New York teenager who vanished in 2009 was 'gang-raped, shot dead then fed to alligators'

A 17-year-old girl who vanished on a South Carolina beach during Spring Break seven years ago is believed to have been gang-raped, shot and fed to alligators, after a prisoner gave a "jailhouse confession" to police.

Brittanee Drexel disappeared from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in 2009, which led to a major investigation, although no one was charged in connection with her disappearance. On Monday (29 August) the FBI announced that they may have discovered the gruesome details of her murder after a convicted killer gave a jailhouse confession to officers.

The police agency said that Taquan Brown, who is serving 25 years for an unrelated manslaughter case, revealed that Drexel was held against her will for several days before she was murdered.

In that time she was said to have been gang-raped in a "stash house", a place used by gangs to keep guns, drugs or money, before she was shot dead and fed to alligators as media attention into her disappearance grew, the FBI said last week.

In a transcript obtained by the Post and Courier of Charleston, Agent Gerrick Munoz testified that Brown said that he had visited the property where he saw her being sexually abused by several men.

The FBI agent testified that she was taken to the stash house where one suspect "showed her off, introduced her to some other friends that were there ... they ended up tricking her out with some of their friends, offering her to them and getting a human trafficking situation."

Brown then saw Drexel being pistol-whipped before claiming he heard two gun shots from inside the house where the teenager was being held. Brown is then said to have claimed he saw a body wrapped up and taken away.

Agent Munoz testified that "several witnesses have told us Miss Drexel's body was placed in a pit, or gator pit, to have her body disposed of. Eaten by the gators." Despite the tip-off, authorities have found no evidence of Drexel after searching the property and several alligator pits.

Drexel, from Rochester. New York, was holidaying at the beach with friends when she was reported missing in April 2009. Drexel's mother, Dawn, said this week: "After seven long years of waiting and praying for the return of my daughter we know that she isn't coming home alive."