Found Deceased SC - Brittanee Drexel, 17, Myrtle Beach, 25 April 2009 - #10

[SeaNymph]

See, guys the only thing about that possible W'burg/Andrews ping, "her phone traveled from Williamsburg County back towards the coast", was that I know, and I promise you this because I double checked it not long ago and actually made a comment here about it - that report was made AT LEAST a day or two before that possible sighting on the bus coming into MB from Georgetown with her on it made the news. The morning those ladies on that bus thought it was her, it was ALL OVER the news right then - it didnt brew a day or two. News crews were IMMEDIATELY at Bar Harbor scouring the area. I remember the noon news here coming on that day and can distinctly picture the reporter saying something like "MBPD are working on a tip received today that someone matching the description of BD got off of a transit bus coming from Georgetown this morning here, near the bar Harbor motel where she was staying." He was standing in front of the sign for BH and you could see two or three officers and police cars in the background. Now it was the next day after that it was verified this was a girl who lived in G'town that worked up near Family Kingdom on that bus, but that story about it possibly being her on the bus didnt brew in the media for a day or two, and again, the report of her phone traveling from W'burg towards the coast was before that. I will go see if I can find it in my posts. Not saying it isnt incorrect or misreporting, but it was not a mix up reported as a result of that girl who was on that bus.

strato, I thought about that this morning too, that from there at the AFB down to Surfside, either on bypass or business 17 you would probably ping the same tower in Surfside. Its still a possibility, but back in there is this palce called Market Commons (where the love of my tummy's life PF Chang's resides) and it is like an upscale outdoor mall area with shops, restaurants and apartments all above the storefronts. Speed limit is only maybe 35 through there, several stop lights. Still a possiblity they went through there though to get on the bypass.

 

[MBLover]

Sea - I remember that report. They said her phone went inland a ways before coming back out and going toward the ocean. And they specifically mentioned Williamsburg Co. I remember that because of Williamsburg, VA...

 

[strato]

SeaNymph,


(edit: working on the straight path the Georgetown, excluding Andrews area)

Basically three routes from there, that a local would use (since we are assuming that the POI are local and know the area):

1) described above, through the old AF base.

2) 17th S to (I believe) Hghy 15/Broadway extension to whatever the road is now called that takes you by Coastal Grand Mall to bypass 17 (the Airport Rd to 17 bypass), then S to G Town.

3) Either 17th S to Kings Hghy 17, or straight down beach 17 (old 17 business), to Kings Hghy 17, then S through Surfside, GC, MI.

The fact that they searched around the 1st route leads me to believe that's where LEO thinks they travelled.

edit: PF Chang's eh? Might have to try that.

 

[MBLover]

Sea - Here's the article. I had it saved in my articles. Link no longer works but is included. Again - I have abbreviated words - no words changed or left out - just abbreviated for space.

http://rochesterhomepage.net/content/fulltext/?cid=87961

WROC-TV Wed 4/29/09 11:26am

UPDATE: MB Police are now examining surveillance video from a hotel. They are the last pictures of BD before she disappeared. The video is from the lobby of the BWR. It shows BD leaving the hotel by herself on Sat.

The Chili teen who went missing on spring break may have been spotted riding a bus into MB on Wed morning.

MB Police said that several witnesses have reported riding on the bus w/a teen girl they believe is 17-yr-old BD.

************************
Police also said they were able to locate BD's cell phone as it traveled out of Williamsburg Co, which is inland, toward the SC coast. That was days ago.
************************
According to sister station WTBW, witnesses said they saw a teen girl matching BD's description wearing pink hoodie jacket w/MB on front left chest w/a blue shirt under it & light colored jeans.

The last confirmed contact that BD made was 8 pm Sat, when she text messaged friends she was on vacation with.

 

[SeaNymph]

Oh, MBLover, bless you! I was going nuts here. I could find references to both but they were on the same date, the 29th, which was the day the girl was sighted on the bus. But that does say, with that report dated the 29th, "That was two days ago", so on the 27th they got that ping? (The bus sighting was on the 29th, 'solved' on the 30th). I just absolutely stand by hearing about that W'burg county thing at least a day or two before the bus incident took place. That's what raised my suspicion in the first place about Andrews area, and then wondering if there was a 'back way' to there bypassing PI, MI.

The only thing I could find were FifthEssence's posts mentioning, and yeah, the links are dead:

Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - SC SC-Brittanee Drexel 17, Msg 04/25/09, Myrtle Beach
Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community - View Single Post - SC-Brittanee Drexel 17, Msg 04/25/09, Myrtle Beach thread #1

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

strato, I would throw something else out there I picked up on once from a news report, but it might make everyone's head explode...oh well...I can't stop myself.

They were searching along the roadside and I saw a mailbox with a number on it. I was trying to find that house number on Hwy 17, but couldnt find a match except for up in Pawley's. Now I guess it could have been there but I DID find a match back on Hwy 701 for the house number, aka Frasier Street in Georgetown. I thought at the time they were searching along the roadside on 701 for some reason...but I digress, it could have been Pawley's Island. Then again, why would they search Pawley's knowing her phone had gone farther south? Maybe they were just looking for anything they could find along Hwy 17, IF it was Hwy 17.

(O/T: Do not go to PF Chang's without wrapping your lips around some lettuce wraps. Fatal error in judgment that would be....or the potstickers...or the lemon chicken...or the kung pao chicken...)

 

[strato]

Whatever case as far as the mis-identification of the bus girl, the report of a ping in Williamsburg Co is a huge monkey wrench. Williamsburg Co line is on the other side of Andrews. You might be able to reach Andrews from S MB in an hour and fifteen minutes or so, but you could not go to Andrews first and be in the N Santee area within that timeline.

When did that phone ping in Williamsburg Co?

 

[SeaNymph]

Whatever case as far as the mis-identification of the bus girl, the report of a ping in Williamsburg Co is a huge monkey wrench. Williamsburg Co line is on the other side of Andrews. You might be able to reach Andrews from S MB in an hour and fifteen minutes or so, but you could not go to Andrews first and be in the N Santee area within that timeline.

When did that phone ping in Williamsburg Co?

^BBM

That's the million dollar question. If you go by the date on that article, being published on the 29th, saying 'two days ago', would be the 27th. Saturday was the 25th, Sunday the 26th.

It very well could be nothing but bungled reporting. On the other hand, we never heard another thing about it, and then there is a recurring question you may or may not have seen where LE states something like (paraphrasing here) "BD cell phone signaled into the early hours of the 26th and later the next evening."...Next evening? Is that the evening of the 26th...or the NEXT evening, the 27th? They didnt say 'that evening" IIRC. There has always been a little confusion there, I think.

Actually, I didnt know it until this case, but Andrews is a divided city, with part of it in G'town Co and part in W'burg Co. Learn something new every day. I didnt even know that was possible.

Also, after that turned out not be BD on the bus is when I started focusing on the areas west of Georgetown, but another thing that reinforces in my own memory about that snip of her phone traveling towards the coast from Williamsburg Co. was the morning they thought they saw her on the bus that had come in from Georgetown, I remember recalling it and saying to myself "So maybe she WAS there the whole time afterall...just ran off with somebody...partying". I so wish that had been the case.

 

[strato]

Yeah, publicly available info is mucked all up, that's why I don't believe we can do but so much. LEO knows though.

Williamsburg Co map:

http://www.sciway.net/maps/cnty/williamsburg.html

 

[SeaNymph]

strato, my thoughts early on was that someone from west of Georgetown had taken her, hence, no pings going through the city of Georgetown, taken her there and put her somewhere then went to the river to ditch the purse along 17. Hard to explain, but somehow bypassed the city of G'town, going west of it from north of it, south and then out below G'town to the river area. But again, I don't know if time would allow that for the phone to ping as early as 10:18 PM at the river area.

Does that make sense?

 

[SeaNymph]

Ok, check this out. Google maps are still driving me crazy but I'm getting better. (Tried Bing - it broke my heart too)

So anyway, just to better explain I did this destination route, A- Georgetown SC, B-Powell Rd, C-Andrews SC....NOT THE ROUTE HIGHLIGHTED that I mapped but above it, where 17 is just coming into G'town - look at that and see where Hwy 17 splits off to a business and ALT route, along with 521? Could it be they went back that way, and then hooked up to Powell Road? If you zoom in, it looks like Powell Road runs all the way from Alternate 17 to near the river where we were looking at it yesterday. That would have completely bypassed downtown Georgetown.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...458,-79.424973&spn=0.253521,0.615921&t=h&z=11

 

[SeaNymph]

RoseC, it was very frustrating in the beginning and then that blip about W'burg Co, and not another word, 404 errors abound after only a few months - glad lots of people quoted the text of the articles to document it because I would still be pulling my hair out if we couldnt find anything about what I knew I heard then! MBLover has been my savior more than once here!

 

[SeaNymph]

The more I sit looking at these maps the more I am convinced, if this Powell Road/Corner Loop/Belladonna Ct area holds any real significance, the POI may not have taken the 17/701/Fraser Street route straight through Georgetown to get there, but rather the Alt 17/521/Highmarket Street route - and that the POI may not be as far west as Andrews specifically, but some where along that Alt 17/521 route closer to Georgetown. I don't know points of reference well enough to map one route versus the other to get to Powell Road, but just looking at it from a birds eye view, it doesnt look like it would be much difference either way on the time to get there from where you hit that bridge coming into Georgetown on 17 from Pawleys Island.

 

[strato]

strato, my thoughts early on was that someone from west of Georgetown had taken her, hence, no pings going through the city of Georgetown, taken her there and put her somewhere then went to the river to ditch the purse along 17. Hard to explain, but somehow bypassed the city of G'town, going west of it from north of it, south and then out below G'town to the river area. But again, I don't know if time would allow that for the phone to ping as early as 10:18 PM at the river area.

Does that make sense?

SN, I don't know, it's confusing to me.

I don't know if this has been brought up but the more I look, the route/timeline possibilities could be quite varied, depending on the range of the phone and the towers.

Does anyone know what kind of phone she had? Some models generally have good reception, some... less good. We might look around and see what users of that particular phone have to say about it.

ETA: and also, carrying it further, it would be good to know the experience of people who live in those areas and use those towers. Not knowing much about cell towers, I'd imagine some of those are better than others too, depending on the quality of their components. I realize, this is obsessing to the nth degree, just throwing it out there in case someone knows.

And shoot, for that matter: how accurate are the records for these pings, as far as recording the exact time of the reception? It's possible more than one tower received the same signal, just milliseconds apart, which might tell us (or LEO) something.

 

[RoseC]

Hi SeaNymph
are you from this area? (gtown) are do you know your way around the city of Gtown? reason i ask is i can try get you to the areas you looking for by not going threw Gtown city to powell rd?

 

[RoseC]

SN, I don't know, it's confusing to me.

I don't know if this has been brought up but the more I look, the route/timeline possibilities could be quite varied, depending on the range of the phone and the towers.

Does anyone know what kind of phone she had? Some models generally have good reception, some... less good. We might look around and see what users of that particular phone have to say about it.

ETA: and also, carrying it further, it would be good to know the experience of people who live in those areas and use those towers. Not knowing much about cell towers, I'd imagine some of those are better than others too, depending on the quality of their components. I realize, this is obsessing to the nth degree, just throwing it out there in case someone knows.

And shoot, for that matter: how accurate are the records for these pings, as far as recording the exact time of the reception? It's possible more than one tower received the same signal, just milliseconds apart, which might tell us (or LEO) something.

Im thinking she been on her plans cell phone plan due she was underage? down here if under 17 cant get a plan without a adult,,so i figure she with her mom/dad cell phone maybe had a line from them,but i seen diff ppl ask about type cell she had but i never seen a answer from anyone,,,so unless you was to know CD,or DD and can ask them type phone bd had im guessing we never find out,,

 

[SeaNymph]

Hi SeaNymph
are you from this area? (gtown) are do you know your way around the city of Gtown? reason i ask is i can try get you to the areas you looking for by not going threw Gtown city to powell rd?

I am only vaguely familiar with Georgetown, RoseC. Pretty familair with MB, the basics. Now with all those new roads in MB within the last 5-10 yrs or so, I'm not as keen to some specific areas. I havent lived in MB for 20 yrs and back then you had OB, Hwy 17 Bus., Hwy 17 Bypass and 501...LOL

I can see the route I am talking about on a map versus the other on a map but I have had the worst luck with linking these maps lately that I know if I tried to do one showing both routes it would be a mess. Maybe I will do two different ones and try to link them but I may have to explain where I was going with them.

I used to be able to do the Google maps, and regardless of what address I put in, my last point I focused on, I could get a link for that very specific location. Now it seems once I get it where I wanted to point out a spot, it defaults back to my original search point.

Sorry if I hijacked the thread earlier too guys.

 

[MBLover]

There were several of us who worked in a group together one time. One of them had the bright idea to take DD's cell # off of the LE report and try to find out who the carrier was.

I just did this again and the number came up being associated with this company:

CELLCO Partnership DBA VERIZON Wireless

But of course this tells us nothing about what kind of phone BD had. All I've ever heard about that phone is that it was pink (or had pink casing).

 

[dhchick04]

SN, I don't know, it's confusing to me.

I don't know if this has been brought up but the more I look, the route/timeline possibilities could be quite varied, depending on the range of the phone and the towers.

Does anyone know what kind of phone she had? Some models generally have good reception, some... less good. We might look around and see what users of that particular phone have to say about it.

ETA: and also, carrying it further, it would be good to know the experience of people who live in those areas and use those towers. Not knowing much about cell towers, I'd imagine some of those are better than others too, depending on the quality of their components. I realize, this is obsessing to the nth degree, just throwing it out there in case someone knows.

And shoot, for that matter: how accurate are the records for these pings, as far as recording the exact time of the reception? It's possible more than one tower received the same signal, just milliseconds apart, which might tell us (or LEO) something.

BBM
I can't look it up at the moment, but in the video that shows her texting, you may be able to tell the model of the cell from that. I also heard it was pink and that makes me think Motorola RAZR for some reason because I can't think of another pink phone offhand( I know there are tons!)

 

[SeaNymph]

Ok, I think I figured out how to get two maps done. Duhhh, me; how about clicking that 'alternate route' thingy, huh?


The first is what I am thinking could be the route someone living on the western side of Georgetown may have taken to get to Powell Road without going through downtown Georgetown. Could explain "tracked her phone as it traveled from Williamsburg County inland, towards the coast".


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...79.363174&spn=0.25363,0.615921&t=h&z=11&via=1


This map is the 'default' map when you search Georgetown SC to Powell Road.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sou...2168,-79.363174&spn=0.25363,0.615921&t=h&z=11


There's only 8 minutes time difference in the routes.

ETA: Also, for all those involved with the Corner Loop/Belladonna Ct discussion the other day, the area searched in Dec/Jan, if you add Corner Loop on the second map for destination C, you can see how close that is to where we were looking along the river. If you do it with the first one, the route that takes you west of G'town, it will re-route that whole map back to the default one.

And you STILL have the pull the maps around to see my points A & B !!

 

[SeaNymph]

I have a pink blackberry from Verizon. Dont remember any other pink phones retail, but she could have just had a snap-on cover on hers, whatever it was.