FBI Has Horrifying Theory on Missing Teen

Authorities believe Brittanee Drexel, 17, was raped and tossed into gator pit
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 30, 2016 6:56 PM CDT
Updated Aug 31, 2016 12:33 AM CDT
FBI: Missing Teen Raped, Tossed Into Gator PIt
The FBI believes Brittanee Drexel, who disappeared while vacationing in Myrtle Beach in 2009, was kidnapped, raped, and murdered before being dumped in an alligator pit.   (Myrtle Beach Police Department via AP)

The FBI believes Brittanee Drexel, a 17-year-old girl vacationing in South Carolina, was kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and dumped in a gator pit after disappearing from Myrtle Beach in 2009, USA Today reports. According to NBC New York, it's the first time the FBI has given its thoughts on what happened to Brittanee, whose body was never found. The FBI gave its account during a bond hearing for Timothy Taylor in connection to an unrelated armed robbery. A prison informant named Taquan Brown told authorities he saw Brittanee being "sexually abused" by a then-16-year-old Taylor in a "stash house" in McClellanville, the last place Brittanee's phone was tracked to. Brown said Brittanee was pistol-whipped and shot after attempting to escape.

Brown told the FBI he didn't see who shot Brittanee but believes it was Taylor's father, Shaun Taylor. He said Brittanee's body was wrapped up and dumped in an alligator pit. An FBI agent says her body was "eaten by the gators." No charges have been filed, and Joan Taylor—wife of Shaun and mother of Timothy—says it's all "craziness." Regardless, authorities are once again looking at the Taylor family in connection to two other crimes, the Post and Courier reports. Shaun Taylor was accused of trying to pull a 20-year-old woman into his van in 1997 in Myrtle Beach but had a successful alibi. His brother, Randall Taylor, was arrested on suspicion of raping and killing a 19-year-old woman in 1998, but charges were later dropped over a lack of evidence. (More missing woman stories.)

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