McKenzie and Phil Hanna and Solicitor Jimmy Richardson to revisit the case.
Stay tuned for more updates.
