Body of Brittanee Drexel, 17, is found and cops arrest ‘kidnapper’ Raymond Moody over her rape and murder

A SUSPECT has been arrested after the remains of a 17-year-old girl missing since 2009 were found at his home.

Brittanee Drexel mysteriously disappeared over a decade ago while on spring break vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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On Monday, authorities revealed Brittanee's remains were found.

Raymond Moody, 62, the man accused of murdering and burying her body, has been arrested.

The arrest and findings were confirmed by Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver during a press conference, an reported.

Moody is in custody and has been charged with rape, murder, and kidnapping, officials said.

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Authorities said he was charged in South Carolina after Brittanee's remains were located on his property last week, according to .

Moody allegedly kidnapped, raped, and killed the teen before burying her body.

Authorities were able to positively ID Brittanee through dental records and DNA.

Just days before Brittanee's body was discovered, Moody had been incarcerated on an obstruction of justice charge.

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Prior to that charge, he was identified as a person of interest in Brittanee's case, but he was never named as a suspect due to a lack of evidence.

Police say Moody raped and then murdered Brittanee on April 25, 2009, Spectrum News reports.

She was buried on Moody's property the following day in Georgetown County, South Carolina, as per police.

However, her body wasn't found by police until Wednesday, May 11, 2022.

It was previously reported on May 12, 2022, that detectives were searching through a wooded area in Georgetown, potentially connected to Drexel's disappearance.

'Pursuit of justice'

Following the discovery of Brittanee's remains, her mom Dawn Pleckan said: "The search for Brittanee is now a pursuit for justice."

Brittanee, originally from , was last seen leaving the Blue Water Resort in April 2009 and never returned to the motel she was staying in.

Her phone last gave off a signal on April 26, 2009, in Georgetown County.

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At the time, investigators named Moody as a person of interest in the teen's disappearance.

Moody served two decades in prison for the rape of a young  girl in 1983.

In August 2011, investigators combed through the Georgetown hotel room Moody was staying in, removing several bags of evidence but never identifying him as a suspect.

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Moody claimed he was not in the area when the teen went missing. Yet, in 2012, investigators discovered he was issued a traffic ticket in nearby Surfside Beach the day after Brittanee’s disappearance.

On May 12, 2022, the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office revealed Moody has been in the Georgetown County Detention Center since May 4 on charges of obstruction of justice.

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