‘She was scared and I was scared’: Solicitor’s office releases Raymond Moody confession tape

GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - While addressing the court, Raymond Moody, the now-confessed killer of missing teen Brittanee Drexel, was emotional.

But during his on the record confession to investigators about his crimes, the registered sex offender was much more nonchalant, even cracking a few jokes.

Moody pled guilty to the kidnap, rape and murder of Drexel at a hearing in Georgetown County earlier this month.

READ MORE: Man pleads guilty to 2009 murder, kidnapping and rape of Brittanee Drexel

The confession video was taped a day after Moody had been arrested and charged with obstruction of justice in May 2022, 13 years after Drexel went missing.

Moody, alongside his lawyer and several investigators, details the fateful night in 2009 where Moody and his then girlfriend Angel Vause picked the 17-year-old up, asking her if she wanted to party.

He tells investigators he had no intentions of attacking Drexel as they headed to a campsite in the Georgetown area.

“We were just having a good time,” he said.

Then Vause left and the two of them were alone. Moody says he told the teen to take off her clothes, before assaulting her.

“I was scared, and she was scared,” Moody said.

When asked what caused things to go wrong, the 62-year-old replied, “nothing, it was just my mind.”

He says he panicked and strangled her before she had a chance to escape following the assault.

“I was all shook up because of what had happened,” he told investigators.

When his ex-girlfriend returned, he made up an excuse that Drexel had called her friends and suggested they not camp there for the night.

After not being able to sleep “a wink”, he returned to the crime scene, and buried her body in another location.

In his confession, he also says he got rid of his clothing and put hers in a donation box.

He also threw her phone into the river but did hold onto Drexel’s high school ID for a while, before getting rid of it too.

Moody served half of his sentence in a California prison for the rape of several children.

He was released in 2004 and records show that South Carolina law enforcement was searching for evidence that may have tied him to Drexel’s disappearance in early 2011, two years after she went missing.

He is currently housed at the Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia.

The South Carolina Department of Corrections says they will not grant an interview with Moody or any other inmate, out of respect for victims.

He will serve the rest of his life in custody.

Copyright 2022 WCSC. All rights reserved.