After New York State teen Brittanee Drexel disappeared over Spring Break in 2009, her family were left with no answers for seven long years. But now the terrible truth has finally come to light.

Image: via Pittsburgh's Action News 4 — Image: via Pittsburgh’s Action News 4

Back in 2009 a teenager from New York State went missing over Spring Break. And for seven long years young Brittanee Drexel’s family were left with no answers as to what happened to her. In 2016, however, an FBI agent revealed horrifying details that appeared to explain Brittanee’s disappearance.

Brittanee hailed from Rochester, where she was born on October 7, 1991. Her parents, Dawn Drexel and John Kahyaoglu, were only teenagers themselves at the time of the birth. They never married, and not long after Brittanee was born, the couple parted ways.

Indeed, Brittanee was still a toddler when her parents split up. Dawn eventually married Chad Drexel, who raised Brittanee as his own daughter. But the girl wouldn’t see her real dad for many years. In fact, Brittanee was a teenager herself when she finally reunited with Kahyaoglu.

Speaking to Crime Watch Daily, Dawn described her daughter as “full of life” and “energetic.” Brittanee attended Gates Chili High School, in the Rochester suburb of Chili, where she was regarded as an attentive student. What’s more, she loved to play soccer and had plenty of friends. And it was with those friends that 17-year-old Brittanee made plans for Spring Break in 2009.

Along with her friends, Brittanee had planned to travel to Myrtle Beach, a popular Spring Break destination. But her mom had different ideas. Indeed, Dawn refused to let her daughter go, citing a lack of adult supervision. Plus, she didn’t even know the friends Brittanee wanted to go with.

Instead, then, Brittanee told her mom that she was going to stay with a friend in Rochester. And soon after, Dawn received a phone call from someone she thought was a parent of said friend. So, seemingly reassured that her daughter had listened to her concerns, Dawn gave Brittanee permission to go.

Alas, Brittanee’s story was really just a cover for her real plans. In truth, she was going to Myrtle Beach, after all, and made the drive down there with three of her female friends. Then when she arrived, she kept up the charade with her mom by frequently calling her to check in.

On the last night of her trip, Brittanee called her mom to say that she would be coming home the next day. They each said, “I love you” – and with that, hung up the phone. Tragically, that was to be the last time Dawn ever spoke to her daughter.

The next day, April 25, 2009, Dawn received a call from Brittanee’s then-boyfriend, 19-year-old John Grieco. He told the panicked mom that Brittanee had gone missing at Myrtle Beach. And so Dawn and Grieco decided that they had to go down and search for themselves. Meanwhile, Brittanee’s biological father, Kahyaoglu, flew over from his home in Tampa, Florida, to help with the search.

Brittanee was last identified on CCTV footage leaving the hotel at which she was staying in Myrtle Beach. But not long afterwards, her phone had pinged out her current location, some 60 miles away in McClellanville, South Carolina. As a result, the search party followed the trail south.

Unfortunately, though, no leads were found in McClellanville, either. And eventually the team had no choice but to call off the search and face the possibility that Brittanee might never be found. For seven long years, then, Brittanee’s family were left with no answers. Had she been abducted? Had she just run away? Or had she even committed suicide?

Then in August 2016 FBI agent Gerrick Munoz presented new information to a judge in a federal court case. Apparently, an inmate had given a jailhouse confession, saying he’d seen Brittanee just days after she went missing in 2009.

The inmate in question, Taquan Brown, is currently serving 25 years for voluntary manslaughter. He told Munoz that he’d traveled to McClellanville, where Brittanee’s phone had sent out its last ping, to visit a “stash house” – a place where illegal drugs, money and/or guns are stored.

According to The Post and Courier, Brown alleged that he’d visited the house to pay a man called Shaun Taylor. But when he entered, he reportedly found Taylor’s son, Timothy Da’Shaun Taylor, and several other men “sexually abusing” a girl whom Brown believed to be Brittanee.

Continuing his account of events that day, Brown said that while he was at the house, he witnessed Brittanee attempting to escape. At that point, he told Munoz, she was “pistol-whipped.” And soon after, Brown heard two gunshots – and assumed that Brittanee had been killed by Da’Shaun.

Brown said that Brittanee’s body was later wrapped up and removed from the property. Moreover, according to Munoz, several witnesses have since said that Brittanee’s body was dumped in one of McClallenville’s many alligator pits – to be eaten by the fearsome reptiles within.

However, Da’Shaun has denied the allegations made by Brown. Indeed, Da’Shaun’s attorney claimed that investigators were simply using the accusation to pin charges on him as a means of solving the case. At the time, Da’Shaun was also facing a bond hearing for a 2011 McDonald’s robbery in which he acted as the getaway driver – and for which he had already served a probationary sentence.

Meanwhile, Joan Taylor – mother of Da’Shaun and wife to Shaun – said she was horrified by the allegations. Indeed, she told The Post and Courier that she thinks the government was simply trying to “pin something else” on her son.

Brittanee’s own father has also expressed reservations about Brown’s testimony. Kahyaoglu told Crime Watch Daily, “He’s already in jail for something else. Maybe he’s just making something up to shorten his sentence.” However, Dawn and her husband Chad confirmed their belief in Brown’s account during an appearance on U.S. talk show Dr. Phil in October 2016.

FBI agents, meanwhile, have said that Brown’s testimony has additionally been backed up by other sources, including an inmate in Georgetown County. But charges have never been filed – and with no body likely to be found, Brittanee’s family may never have conclusive evidence about what really happened to her.