2009 spring break homicide sufferer Brittanee Drexel’s household awarded $700M in civil go well with

A South Carolina jury awarded $700 million to the New York household of a 17-year-old woman who was kidnapped and murdered on a 2009 spring break journey to Myrtle Seashore.

Brittanee Drexel’s mom, Daybreak Pleckan, filed a lawsuit in January 2023 that accused Raymond Moody, the person who killed her daughter; Bar Harbor Resort Inc.; and Smith Household Companions LLC of wrongful conduct that resulted in Drexel’s homicide whereas the teenager was visiting the coastal South Carolina trip spot along with her associates.

The jury concluded final month that Moody brought on Drexel’s household emotional misery, and the award included $200 million in precise damages and $500 million in punitive damages, based on county information and FOX 8 Greensboro.

“I’m puzzled,” Moody reportedly mentioned in court docket, based on FOX 8. “I imply, I simply have a lot remorse. I’ve realized it doesn’t matter how honest I’m about how I really feel about issues I’ve accomplished. It’s simply not sufficient.”

Angel Cooper Vause, Moody’s 57-year-old girlfriend of Georgetown, South Carolina, was additionally lately sentenced to serve 18 years in jail for mendacity to federal investigators about her function in Drexel’s kidnapping and homicide.

On April 25, 2009, Drexel left the seashore and the Bar Harbor Lodge, the place she was staying, to fulfill a buddy on the close by Blue Water Resort. It was the final time anybody aside from Moody and Vause noticed {the teenager}. Safety footage confirmed Drexel coming into the Myrtle Seashore resort that night.

At 9 p.m., Drexel was strolling alone in Myrtle Seashore when Moody approached her whereas driving a Ford Explorer and kidnapped {the teenager}, transported her to a distant campsite close to his house in Georgetown, raped and murdered her.

Moody discarded Drexel’s telephone within the North Santee River and buried her physique in a “shallow grave.” 

Vause is accused of luring Drexel into Moody’s van, promising to present her a trip again to her lodge, based on the Justice Division. She saved her involvement and the small print of Drexel’s homicide a secret for 13 years till authorities discovered {the teenager}’s stays in 2022.

“For greater than a decade, Brittanee’s family members had been left to think about the worst potential state of affairs in Brittanee’s disappearance whereas Vause withheld the reality,” U.S. Lawyer Adair Ford Boroughs of the District of South Carolina mentioned in a press release final month.

“We hope Brittanee’s family members can now have each the closure and a measure of justice that comes with this sentence. Might she relaxation in peace figuring out that her mom Daybreak was relentless in her pursuit of justice.”

In October 2022, 62-year-old Moody of South Carolina pleaded responsible to kidnapping, raping and murdering Drexel. He was sentenced to life in jail.