Has Brittanee Drexel’s kidnapper been found? Analyze the case

Spring break. It’s time to cut loose. It’s time to party. It’s definitely time to be cautious & wary. Crimes definitely see an uptick during Spring Break. There are some true horror stories that come out of that time. At the top of the list, is the disappearance (and probable murder) of Brittanee Drexel. She was hundreds of miles away from home with people who did not have her best interests at heart.

More importantly, she vanished, never to be seen again. While officials believe they know what happened to her, we may never know until something comes up to confirm it. If you’re curious to hear about the case, then, be warned, things will definitely get fraught when talking about Brittanee Drexel and what happened to her.

What happened

Brittanee Drexel was going through it. The seventeen-year-old was dealing with the divorce of her parents (her mother and adopted father) along with battling depression. On that on top of the high school drama that teens usually face? She just needed to get away from her life for a while. So the high schooler landed on the idea of going to Myrtle Beach, SC with some acquaintances from school.

Her mother, of course, said no. It was a fourteen-hour drive from their New York home. The girls were older than Brittanee. She thought something bad would happen. This led to some fights between the pair. Brittanee seemed to let go on Myrtle Beach, asking if she can go to nearby Rochester with some friends. Little did her mother know, it was a ruse. She was going to Myrtle Beach while pretending to be in Rochester.

Brittanee Drexel, however, was not having a good time though. Rather than the relaxing trip she expected, she was being bullied by the girls that she went on the trip with. She was often left alone, texting her boyfriend about how miserable her trip was and that she wished she could go home. 

Her boyfriend was supposed to come on the trip, but couldn’t get off work. While texting with him while walking back to her hotel, she suddenly stopped responding. That’s when things got bad.

Trafficked?

Kudos to Brittanee Drexel’s boyfriend, he went right into action. He called Brittanee’s mom, told her everything, and that she had stopped responding to him. The Drexel family immediately headed down to Myrtle Beach where a family friend filed an in-person missing person’s report on Brittanee with the police there. Everyone was on top of the ball.

No one dismissed Brittanee as a runaway. No one brushed off the Drexel’s worries. They went ground running to find the missing teenager. Her face was plastered everywhere, but nothing ever came up. Her phone pinged on path fifty to sixty miles south of Myrtle Beach in an area along US Route 17 where it abruptly stopped. For eleven days, police searched where a body could be dumped. Nothing ever came up.

Brittanee Drexel’s mother believes that her daughter’s disappearance is connected with human trafficking. South Carolina has a human trafficking problem with a report ranking nearby Horry County as the number one county for human trafficking victims in North Carolina back in 2019. So, it’s a possibility that many believe to be the most likely.

The Taquan Brown allegations

South Carolina inmate, Taquan Brown, who is serving a twenty-five-year sentence for manslaughter spoke with the FBI. He said that Timothy Da’Shaun Taylor was responsible, at least, for Brittanee’s murder. Shortly after her disappearance, Brown went to a stash house owned by Taylor’s father where he saw Drexel being sexually abused and beaten by Taylor.

Brown said in an interview with WHEC-TV that he saw Drexel again five days later on the side of the road. After that, the last time he saw her was in May where she was surrounded by a group of men. One named “Nate” shot her with a double barrel shotgun. Her body, according to Brown, was then left to be eaten by alligators. Some of his story was able to be corroborated, so it seems to be the most likely version.

Until there are further witnesses or some evidence to really nail down the story told by Brown, however, Brittanee Drexel remains missing. Many, however, believe that she is dead.