Brittanee Drexel: Raymond Moody New Person of Interest in 2009 Disappearance

Brittanee Drexel, a-17-year-old girl on spring break in Myrtle Beach, disappeared in 2009. It will be three years on August 25 since the New York teen disappeared from outside her hotel on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach. Police are now naming convicted sex offender Raymond Moody, 51, as a person of interest in the police classified cold case.

Moody served 21 years in jail, his sentence originally being 40 years, for the abduction and raping of a California girl in 1983. Fox News reports that besides the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel, Moody is also a person of interest in the 2005 disappearance of Crystal Soles, 28. Drexel and Soles are both believed to be dead, but police have not been able to find their bodies.

The theory by authorities is that Drexel was abducted on the walk back to her hotel after leaving friends. Police discovered that on the weekend of Brittanee Drexel's disappearance, the Level 3 sex offender, Moody, was in the same Myrtle Beach area. Captain Joe Vella told Fox News that Raymond Moody was issued a speeding ticket the day after the Drexel was last seen. A phone signal from Drexel's phone the night she went missing is also a vital key in the cold case. The cellphone signal was detected about eight miles from Moody's apartment, which was 50 miles south of Myrtle Beach. Raymond Moody who was released from the California State Prison in 2004, had moved into the apartment the day before Brittanee Drexel disappeared.

Moody is a person of interest along with two other individuals that live in the coastal South Carolina area. Capt. Vella told Fox News that Moody is still their primary focus though. We cannot eliminate him as a person of interest, said Vella about Raymond Moody.

In the case of the relation between Drexel and Crystal Soles disappearance, Detective Philip Hanna told Fox News that, We are checking for any similarities to see if there are any connections between the two.