Missing Brittanee Drexel raped, shot dead & eaten by alligators, prisoner claims
A teenager missing in the US was reportedly raped and shot dead before her body was fed to alligators in South Carolina, according to a "jailhouse confession".
A federal court transcript obtained by The Post and Courier quotes FBI Agent Gerrick Munoz who testified that the information was obtained through "jailhouse confession" which was corroborated with other "second-hand information".
Taquan Brown, who is serving a 25-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter in an unrelated case, has told the FBI he saw missing Myrtle Beach teen Brittanee Drexel in her final moments as she was held prisoner at a "stash house".
Brown claims he went to the McClellanville home, the town where the FBI says Drexel's mobile phone was last traced when she went missing in 2009, and saw the 17-year-old being sexually abused by a man later identified by Fox News as Da'Shaun Taylor.
The inmate says he saw Drexel try to escape before being pistol whipped and carried back inside the home. Brown says he then heard two shots and saw Drexel's body being removed from the house.
The New York teen's body has never been found.
The FBI fears the 17-year-old's body was dumped in a McClellanville alligator pond.
Ms Drexel was last seen leaving the Bluewater Hotel in Myrtle Beach where she went for Spring Break without her parents' permission.
There are claims Ms Drexel was "lured away" from her friends and became part of a human trafficking "situation", according to the FBI.
But given the intense spotlight on the case and the extent of media coverage, it is believed Ms Drexel was "disposed of".
The family of Da'Shaun Taylor have labelled inmate Brown's claims as "crazy". Taylor, who served time in a South Carolina jail for being a getaway driver in a McDonalds armed hold up, is currently out on $10,000 bail.
Prosecutors in the case are now trying to bring federal charges against Taylor, but so far, no charges have been laid.
News break – August 28
