A New York teenager who went missing during a spring break trip to South Carolina in 2009 was abducted, sexually abused at a stash house, shot after trying to escape, and then her body was fed to alligators, according to an FBI agent’s court testimony.
Brittanee Drexel of Rochester, N.Y., was 17 when she went to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for spring break. Earlier this year, the FBI said they believed Drexel had been murdered.
FBI agent Gerrick Munoz recently testified that several people who claim to have witnessed Drexel’s death have come forward, WMBF reports.
Munnoz testified in a detention hearing that Timothy De’Shaun Taylor is one of the main suspects in Drexel’s disappearance. Taylor is being held in an unrelated case involving a robbery in 2011.
Inmate Taquan Brown told authorities that he was present at the stash house when Drexel was killed, according to court records.
Brown reportedly told Munoz that he saw Taylor, who was 16 at the time, and several others sexually abuse Drexel at the stash house, WMBF reported. Brown also said that at one point, Drexel tried to run away and was pistol whipped.
Brown said he heard two shots and assumed Drexel was killed. Munoz testified that several witnesses said Drexel’s body was then put into an alligator pit so it could be eaten.
Munoz said several alligator ponds were searched but nothing was found.
Another unidentified inmate corroborated that account, Munoz testified. That inmate told Munoz that Drexel was abducted by Taylor and she was in a “human trafficking situation.”
The inmate said “it became a problem” when there was media coverage about Drexel’s disappearance and she was then “murdered and disposed of.”
No charges have been filed.