Return to Transcripts main page
Nancy Grace
Nancy Grace Mysteries: The Disappearance of Brittanee Drexel
Aired January 10, 2014 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Tonight on NANCY GRACE MYSTERIES, Myrtle Beach, Florida, (sic) police are looking for Brittanee Marie Drexel, a 17-year-old high school junior when she disappeared on a spring break trip.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Seventeen-year-old Brittanee Drexel had gone to Myrtle Beach for spring break. Now, here`s the kicker. Her mother did not know she had gone away for spring break. She told her mom she was hanging out with her friends there in the neighborhood, but unbeknownst to Mom, that spring break, she wasn`t hanging out with friends down the street. She took off with friends to Myrtle Beach.
Now, granted, that`s not good. But how many times have teenagers told the their parents they`re one place when they were really somewhere else? I certainly don`t think that her case should be discounted because of that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hundreds of leads and thousands of man hours later, Myrtle Beach detectives have what they`re calling a substantial lead to work on in the Brittanee Drexel case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got a call from someone that had met a person that made unusual statements and gave some information that they thought was unusual and suspicious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The then 17-year-old was on spring break in Myrtle Beach on April 25th, 2009, when she disappeared. She was last seen leaving the Blue Water Resort on Ocean Boulevard. The teenager`s cell phone transmitted its last signal in southern Georgetown County the day after she went missing. But Lieutenant Capp says that area will not be the focus of this latest search.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) a little bit closer to home and closer to our jurisdiction. But we`d rather remain vague at this point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Capp says the case remains very active, and investigators constantly follow new leads. But this latest tip is better than even the tipster was aware.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They contacted us, and with our knowledge of the case, we were actually more interested than that person even realized.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brittanee`s mother, Dawn Drexel, met with investigators Tuesday for an update on the case. She says she feels fortunate that law enforcement agencies have kept the case active and that the South Carolinians have shown such strong support.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Without even knowing Brittanee, they`ve come to love her, and you know, they`re trying to do anything possible that they can also to find Brittanee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We don`t know a lot about how Brittanee went missing, but we do know this. That evening, April 25th, Brittanee was with her friends at a motel, the Blue Harbor Motel there at Myrtle Beach. She went that evening for a walk on the beach around 8:00 PM. And we can verify this.
Brittanee walked about a mile on the beach, down the hotel strip to another resort hotel. It was called the Blue Water Resort Hotel. A hometown friend was staying there. So she walks a stretch of beach to go see her friend at the Blue Water.
Video surveillance that we have obtained shows her, consistent with her friend`s timeline, leaving the Blue Water around 8:48 PM that night, April 25. She is spotted leaving.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I come down, normally, it`s very stressful for me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trips to Charleston County for Dawn Drexel and her family aren`t new.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s very difficult just being here. And you know, thinking your child could be in a wooded area is just too much for me to handle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Searches for Drexel`s missing daughter Brittanee continue. But this time, with the unfaltering help of Monica Caison, they`re pulling out all the stops.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have close to 200 volunteers, professional teams that have come out. We have mounted units, as well as K9 units. We have numerous ATV teams. And then we have ground pounders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Caison is the executive director of the Cue Center for Missing Persons and is conducting the second largest search for Brittanee since her initial disappearance in Myrtle Beach in 2009.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know we have a big task ahead of us, but we got a lot of great people here that are working very, very hard to get it done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search is covering 12 miles of wooded area near McClellanville, the last place authorities say they received a ping from Brittanee`s cell phone. Teams are heading 500 to 700 feet off Old Georgetown Road into the woods, attempting to leave no ground uncovered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) that is.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even if we don`t find something, our searches are very successful because we`ve eliminated more space that Brittanee Drexel isn`t (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Although Drexel has seen countless searches before, she hasn`t given up hope and is confident in Caison.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s not going to stop searching until she finds my daughter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Her hometown friend says that she was going to walk down the beach, back to her friends at her motel. That was the Blue Harbor. In that one-mile stretch of sand, she`s gone. Outside of that surveillance video at 8:48 PM, Brittanee Drexel is never seen alive again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: April 2009, Brittanee Drexel came to Myrtle Beach on a spring break trip with friends. These are some of the last images, the last pictures of her texting on her phone, the last video of her walking along Ocean Boulevard. But something happened later on that night on a walk back to her hotel, the night when Brittanee Drexel vanished. Brittanee grew up just outside of the Kodak capital, Rochester, New York, in the quiet community of Tyline (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brittanee was very fun. She was very loving. She had a smile.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A typical fun-loving teen, and her family`s pride and joy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was full of life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that life was filled with many activities that any teenager would enjoy. But there was one passion in particular that Brittanee loved most.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brittanee`s heart was soccer. She`s small, boy, but she could run fast. She was like, you know, at lightning speed right down the -- you know, right down the field.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her grandparents say they never missed a game, and Brittanee never let them miss a goal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eventually, we ended up giving her $5 a goal. Then that`s the year that she made 23 goals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a dollar, then (INAUDIBLE) how much are you going to give her this year, $2? Then it went to $3. (INAUDIBLE) want us to give her $5. (INAUDIBLE) why don`t you shut up?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Brittanee wasn`t on the soccer field, she was hanging out with her best friend, Tara Friedman (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What kind of things did you guys like to do together?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We would go shopping together, we would watch movies, go to the mall, check out some boys. We just always had a really good time together.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And just like any other teenager, Brittanee wanted a spring break adventure at the beach. Brittanee`s mom thought she was spending spring break here at Charlotte Beach. But instead of traveling just 20 miles away, Brittanee traveled more than 800 miles away to Myrtle Beach.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We thought she was just down there and she was going to be hanging out with friends. I never had a reason not to trust Brittanee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When did you know that she wasn`t at that beach, she was down in Myrtle Beach?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her boyfriend at the time, John Grieco, had called me and told me that she was down in Myrtle Beach and that they couldn`t find her. To me, yes, someone abducted her. Somebody grabbed her and took her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And now Myrtle Beach police investigators are releasing new information, saying that they are looking at even more people who may have been involved.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s a couple more we`re looking at now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So there`s more persons of interest in the case?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, there is.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About how many, would you say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At least one more.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With more. So four or five?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One will always lead to another, to another, to another. We know that. One word could break the case.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A team of investigators has been working on this case. Some of them even wear "Help find Brittanee " bracelets. They say they have to be tight-lipped about it all because it is an active investigation. But they say they are just one good lead away from making an arrest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think, in the end, one arrest will be made or several? Do you think it was a group?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think, in the end, there will be several arrests, but it`s going to start with one, and then the domino effect will occur. And one right after another, people will start talking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: There was a convergence of events that ended in Brittanee Drexel being reported missing. This is what happened. Her boyfriend back home, her hometown honey, keeps trying to call her and text her that night, April 25th. She stops returning calls. She stops returning texts. That`s very unlike Brittanee Drexel.
The boyfriend, still at home -- he didn`t go to Myrtle Beach -- calls Brittanee`s mother and says, Something`s wrong. Brittanee`s not responding to my phone calls. She`s not responding to my texts. Do you know where she is? They can`t find Brittanee. She won`t respond.
That night, the boyfriend gets on a plane and he flies to Myrtle Beach. She`s reported missing that evening, within a couple of hours.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have no idea what happened to Brittanee. So we can`t connect that to say that that`s how it happened, that somebody, you know, jumped out of a van and grabbed her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But as the leaves turn and yet another season passes here in New York, even more milestones pass without Brittanee, another birthday, another holiday, and maybe even the biggest milestone of them all for a teenager, high school graduation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It didn`t hit us because Brittanee wasn`t there to walk down the aisle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brittanee`s high school gave her an honorary diploma in her absence. But it`s reminders like these that trigger the thoughts of what could have been.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know that she`s always said, as her growing up, that she wanted to get married and have kids. She said she wanted to have, like, three or four kids.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And for Brittanee`s friend Tara, the future is what`s so painful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To have been there for her, knowing, like, her future and knowing what she wanted to do -- and now she may never be able to do that!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope we don`t have to wait too much longer. It`s been hell.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want her back home with us, you know? Our family is not happy, we`re not complete until we get her back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: There are more circumstances surrounding her disappearance. This is what we learned. That evening, when police go to her hotel room where she`s staying with all of her girlfriends, they find her bags in disarray. In other words, they were not neatly packed up to leave. She was not planning on leaving. A lot of her favorite clothes -- all of her clothes were there, that we know of. There were no clothes missing. But all of her favorites were there. Her flat iron that she took everywhere was there. There was no indication whatsoever Brittanee Drexel was planning to leave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Down a dirt road in McClellanville, dozens of strangers are looking for one person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) went missing on April 25th, 2009.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eight months and several searches later, still no sign of Brittanee Drexel. The outgoing soccer player disappeared from Myrtle Beach while on vacation with her friends.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know she didn`t disappear off the face of the earth. And whoever had her or may have done something to her -- nobody is coming forward.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The search isn`t letting up for Brittanee. More than 10 different agencies from five different states are out here searching for her, and officials say they`re going to cover at least 230 acres.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There have been many leads and few clues. That`s where Monica Caison comes in. Caison and volunteers have been searching for Brittanee ever since she vanished.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Turn (ph) to Seven Mile Road because this has always remained a place of interest for Brittanee`s cell phone. And basically, that`s really all we have.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, the cadaver dogs, of course, are going to seek out any kind of human remains or anything that is human. You know, we`ve got the horse teams because they can see farther ahead. They can also see in and over ditch banks and into high bushes, and so forth, and thickets, which are very helpful to the ground support that comes behind, which they`re pretty much turning over every leaf and those type of things and looking really hard on the ground, looking for small items.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The problem now, Caison says, time is ticking. Each day that slips by is a missed opportunity. But the group remains hopeful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: There are other factors we have been able to uncover since Brittanee went missing. We know that for that short period of time, she had been very sad. Her parents were in the middle of a divorce. They were having to sell the home. She was extremely protective of her brother and sister. She was having a wonderful time on the trip. Her long-time boyfriend knew she was going to Myrtle Beach with her friends. Everything was OK with that. There was no indication whatsoever she would leave willingly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 9:00 AM Saturday morning, the search continued for two women who are still missing. The Cue Center has been looking for Crystal Soles for almost five years. Brittanee Drexel vanished after leaving a friend`s motel room in Myrtle Beach last April. Her cell phone gave out its last signal here in Georgetown County. That`s one item Cue Center executive director Monica Caison is hoping to find.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have every sector of search avenues out here. We have ATV. We`re using, of course, mounted horses. In addition, we do have cadaver dogs and also ground support.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Charleston County sheriff`s department and Myrtle Beach police are also assisting in the search. Family members of the missing are hopeful this weekend will pay off.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope that we -- that we find Brittanee. Of course, I hope we find her alive. But you know, we do need some closure at this point in time with the family. It`s hard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mission of today`s search is to find Brittanee Drexel and Crystal Soles. But family members want to make sure the public is still aware that both women are still missing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that it`s very important for people to understand that this is -- this goes on every day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search for both women continues. Family members and officials show no signs of slowing down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will not be giving up until both of these women are brought home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We`ve learned a lot from Brittanee Drexel`s texts, the texts that she sent just before she goes missing. As a matter of fact, at 8 (on- camera):00 PM, she texted her hometown boyfriend to tell him that she was walking down the beach to meet their mutual friend, Peter, that she discovered on the trip she did not like the people with whom she traveled, the other girls she was traveling with. They were a little bit older than her. She was 17. They were a few years older than her. She couldn`t wait to get home and she said she was miserable being around these other girls.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do we know about where Brittanee was and who she was with in the moments before she was last seen? Brittanee`s mother believes there are three possibilities. She`s dead, she was trafficked and sold into slavery, she is being held against her own will.
GRACE: What leads you to believe that Brittanee, your girlfriend of many years, is still alive?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe that she`s still alive because not only -- she`s the most headstrong person that I know -- that I`ve ever met and that I know. And if anybody was to survive a situation like this, it would be Brittanee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: This is what else we`ve learned about Brittanee Drexel`s whereabouts. At 8:15 PM, she`s captured on camera at a traffic light. She`s walking along, texting. One of the girls she`s staying with back at their hotel is texting her, angry about a pair of shorts. So she wants her shorts back. I guess Brittanee had borrowed some of this friend`s shorts - - this friend`s shorts.
About that time that she`s caught on traffic camera texting, she texts her boyfriend saying, I can`t stand these girls I`ve come down here with. I can`t wait to get home. That`s at 8:15 PM.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Joining me right now is a special guest. This is Brittanee`s long-time boyfriend of many years, John Grieco. John, thank you for being with us. What do you make of police clearing these guys?
JOHN GRIECO, BRITTANEE`S BOYFRIEND (via telephone): Well, the evidence that we`ve gathered so far, being in South Carolina, does not show any foul play. Now, there is suspicion with how he reacted to the situation. However, all the evidence that we`ve gathered just leaves them in the clear.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Then we have her last known text. It`s at 8:58 PM. She`s texting her boyfriend back home. She says she`s having such a miserable time, she`s going to pack her clothes, get ready to come home and go to sleep.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: How well did she know the girls she was traveling with, John? How well did she know them?
GRIECO: They were at best acquaintances. They were not -- I would not consider them friends or enemies. They were just more of acquaintances.
GRACE: And tell me. Police are working on this around the clock. What are they telling you guys?
GRIECO: Well, they`re -- they`re really not telling us much. I mean, we have some details to the investigation, but most of them are being worked on right now as we speak. And I`m watching the investigation unfold in front of us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, sir. Just (INAUDIBLE) flyer about the young girl that`s been...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it`s my niece. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most people Cheryl Tomasso (ph) stopped in Georgetown Wednesday already knew the Brittanee Drexel case before she could even finish telling them about her missing niece. Brittanee`s family spent the day trying to spread the word about her disappearance in hopes someone saw something on April 25th that could lead investigators to her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don`t think it`s going to ever happen to you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tomasso says Brittanee comes from a close-knit family, and not hearing from her in 11 days is a sure sign something is wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She maybe met a couple people and she saw them again at another time and went with them, or like my brother said, you know, they think she just might have made the wrong choice and made a decision that was the wrong one for her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re out here right now just interviewing anybody who maybe saw something out here. I just want that one lead that could bring Brittanee home. That`s what we`re looking for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We also know that she was gone at 9:15 PM because it was around that time, before or at that time, that the hometown boyfriend began texting her and calling her. No response, which was totally uncharacteristic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRIECO: The last text that I sent her was -- it had the sentence, You better be safe. I really miss you. And she assured me that she was being safe. And now this is national news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: He then not only got in touch with the mother, he got in touch with her friends. They began to call her and text her. No response. So the 9:15 point is crucial, as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRIECO: Something happened that she has no control over the situation because if she had any consciousness, if she was able to do anything, she would pick up the phone and she would call me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) I call her. It`s a connection that we have.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When she heard one of her closest friends was missing, Tara Friedman was in disbelief.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`ll turn up. It`s not like -- she doesn`t just go missing. I mean, she`s not going to go missing. She`s not just going to leave.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tara is one of several friends who`ve come down to Myrtle Beach to search for Brittanee Drexel. But in addition to the flyers, Tara`s done something extra.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) group started on Facebook. I mean, Facebook`s a huge network. Everyone has one.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Facebook page for Brittanee is getting tons of attention. After the first two days it was up, more than 2,000 people had joined.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have made it to get the word out and have people help.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This isn`t your ordinary Facebook page. It`s more of an up to the minute news feed of Brittanee`s case.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People aren`t getting accurate information. I mean, people are starting rumors. So I post new things every single day as soon as I can. I mean, it`s hard for me to access it on my phone, but I do that. I try to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While Tara is grateful for the response and wants more people to join, she also wants to see her best friend back home again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brittanee, we just -- we want you to come home. We love you. We miss you. You`re a fighter. You`re a very strong girl.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: In cases like this, the best way to attack it, to decode it, is to look at the timeline. It narrows the window considerably as to who the suspects may be because if you`ve got a 10-hour window, you know, she could have come in contact with 50, 100 people. But if you narrow the window down, the last time you saw her, the time you know she was missing, you`ve got a lot better chance at identifying a suspect.
You know, there`s an interesting side note here. Remember that traffic camera that caught her texting and walking at 8:15 PM on her way to visit the friend at the other hotel? It never saw her coming back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you and we want you to come home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just please come home. I really want you home. I miss her saying "sis" to me all the time. I miss her being there after school. I miss her being just around, and I just want her back. She`s -- I just want my sister.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Brittanee Drexel`s mother has gone to great lengths to investigate this case, along with the police. It is her belief that Brittanee is either dead, that she has been trafficked, or sold into human slavery -- most likely sex slavery -- or she`s being held against her will somewhere. Police say it is highly unlikely but possible that she has been sold into trafficking or is being held against her will, but that it is possible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now, something is wrong. Something`s wrong. I have a gut feeling that Brittanee is not safe. She is not -- something is very, very wrong. It`s not like my daughter to not call, even if it was a friend. We were not arguing. She would have called me. She would have called her boyfriend. She wouldn`t have left her clothes at the hotel where they were all staying at.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, let`s examine what else we can learn from technology. Her cell phone could be tracked. So we go from that 9:15 series, that flurry of texts and phone calls to which she did not respond. Fast forward to midnight. At midnight, police have been able to track her cell phone going south on a state route. They see that she`s headed toward the Georgetown, Charleston County line. They can tell by the speed or the distance the phone travels quickly that she`s in a car. So she`s no longer on foot, walking from one hotel to the next.
Then the phone -- the cell phone trail goes dead about 50 miles south. It`s a very rugged-terrained area. There are alligators. There are wild hogs. There are snakes. It`s heavily watered in that area where her cell phone actually goes dead.
Now, how does this help us? Looking at it, practically speaking, pick it up from the time that she visits her friends there at the Blue Water Resort Hotel, that we see her leaving there around 8:48 PM, OK? We know she doesn`t go back through that same stoplight videocam. It`s human nature to return the same way you came. Even if she didn`t go back the same way, we still have the same timeline. Between 8:48 and midnight -- between 9:00 o`clock and midnight -- that`s when she goes missing.
Since she did not travel back through that same stoplight, stoplight traffic cam, a wise guess would be that she was snatched between the Blue Water Resort and that traffic cam.
Now, there is a chance she went back to her hotel a different way, that she made it. 8:48, she`s caught on camera leaving the friend`s hotel, back to her hotel. What happened between then and midnight? Did something happen in her own motel room?
But it`s within those hours, just a few hours, that she goes missing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said, I`ll give you a call later if I want to come out and party.
DR. PHIL, PSYCHOLOGIST/SHOW HOST: You never did hear from her after she left?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
DR. PHIL: What kind of mood, Peter, was she in when she left?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She -- she honestly -- I would -- she was in a decent mood. She didn`t seem too upset, which was my concern. If I walked a mile down a strip by myself for that long and had to go all the way back to drop off my friend`s shorts that I borrowed -- I mean, I would never do that. Why would I want to walk all the way back?
DR. PHIL: Did she say anything to you in the time that you all hung out down there that suggested to you that she was planning to run away or any plans that she had in any way whatsoever? Can you shed any light on this at all?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a single thing. She didn`t mention anything about meeting anybody, going out anywhere, nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was from "Dr. Phil."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: A lot of questions arose about Peter. Peter is the friend that Brittanee Drexel went to visit at the Blue Water Resort Hotel that evening. Questions arose because there`s a very unusual departure on Peter and his friends` behalf. They checked out of the hotel at 2:00 AM. They had a deposit on their room. Instead of waiting for someone to inspect the room, they chose to leave anyway hastily at 2:00 AM in the middle of the night, rather than wait until the next morning and get their money back. All this happened the night Brittanee went missing.
Now, Peter has appeared on Dr. Phil`s show. He says he`s, quote, "tired of being thrown under the bus," and gives an explanation as to why they left without getting their money. He says he worked and was a full- time student, and he wanted to make good time getting back home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I was accused -- not accused, but person of interest, there should be no reason whatsoever for me to be automatically thrown under the bus like that. That`s being thrown under the bus, if you ask me.
DR. PHIL: Chad (ph), go ahead. All right, let`s let Chad speak. Chad, go ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, so Peter, how old are you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re twenty. How old is my daughter?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seventeen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you knew you were hanging out with a minor out of state, correct?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. So that`s my first question. And you had her in your hotel room with your friends who are much older than her, as well, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One was 19. Another one was 20.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. So my point here is you said you knew that the atmosphere down there was not safe, correct?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So why didn`t you step up and say, It doesn`t matter, Brittanee, let me take you so and so. I can hear that you had an argument with Jen (ph). Why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, first of all, it`s because I`m not -- I`m on spring break. I`m not there to babysit anybody. I don`t know Brittanee like that. But as I know, she was down there with how many other friends? She was at two different hotels. I don`t know what they did the whole week.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peter, you`re throwing yourself under the bus. You`re throwing yourself under the bus.
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Second of all -- second of all, I have not had any of your contacts down there -- not female or male -- step up via e-mail with my number everywhere in Rochester. Not one of you have contacted me and say, Mr. Drexel, I would love to help you find your daughter. You`re making faces and gestures that I have seen from my 17-year-old. So what does that tell me?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, Mr. Drexel, Peter, (INAUDIBLE) the person sitting right here has cooperated 100 percent with the police, and it doesn`t do him any good to contact you or your wife directly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re focused on bringing, I believe -- you know, what we`re trying to say is, you know, Peter, we want to find Brittanee Neither one of you kids have stepped up and said, You know what? Let me try to help you find Brittanee. It`s like you guys didn`t even care. You don`t care about her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Peter goes on to say that he has cooperated with police, even provided a sample of his own DNA. He has not been named a suspect in this case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First of all, I did talk to Brittanee about why she was walking the strip by herself. And earlier that day, you know, she said, Oh, for the last three nights, I walked by myself. Oh, it doesn`t bother me. I`m fine. I`m, like -- and I`m, like, Well, I didn`t even go anywhere by myself because it`s pretty bad down there. And second of all, when she left her hotel, the sun was still up. And I offered -- I offered her a ride. And she`s, like, No, no, it`s OK, it`s OK, and she acted like there was no worry at all for her to walk all the way back again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did offer her a ride?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Myrtle Beach police won`t say if anybody is or is not a person of interest, but have several possible suspects in the case.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you know Brittanee, if you`re close to Brittanee, you`ve got to watch out for her. You cannot let her just walk around by herself because she thinks that nothing could hurt her. She`s too trusting of people, and you would need to watch out for her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: However, authorities are skeptical that this is a human trafficking case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`ve got no indications. We`ve had no history. Most of your human trafficking, they target victims where there`s a language barrier. And generally, where human trafficking takes place, it continues to take place. We`ve had nothing prior or since that would be an indicator.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was from "Investigation Discovery."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Now, just recently, a human jawbone was uncovered on nearby Drum Island. And for a moment, the Drexel family thought that they had answers, but it turned out this human jawbone did not belong to Brittanee Drexel. Now, the problem is, whose jawbone is it, if it`s not Drexel`s?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Myrtle Beach police launched their search here, in the area covered by cell phone tower number 332.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This right here is in the cell phone zone. It`s about four miles wide, five miles deep. They staged here. The searchers then branched out to other likely zones.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The terrain in these parts is notoriously forbidding.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have alligators in the river. There are wild hogs, plenty of snakes, lots of biting insects. It`s not a very hospitable place for anybody to be at.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can`t imagine the conditions that the searchers had to go through, flies the size of golf balls, very hot, very humid, very thick brush, a lot of dangerous wildlife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After investigators conduct an initial search and find no trace of Brittanee, local police and other agencies join forces to expand the effort.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of the phone, it goes through Horry, Georgetown, and Charleston County. So we have three different large agencies working this together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Georgetown and Charleston furnished their boats with their sonar, and we checked the rivers. Charleston County had their helicopter there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They did a massive ground search. They were running their ATVs through there every 20 minutes to get the alligators to back off so the dogs could come through. They had six-shooters with their dogs because of the boar. I mean, it was just very dangerous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While investigators comb the area, Dawn and Brittanee`s other loved ones hold out hope for some sign of Brittanee.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s a lot of questions going through my mind. It`s the most horrific thing you would want to go through as a parent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very intense. They`re long days. There`s a lot of ground covered. There`s a lot of hope in the beginning that something was going to be found. It`s not a week-long, just intense searching, hundreds of volunteers out there looking for that cell phone, looking for any clue of Brittanee.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Monica Caison, director of the Cue Center for Missing Persons, a family advocacy group that assembles volunteer search parties, is called in to help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were going -- in the first 11 days that Brittanee disappeared, we searched sunup to sundown every day, all the probable areas that people enter, the probable areas someone could have pulled offside the road, dirt roads, where nobody live on them at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities know that the treacherous wildlife gives Brittanee a slim chance of survival.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The urgency was there to get her before the wild animals did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, there`s always going to be hope. But while we`re doing these searches, we -- you know, we certainly had numerous cadaver dogs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they had been doing the search, they had told me, they said, If she`s in this area, she would have been ate within six hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was from "Investigation Discovery."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: There was also a glimmer of hope for Brittanee`s family when the Ariel Castro disaster unfolded in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was holding several young women captive as sex slaves in a home. That led them to believe, was she one of them? She was not. But it also makes them think that it`s possible their daughter is still alive.
END
