Missing teen was a mystery for 13 years

Seventeen-year-old student Brittanee Drexel was walking down a street in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, when she vanished

- GAIL SUORTLAND

Like so many other American teenagers, Brittanee Drexel, 17, had big plans for Spring Break 2009. She wanted to head for the famous Myrtle Beach in South Carolina with her friends, 800 miles from her home. With sunny weather, miles of sandy beaches and lively nightlife, it’s a popular destination for high school and university students during the spring half-term holidays. But Brittanee’s mum Dawn had a bad feeling about the trip and told her she couldn’t go. It was a decision Brittanee refused to accept.

Brittanee lived in the suburb of Chili in Rochester, New York, with her mum and her stepdad, Chad, who had adopted her. She also had two younger siblings.

An outgoing student, she loved playing football, wanted to become a nurse and also hoped to try modelling. She had been born with a condition called hyperplastic primary vitreous. It left her blind in her right eye which was prone to “wandering”, so she wore special contact lenses to correct this. Their blue tint gave Brittanee a striking look.

Dawn and Brittanee clashed over the trip for a couple of days but on 22 April 2009, Brittanee seemed to back down. She said she’d go and stay with her friend in nearby Rochester for a few days instead. Dawn agreed but, unknown to her, Brittanee packed her suitcase and joined her friends on the trip to Myrtle Beach. They checked into the seafront Bar Harbor Hotel and enjoyed the party hotspot like hundreds of other youngsters who'd flocked to the area.

Brittanee phoned her mum and told her she was spending the day at the beach - Dawn assumed it was a local shoreline in Rochester, not a 12-hour drive away.