A South Carolina jury awarded $700 million to the New York household of a 17-year-old lady 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 buddies.
The jury concluded final month that Moody precipitated Drexel’s household emotional misery, and the award included $200 million in precise damages and $500 million in punitive damages, in accordance with county data and FOX 8 Greensboro.
“I’m at a loss for words,” Moody reportedly mentioned in courtroom, in accordance with FOX 8. “I mean, I just have so much regret. I’ve realized it doesn’t matter how sincere I am about how I feel about things I’ve done. It’s just not enough.”
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 position in Drexel’s kidnapping and homicide.
On April 25, 2009, Drexel left the seashore and the Bar Harbor Resort, the place she was staying, to satisfy 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.
Myrtle Seashore Police
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 offer her a trip again to her lodge, in accordance with the Justice Division. She stored her involvement and the main points of Drexel’s homicide a secret for 13 years till authorities discovered {the teenager}’s stays in 2022.
“For more than a decade, Brittanee’s loved ones were left to imagine the worst possible scenario in Brittanee’s disappearance while Vause withheld the truth,” U.S. Lawyer Adair Ford Boroughs of the District of South Carolina mentioned in a press release final month.
“We hope Brittanee’s loved ones can now have both the closure and a measure of justice that comes with this sentence. May she rest in peace knowing that her mother Dawn 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.
