Search For Brittanee Drexel Resumes Jan 9-10

October 16, 2009 by Linda
Filed under General

Family members, friends and authorities will return to the Georgetown County area Saturday to search for clues in the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel, the New York teen who has not been seen since leaving a Myrtle Beach hotel room in April.

An official Web site for the missing teen was also launched this month after officials and family members learned about several people posing as Drexel on the Internet, said Monica Caison, director of the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons based in Wilmington, N.C., which conducts nationwide searches for missing individuals.

“The Internet can be a wonderful tool to get the information out there, but it can also be a vicious attack for the family,” Caison said. “There have been some vicious, horrible things out there.”

The site was launched Jan. 1 and as of Monday night, Caison said there had been more than 5,000 hits to it and hundreds of people had left messages of hope for the family as well as information that could help the investigation.

Volunteers and law enforcement officials have focused their searches in the Georgetown County area after a cell phone belonging to Drexel, who was 17 at the time of her disappearance, gave off its last known signal the night of April 26 in the area around U.S. 17 and the South Santee River, authorities said. Drexel was last seen that night leaving the Blue Water Hotel on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach

In December, a pair of sunglasses, resembling those that the then-17-year-old wore in a photo taken with friends the day she was last seen in Myrtle Beach, was found in an area near the Santee River in Georgetown County. The sunglasses were sent to the State Law Enforcement Division for processing.

“It’s so imperative if anyone finds anything in the woods they need to call police especially in that area. I don’t care if it’s a lipstick container,” Caison said. “If you find any kind of article that doesn’t belong out there you need to call police. It could be imperative to this case.”

A large group of searchers will spend the weekend looking for clues about Drexel’s disappearance, which has garnered national attention. Authorities did not conduct any searches during the holidays, but Caison said she has searched the area weekly.

“I’ve been going down weekly and spending the day with a small team,” Caison said. “We’re continuing to eliminate space and focus on new areas we’ve discovered.”

Anyone with information about Drexel’s disappearance can call Myrtle Beach police at 918-1963 or go to the web site at www.helpfindbrittaneedrexel.com.

You can support the search for Brittanee by donating on CUE Center For Missing Persons website here, or on Brittanee Drexel’s Official Website at the link above.

Previous searches by CUE Center for Brittanee Drexel

CUE Center search 01/09/10

If you have any information on this case please contact CUE Center For Missing Persons using the contact form below or contact Cue Center at (910) 343-1131 24 hour tipline (910) 232-1687.