A man was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after confessing to the 2009 killing of a 17-year-old girl who disappeared while on a beach vacation in South Carolina.
in May after advances in technology helped investigators determine that the teen's cellphone was in Moody's vehicle the night she disappeared while walking alone along the Myrtle Beach waterfront.
Moody said he then strangled Drexel because he realized he would go back to prison as a convicted sex offender — he had previously been convicted of raping an 8-year-old girl in California. That search went on for more than a decade. Drexel's family repeatedly came to Myrtle Beach to keep attention on the missing teen. There were candlelight vigils and police sifted through hundreds of false tips as the case captured the attention of the true-crime community.
Moody's girlfriend came to police in 2011 and said she was abused. She knew Moody served 20 years of a 40-year prison sentence for raping a child in California and said she no longer believed Moody's story that friends picked up Drexel while she was gone. Initially, investigators had tried to sort through dozens of vehicles seen on a surveillance camera around the time the teen disappeared. More than 10 years later, now knowing the exact time Drexel got into a vehicle, they were able to pinpoint it to an SUV owned by Moody.
Drexel's family joined prosecutors in asking for the life sentence. They said she was a loving teen, who played soccer, liked fashion and was like a mother to her younger siblings.
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Raymond Moody pleads guilty to killing missing teen Brittanee Drexel, sentenced to life in prisonRaymond Moody, the man who confessed to killing missing teenager Brittanee Drexel in 2009 while she was on a spring break trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has been sentenced to life in prison.
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Man pleads guilty to kidnapping, rape, murder of Brittanee Drexel; teen disappeared on spring break'I was a monster, was a monster then, was a monster when I took Brittanee Drexel's life,' Moody said while addressing the courtroom. 'I don't have the words to express how horrible I feel and I've felt ever since that day. I'm very sorry.'
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Man pleads guilty to kidnapping, rape, murder of Brittanee Drexel; teen disappeared on spring break'I was a monster, was a monster then, was a monster when I took Brittanee Drexel's life,' Moody said while addressing the courtroom. 'I don't have the words to express how horrible I feel and I've felt ever since that day. I'm very sorry.'
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