'She was gang-raped, beaten and shot dead': Parents speak out for the first time about what happened to their 17-year-old daughter who was murdered and fed to alligators on Spring Break
- New York teen Brittanee Drexel, 17, went missing while on Spring Break in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in April 2009
- Police believe she was held for three days in a house about an hour away in McClellanville, where the last pings of the teen's cell phone were traced
- FBI said she was beaten, gang-raped, shot and left in an alligator pit
- Drexel's family gave their first interview to Dr. Phil Friday
- Prime suspect Timothy Da'Shaun Taylor was also interviewed
- Taylor, from McClellanville, denied any involvement with Drexel's death
The parents of a New York teen who disappeared seven years ago while on Spring Break in South Carolina have given their first interview to Dr. Phil, saying their daughter was gang-raped and murdered and that the suspects were never caught.
Brittanee Marie Drexel, 17, traveled to Myrtle Beach from Rochester with some friends without telling her parents, and disappeared after leaving her friend's hotel on April 25, 2009.
This past summer, the FBI revealed that Drexel had been raped, murdered and left in an alligator pit about an hour from the hotel in McClellanville, where she is believed to have been held in a house for at least three days.
On Friday, Dawn and Chad Drexel appeared on Dr. Phil, sharing for the first-time information they have received about what happened to their daughter. No charges have ever been filed.
Speaking out: Dawn and Chad Drexel sat down with Dr. Phil Friday to discuss information released by the FBI about the 2009 murder of their 17-year-old daughter Brittanee
Brittanee Drexel was 17 when she vanished after leaving a friend's hotel in Myrtle Beach in April 2009. Her body has never been found and no arrests have been made
Mrs Drexel said she was 'sobbing' when she was told by investigators what they believe happened to Brittanee. Her body has never been found, and police don't think it ever will be.
The information came from an imprisoned man who says he saw Drexel's horrific last moments and made a jailhouse confession.
'The jailhouse informant said he walked into this house in McLelinville – it's called a stash house,' Mrs Drezel told Dr. Phil Friday.
'It's somewhere where they can put drugs and illegal things.
'He was walking through the house and he had said that Deshaun and other men were raping my daughter. He had walked through… Brittanee tried to escape and they ran out and got her and brought her back into the house and pistol whipped her and beat her and shot her.'
'They have no regard for anybody's life': Dawn Brexel said her daughter was held in a 'stash house' where she was raped, beaten, killed and then left in an alligator pit
'I met the suspect': Chad Drexel unwittingly gave a missing persons flier to a man suspected of being involved in the death of his daughter
The FBI believe Brittanee Drexel was raped, murdered and dumped in McClellanville (pictured), where she is believed to have been held in a house for at least three days
Mrs Drexel continued to Dr. Phil: 'My heart just broke because Brittanee didn't deserve this.'
'Brittanee didn't even know these people. And for them to do that to my daughter is just, I mean, for nothing. I just feel like, you know, they're monsters. I mean, they have no regard for anybody's life.'
In Chad Drexel's interview, he explains how he went to McClellanville to hand out fliers about Brittanee's disappearance, when he unwittingly gave one to Timothy Da'Shaun Taylor, who has been identified as the prime suspect in the case.
FBI agents implicated Timothy Da'Shaun Taylor (left) earlier this year, citing a jailhouse confession from Taquan Brown (right), who claimed he saw Drexel's rape and murder (he is in prison on a separate case). Taylor has not been charged in Drexel's disappearance
Mr Drexel said he was standing in the middle of a dirt road in the rural suburb when a car came by. He said the people would not have stopped if he hadn't been standing there.
'I handed the flyer to the driver and the two people in the back were whispering,' Mr Drexel said.
'I stick my head in and say do you know anything about this girl, I’m her dad? They laugh and I just give the flyer to the driver and he crumples it up and tosses it out the window and drives off as they are all laughing.'
Later, Mr Drexel returned to the office of a local private investigator he had hired to help find his daughter, when the PI explained that the man in the car was actually Taylor.
'I never saw her, I’d never seen her besides the TV and the internet': Timothy Da'Shaun Taylor denied having anything to do with the case in the Dr. Phil interview
Dr. Phil pressed Taylor on information released by police earlier this year implicating him
Police had previously said they believed that the high school student was held for at least three days against her will near McClellanville, as that is where they traced signals from her cell phone after her disappearance.
Earlier this year, an inmate who was sentenced to 25 years for voluntary manslaughter told police he knew what happened to the young woman.
The inmate, Taquan Brown of Walterboro, told agents that he entered a 'stash house' in the days after Drexel's abduction and saw Timothy Da'Shaun Taylor, then 16, 'sexually abusing' her.
Brown said he then went outside to give Da'Shaun's father, Shaun, some money, and saw the girl run from the house, but she was caught and 'pistol-whipped.'
According to Brown, she was then dragged back into the house, and Brown said he heard two gun shots and later saw the girl's body wrapped up and taken away.
Munoz said several witnesses said the teen's body had been thrown in an 'alligator pit' and 'eaten by the gators.'
Taylor - who has never been charged in the case - was also interviewed by Dr. Phil, who grilled him with: 'I want you to respond to what FBI agent Gary Munoz testified about... that Taquan Brown said that he witnessed, and give you an opportunity to respond to that. He said that you picked her up from Myrtle Beach and back down to McLellanVille.'
Taylor responded: 'My reaction to it was like, you know, it’s not true. I never saw her, I’d never seen her besides the TV and the internet. Through a computer screen. So when they read it out it was unbelievable.'
Brittanee Drexel (above) went to the beach spot with three friends without her parents knowing - her mom thought she was at a beach in New York
The blonde teen was last seen leaving her friend's hotel. where she stayed for ten minutes before leaving and disappearing
FBI Special Agent in Charge David Thomas told reporters of a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in Drexel's case
Taylor did admit that he lives in McClellanville. He did at the time that Brittanee disappeared as well.
So far agents have not been able to find the girl's remains despite checking 14 alligator ponds. They believe there are about 40 in the area.
Joan Taylor, the wife of Shaun Taylor and mother of Da'Shaun Taylor, says the story implicating the pair is 'craziness' made up by investigators to get her son to confess to the crime.
However, agents say the gruesome account has been backed up by other 'tidbits' and 'second hand information' that have been coming in recently, and by another inmate in Georgetown County.
Munoz said that, according to the second inmate, who got the account secondhand, Da'Shaun allegedly managed to get the girl from where he met her in Myrtle Beach back to McClellanville and then 'showed her off, introduced her to some other friends that were there… they ended up tricking her out with some of their friends, offering her to them and getting a human trafficking situation.'
The teen is believed to have spent her final days around McClannanville as police traced pings from her cell phone to the area
When her case began to receive massive publicity, the alleged abductor felt he had a problem and so she was 'murdered and disposed of', said the FBI agent.
Da'Shaun's mother, Joan, told the Post and Courier that authorities are 'trying to pin something' on her son. She said the implication that her son and husband were responsible for Drexel's rape and murder are untrue and 'not in our nature.'
She said her son lost his arm in a childhood accident, works as a mechanic, and supports a son, daughter, and grandmother.
She said both her son and husband are fed up with the allegations and think they're 'crazy.'
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