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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alayna. And this is Morbid Alayna Centric.
Elena edition. Elena exclusive. Extra, extra.
Listen all about it. Hear ye, hear ye. You've all been invited.
We're like, the morning. It is the morning, which I feel like we're better in the morning. um yeah no I feel like I when I when I get into it I'm good Yeah, I feel like it just has better results in the morning.
I feel like at night we're both like tired.
I just don't feel like I produce good content at night.
Yeah. I just don't want to lead anybody into thinking that I'm a morning person because I think Drew would literally blow up my spot and be like, she's Satan.
Oh no, Ash is not a morning person at all.
It's very difficult to get Ash up for a morning recording, but...
Once we're here. I did it the past two days.
Whoa. Yeah. I did it two days in a row there, buddy.
And I came bearing coffee mostly for myself.
That's true. That's true. But you know what?
The last two days I've been able to get up early because my littlest one has slept.
I know, which is nice. I mean... Knocking on all the wood here.
But let's hope this is the beginning of something beautiful.
But yeah, so I think... Do we have any anything we want to like?
No, patrons, people that support the Patreon, that's what patrons means.
You can still get your presale for the The Ball of the Bleeding Hearts.
If you didn't listen to yesterday's episode, your link is in there.
And then general public sales will go. down on monday and i think uh you guys are going to be getting a bonus episode very shortly i believe this coming week Yeah.
Ash came up with a really good idea for one.
So let's look forward to that because it's really cool.
I think you guys are going to love it. It's a deep dive into something I feel we all hold near and dear to our hearts.
It's a fascinating one. So I think... I think you'll like it.
And so look out for that. And I think, oh, and for this episode.
Um, we decided that we just wanted to do like a little something for you guys just because you're rad.
We're going to be covering Brittany Drexel today.
And this is clearly, if anybody knows this case, then you know that is a lot. a doozy one would say it's really only become a lot in the last few years with things coming out so we're gonna i'm gonna split this into two parts, but because I know I don't like waiting. a long time for part two and i know you don't like waiting along so we're gonna put part two out on monday and it's gonna be ad free And free!
Just because... You're going to get three episodes next week.
Yeah. And one of them is going to be ad free because we just figured.
One, you should get the part too quick, because you're going to want to know the conclusion to this, and I'm going to want to tell you.
I feel like I just want to be like, guys, I've got to tell you the end.
And who doesn't? He doesn't love a little fun.
And it's just like a fun little extra because, you know, you deserve it.
You guys are awesome. Awesome. So you'll get three episodes next week.
We're going to try to throw a bonus episode in there for Patreon.
It's going to be a crazy week next week.
Yeah, I'm here for it. But a good one. I'm going to get sick of Elena.
But so yeah, so this one will release on Saturday and then you're going to get part two on Monday.
So you'll only have like a full day to wait.
Cool. So hopefully that'll be cool. Oh, yeah.
Today's Saturday, isn't it? Yeah, today is Saturday.
Holy cow. Today is Saturday. I thought that today was Friday.
No, no. This week was a weird conundrum.
Yes. With time. Yes, to say the least. Because my kid's birthday was on Monday and that feels like it was 14 days ago, approximately.
14 years for me. Yeah, it feels like it was a long time ago.
That's actually really crazy. Yeah, this week was strange.
Did anybody else feel like they were in a weird time warp this week?
Did something happen? Because it wasn't even like... something specific that made it feel that way.
It just, I don't know what it was. When I found out yesterday was Friday, I was like, Oh, all my star people.
What's up? Yeah, what's happening? What's up out there?
What's going on in the planets or whatnot?
So let's start Brittany Drexel. Okay. Now, I'd like to start this one by saying... that this case is strange.
It's frustrating. And I think it's going to make a lot of people feel like... a little bit of a pit in many ways because it's a mother, it's a parent's worst nightmare.
Yeah. And it's also got mean girls in it.
I think these kids... I feel like this girl got trapped far away from home with people that were absolute... twats and thought nothing of her personal say didn't give a shit about her And basically brought her there to basically tease her.
I think she was just the butt of... whatever they were doing i hate that and it made me really angry to read i was like I really, and I'll get into like why they're assholes later.
We'll spill the hot tea. Yeah, don't worry.
No, I think part two, I'm going to tell you everything that happened, how she ended up a missing person, because right now, she's a missing person.
They've never found her body. Right. They don't know exactly what happened, but in recent... months in the year or so they have found out a lot more so that will be in part two and we'll go like way deeper into that Will you tell me at the end of the episode?
And I'll set it up so you'll know where we're going with it.
Cool. So this happened Saturday, April 25th, 2009 is when she went missing.
She went missing from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
She was 17 years old at the time. And now we're going to get into who she was and how she ended up missing, which is very frustrating.
So she was born, Brittany Drexel was born on October 7th.
She was born in Rochester, New York. Now, she went to school.
It was like, this town's name looks like it would be pronounced Chili.
Chili. Yeah. And I was like, it can't be that easy.
Because a child? No, no pronunciation is that easy.
No, never. I think it's Chai Lai. Chai Lai.
I'm pretty sure it's Chai Lai and I'm pretty sure I said it right.
Chai Lai. I'm pretty sure I said it right.
You know what? Everyone will let you know.
Everyone will let me know. So you know what?
For this one, I'm like, I think I got it, guys.
Uh-oh. Now I'm nervous. She went to Chi Lai High School.
I think it's Gates Chi Lai High School. All right.
I think I said it. Try to lie. I think I did it.
Either way. It looks like chili. Sorry. I just got excited and hit my... literally over there waving her arms around like I think I got it guys I think I got it I'm really excited about this one because it's a weird one It is, it is.
I would have just said chili, but I did my due diligence and looked it up.
I was like, can't be that easy. No, no. Because I'll say chili and everyone will be like, you...
Dumbass. I would have said child. Child.
Child. So. She was the oldest. She had two younger siblings named Marissa and Camden. she loved them, was a very good big sister, very protective big sister.
Um, I couldn't find the exact ages. I believe that Camden was five at the time she went missing.
Oh, God. And Camden was only a couple of years older than, or Marissa was only a couple years older than Camden.
So they were young. Yeah. But she loved them.
She was super sweet. Her mother, Dawn Drexel, said that when she was a kid, she absolutely loved the limelight. yeah she said in all the videos you see of her as a kid she's like a total ham Like, always.
And she reminds me of, like, my youngest, so that she's like... always in a tutu always in like some crazy outfit just being like right in front of the camera yep And she'd always be doing something crazy.
I could so see that. She basically described her as just...
Super goofy and super full of life. It always makes me like I want to like rip my heart out When you see the old home videos of a missing or a dead person.
Yeah, like the people as, like, toddlers sitting there in a two-chair. having their whole life ahead of them because you just you've seen that you just think of like their family looking at that being like we had no idea We had no idea what the horror that would happen.
It taints it. And actually. you know, when it came out later what they think happened to her.
Her mother said I obviously don't know and they don't have a body and we don't have anything to go on except for what the FBI is telling us they think.
Happened which makes that ten times harder.
Well, she said in this broke my heart. She said all I can think of is her face and in in that situation and she said all i can think of is the terror That her face must have shown and she was like, and I see it every day.
My entire body just started like vibrating.
Didn't it? Yeah. Because you just think of your child.
Everybody's seen their child at one point or another. scared terrified of something like you know when they're little and to have to picture that on their face thinking of something horrible happening to them Because like we said, when you don't know what happened, filling in the missing pieces is the worst thing. thing that you're left to do.
Yeah, your brain will fill in so much worse.
And in this case, she doesn't need to. Because the actual information is horrific.
Oh, great. She was very close to her mother, Dawn.
Her mother was married to a guy named Chad Drexel.
We love Chad. Brittany took his last name, was very close to her stepfather.
I love that. Like, very, very close. They were...
We love when a guy will come in and just do what he needs to do as a stepdad.
I was thinking that. I was like, Good job, Chad.
Yeah. Good for you, Chad. Making a good name for stepdads across the USA.
Yeah. Now, her biological father's name was John.
He and her mother, Dawn, actually had Brittany when they were teenagers.
Mm-hmm. So they both said they were babies themselves when they had her.
So, it was very closely after she, you know, a couple years after she was born that they split up.
He moved to, I believe, Tampa, Florida. So he moved far away, which maybe it was for work or something.
I couldn't find that out. Happening. me well that's the thing i don't understand moving that far away from your child whether you guys are splitting up or not i don't either Because what happened was he didn't really see her for a long time.
Yeah. They did rekindle their relationship. but only a year before this happened.
I feel like that it's like reminiscent of some other cases where things like this happen, like not even with just like a father daughter relationship.
Just any kind of relationship reconnects and you're so excited and then something horrible happens.
And then something terrible happens. And I do like, because he was saying, you know, he would fly up to see her.
And it became like a thing where... Every time he got to see her, he was like, I wanted to do everything with her.
I wanted to take her shopping. I wanted to go out to dinner.
Yeah, I just wanted to be with her and we were getting to know each other more.
And he was like, and we were just like becoming such good like friends. friends and like father daughter and he says like i i can't believe i only have that short of time which i imagine he has a lot of like regrets yeah yeah and that's sucks.
That's horrible. Because he could have had a whole life with her, you know.
But at least he has something to remember.
At least he has something. You just wonder like You're like, why did it only start a year before she was gone?
Like, you know, I don't understand that stuff.
Divorce is weird. It's a strange situation.
And I imagine he probably had to move to Tampa maybe for work. that's what I'm going with I couldn't find anything to tell you that you never know assuming or something maybe like some kind like work or just a better opportunity Yeah, and the good news is Chad Drexel was her father. yeah like throughout when when john wasn't you know like that right that he stepped right in right Now, unfortunately, Dawn and Chad were in the process of splitting up. when this was all, when this all happened.
Oh, God. I don't... It doesn't seem like it was a vicious divorce or anything like that, but it was very hard on Brittany.
Right. Because again, she loved Chad. And he's been in her life since she was a little girl. girl this is like a biological father you know what I mean like somebody you've known your whole life that kind of divorce is like And any time you attach yourself to somebody and divorce is involved, whether or not it's a biological father, mother, whatever.
When you're attached to somebody and you think they're going to be gone, that's horrible.
Yeah, and I can't imagine because, like, my parents are still married.
I've never seen divorce, but, like... Obviously, it's so common that I know about a billion people.
Everybody around me has been through it.
And I always think about it. I'm like, that would have devastated me.
I can't imagine. I was like stoked. when my mom divorced my stepdad I was like wow like finally happened Jesus Christ sister and then I was like bye But it's like, if my parents got divorced, I would be really sad.
Oh my god. No, never. I can imagine it would be a really traumatizing thing Now, something that's interesting about Brittany is that she was blind in her right eye.
Oh, I didn't ever know that. Yeah. I know like bits and pieces of this case.
I never knew that. Yeah, she had something called PHPV, which is persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous.
And it's congenital, so you're born with it.
And it happens in utero, the primary vitreous in hyaloid vasculature. which is the major blood supply source to the eye, it doesn't regress.
Oh, okay. So the primary vitreous is like, it's like a jelly behind your eyeball.
Mm-hmm. And it usually regresses once you are formed, like in embryos or in fetuses, excuse me.
And people with PHPV have bad, like, hazy vitreous that stops light from passing to the back of the eye. goes away because it just and it's the vitreous isn't um it isn't it's not supposed to like totally go away it's just supposed to like regress and turn and Their vitreous stays and is also just like shitty vitreous.
So it's like very, very cloudy. Yeah, it's like scarred.
And it's cloudy. So it stops light from going to the back of the eye.
And that makes the vision blurry at the very least.
Okay. And then obviously can cause blindness.
And in her case, she was totally blind in the right eye.
And it can often be seen in premature babies.
Oh, but I don't know if Britney was premature.
She was a very petite girl. Yeah. So maybe.
But I don't know if she was premature. Nothing has said that.
And it's mostly unilaterally present, like in Brittany's case, only in one eye.
It's very rarely in both. But it was just interesting.
I was like, oh, I didn't know that. And I guess she wore contacts that helped stabilize.
Because part of the thing that will happen is when your eye is blind in that eye, the muscle is going to weaken because you're not used to like focusing in on something so the eye can drift.
And she was wearing like corrective contacts that would like keep it in place.
Okay, cool. So, like I said, she was very petite.
She was five feet tall. Wow. She was barely 100 pounds.
Like, just a little... little girl goals yeah very tiny uh and five feet tall is very like i'm five foot one and a half So you're essentially five feet tall.
So short. I like to add the one and a half.
But yeah, very short. Yeah. So I feel her.
She was a star soccer player in high school at Chi Lai High School.
Chi Lai. at chai lai uh and everyone said she was like a beast on the soccer field i love it she would like take you down she's She's got her elbows going.
I love. Hell yeah. She's five feet tall.
She's scrappy. Barely 100 pounds soaking wet and she's just like taking people out on the high school soccer field.
Soccer pit. Soccer pit. Let's go head down to the soccer pit.
I played soccer when I was little I don't know why I just called it a pit.
That sounds like something I would do. I'm not really sure.
The soccer rink. The soccer. The soccer court.
So she also, if you look at any photos of Britney, it is very clear that she loved fashion.
Yes. She was very much a fashionista. She was very into clothing, makeup, hair.
Very much an Ashkel, if you will. I'm like dancing.
I'm like, Brittany, Brittany, me too. You would have loved Brittany.
And she had aspirations. She loved to model, like do like, you know, amateur modeling.
That's cool. She would take those like. cute little shots where you're looking over your shoulder oh yeah you know what i mean uh And she also had, she wanted to become like a cosmetologist.
She wanted to go to cosmetology school. She wanted to be Ashkel.
I love it. And she was very into it. She was, you know...
She was like you. She changed her hair all the time.
Yeah, it's a hairstylist thing. Yeah, and she was...
Beautiful. Aw. Like, beautiful. She had a beautiful smile.
I've seen pictures of her... of it that just breaks your heart yeah she's just one of those girls that like you would be like oh my god Look at that girl.
So pretty. But fast forward to April 2009 when she's 17 years old.
She's a junior in high school at this point.
And like I said, her mom Dawn and her stepfather Chad starting to go through a divorce um she was having in the house was going into foreclosure So they were going to be moving out of the house.
A lot of changes. There's a lot on her. Not happy changes.
It's not like you're moving out of the house because you want... you know, of your own volition, you're being forced out of your house.
And I'm sure knowing about, you know, financial struggle and knowing what's going on with her parents.
It's like, that's a lot. And at 17, you're already going through the crazy 17 year old stuff.
She did have a boyfriend, John Greco, who...
I love John Greco. Like every interview you see of him, you're like, you really loved her.
Like he really loved her and he really stepped up.
Do they do the thing in like the crime shows where they like point to him and then they're like, but he was great.
No, they actually don't point to him because he was nowhere near this.
Okay, good. He had nothing. Because you know when they lead you to believe and then you're like, I hate that I hated that guy for even a fraction of Exactly, because then you're like, he's a lovely person.
Thanks a lot, Dateline. No, John is just straight up lovely.
Okay, good. I think they were dating for about two years on and off.
Yeah. They had the typical 17-year-old relationship.
They were in high school. You break up every five seconds.
Yes. So at this time, they were going through somewhat of a rocky period.
So it was like piling on with the divorce and everything.
She, at this time, was diagnosed with depression.
She was taking antidepressants for it. But she was, you know, at the time she was feeling stable.
There was no... indication that she wanted to harm herself or want i mean there's reports in like certain places that like she overdosed on like pain medicines at one point that's not substantiated i've seen it like reported in other things and i'm like maybe don't do that because like they've never confirmed that yeah and i just don't think that's cool to like just be like so people like to say that for shock factor and i feel like they just kind of like are drawing off of she was diagnosed with depression so let's tack on an overdose and it's like no like maybe it happened but like We're not sure.
It's not substantiated, so I wouldn't say that that actually happened.
Every one of her family and friends said...
She in no way would want to hurt herself.
Okay. And let's believe our family and friends.
And I believe our family and friends. We're off the table that she would want to hurt herself.
And that she would never like run away. She definitely didn't run away.
And we will find out why. There's very clear indication she didn't run away.
Well, and you said in the beginning she loved her little sister and little brother.
She loved her little sister and her little brother.
Right. Regardless of what she was going through with John, her boyfriend, she loved John.
She loved her mom. She loved her mom. She wanted to become a cosmetologist.
She was... She had goals and she had a good family.
She had goals and it's like, we're going to see, like, she didn't bring anything that would indicate that she was... running away.
It just doesn't make sense. So she wanted to go to spring break.
Like any 17 year old who is surrounded by kids going to spring break.
It wasn't like a big thing in my school.
No. It just wasn't. Some people went to spring break.
Yeah, some people did, but it wasn't like... I guess in this high school... tons of kids from her class like it was a thing.
Yeah, like a Laguna Beach kind of thing literally we did we just did a crime countdown episode i don't know when it's coming out i know i was thinking of that yeah Yeah.
And it was it really was like that. It was like all the kids go to spring break.
They all go to Myrtle Beach or like somewhere around.
I think it depends on your class. Because I remember when I was a sophomore, the senior class, I remember everything. everyone was talking about going away.
But then when I was a junior and a senior, like it was only like, basically like the very rich kids.
Yeah. I'm going to Kabul. That was literally ours.
It just wasn't a thing. I think it's also your proximity to a place to go.
Yeah, we're in Massachusetts. I mean, she was in New York though, right?
Where are you gonna go? But technically, they're like, what, 14 hours out of Myrtle Beach where she is?
Yeah, I guess that's true. They're a little closer.
It's a little closer, I guess. Like it's technically like a little over a day drive.
Right, right. So it's more realistic than like driving from Massachusetts to like.
Florida or somewhere. Yeah. It's just... I mean, yeah.
So... A ton of kids from her school were going to be going.
So of course she wants to go, especially with everything going on.
I think she just wanted to get away. I think she needed a vacation.
She needed a little vacation. And so the problem was it was mainly, like always, the senior class. that was going.
That's usually what it is. Typically. She was a junior so she wanted to go with older kids.
Mm-hmm. And her mom was like, no. And these girls that she wanted to go with, she wasn't friends with, really.
She just kind of like was acquaintances with them.
And they invited her? She didn't know them well.
And they were all over 18. Oh, yeah. So that's why her mom said no.
Yeah. And she asked her mom tons of... I mean, this was... She was persistent and she kept...
She made like a PowerPoint presentation.
Pretty much. And they got in fights about that.
I mean, it was a big deal because... I mean, it was, of course, you're 17, you want to do something, your mom says no, you're going to start screaming.
Like press your belly button and then you get mad at your mom because she won't let you? there you go yeah uh and so and dawn i give it to her because it must be really hard i'm terrified of the day that you have to repeatedly say no to something like that and they flip out and you don't know what...
And you've got two that will be working together.
And you got to stay strong. And it's like, that must be really hard.
So I give Dawn a lot of credit. And Chad was on, even though they were going through like their split, Chad was on Dawn's side and backed her up and was like, no, like we don't. their reason was one you don't know these girls two I don't know these girls right they're older and then they're older than you and there's no adult supervision you're 17 years old and her mom dawn said something bad's gonna happen britney i don't want you going oh god like she knew she said i knew i From the second that she was like, if she went, I was like, no, you're not going.
Spring break is dangerous. Mike, I hope they're going to listen to me when I'm 17.
Maybe they'll listen to this podcast. Girls, you're not going anywhere.
No spring break. I will let them. I'm like, I am going to be the cool fun.
I can't wait. I will fully back. Oh, yeah.
And I'll be like. Listen, Titi, who did like every bad thing, didn't go on spring break.
So you're not either. No. Mark this day, January 23rd.
2021 you're not going on spring break nay nay like Bailey Sarian says and again Dawn and Chad did the right thing.
They did the right thing. They told her no.
They stuck to their guns. And this is just... What happens is really out of anybody's control.
Well, and what I hate is, like, when Donna's saying something bad is gonna happen, in her mind...
She's probably thinking like, you know, something like bad, like alcohol poisoning.
Exactly. Like you'll get like. You won't be able to go into a bar and you'll get like arrested for like a fake ID.
Exactly. Something like that. Something.
Something. Like that. Not life or death.
Exactly. She's not thinking you're going to get plugged off the street and never seen again.
No. But so, you know, Brittany finally after really hammering her mom about this finally gave up.
And seemed to give up and was like, fine.
But she was plotting. So she said to her mother, okay, fine, but can I stay a few nights at my friend's house in Rochester?
And she was like, okay, you can stay at your friend's house in Rochester, but I want to talk to their mom.
Yeah. And she was like, because again, these are the girls.
I used to fucking hate them. Oh, I'm going to do that shit.
Ma did that to me all the time. I'm going to be such a pain in the ass.
I know. Sometimes I think about it and I'm like those poor girls, but they'll be very protected.
They will. I you know what it was. I went from having like absolute freedom when I lived at my mom's house.
I could do whatever the fuck I wanted. And then I moved in with my grandparents for that very reason.
Yeah. And they were like, yeah, you live at the convent now.
Yeah. My grandma literally called it the convent.
She did. Yeah. Because you needed it. Yeah.
And I just want them to know, like, I love you and I don't want anything to happen to you.
I'm sorry if that pisses you off. The older you get, like now I'm 24, I'm going to do the same shit with my kids.
Exactly. Because you love them and you care about them.
Yeah. And you just want the best for them.
Exactly. The town of Agde in France is famous for sun, sand, sea and sex.
But lately, life on the coast has taken a strange turn.
The town's mayor, a respected pillar of the community, has been arrested for corruption.
His wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant.
Then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting.
I am the Archangel Michael. The whole town has been thrown into chaos.
As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties I would like to address you all Legal proceedings have been initiated Join me, Anna Richardson, and journalist Leo Schick for The Mystic and the Mayor as we investigate a story of power, corruption,
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So she was going to stay. And she was saying, I want to stay with these girls at their house in Rochester.
They're not going to go. So she was like, can I talk to their mom?
And she was like, sure. So she talked to someone on the phone who she thought was a mom.
Uh-huh. Turned out it was one of the friends pretending to be a mom.
Wow. She must have been good. Yeah. Because I feel like Dawn knows her shit.
Yeah, right? And this girl must have been good.
And what was actually happening was she and these girls were going to Myrtle Beach. and they were just going to lie and say they were in Rochester the entire time staying.
Because they were only planning to go to Myrtle Beach for a couple days and then drive home.
Yeah. It's about a 14-hour drive. So they were planning, you know, I'm just going to call mom and text mom and tell her I'm doing things during the day and then we're going home at night and...
And she'll never know. Yikes. This sounds like exactly a scheme I would have plotted out back in the day.
But you wouldn't have been able to do this.
Yeah. If I still lived with my mom, 100%, I would have been like chilling in Myrtle Beach.
Oh, yeah. Ma and Papa, they would have like drove to Myrtle Beach and like killed me.
They would have got you before you even... no thought of the plan yeah they would have like saw me packing yeah i'm like really you're stupid i see the bathing suit yeah no they would have been like we know you But yeah, so she's on her way to Myrtle Beach now.
Her boyfriend, John, knew she was going. okay he knew not to tell her parents obviously but of course he's you know they're all 17 here Yeah, whatever.
And she said, you know, she was just, and she had told him, like, I'm, you know, I'm not going to do anything.
I just need some, I need to get away for a couple days I want to go to the beach like you know what's going on with me and she actually wanted him to come and he wanted to come but he was like I can't get out of work I have to say.
So he was bummed. She was bummed. But he was like, go without me.
Like, have fun. I wish he didn't have to go to work.
I know. And I feel so bad because he probably is like, if I was there, would this have happened?
Yep. Probably not. Things like this is just always, like, what could have been if this happened.
Always. Always. Always, always, always.
So again, she was calling her mother the entire way down there, texting her, saying she's in Rochester.
At one point she said, oh, hey mom, just going back to a friend's house to watch a movie tonight. can hang out.
And it's like Dawn thinks of that now and she's like, and now I know she was... on her way to Myrtle Beach.
That's a bummer. That must be a bummer. Yeah.
Um, So on Thursday, April 23rd is when they arrived in Myrtle Beach.
She was with these girls. They're all over 18.
These girls' names are Alana Lippa and Jennifer Oberer are the two main girls that she was going to be staying in the hotel room with.
They were also with Jennifer's brother, who was also Alana's boyfriend.
His name is Phil Ober. And they were with Jennifer's boyfriend, Uger Ozturk?
Okay. Okay. I mean, they're all dicks, so yeah.
But his name is Uyghur Ozturk. And again, they both had their boyfriends with them, so I think she was meant to bring John and...
Yeah. So she was kind of the odd man out with that.
With them was also eventually a guy named Viet...
Guillen, Luis D'Amico, and Nico Chirico.
There are a lot of guys in this equation.
A lot of guys. And there's more. There's more guys when they get there.
And there's only the two girls, Alana and Jennifer, and then obviously there's Brittany.
Yeah. Okay. There's a lot of shady things happening.
That's weird. Yeah. That's very weird. A lot of shady things.
I wouldn't feel comfortable going to this.
Oh, I wouldn't want to. And here's the thing.
So none of these people were really good friends with Brittany.
Right. So she probably didn't even know who was going to be there.
She probably didn't even know most of these people.
Right. And then she knows Jennifer. She knows Alana.
But like even people at school were like, yeah.
I guess they knew each other. They weren't friends.
Maybe they were like just becoming friends.
And I guess and I think what this was, was what we find out is that Alana and Jennifer were big party girls.
They were big into drugs, big into the party scene, and I think they were like these cool wild girls.
And I think Britney was just trying to be part of the crowd.
Well, and she was going through like the most trying time that like when you're in high school, like you're either going to try to figure out how to get through it, or you are gonna party through it.
Exactly, and I think she just was trying to fit in with them.
And she was like, oh, these cool older girls want to take me to Myrtle Beach.
Right. And these two older girls really took advantage of that and they treated her like shit.
I hate that Soma. And I hope it just gives them lots of wrinkles.
Yeah and I hope they don't have access to a good retinol cream.
I hope they don't. Or Botox. Never give those girls access to retinol cream.
Never. Don't do it. Yeah. Do not give. mean girls access to retinol cream.
I think that's a good retinol cream. Don't do it.
No. So yeah. So as we've pretty much laid out that these girls are partiers, they're into drugs, This is not a good situation for Brittany to be in.
No. But she thinks it is, of course, because she's 17.
Now this is going to play into later why Brittany finds herself in a pretty risky situation.
Okay, so hang on to that. So they were staying at the Bar Harbor Hotel on North Ocean Boulevard, which...
There's, like, a main strip, which is, like, Ocean Boulevard, and it's, like, where all the things are.
Right. You know, like, I think everybody... it's like every town like this like it's because it's like prime time for spring break yeah like all the hotels and resorts and bars and clubs are all on this one's It's like designed for that.
Exactly. So they were staying pretty close to that.
So that night they went to a club. it's called club kryptonite i'm obsessed google what this club looks like because when i googled it i was like Oh God.
First, if you pulled up in front of this club and were like, we're going here, Elena, I would laugh at you so hard.
If you got in the car with me to go to a club, I would laugh so hard because I'd be so excited.
Because this place looks like it looks like in a comic book.
Like, where the bad guy would have his headquarters.
Yeah, so I think I've... Which makes sense, because kryptonite.
I've mentioned puffer bellies before. That is where my phone got stolen in the under 18 club.
We would go to, um, That's pretty much what I'm picturing because it does look like where the bad guy would have his headquarters.
It does. And a few of our listeners were like, I've been to Puffer Bellies.
Correct. Yeah, like you are very correct in that assertion.
If you've been to Club Kryptonite, let us know if you agree.
Yeah, because Club Kryptonite, not only in name, because that's a perfect name for a bad guy's headquarters.
It is. Yeah, it looks like it. It just looks cartoony and just like crazy.
I want to Google it. You got it. to google it i was like i was like what but i also don't go to clubs i mean i've gone to clubs in boston Which are old buildings, like they don't look like clubs and like my, you know. where like it would be like in Miami or like Myrtle Beach.
Yeah, I would assume. They look very different in Boston.
And I was just not a big clubber anyways.
So this is all... You weren't? This is all very new to me.
So... They went to this club. Now, again, she was 17, right?
No, it's permanently closed. Yeah, I thought it was closed.
I wasn't sure, but yeah. I'm trying to find what it did look like.
It's crazy looking. Oh, wow. Okay, yeah, that's a lot.
Yeah. So, right? Doesn't that look like a place where a bad guy would have headquarters? what it looks like which is the same thing as a bad guy headquarters and don't come at me looks like a scientology building It really does.
It looks like a very cartoonish Scientology.
You're right. It does. Yeah. It truly does.
It just looks very ominous. Are those elephants on the top?
What is that? Right? I was confused. I don't know what elephants have to do with kryptonite.
I'm not really sure. I don't know if those are.
No, it's just like a weird... whatever it's not important it's just weird either way she went to this club where she met up with a guy, a 20-year-old guy named Peter Brozowitz.
Okay. She knew this guy. Oh, why? She knew this guy from Rochester.
Oh, okay, okay. They had known each other for a couple of years.
They were... friendly sure they at least knew each other sure so they were seen at this club hanging out And he was with four dudes as well.
A lot of... A lot of guys in this scenario.
We're adding five more guys onto this. And we already have about five.
And we already have a lot. So I'm... I mean, maybe it's just like the nature of being a woman.
You're like, that's a lot. Maybe it's that I just don't trust straight white males.
Well, that's just a lot. Like that's a lot.
And if I knew them all. Yeah. Like we used to live in, you know, Quincy.
Right. It was all of John's guy. Like, I know all of them.
It's different. I would, of course, feel comfortable around all those guys.
Guys, that's a lot of guys that you don't know.
Well, and you weren't in high school. It's a very different thing when you're 17 and you're hanging out with like fellow 17 year old guys. but when you're getting into like 19, 20 year old guys and you're 17, I'm sorry, there is a big jump there.
Of course. And you're going to I wonder if she was, you know, I wonder how uncomfortable she was.
Intimidated. Because these girls, Alana and Jennifer, knew a lot of these guys.
So I just feel for her. I feel like this is starting to become a scary situation.
So far, nothing bad is happening. But these guys with him are Keith Cummings.
Matt Abrams, Anthony Schmizzy. I know they called him schmizzy.
And Phil Watson. I know he went by schmizzy.
Yeah, he's schmizzy. And if not, I'm disappointed.
Yeah, if not, I don't know who they, then I'm even more sus if they didn't call him that.
But they all hung out. As far as, you know, everything's reported, nothing wrong.
Everybody had fun. I believe there's photos from this night where they were all like hanging out, you know, having fun.
She's in some of the photos. Right. Peter...
Peter. Peter. Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater.
Yeah. Had a wife and couldn't keep her.
She... She... Is she? He is a lot. In what regard?
So... I beg you to go look for his little clip on the Dr. Phil show.
For some reason, you can't find the entire interview.
It's like all taken down. Weird. Probably because ongoing investigation.
I think that's what it is. But you can find little snippets of it in...
Peter is, whatever you're picturing, Peter Brasowitz to be, he is.
He's a 20-year-old club promoter. So whatever you are.
No, no, no, no. Say no more. Whatever you're picturing.
Say no more. Just go with that. Say no more.
Are you picturing a giant collar? Inside of, are you picturing a giant collar in an opened button shirt that's opened far too low?
You know what makes me want to dig a hole and just like live in it forever is that I dated a club promoter.
Yeah, I remember that. I'm just picturing that scrawny motherfucker.
Yeah, and I remember being like, Ash, really?
Yeah. Really? Well, this Peter... Peter's that.
A big collar and an open shirt. The big blue collared shirt.
Oh my god! An updated Paul Snyder. Exactly.
It's like open far too low. It's silky.
Very tan. Yup. Very slick tear. Oh! Very, like, I'm pretty.
Leather white shoes. Yeah, it's a lot. And he's 20.
So the thing that the reason I'm like bringing him up in that interview up is.
He has been cleared of any wrongdoing, but he doesn't come off good, in my opinion.
I'm still sus about these people. I mean, club promoters rarely do.
But it's just... It's the way he like talked about, I don't know.
So what they were doing in this interview, obviously later after she went missing, was they were trying to have him like allow him to tell his side of the story and like what he knew Because he was a suspect at one point, I'm assuming.
He was a person of interest at one point.
We'll definitely get into that, but... It was the way he talks to Don Drexel in the interview.
And he basically tells her like, you know, because Don Drexel at one point is like, why didn't you stick around?
Like, why weren't you with my daughter instead of letting her like walk away? alone, you know, at places.
She was just asking things like that, and he basically is giving her attitude and being like, she said, I'm fine.
So I let her go. And it's like maybe don't talk about her like that to her mom.
Like don't make it seem like she's this little bitch. well and that's like any mom is gonna ask those questions of somebody that was last with their daughter i'm assuming Yeah, and he says things like, you know, that he wasn't there to babysit.
It wasn't his responsibility. And it's like, okay.
Wow. Wow. All right. So I don't... I'm like, wow, you're all very cold for having hung out with this girl that went missing within... an hour of hanging out with you.
And you're also not babysitting. Like you just take care of your friends.
That's the thing. I'm like, what? So it tells you all you need to know about how these kids did not give a shit.
Yeah, the dynamic. They were not there to help her.
They were not there to look out for her.
They were there to... deal with her and then the girls were there to try to make her life miserable So, yeah, so that's great.
Now, Peter said they had been friends. He confirmed that they had been friends for a couple of years.
Okay. So he was like, and we like knew each other.
We didn't like hang out all the time, but like I knew her.
In the friend group, probably. Yeah. And later, Dawn Drexel did say she believes that she had met Peter at one point during those two years.
Yeah. So Friday, April 24th. This is the day after they arrived in Myrtle Beach.
Because remember, the night before went fine.
Yeah. No incident. She was texting her boyfriend already the morning after.
Saying I'm not having fun. Oh no. She was already saying that she's not getting along with the girls.
They're leaving her out, they're picking on her.
Three is not a good number. Yeah. She was being, you know, she was spending a lot of time alone.
She was like walking down the strip downtown on Friday like alone at one point.
What the fuck? Yeah. I mean, those other girls never should have let her, but they weren't her friends.
I'm like, why did you invite her? They didn't give a shit what happened to her.
Yeah. But I think it's shitty because she was saying like they were like kind of like just they were like bullying her.
Yeah, I was gonna say, it sounds like it.
Yeah, like, they were literally doing things just to be a dick to her, and they keep doing things.
Do you know anything that they were like saying to her?
Well, there's one instance and it's going to come up in a second where they are clearly doing things just to be dicks to her.
Okay. I think they were just being mean to her.
You know how those assholes can be. Yeah.
Like, we've all, like, I remember, like, thinking you're hanging out with, like, cool girls and thinking you're part of the crowd and they really...
And maybe not everybody knows this feeling, but then suddenly realizing you're there to be the butt of the joke.
Yeah. That is the shittiest feeling. Yeah.
Like this... Because I wondered that too.
I was like, why did they invite her? But people like that do things like that.
But those kind of girls, especially like that kind of teenage girl...
Like if you're that kind, you'd like that.
It's part of your day. You thrive off of it.
That you need someone to be a dick to. like I remember the girls that like I've mentioned before the girls that like horrendously bullied me in school.
I remember one day, and I thank my mom every day for this, One day I remember they invited me to come over one of their houses because they were all there.
Yeah. And they invited me over like a.m.
And I was so excited. And I asked mom, I was like, can I go, please?
Can I go? Can you bring me? Because you're like, it's finally over.
Like I'm in. I was like, cool. They're going to like want to hang out with me.
And mom was like, no. Yeah, because she knew what was going to happen.
And she refused and I was so upset and I was so mad at her.
I was like, what? Like, they're cool and I want to hang out with them and she was like no and later she was like i knew what they were gonna do yeah she was like something terrible was gonna happen when you got there that's they were inviting you to be the punching bag.
AIM group chats with like girls that you weren't friends with always and badly.
Because do you remember when I called you because all the popular girls in sixth grade got on AIM and invited me into this group AIM?
Yep. And they invited me to something and they said, it's next Tuesday.
We'll see you next Tuesday. Yeah. And I was like, okay, cool.
Because I was in sixth grade, so I didn't know what that meant.
And I was like, yeah, like they said, see you next Tuesday.
And you were like... Yeah, they're not doing anything on Tuesday.
I was like, no, they're not doing anything on Tuesday.
They just called you a cunt. And I was like, no, I'm going to kill them all.
So... So, yeah, we know all about the girls that need to be... They're just...
They need to invite you in. And they don't make it far in life.
Because it makes them feel good about themselves to bring you down.
And that's awful. Because by all accounts, Brittany was like a sweetheart.
Well, you know what I'm thinking, too, and obviously it's a very cliche thing to say, but you said she's beautiful.
She's got all this stuff going. They're jealous.
Go look them up. They were jealous. Yeah, like she's gorgeous.
I can tell you that. 100%. And it seems like she was like a likable girl.
She had like a lot of friends. She's pretty.
She's nice. She had a cute boyfriend. She had tons of friends at home.
She was popular back in Rochester. Everybody liked her.
And so they were definitely jealous and threatened.
I bet. Yeah. She's this like little cutie in there.
Like, let's try to make her feel bad. But while she... So she's walking...
On Friday, she's walking down the strip, like the main drag, and And she's alone.
At night? I think this was before it got dark, but...
I think it was right as it was getting dark.
That was getting to a point. I mean, she should never be walking by herself.
A sketchy time. uh because even in the middle of the day shady stuff can happen yeah as we know but But yeah, I think it was coming up to dark.
So she definitely shouldn't have been walking by herself.
But I think she was just trying to get away from them.
And Frelly was like... And she was texting her boyfriend the whole time being like, I hate it.
I want to come home. And she is trapped because they drove her there.
Exactly. And she's 14 hours away. So it's not like you can be like, John, please come get me because it would take him as long to come there as it would to just wait it out for another day.
Right. So you're really stuck. And that sucks.
And you can't call your mom. So she's walking down the strip.
And apparently like when she was walking down the strip, she did start getting like a lot of creepy dudes like commenting at her and like whistling at her.
Of course. And just being pigs. And like, because apparently they can't just like shut the fuck up and like look at a pretty girl. and not open their fucking mouths.
So yeah, so they decided to make her... incredibly uncomfortable.
Well, and think about the characters on this strip at this, like, during spring break, like, These are not the finest people.
Any and all people are coming in there. So it's like, you don't know.
So she's getting uncomfortable and she saw a younger guy like her age.
And she, you know, he seemed like a nice guy.
So she just kind of like walked up to him really quick and was like, can you just walk with me?
Because I'm like... freaked out like I'm freaked out this guy was a nice guy okay you made me really fucking nervous no he was a nice guy and he said he said absolutely I'll walk with you like no problem he was visiting for spring break as well from the midwest yeah so he's okay all right all right i feel better i think she could tell so she was just We love a Midwestern face.
It's a friendly face. It is. Don't you know?
So she just, he just could tell. Yeah. So yeah, so he walked with her.
She ended up having him, like, come, nothing happened, but she had him come back to the hotel and, like, hang for a little bit because they, girls weren't there.
Yeah. So there is cell phone video that he took of her just like sitting on the bed like laughing and like talking to him.
Okay. And like a couple more videos of her like on the balcony and like talking to the camera.
Like they're just talking to each other.
Yeah. According to him, nothing happened.
There was no... I mean, these girls are being really mean to her and then she meets a nice...
I think she just wanted a friend there. Yeah, she just needed a moment to have fun.
Yeah, I think she just wanted an ally. Yeah.
That's all. And it was... You know, when I said it wasn't dark, I was mistaken.
It was dark when she was walking because I believe this video, you can see that it's like 1030 at night.
Oh, okay. So I believe it was around the nine something hour that she was walking.
Okay. um so uh when she went missing he immediately came to the police and was like i met her like here's the cell phone video I can tell you where she was, I can tell you she wasn't happy with the girl she was staying with.
And like, he was literally like, you can polygraph, like, whatever you need from me, I will give you.
A Midwestern sweetie. Right? And he was completely cleared.
Good, good, good. Completely cleared. They didn't think anything was wrong with him.
Now, and again, he was the one who brought the information to the police.
He just pretended that didn't happen. Uh, so that happened.
Everything was fine. Saturday, April 25th, the next day.
Um... Brittany decided to go down to the beach near the hotel with Peter and those other four guys.
She hung out there. It was around noontime, I think.
So they just hung out at the beach. Everything seemed fine.
Yeah. Regular spring break shit. Yeah. Peter drove her back to the hotel at one point and she left her flip flops in his car.
Mm-hmm. Now, around 2 p.m., her mom Dawn called her.
Mm-hmm. And Brittany told her she was at the beach, because she was.
And it was hot in Rochester. So Dawn was like, oh, she's at the beach with friends.
Yeah, makes sense. Whatever. So she was like, okay.
So she didn't say anything. She was just like, oh, okay.
Like she didn't further be like, what do you mean you're at the beach? yeah it's not weird and the last thing she said to her mom was mom i'll see you tomorrow i love you fuck yeah Which is like, now, nobody, you know, we don't have like her movements every minute of that day.
No, of course not. But around 8.15 PM, we know she left her hotel.
And cameras show Brittany walking on the main strip on Ocean Boulevard.
Alone again? Alone again. And they show her texting.
And she was, we found out later she was texting John in the moment.
And she was also texting Peter. Okay. And she was texting Peter, I believe, because she left her flip-flops in his car.
Yeah, she's like, I need those back. So she went to the boys, she was on her way to the boys hotel, which was the Blue Water Resort.
Cameras at the hotel show her like there's CCTV footage of her like walking into the lobby. and going to their hotel room.
Okay. Now, she went into their room likely to get the flip-flops back.
She only spent about 10 minutes in there.
And then she was gone. So she really did come just to get that.
Okay. Every time I think we're getting to it, I'm like, okay, and then she never left. the hotel room again.
Exactly. So what happened was apparently, according to Peter and all the guys and her cell phone records...
The reason she was only there for 10 minutes is because once you see her, she's wearing black shorts.
And like a multicolored like top that you would wear on vacation in 2009.
Yeah. And... So she was apparently in there talking to them and she was getting text messages from Jennifer, one of the girls.
Yeah. Jennifer was being a dick and had loaned her those black shorts and then was like, I want them back now.
Okay. So she literally let her leave and walk all the way to this other hotel and And then when she got there, it was like, you need to come back right now.
I want my shorts. Ew. And they were apparently like fighting about it.
Like Jennifer was like being an asshole about it.
She's like, well... Brittany's probably like dude you just said I could wear them.
And then you waited until I went like walked somewhere now you're like I'm not even like when you come back I'm just gonna take them no come now right i don't care what you're doing bring them back because i want to wear them out So she's like, I gotta go walk back to the hotel and bring her these pants and get a new pair of pants.
So... She and again, she was texting Brittany the whole time about it.
Right. They all confirmed it. They could all see it.
Now, so she goes and walks back to the hotel.
Now, why did none of them walk with her?
Or why did none of them drive her? They had a car.
Yeah. Why would you let this girl at 8.48 p.m.?
? Walk back down the strip. Because guys like that don't give a fuck.
These were not her friends. And according to Peter, when he talked to Don Dretzel, he was like, I offered.
And she said, I'm fine. And left. And I was like, well, even if she said, I'm fine, like you're saying it.
Which I don't think is true. Even if she said it like that, it was because she was having, she was upset.
And she's probably like, whatever, like just everybody leave me alone.
You should have been like, dude, I know, like, you're having a shitty time.
Right. I'll just drive you. You can drop him off and, like, hang with us.
Right. We'll... Like you have a fucking heart.
Step by step on how to be a good fucking friend.
Like you're 20 years old. Grow the fuck up.
You're 20 years old. something at somebody else this is a girl that you've been friends with for two years like take care of her Like, and just like, you should have an instinct to take care of somebody, like, it's just A younger girlfriend.
And it's not taking anything out of your...
You're not sacrificing anything to take care of.
Just be like, dude, let me drive you. I just...
And even just be like, if she's like, I'm fine, just be like, no, if it's not for your sake, let me because I don't want you to walk.
Yeah. Like, just try to be... Be a fucking good gentleman.
Chivalry is dead. It just annoyed me and I'm like, all four and the other four guys, none of you, none of you had the instinct.
Think about who these people were. It just drives me nuts.
No club promoter is being like, I'll drive you home, honey.
Unless it's for his gain. exactly but it's like gosh yeah it's just horrible to listen to yeah So 8.48, she's on camera leaving the hotel.
That's like the infamous footage everybody sees of her like walking out of the hotel.
Now, she's walking back on the strip and she's texting John. her boyfriend and she's telling him i'm so fucking miserable i just want to come home She said, I'm packing up my stuff when I'm getting back in the hotel.
I'm just staying in tonight. I want to go to sleep.
I want to get up and come home. That was her plan.
My stomach just turned. And John was literally being like, I just try to have fun.
Like, I'm sorry. Like trying to be like. supportive try to make the best of it like you're there i don't know like i can't do anything about it so he's just trying to help her out And he said suddenly the last text from her was at 8.58 p.m.
And he said, and then she stopped responding.
Now, again, she left the hotel at 8.48. So only 10 minutes later.
She was not responding. And do you know, like, how long this walk was?
It was, like, more than 10 minutes. Yeah, this walk would have been... It was like a...
I want to say it was like a couple mile walk, so it was longer than 10 minutes for sure.
It was a good walk. I was going to say, it could be like a half hour.
Honestly, I think it was about a half hour walk.
Wow. Yeah, so close to that age. Meanwhile, probably would have been about a 10 minute drive.
Oh yeah, it would have been an easy drive.
And so 10 minutes into their conversation, she's already stopped responding. so he's starting to freak out and he keeps texting her and he's like Brittany answer me like what the fuck and he's starting to like try tactics like he's like I'm going to call your mom and tell her where you are if you don't answer me.
He was like, just fucking answer me. And she's not answering.
Right. And when he said that and she stopped answering, he was like, that's weird.
Yeah, that is weird. And then he was like, does she want me to call her mom?
Like, is she having that miserable of a time that she almost wants to be outed so that, like, maybe someone can get her or something.
I don't know. So he calls Dawn. And this is at...
Like nine something at like 930 at night.
My God. Meanwhile, Dawn thinks that like she's just like hanging out at a friend's house.
Like not far away. Yeah, and he calls Dawn and he tells her everything.
And he says, like, I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, but...
Brittany's in Myrtle Beach and they don't and she's not answering my phone, my text.
She stopped answering. abruptly and he said i threatened to tell you and she still didn't answer like something's wrong and she's been having a horrible time and of course dawn is like furious at first because she's like, are you fucking kidding me?
Like, what the hell? I thought she was literally like, a couple miles away right and then she's like oh my god she's 14 hours away Right.
And then she was like, what do you mean she's not answering your text?
And he was like, I can't get a hold of her.
I've called her. I've texted her. She's not answering.
So good for him to to act that quickly. Thank goodness.
He's like a good guy. Yeah. Because a lot of people might have taken a little longer and being like, oh, she's just being a bitch.
Your high school boyfriend, you would have been.
Nobody would have known. Ma still wouldn't know.
She still wouldn't know. Yeah. He would have just been like, you're a bitch.
Yeah, it just would have been that it. But no, John was like, something's awry here.
Johns are good. Johns are good. As you know, as I know.
We love a John. But then, of course, she's in full panic mode.
Full panic mode because I can't imagine hearing that.
14 hours away from your baby. 14 hours away.
You don't know if she's in danger. Now mom and John are calling her over and over and over.
They're leaving voice messages. And they said it kept ringing.
It was like not shut off. Not dead. Not dead.
So they're like freaking out and they're getting nothing.
Oh, my I am like so stressed. Oh, and it gets better.
So then the mom calls Alana and Jennifer.
Yeah. John had their cell phone numbers because he was like a good dude and he had all this information.
So he hands it over. She calls both of them.
Neither of those bitches pick their phone up.
And that's not even the thing because it's like whatever they were out.
But she left them like hysterical voicemails as Brittany's mother being like, we don't know where she is.
Please help me. They never answered and they, to this day, they have not spoken to anybody in Brittany's family.
So what is it, 11 years later now? Cunts.
Wow. Yeah. How... How? Wow. How do you get?
I don't give a shit how old you are. No.
And I don't give a shit what you're doing, how you're partying.
I don't give a shit. You get a hysterical voicemail from a mother of a girl that you've been treating like shit on this trip saying, Nobody heard from her?
And the two of you know you don't know where she is?
You're not going to sit there and be like, I don't know where she is.
At least just give her something. Anything.
You just ignore her. And then later, you don't even have the, like... Were they questioned at all by police?
Yeah, they were all talked to. Okay. But she...
None of them felt the need to be like, we're so sorry.
And all these guys too that they're with, like they were questioned too?
Yeah. Okay. And I know, it's insane. So that bothered me.
Absolutely. Because they're over 18. Yeah.
So you're not a child anymore. You're well within the realm of you should know better.
And if a hysterical mother is calling, leaving a voicemail, give her a call back.
Yeah. Like, come on. Fucking hate high schoolers.
Oh, God. I just feel so protective of Brittany.
Absolutely. Because we've all been in a position somewhat similar.
Yeah, of course. I mean, I know like we we've said that in another episode.
And I think like a couple of people were like, well, I've never been in that position.
I was like, yeah, whatever. Well, then you were that girl.
So I don't know what to tell you. And also, like, whatever.
I'm saying we've all in this room. Yeah, we've all in this room.
Hello. A lot of people have known this position of wanting to be cool.
Yes. And wanting to hang out with the cool girls.
Yes. Dawn spoke with Peter because Peter did answer the phone.
I will give that to him. And he said, you know, she left my room.
She stayed for 10 minutes. And he said, you know, she was... texting with jennifer and they were in like a fight about shorts and she stayed for 10 minutes and then she left that's the last i've seen her Right.
And he was telling the truth by all accounts.
And, you know, he probably thinks it's like this stupid thing.
Like boys are always like, oh, girls fights are stupid, which is a stupid fight.
So he's probably like, maybe she went somewhere to blow off steam.
Yeah, I mean, he had no idea. She just left.
He didn't know that she went missing after that, like he was just doing his thing.
So they called the police immediately and the police couldn't really do a whole lot. right there because they couldn't really file a report until somebody had to go there to file the report.
And obviously these girls aren't going to be any help.
So what they did was they luckily had a family friend named John Hahn.
In Florida? No, he was, well, they were in South Carolina.
Oh. But he was in. Why did I think Myrtle Beach was in Florida?
I'm not really sure. I'll leave now. Wait, did you really think it was in Florida?
The entire time. Wow. Yeah, I had no idea.
Wow. Myrtle Beach is in... Wow, okay. Actually...
You know what's wild? I've been watching a lot of Teen Mom lately, and Janelle won't shut up about Myrtle Beach.
And I know that she lived in one of the Carolinas.
And she's from South Carolina, I think. Or North Carolina.
North Carolina. But I mean, damn. All right.
Wow. Yeah. That's very interesting that you thought we were in Florida the whole time.
Because I think I think I think of fucking spring break.
I associate it with Florida. Yeah, I think.
Oh, yeah. I mean, that makes sense. But yeah, they were in South Carolina.
Well, I'm late to the party. So here we are.
And they had a friend, John Hahn, who was actually in North Carolina.
Okay. So he was about three hours away. Okay.
So Don called him, told him what was going on, and he was like, I will go there right now.
I'm going to drive. And he was like, I'm going to drive there.
I'll file a report. Wow. What a good guy.
What a good guy. Again, Johns. Another good guy.
Another good John. Hello. Here we are. So Dawn was already on her way there.
She was like, this is bad. And she said, mom's intuition.
Did she drive? She said, no, I've heard two different things.
I've seen that she was like, on her way there like driving and then i saw that they flew so i'm not exactly sure maybe the people that said they were driving they were driving to the airport Yeah, maybe because so John Han went down and he couldn't find her.
He looked for her like he did a brief. Because while they were coming down, he was like, I better do a search just to see if I can find anything.
Right. He did find out that she had not returned to her hotel room, and he couldn't find her.
He couldn't get in touch with any of those dicks.
So he was like, I'm going to file a missing persons reports.
So I would have fucking sat in that lobby until Jennifer and Alana got there and been like, hey, what the fuck is up?
Hey, what's up? How are you? What's good, Alana and Jennifer?
Literally, again, makes an appearance in both episodes this week.
You know what I want to, I just want to give this family and her like boyfriend and all of them.
Such props for moving so fucking fast with this.
Seriously. They were on it. And like good family friends.
Good family friends. Like the people around her, like the real people around her.
Really protected her a service by by doing this.
Absolutely. I was just so impressed that they were just like on it.
Yeah. Didn't wait to file. John didn't wait to call.
He didn't hesitate at all. He was like, I'm going to call her mom.
Right. I was like, good job, guys. Good job, Drexels and friends.
John Hahn met with police while he was filing the missing persons report.
And they decided to try to get in contact with the girls again, no avail.
They're not answering. So they go to the room where Brittany was staying, which was room 305.
The room, nobody was in there because they were all out for the night.
But all their stuff was in there. They called Alana and finally got Alana on the phone.
Oh, okay. And Alana said they hadn't seen Brittany and they were like... that's it we just haven't seen her don't know what to tell you What the fuck?
And when police called Peter and his friends again, the friends say, yeah.
Like we they were because they were like, when did you first meet up with Brittany?
Like, you got to tell us what the weekend has been like.
Yeah, we need a timeline here. Yeah, and they said that they first met up with her Friday evening at Club Kryptonite, but it was Thursday evening. that they met her at Club Kryptonite. okay do you think they mixed up the day because I am terrible with days so I can't tell them I can't say that I wouldn't mess up the day but it's also just like Thank you.
Or like, you know, you just don't know. Yeah.
Because that is it's not like this was like a week later.
It was a day later. Uh huh. I mean, I don't know.
I mean, I thought today was Friday. So it was just strange.
So and again, it could just be. They've been partying a lot.
They probably don't know what day it is.
They also said, they were like, again, we reiterate, We last saw her when she came to get the flip flops and that was the last time we saw her.
Weirdly, the plan that night they found out from Alana was... was that Jennifer and Alana were going to be switching hotel rooms for the night on their last night there.
Or not hotel rooms, excuse me, hotels. And so they were going to be leaving Britney in that hotel alone.
Why? And Brittany had never mentioned that to John.
No. So I wonder if Brittany even knew. I don't think she knew.
I'm just saying. It's shady. That's shady.
That is weird. And there's been no explanation given for why they were leaving and going to another hotel on their last night there.
That's just such a hassle, too. Like, there's just no point of that.
It makes no sense. Unless you were trying to get away from her for a reason.
And then the other thing is... She obviously didn't know 100% because she was telling John this entire time what a horrible time she's having.
That would have been a factor. Exactly.
She would have been like, and now they're leaving me by myself.
I think at that point, she probably would have called Don and been like, I fucked up, please come and get me.
Oh yeah, 100%. Or like, fly me home. Yeah.
I definitely think that. And then to make this even weirder, that same night around 2 a.m., Peter and his friends abruptly check out of the Blue Water Resort and left to go back to Rochester.
No, they didn't get their deposit. You said at 2 a.m.
At 2 a.m. Okay. In the middle of the night, they left their hotel room and drove back to Rochester after they found out that Brittany was missing.
That's weird. They left their deposit and they left some items in the room.
Do you know like what? Just like clothing.
So they got the fuck out of there as fast as possible.
And it's like when you're 20 years old, you don't leave your deposit somewhere.
Like you need that money at 20. Exactly.
And as soon as Peter got back to Rochester, he got himself a lawyer.
Which is suspicious, but also smart. So I don't know...
I it's very suspicious, but it's very smart.
Yeah. Because you were the last person to see her.
You should lawyer up. I wonder if his family was like, homie, you were the last person to see her.
It doesn't look good when you... when you leave at 2 a.m. right after police have talked to you because there's a missing girl who you were the last person seeing with her, you run out of town.
Yeah. Like, you don't think you should stick around and be like, do you need me?
Do you need to talk to me some more? I will say...
The only thing I'll say is that at 20 years old, I don't know what I would do in that position.
I think I probably would be like, I need to go home.
Yeah. I don't know if I would leave at 2 a.m.
But then you have to think about the other dinguses in that room and they probably just all came to a dingus conclusion.
Exactly. Because I wouldn't be the one in that room being like, all right, guys, of course I want to go home, but this is going to look real fucked up.
Like, you've got to... think that well and then you wonder it's like what if what if she comes back to your hotel room Like, what if she's not gone and, like, she somehow gets away?
And you're the person she... feels most comfortable with on this trip because you know she hates everybody else so it's like I don't know.
It's strange to me. The other thing is I'm thinking about... So they knew that she was with Peter because...
Like this whole thing could have been like Jennifer was texting Peter.
Is she there yet? Yeah. Now I need my shorts right now.
Come back right now and give me the shorts.
So the next day, Sunday... Dawn, Chad, her biological dad, John, like flew up.
So many Johns. And her boyfriend, John, and Dawn's parents all went down to Myrtle Beach to search.
So they all arrived. They were canvassing the play.
I mean, they were handing out, they had already printed flyers.
They were handing out flyers. talking to everyone they could, talking to law enforcement.
Law enforcement had gathered a massive search.
I mean, it was... It was on. And what they found out was, you know, they found out all the information.
They were finding out that Peter and his friends left at 2 a.m. finding out about the hotel rooms or the hotels and then they find out that There's been no activity on Brittany's bank account or her card.
There's been no like no text messages sent from her phone, nothing like that. so when Peter went back to Rochester because at this point he's already home Like I said, he got a lawyer immediately.
He was looked at immediately as a person of interest.
They started looking into him. Why? I know.
I don't know. It's like, not at all. He was, I will say by May 7th, he was cleared.
Okay. So not too long, you know, he was cleared.
I want to know what cleared him. I want to know too, and I don't know.
What they found out too when they were doing this search was that she wasn't picked up.
So she was picked up on the street camera going to the hotel. but she was not picked up on the street camera coming back, which means somewhere in that 10 minute period, She was gone.
Like, snagged. Yeah. So they were trying to narrow it down to where it could have happened. but there's no camera footage of it happening.
Well, and the other thing is going back back to the shorts theory, because you think if she snagged, like somebody grabs her, puts her in a car, This is a busy area.
Yeah. So it does seem like maybe these are like the people that she has been connected with or something.
Yeah. Pick her up in a car. Never to be seen again.
And that's it. And that's the thing. It's so it's so it's like she vanished into thin air.
Because if she was grabbed, you would think, I mean, we've heard it happen before where people are grabbed in the middle of the day.
But you would think that it would be a show.
Because it's not like this was at like 5 a.m.
No, this is a pretty busy time on the strip.
Everything's starting. So I feel like people must be out.
Yeah. I mean, nobody's not on the street at like, what was it?
Right around nine. Yeah, it was like 9 o'clock.
Yeah, like... So it's like, everybody's out then.
Right. People are gonna see. It's like, what the fuck happened?
So... Was there like a nab and run or was it like get into a car?
In a car that she must have known. Yeah.
It's... That's what's so strange about this.
Now... This is when the investigation takes a scary turn.
Okay. Because... Her parents are in the, in town, they're going crazy trying to find her, handing out everything, they're talking to everybody. law enforcement searching, and then they're going through her phone records.
They're trying to get anything they can.
Right. Now what they find out was that they need to shift to Georgetown County. which is 40 miles away.
Why? And everybody's like, what the fuck?
What do you mean? Did her phone ping? This is because her phone pinged. at 9.27 p.m. that night, going south on Route 17.
So she's moving. The phone is moving, at least.
And this is on the way to Surfside Beach, which is seven miles away.
Now, the speed that this ping was seen, they could tell the speed that it was moving at.
It was moving... at such a rate that it was in a car okay so they said you know at least the phone is in a car which means she's likely in a car Now, more pings were at 1018 p.m., and the last one was at 1158 p.m., know.
The 1158 PM was the one that was 40 miles away in a Georgetown County town of McClellanville.
McClellanville. That's really hard to say.
McClellanville. Now, it is close to a boat landing.
Oh, my God. Yep. No. And it's on this place called the Santee, the North Santee River.
It's in an area, and this is when the phone shuts off.
Now, they are terrified at this point because this is just swamp.
Like, there's nothing out here that you need to be going to.
And there's also wild boars, alligators, like bad news.
Like it's not a place you want to be. Oh my, what the fuck?
Now they start and they said that there's just, first of all, the rate at which that phone went there was fast. was like shooting, it was going straight there.
They weren't stopping anywhere. It was like, this is the destination.
So somebody knew where they were taking.
Right. I was just going to say they know the area.
Yeah, it's somebody who definitely knows that area because you're not going to find this place if you don't know where it is.
And if you're not used to maybe... doing things here.
One is It kind of seems like because of the boars and the alligators, you're dumping a body.
It's a great place to bring someone that you never want anyone to see again.
Because boars will completely, completely gone.
Yeah, boars are really scary. and they focus on this.
They start using everything they can to search this area.
They were like, using helicopters and sniffer dogs and like anything, all the resources they could to find this.
And they searched. So 11 days of searching, they found nothing.
They weren't able to find anything. The family had to return home at this point.
I can't imagine going home. Yeah. And they're like, we have to regroup.
We have to figure out what to do next. Now, a month after Brittany went missing, Something interesting happened in Myrtle Beach.
A man named Sean Taylor... was arrested for trying to abduct a 20 year old girl outside of the Blue Water Resort.
Oh shit. Around 4 p.m. 4 p.m. Jesus Christ.
Middle of the day. Like I said, I'm glad I said, you know, it could happen.
He and another man, allegedly, because he was let off for this, I should say, allegedly...
He and another man jumped out of a van, tried to grab her when she was walking down the strip.
And why were they let off for that? She escaped and he was arrested, but he was somehow let off because he had an alibi.
So allegedly, he was accused of this. Hypothetically.
He was accused of this. Now, a month later, a man named Timothy Deshaun Taylor, who is Sean's son. just saying, was brought in and questioned by the FBI.
And he was brought up, but he was brought in because he was brought up by several people in the area that maybe you should look into this guy for Britney.
Yeah. And so after they spoke to him, they said, you know, he was, they didn't really have anything on him, but they were keeping him in mind, you know, just like.
He was brought up. So now his name's in the investigation.
Now, eight months go by and nothing. It's going cold.
Shit's not cool. And then they get a tip.
Mm-hmm. And this tip led investigators to an area near where that phone had pinged, that swamp area. near like Georgetown, McClellanville.
I hate this. They found a pair of sunglasses.
Now, what's weird about this is that these sunglasses were brand new.
They were not sitting out there for a long time.
They weren't dirty. Yeah. Nothing. And you would assume something in a swamp land would be pretty dirty.
They didn't look like they were sitting out there for any length of time.
They looked like they were placed there.
So people were thinking, because then they tested them, there was no DNA on them.
So they're clean. So, like, they're brand new.
Or, yeah. Because also everybody was like, yeah, I don't think those are Britney's.
I don't know what those are. But there's a theory that's going around that This was done to lead them away from the real location of the body, to like make them focus on an area that wasn't.
Oh, that would be very smart. It's just weird in a fucked up way.
Or it's somebody just being an asshole. Yeah, because people are assholes and like to involve themselves in these things and like fuck up investigations.
So that could definitely be it. Right. So in 2016 is when things... Because everything starts going... quiet.
There's nothing they've found. They just start, she's a missing person, nobody, no nothing.
We go to 2016. Timothy Deshaun Taylor is brought up again.
He was arrested for robbery of a McDonald's in 2011.
He was like the getaway car. What a character.
He served a couple of years probation, but the other people that were involved here got prison time.
So the FBI brought him back in to chat with him because they were like, I think we can like, because he shouldn't have gotten two years probation. gotten more like the other people right and so they kind of used that to bring him in to talk to him about britney again Because they were like, his name is brought up again.
So they're like, let's just talk to him again.
And they were just like, we just want to chat with you.
That's all. And so at this same time that this is being done, an inmate... at a prison nearby named Taquan L. Brown sent a letter to prison officials saying...
I know you're talking to Timothy Deshaun Taylor.
Let me tell you what I know. What? And what he said is he said, I know what happened to Brittany Drexler.
What the fuck happened? And he said it involved a period of time being held captive, an assault, a gun, and alligators.
And so they were like, okay, let's chat with you.
So he said the people involved in this happened to be Timothy Deshaun Taylor and his father, Sean Taylor.
Mm-hmm. So what he said, and this is terrible, so just want to lay that out trigger warning.
He said back in 2009, When Britney went missing, he said he went to a stash house in McClellanville.
That's apparently where, like, there's guns and drugs and you sell things.
You keep your stash there. A stash, if you will.
Yeah. He was going there in McClellanville, which happens to be the place where her phone pings.
Just want to put that out there. He was going there to do a deal with Sean Taylor.
Mm-hmm. Like an exchange of goods and money.
He went there, so he went through the house, and he said as he walked through the house, he saw Brittany. in that house being held against her will she was being sexually assaulted by timothy deshaun taylor and about eight to 12 other men in the house.
Oh, God, no, no, no, no, no. He said he went to the back because you just you just ignore that because you're there for your thing well you're she And you go back, he met with Sean Taylor outside.
He said they were doing their exchange and he said they're just talking.
And then Brittany ran from the house trying to escape.
And he said the men... came out grabbed her they uh they said that she was beaten with a pistol like pistol whipped and brought back into the home, and then killed with two gunshots.
And they said, he said that he saw her, he saw them bring her body out wrapped up and throw her into a pit of alligators.
He saw them throw a body into a pit of alligators and didn't say anything until years later.
Exactly. He also said that he knew she was held a couple of days and was trafficked. like being sold out to other men because when her but her disappearance had drawn such media attention that the tailors got scared and were planning to kill her anyways, because they were like, this is too high profile.
Oh, my God. Yeah. Well, and it was like a couple days after she went missing or a month after she went missing that the ping happened.
No, the ping happened only like the day, like a couple days after.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. So for a period of time, it could have just been a couple days that they were driving her to this location.
Oh, yeah. And the FBI now, which we're going to get into in part two.
I'm going to go further into what they think now.
They say that they know that she was held for a period of a couple days before being killed.
So everything that this guy is saying is...
Could be weirdly accurate. And there's other witnesses that have come forward and said and corroborated this, corroborated this accusation. count now that's horrific my mouth is literally just like i hope that's not what happened I hope that's not what happened.
And just as a last thing before we stop before part two is...
And Brittany's father Chad Drexel said later, he said he was out there handing out flyers in Myrtle Beach when they first went down.
And he said he was on a dirt road. And he stopped a car, because he was stopping cars and handing them flyers.
Yeah. And he said like most people were taking them and being like very respectful.
And he said he stopped this car. Oh, sorry.
I keep hitting it because I'm like. You talk with your hands.
I talk with my hands, I'm sorry. It's okay.
So he hands this flyer to these people in this car and he said it was a bunch of guys in a car.
And he said, you know, the two, he said the guys in like the back were like, whispering to each other and these guys as he's explaining like do you see this girl have you seen this girl and then he said I'm her father she's missing like can you help like if you know her or if you've seen her can you just call like we're just trying to give this to everybody and he said the guys in the back were laughing and he's like it was very weird and he said the driver took the flyer crumpled it up threw it at him and then drove away and they all were laughing as they drove away.
Did he get a license plate or anything? Well, before driving off, he said he later found out from the FBI.
Because he explained who the guy, like what he looked like, any like markings or anything.
Sean Taylor. In the FBO, I was like, That was Sean Taylor.
Or Deshaun Taylor, excuse me. His son. Timothy Deshaun Taylor.
And he was like, well, wait, how do you know?
And he said, well, he said, it's funny that, you know, the FBI were like, that's funny that you bring this up to us.
Because Timothy Deshaun Taylor told us that he met you.
Dude, what the fuck? So it's confirmed. Dude, this makes me...
That makes me want to start sobbing. I actually feel like I'm going to start crying.
I feel like that's what happened. I feel like that's what happened too, and it's really hard.
To be that fucking evil. To be that cold and callous and evil. evil even if you didn't do it like even if like somehow he has nothing to do with it you had nothing to do with it, you're an evil person for reacting that way to a father handing you a missing persons poster.
This case is absolutely gut-wrenching. There was an interview with Chad and Dawn and Chad relayed that story of meeting him.
And so the interviewer was like, so you believe that you met Timothy Deshaun Taylor?
And he was like, oh, no, I know I met Timothy Deshaun Taylor.
Like, Because the FBI told me I did. And it's like, what the fuck?
Fuck. First of all, my arms are covered in goosebumps right now.
And second of all, I'm like shook right now.
It's... And so what we're going to do is we're going to end here because part two, we're going to talk about the FBI investigation and what has happened recently. to kind of just open this case up.
And again, that's going to be like an ad-free episode of um but i have so many questions yeah and i want to go further into what they've been they've been looking into right now in some of the interviews with timothy deshaun taylor and like all this so Yeah.
I think this is just a lot of bad people.
And she was in a very terrible situation that she was, she couldn't get out of.
It's just, it's a horrific, and her poor mother is like, and her and Chad and everybody and like her biological father John they've all said that like John fully is like I don't want to believe that's No.
It's got to be something else. Like, I can't wrap my brain around that.
I can't fathom that as a father. Yeah. This is like one of those like shows, like this is like Unsolved Mysteries, like a show that's on there. or a case, excuse me, that's on there.
I'm like so shook right now. I feel like I can't even form a thought.
But that you just watch and you're like, I need to know what happened.
It's so much. Like this is right up there now in my mind with like Elisa Lam and JonBenet Ramsey.
Oh yeah, I gotta know. i gotta know and the fbi thinks they know and we'll get into it in part two like what they think and everything Is Timothy Deshawn in custody?
Yes. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, and we'll get into all that in part two, but... I'm not... I need to get through it now.
Okay. i feel like all of you i need to know right now don't worry it's coming within the day i'm getting it I'm getting it right after this.
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