FBI: Search over for Brittanee Drexel's remains in Georgetown County

GEORGETOWN COUTY, SC (WCSC) - FBI agents say that a search in Georgetown County related to the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel is over.

They announced Sunday they would not be returning to the property on Firefox Court.

On Friday, an attorney for missing teenager Brittanee Drexel says a search warrant was issued to search a property in Georgetown County where FBI and county authorities are on scene.

On Saturday, K-9 units were seen on Firefox Court searching the area.

In total, law enforcement officials spent three days searching. Law enforcement officials have not said what is going on, or more specifically what they are looking for.

"We're anxiously awaiting information," attorney Brad Conway, who represents Drexel's mother, Dawn, said.

Brittanee Drexel, from Rochester, New York, vanished during spring break on April 25, 2009. Authorities say the 17-year-old was headed back to the motel where she was staying but never made it there.

A man who lives in the area where authorities have blocked off the road briefly spoke to the media. He said law enforcement arrived Thursday, and that he had no problem leaving his home about an hour ago.

"They wouldn't talk to me about nothing, and being honest. I ain't seen nothing. They're in the road," said Willy Hemingway.

Multiple outlets are reporting the FBI and Myrtle Beach Police are part of the search.

Conway said the FBI notified Dawn Drexel of the search outside the Georgetown city limits.

FBI Agent Don Wood confirmed late Friday agents were involved in an "investigative activity" with their local partners in Georgetown County, but would not confirm that the activity is related to the Drexel case.

Wood told WMBF News in Myrtle Beach those law enforcement partners include the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office. The search headed up by the FBI began Friday morning.

Myrtle Beach Police Lt. Joey Crosby also confirmed they have officers involved in the search as well.

It is the latest in a long string of efforts to find the missing teen.

In July 2016, Myrtle Beach Police said they were looking into the possibility Drexel was the victim of human trafficking.

But the FBI said they have evidence Drexel was held against her will in three places, Georgetown, McClellanville and North Charleston.

McClellanville is the location where investigators say her cell phone pinged on a cell tower.

"Forensic evidence from text messages, from cellphones, all kinds of information that we've evaluated," Myrtle Beach police spokesman Lt. Joey Crosby said last June. "The information that we have, that we've obtained through the course of this investigation, we do feel like she is deceased."

Then in August, new information from a federal court hearing for an unrelated case suggested Drexel was kidnapped, gang-raped, shot and then fed to alligators, according to an FBI agent.

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