Sighting of missing N.Y. teen lifts hopes, but is a bust
Myrtle Beach detectives, reacting Thursday to a possible sighting of a missing 17-year-old from New York, reviewed surveillance video of a woman at a Socastee store but determined it was not the missing girl.
Someone told police that a woman who used an automatic teller machine at a Scotchman store matched the description of Brittanee Drexel.
Myrtle Beach police Capt. David Knipes said investigators don't think the person in the video is Drexel, and they still are searching for the girl, who disappeared April 25 while on a trip to Myrtle Beach with friends.
Knipes said police were told Thursday that a woman fitting Drexel's description was in the store at 5200 Socastee Blvd. about 8:30 a.m., used an ATM, then left the store in a red Dodge Stratus with New York license plate of EJS-9543.
Police on Thursday were searching for the vehicle to talk with its occupants.
"After reviewing the video from the Scotchman store, we feel that the woman pictured is not Ms. Drexel," Knipes said via e-mail Thursday afternoon. "We are still looking into it to make absolutely sure by trying to track down the owner of the vehicle and re-checking bank records; however at this time there is nothing to indicate it is Drexel."
The teen's disappearance has received national media attention, and Knipes said police have logged hundreds of tips from across the country.
"We're getting tips. Not a lot, but we're still getting some and we're getting them from all over the country," Knipes said.
The teen from Rochester, N.Y. was last seen leaving the Blue Water Hotel on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach.
Brittanee's mother, Dawn Drexel, said Thursday the tips being called in give her hope. She and family members have been in the area since Brittanee's disappearance.
"I'm just being very hopeful. I want to bring my daughter back home," Drexel said. "We've been handing out fliers, giving out business cards to the bikers and everyone just to keep the word out there about her."
An $11,000 reward has been offered from two groups seeking information regarding Drexel's disappearance and whereabouts.
Crime Stoppers of the Lowcountry has offered $1,000 reward and the Rev. Charles Muller of Victory Christian Church in Albany, N.Y., added $10,000 of his own money to that reward for information about Drexel.
Drexel's family and friends as well as police and several search groups have spent the days since the girl's disappearance searching for clues about her in Horry, Georgetown and Charleston counties.
Searchers from Community United Effort, a North Carolina-based organization that searches for missing people, and members of the Texas-based Laura's Recover Center have organized searches on horseback, all-terrain vehicles, helicopters and with dogs looking for clues about the 17-year-old.
Drexel met a friend from New York and three men April 24 at Club Kryptonite, according to a police report.
She met them again around midday April 25 on the beach, and again around 8 p.m. that night, police said.
The men said she left them to return to her companions in a room at the Bar Harbor Hotel. Police said she never reached that hotel.
Police said Drexel - who is described as 5 feet tall and 103 pounds - suffers from depression.
She was last seen wearing black shorts, flip-flops and a multicolored striped shirt.
She is white, has shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes.
Anyone with information should contact the Myrtle Beach Police Department at 918-1363.
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