Brittanee Marie Drexel was born in Rochester, New York, United States with persistent hyperplastic primary vitreous in her right eye, which later became blind. She had to wear contact lenses to cover her right eye’s tendency to wander, giving her a distinctive appearance.

Drexel was 5’0″ tall. Here are 13 more things about her:

1. Her parents Dawn Drexel and John Kahyaoglu, who is of Turkish descent, were never married. Shortly after she was born, her mother married Chad Drexel, who then adopted her. Dawn is Al Wagner and Carol Wagner‘s daughter.
2. In 2004, her younger sister Myrissa Drexel was born.
3. In 2006, she started dating John Grieco, who was two years older than her. 
4. In December 2007, she reunited with Kahyauglo, who lives in Tampa, Florida, USA.
5. When Chad and Dawn separated in 2008, she remained with her mother in Chili, New York but kept in close contact with Chad. 
6. She was a junior at Gates-Chili High School in Gates, New York when she asked Dawn if she could go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA during her spring break from school. Dawn did not give her permission but on April 22, 2009, she told her mother she was going to spend the weekend at a friend’s house in New York but she actually travelled to Myrtle Beach with her friends Jennifer Oberer, Phillip Oberer and Allana Lippa. In Myrtle Beach, she met with Rochester residents Peter Brozowitz, Anthony Schimizzi, Phillip Watson, Keith Cummings and Matthew Abrams.
7. While in Myrtle Beach on April 24, 2009 and on April 25, 2009, she talked to Dawn on the phone, making her mother believe she was in New York during those days.
8. She was 17 years old when she went missing on the evening of April 25, 2009. That evening, Raymond Moody, then 49, allegedly kidnapped, raped and murdered her. On April 26, 2009, authorities started looking for her and pulled over Moody for a traffic violation without linking him to her disappearance.
9. In August 2011, authorities still had no information about her whereabouts but announced Moody as a person of interest.
10. In June 2016, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents announced that they believed she was kidnapped, sex trafficked, held at a stash house in McClellanville, South Carolina, murdered and fed to alligators.
11. In August 2016, the FBI announced that two jailhouse informants, including Taquan Brown of Walterboro, South Carolina, had named Shaun Taylor and his son Timothy Taylor, both McClellanville residents, as the suspects who abducted and murdered her in McClellanville.
12. On March 4, 2022, Moody was arrested, booked into the Georgetown County Jail in Georgetown, South Carolina and charged with obstruction of justice. On May 12, 2022, her remains were found in a wooded area 2.5 miles from where Moody had been living in April 2009.
13. On May 16, 2022, Moody was charged with murder, rape and kidnapping in connection to her death. Her body was turned over to her family.