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foreign [Music] foreign [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host
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Nick and with me as always is a man that is very much the Danny Elfman of the True Crime garage ladies and gentlemen
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he is the captain I prefer Hans Zimmerman because he's a little dodgy it's good to be seen and it's good to
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see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend [Music] this week from the garage fridge we have
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kiwi Peach sour liner from the good people at Firehouse Brewery in one of my absolute favorite cities Charleston
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South Carolina everyone should go to Charleston shout out to the Lee Brothers Matt and Ted kiwi Peach sour liner
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garage grade three and a half bottle caps out of five kiwi Peach sour liner is you guessed it a sour ale now I do
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not like sours but plenty of people do so I thought at some point we should feature one on the show and this is a
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good one now I'm all about you man well not all about you I did have to rely on friends to come up with the garage grade
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this week so three and a half bottle caps out of five and kiwi Peach sour liner was brought to us by our good
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friends first up we have Trey and Anna newlyweds in Atlanta and from Down Under we have a big cheers to Ozzy Matt cheers
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mate next up we have a long distance cheers to Emma in Melbourne Australia and a big cheers to Emma and Sydney as
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well and last but not least a big shout out to Karen Ann in McLean Virginia and thanks everybody for filling up the
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fridge for this week's show if you want to help us out with next week's show go to True Crime garage.com and click on
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episode one to now they're all free on the Stitcher app all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer
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let's talk some true crime foreign [Music] spring break week who does not love spring break it's a beloved rite of
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passage for teens and college age guys and girls a week to blow off some steam and have a little fun away from the
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pressures of parents in school maybe take an adventure to a beach or a party town for drinking loud music and dancing
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one big party a great place to go for spring break is Myrtle Beach of course Myrtle Beach South Carolina this is one
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of the most popular spring break destinations because of its beautiful beaches great weather Great bars and
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clubs millions of tourists and vacationers go to Myrtle Beach each year the population is only about 30 000
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people so the influx during the peak parts of the Year especially spring break is vast most 17 year olds would
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jump at the chance to spend spring break in Myrtle Beach with friends and that is
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apparently just what Brittany Drexel did she took off with a group of girls to the South Carolina Party Town
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850 miles from home and within three days she became an endangered missing person
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[Music] let's talk about Brittany Drexel Brittany was a star soccer player at her
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High School in Rochester New York where she was a junior she was five foot tall and about a hundred pounds so she is a
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small girl but one of her best friends Casey said that she was a force to be reckoned with on the soccer field
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Brittany also had modeling Ambitions and was also studying cosmetology she loved
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to experiment with hair makeup and clothes and she was very particular about her appearance now looking into
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this case we've both seen pictures of her with different hairstyles and different colors
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one thing about Brittany was that she was blind in her right eye this is due to phpv and she wore contacts that made
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both eyes well for lack of better explanation by myself looked the same you know kept one eye from wandering
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when spring break started in April of 2009 Brittany was a junior at Gates Chile High School in Rochester Brittany
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was at a sort of a difficult place in her personal life for one thing her mother Dawn was in the midst of a of
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getting a divorce from her stepfather Chad Brittany was very close with her stepfather and he had been married to
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Brittany's mom for quite a while her mother's house where Brittany lived with her younger siblings this is Marissa and
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Camden well the house was under foreclosure and the family was going to have to move Britney's relationship with
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her longtime boyfriend John Greco was also in turmoil and was on again off again Brittany had recently been
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diagnosed with depression and started taking antidepressants also around this time we're talking 2008 2009 there is
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some indication that Britney had recently exhibited some unstable Behavior Chad Drexel The Stepfather
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said that she had been sleeping late and skipping school and investigation discovery well they reported that she
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had actually overdosed on painkillers although there are no reports that she was
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suicidal and her family and friends flat out denied that she would run away or want to hurt herself
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so we later learned that Britney planned to go on spring break with her friends and she desperately wanted to go however
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Captain well there was a big problem with Britney's plan right yes she wasn't she had permission from
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her parents to go that's right Brittany had been bugging her mother for weeks about the spring break trip uh because
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but her mom Dawn refused to Let Her Go apparently spring break in Myrtle Beach uh was some sort of senior class
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Tradition at her high school and on this particular Year's spring break April of
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2009 there were a bunch of kids from Rochester going so Brittany as we said was just a junior you know this is a
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senior tradition her mother did not know this group of older girls that Brittany
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wanted to travel with but a lot of times when you're a junior you have a lot of senior friends so you want to experience
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some of the senioritis with them well her mother Dawn was not comfortable with her 17
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year old daughter being so far from home unsupervised hanging out partying like most parents would Don said no
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the two fought about this it was a shouting match but Dawn stood her ground Chad Drexel backed up his wife
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Brittany was upset about this and she would ask John to drive her to a friend's house so on Wednesday night
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this is April 22nd Brittany took off with her friends to South Carolina anyway this of course without telling
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her parents in fact she and her friends came up with a ruse to throw her mother off Brittany called home and asked her
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mom if instead she could spend a few days at a friend's house nearby in Rochester
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one of Britney's friends got on the phone with Dawn and Dawn thought that she was talking to a parent
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after being reassured that Brittany was going to stay local and to stay with local friends uh and parents would be
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present Dawn told Brittany yes you can stay at your friend's house for a few days but of course we now know this was
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not apparent and Brittany wasn't staying local she actually hopped in a car with
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some girlfriends and went to Myrtle Beach and that's Wednesday you said correct while in Myrtle Beach Brittany kept up
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the ruse with her mom texting daily and even spoke on the phone with her at least once that we know of and Brittany
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never let on that she was actually in South Carolina hundreds of miles from home instead she told her mom that she
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and her friends were watching movies and hanging out someone else Brittany was in constant
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contact with was her boyfriend John Greco so John was aware that Brittany was going on this trip and that she had
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told um him that she needed to get away right she needed a break from the regular uh
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everyday life remember we said her parents are splitting up and might be losing the home so a lot of stress is at
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home and you're going into your senior year so yeah it's almost seems like it would
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make a little more sense in her life and maybe she wouldn't struggle with it so much once she graduated high school but
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the fact that it's gone into her senior year her you know we're gonna have to move my parents aren't together anymore
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that's a lot to you know take on going into your senior year and I want to be clear here because we're gonna you know
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we're gonna have some people say well you're talking about her mother and her stepfather splitting up but I want to
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point out the obvious here is that her stepfather's name is Chad Drexel Britney's name is Brittany Drexel she
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was very right but I'm Point what I'm pointing out is that this is not a this is more of a father-daughter
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relationship than a stepfather daughter relationship with that just to be clear on this good for him for stepping up
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well and I want to point that out because there's there would be more heartache for young Brittany in this
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matter than a typical you know my mom's getting a door divorce from my stepfather situation so
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John her boyfriend is aware that Britney's going on this trip uh as we said but and he's not concerned about
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her going he just thought this was a short trip and she was actually checking in with him regularly
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he says that she asked him to go along with her to South Carolina but he could not because he had to work later John
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says that he did not know um because Brittany never told him about all of the people she was hanging out
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with down in Myrtle Beach and of course not well in later he adds you know and I
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think this shows a bit of his honesty um he's he's he adds saying look I would not have been happy if I would have
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known who she was hanging out with and how much she was hanging out with these other people and I we can assume that
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she he's talking about guys right right um you know he says had I known this I would have been pretty upset with her
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Brittany and her friends arrived in Myrtle Beach on Thursday April 23rd we know the names of some of the people
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that Brittany was with all of these people were over 18 years old the girl she traveled to Myrtle Beach with and
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stayed with were Alana lippa and Jennifer oberer the girls also either traveled with or met up with a group of
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guys from Rochester this is including Phil oberer okay so he is Jennifer's brother but also Alana's boyfriend
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and then we have this other guy and his name's very tough for me to say it's it's
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ugger ozturk that can't be I think I got pretty close on the Oz Turks right um this is Jennifer's boyfriend
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there are some other guys there as well all of these people were older than Britney the girls stayed at the bar
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Harbor Hotel on North Ocean Boulevard this is right off of the main drag the night the girl that night that
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Thursday night the girls decided to hit a club this is called Club Kryptonite and it is downtown Myrtle Beach
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now we don't know how Brittany would get into this club right um even if it was one of those clubs
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that would let in 18 and up she's not 18. but we do know that she was there and while there she was seen with a guy from
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Rochester that she knew apparently she knew this guy and his name is this is Peter brozowitz
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now Peter was with four friends of his this sounds like an evil character in a in a book yeah uh in the four friends of
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his this is Keith Cummings Phil Watson Matt Abrams and Anthony schmizzy I like Schmidt here I have thought oh Smithy I
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shouldn't say this but when I was doing the uh you know because I know we're diving
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right into this case and people are like oh here Nick goes with one of his dumb dinosaur brain comments uh when I was
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studying this I thought man if my name were Anthony schmizzy how things would have been different for me yeah first
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off I would have been somebody I would have been riding the Tony schmizzy train for a long time I would have went Tony
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schmizzy yo my name is Tony smooshy and by the time I got to high school and people realized how cool I was I would
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just be the schmizzy you know I'm Tony schmizzy I put too much thought into this but here's a
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little sauce on it so these guys were staying at a different Hotel they were staying at a place called the Blue Water
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Resort the friends of Peter later told police that they did not know Brittany prior to
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being at that club that night with her and we're not even sure how Brittany knew Peter because Peter was 20 years
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old he's he uh was a quote unquote club promoter right that's what he called himself in social media post from
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various stating that he did that for various clubs in the Rochester area which think about this think about how much
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this doesn't make sense you're a club promoter and you're 20 years old and I'm sure there's a lot of teenage clubs but
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not that many because they don't make that much money you need people drinking in bars so your Club promoters are
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normally above the age of 20. right and let's also be real about this though too
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some of these Club promoters it's not a real job right you know sometimes it's just a guy or girl that's that's a
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partier with some kind of social following who will then you know the club may not even pay this
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individual yeah Peter's very um you know GTL gym tan laundry for those who don't
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know and uh you know he's going to get his eyebrows waxed he's going to get his hairline tight but also throw in the
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faux hawk um this guy's a very Jersey Shore yeah and like I said it may not even be
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paid by these clubs that he's supposedly promoting sometimes they just let these
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individuals in for free and maybe feed him some booze throughout the night to keep him there right but he's the party
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going he's 20 so they're feeding him some fruit punch uh word is that during the day Peter
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ran or was somehow involved with a landscaping business now Peter has said that he and Brittany were friends for
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about two years leading up to this point in any event Brittany definitely knew him beforehand right it's possible that
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maybe he got her into Club Kryptonite where the two of them were seen in the VIP area yeah now let's be clear I I
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think when when they asked Peter if they were friends I think he's saying yes but Loosely if
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that makes any sense I think they're probably more acquaintances but they're not in constant contact with one another
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I think he's actually saying hey I'm I was friends with her out of respect for the fact that she's missing I just want
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to put out that's my gut feeling okay well I think this is probably a good time to discuss what exactly Britney was
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doing there and I what I mean is why this crowd of people you know by all accounts the girl she was traveling with
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Alana and uh Jennifer they were older we know that and they were not close friends of Britney's right Brittany's
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best friend uh Casey and Tara uh were her High School best friends and her boyfriend John none of these people went
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along on this Myrtle Beach trip but you know how sometimes it works in high school you kind of jump into another
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group for a little bit that kind of happens throughout your four years and in high school well here's the thing I
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wonder about um Alana and Jennifer had boyfriends who were on this trip with them it's it's it
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seems a little strange to me that they stayed in separate um rooms or separate hotels
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um the other thing too is though you have to wonder is this just a situation where Brittany could not get her her
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boyfriend John to go with her and then she's the odd man out but we never have at any point John saying like hey Abbott
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was best friends with uh Peter or anybody well not not Peter I mean uh Alana and Jennifer's boyfriends all
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right right um which he may have known from school and then so we have Brittany Who Lies she's she sneaks away with her
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friends well with people and couples that she reportedly did not know very well who were in an older party crowd
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okay uh so did Brittany just want to hang out with older kids and maybe experience the party scene well this
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could have been happening a couple weeks prior to because with all the stuff going on with her family she might have
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been you know so you see that sometimes I remember a lot of high school parties where somebody drank too much they
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normally wouldn't drink that much but they just broke up with their boyfriend or their girlfriend or their parents are
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going to get a divorce so they were you know drinking a little bit extra at the party so maybe that's what she's
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doing well there are some theories out there that Brittany wanted to potentially boost some kind of possible
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modeling career uh this being one of her Ambitions and perhaps she's five foot tall
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okay well I'm just saying that that cuts down a lot of the jobs that you can have as a as a oh no I agree with that
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but the you know there are still people that play high school basketball that are never going to play in the NBA
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um it's one of her Ambitions and the way this Theory goes is that perhaps that she felt that she would have a chance on
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this trip to make some kind of impression on someone and I and I bring that up because her mother backs this
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thought up her mother believes this Theory somewhat and thinks that it's possible that Britney was even promised
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by someone that there was an opportunity for her in Myrtle Beach one it could have been I mean who knows where it came
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from it because it just came from the internet you know Craigslist hey sign up to be a model
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um you know it's actually you know doing porno behind the McDonald's but there there is a possibility and I don't
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want to make fun of Peter too much like I said normally Club promoters are 21 at
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least so they can get into the club but um I was actually a friends with a guy that was I think 19 and started being a
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club promoter in Athens Ohio and was actually really successful and had a lot of connections so
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it's possible that that Peter was the connection you know here's acquaintance I have I went to a couple parties that
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he threw and he knows some people that I could get into and it might not be like
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you know a lot of these Club promoters they need very pretty girls to take pictures of to photoshop into these you
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know flyers and stuff so it could have been something as simple as that but that's intriguing and I'll tell you why
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because I could see a 17 year old girl or guy looking up to this 20 year old guy or
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girl you know a 17 year old looking up to a 20 year old and this person who is a quote unquote a club promoter right
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might appear to her to have connections or to know people you know what I mean to be connected to uh higher ups or at
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least uh at some degree while he handles himself a little bit I think I mean not every action but you
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know there's a couple times where you see him and just the way he dresses and it's like he's you know he's Crossing
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his T's and dotting his eyes well this leads me to another theory and this theory is that Brittany had a crush
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on Peter you know if we know that they knew according to Peter's own words they knew each other for about two years up
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to this point up to this Myrtle Beach trip and that maybe she had some kind of crush on Peter and knew that he would be
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in Myrtle Beach and therefore went along with people that she wasn't that close to but what about Greco kind of tagged
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along she just forgot about griko back home with this this is just a theory there's
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no there's no evidence to point to this but we're trying to figure out why she would go with people that she doesn't
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really know there's by all accounts by all of her friends by the people that she went to school with people after she
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went missing would later say look she's not like super tight with these people we didn't even know she hung out with
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these people right well Peter was fresh to death so I mean she could add a crush on him
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he's a he he was a handsome guy I think that you know we should point out all of these things are they're just
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speculation of course uh we don't know at all what motivated Brittany to go along on this trip it could just be
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something as simple as it sounded like fun um but it is worth noting that she was
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not good friends with her travel companions despite several pictures that the group posted of them partying
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together on that trip foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] cheers mates cheers cheers to all the fathers out
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there I know we're a little late but uh Happy Father's Day hope everybody had a great safe wonderful weekend
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now back to our case captain on the second day of the trip we are now on Friday and this is April 24th now in all
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honesty Captain I do not know much about what happened that day but what I do know and this is from Brittany's
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conversations with her boyfriend I know that Brittany had been having fun at first on the trip but now by this Friday
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it appears that she is not getting along very well with the girls that she had traveled down to Myrtle Beach with
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John Greco her boyfriend later says that the crowd she was hanging with was pretty into drugs in his opinion and
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that was not Britney's thing we know that she was spending time um some time alone and at one point on
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Friday night she was walking along the main strip of Ocean Boulevard downtown Myrtle Beach by herself now I'm looking
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back at my life captain and I'm trying to recall a time of having gone on a vacation with a group of friends and
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not having a great time and deciding to just kind of go off by myself and I nothing really jumped out at me it it's
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it seems you know because I was trying to figure out is this either a normal behavior for her or B
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normal behavior given the situation how most people would react um and we can't say like I said I don't
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know that I know enough to say exactly what was going on that day but from what I've been told from talking with friends
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of mine is that this seems to be an unusual behavior for a girl for a 17 year old girl I've been told that you
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know especially on these types of trips spring break you know trips people would
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girls would travel in packs um I've even been told that it was like an Unwritten rule that that a girl that
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age shouldn't just go off by herself uh away from her group that she's traveling
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with right and most friends are you know if you're going down to the local corner
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store or something oh that's not that far but if you're gonna I'm just gonna walk this trip somebody's going to go
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with you but the you know key word there is when you're traveling with friends and these were more acquaintances so I
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think probably what happened was something happened where Brittany kind of felt distant from the group she felt
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like the outsider and I think maybe it was her way of just you know catching some cat you know let me catch my breath
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and then get back into this situation yeah and actually I could only think of one time where friend and I got into
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some kind of disagreement on a trip to the point where we didn't want to be around each other we had we had walked
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to some kind of pool hall hung out there all night long and I don't remember what
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we got into it about but but this is the difference between traveling with friends and traveling with acquaintances
00:26:46
he and I get into this disagreement and on the walk home this was our separation I walked on one
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side of the street he walked on the other side of the street so that was that but we but we were tight you know
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we wouldn't go we wouldn't be in a in a different state off by ourselves walking
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around and just one of us go elsewhere and I'm talking about teenagers you know back when I was a teenager and I think
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you bring up a good point here this might be further confirmation that the people she's traveling with she's not
00:27:14
tight with these people and she doesn't she feels so much of a disconnect with them that if they're treating her
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unfairly or if she doesn't feel like she's fitting in or having a good time she's okay with going out and walking
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around on her own it also shows a bit of her uh naivete right to be out walking around in a place like Myrtle Beach
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that look this place has like 30 000 people that live there year round at the time roughly you know it's not a huge
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population but you and I went to Panama City uh or Panama Beach together for spring break one time but but what I
00:27:52
mean is it's population wise and the the tourism there is a similar situation to
00:27:57
when you and I went there it it felt like there was like over a hundred thousand people there and not that many
00:28:03
people lived there but for that week it was crawling with people well that's what makes this so dangerous because if
00:28:09
you only have a population of 30 000 in this small community and then you have an influx of let's say just even seventy
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thousand right that's huge probably even more so now what kind of Riff Raff is coming you don't know and but to play
00:28:25
Devil's Advocate I actually had a really good friend of mine that went on a spring break trip with one of his really
00:28:31
good buddies and they got an argument and the dude left him there like the dude at home got in his car and took off
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we got wait guy was left there with no transport like the transportation he arrived in was no longer available when
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it came time to go home right and we're talking like best friends so it is possible
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yeah not no moan my feelings but I think but I think I I really think it was you
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know you know especially anybody that's younger like it happens with guys it happens with groups of girls where you
00:29:04
start kind of picking on somebody and I could see that maybe they would pick on her because she was younger and she felt
00:29:09
alienated so she was like hey I'm just going to spend a little time by myself and maybe these girls will come around
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and then on the flip side of that it almost makes you wonder why did these girls want her on the trip to begin with
00:29:21
right I mean we we sit here speculating how much Brittany was close with these people why why do they just want some
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younger tag along yeah but is it possible that they just said it you know in passing hey yeah come come with us
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and then it stuck and then they're like oh [ __ ] she's not coming with us well and I think I think to add to maybe the
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level of the situation to help everybody understand the level of the possibility
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of the situation of not getting along with the other girls or not the group not gelling uh is Don Drexel Brittany's
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mother who said that Britney did not walk places period like even in her hometown she did not walk anywhere that
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Dawn would have to drive her everywhere that she went even to for short trips like to her friend's house who just
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lived down the street so all of this walking from place to place alone that we're starting to see at this you know
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Friday evening Friday night is completely out of character for Britain any of those time towns like Myrtle
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Beach or like Panama there's a strip everybody kind of hangs out on this trip whether they're driving or walking
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that's kind of a party in itself you got the party on the beach partying the hotel rooms but you got the party on the
00:30:35
Strip so I don't know so she's wonking alone on this Friday evening wonking what you said I think
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you said wonking yeah oh wonking she's walking alone on this Friday evening uh and she's getting harassed and cat
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called um by some guys along the route that she's making her way apparently this
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made her feel uncomfortable enough that she asked a quote-unquote nice looking young man to walk with her this is
00:31:07
according to him this is a story that we will hear from him later now we know that she and this guy who was also on
00:31:14
spring break visiting from a from the Midwest spent some time together in one of their hotel rooms he took a cell
00:31:22
phone video of her in which she can be seen sitting on the bed wearing a yellow shirt she's on her phone talking and
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smiling now the video is time stamped 10 36 p.m on April 24 2009. the young man who took
00:31:40
the video brought it to law enforcement once he discovered that Britney had gone
00:31:46
missing its existence was not disclosed publicly until about a year later but the guy has apparently been cleared by
00:31:55
police of any involvement and what could have happened to Brittany well good good
00:32:00
for him for coming forward and sharing this information with the law enforcement on Saturday April 25th we
00:32:06
know from the police report that Brittany met Peter and his four friends on the beach near the Blue Water Resort
00:32:13
now keep in mind this is where those guys were staying this is between 11 a.m and noon on that Saturday and she walked
00:32:21
by herself to this Gathering I'm assuming so because she was there by herself we know that
00:32:29
Britney was not enjoying the company of the girls that she was staying with so but at the same time Peter could have
00:32:36
picked her up mean mean little [ __ ] because those guys did have a vehicle right so this could have been an
00:32:42
arranged hangout and he could have picked her up or one of the guys could have picked her up using their vehicle
00:32:48
yeah but it could have been as simple as you're hanging out on the beach you get
00:32:52
a text hey what are you guys doing we're hanging on the beach hey I'll come down
00:32:55
and you go okay you know like you're not gonna get up from the beach to go pick her up you know there was a there is a
00:33:03
rumor out there too that Britney um Not only was she not getting along with these other girls but she may have
00:33:09
been the target of pranks or bullying by the other girls uh I found one story stating that she was sitting or lying on
00:33:19
a Murphy bed that was uh I guess that was her bed in the hotel room that they were sharing and one of the girls pushed
00:33:27
the button to Stow the bed so you know like went up on Brittany almost smashing her against the wall yeah um so like I
00:33:35
said mean little [ __ ] we know that she knows Peter and now she has met Peter's friends and so it kind of makes
00:33:43
sense if this is what's going on that she would seek out different companions to hang out with during the course of
00:33:50
the remainder of this trip now she met Peter and the guys at the beach that note right there in my notes would lead
00:33:56
me to believe that she made her own way there uh it's believed that Brittany at some point that day must have got a ride
00:34:04
from Peter perhaps back to the hotel though which is a 1.4 miles away down Ocean Boulevard strip well like I said
00:34:13
you would have to visit one of these places to understand what this strip is I mean
00:34:18
I don't know if you remember but when we're in Panama I think that was your senior year and my junior year
00:34:27
if I remember correctly or maybe it was your junior year my sophomore year who knows
00:34:32
but but I just remember the strip being so congested that to drive 1.4 miles you
00:34:38
might as well just walk so yeah uh it would take like 45 1.4 miles might take you 45 minutes an hour
00:34:46
right so maybe one of the guys walked her back or or maybe they were walking to get something to eat and they just
00:34:52
you know she followed along until she got close enough to her hotel I mean 1.4 miles is not a long way to walk well I
00:35:01
say that I believe that she received a ride from Peter at some point because we know that she left her flip-flops in his
00:35:09
car so I'm assuming going off of my notes that she met them there at the beach and maybe got a ride back to her
00:35:17
her hotel right so around 2 p.m that afternoon Brittany's mother Dawn Drexel called her about purchasing a pair of
00:35:25
soccer cleats the call was brief but when Dawn asked Brittany what she was up to Brittany said that she was at the
00:35:32
beach now because it was 80 degrees in Rochester New York that day Don assumed that she was talking about Charlotte
00:35:40
beach in Rochester right Brittany didn't take the opportunity to tell her mother
00:35:45
the truth but here's the thing I have to wonder here captain with her volunteering that she was at
00:35:52
the beach um was it a slip well I almost wonder if if she's having that bad of a time that
00:35:59
she's almost was was getting close to telling her mother the truth right I'm at the beach and and when not prompted
00:36:06
when the mom just thought oh she means some local Beach here she's not prompted to go you know you almost expect your
00:36:12
mom to go what the hell are you talking about you're at the beach and that's when you're like uh I didn't want to
00:36:17
tell you but you know I'm here I'm having a horrible time I hate these people this really sounds like something that
00:36:23
Ohio people would think I actually think she probably just was like everybody's at the beach right now back home so
00:36:31
that's what I think it was but but again she is having a bad time so I could see
00:36:36
the speculation there yeah and Brittany I guess ended the phone call by saying I love you and see
00:36:43
you tomorrow okay let me just do a rough recap or we can do it together so on Wednesday they get in a car she's with
00:36:51
some people that are not technically her friends but acquaintances they go down to Myrtle Beach they get there on that
00:36:58
Thursday they're hanging out with people they're partying they go to a club and then on Friday she's hanging out with
00:37:05
roughly the same people they're staying in a she's staying a hotel with a group of girls that she
00:37:11
Loosely knows and then there's a group of guys that she Loosely knows as well in a different hotel and that kind of
00:37:18
brings us to Saturday morning when she makes the phone call or the afternoon when she makes a phone call to her
00:37:24
mother yeah her mom called her about a pair of cleats and that's when she says I'm at
00:37:30
the beach uh on that Saturday night at 8 15 p.m this is April 25th street cameras show
00:37:39
someone and I want to be clear about that show someone who is believed to be Brittany walking on Ocean Boulevard we
00:37:46
can't tell which direction she is heading but we know that she left her hotel she being we know Brittany left
00:37:54
her hotel at the bar harbor around 8 p.m and that she arrived at the entrance to
00:38:00
the Blue Water Resort a short time later we also know back to seeing the boys correct we also know that it is a 1.4
00:38:10
mile walk and Brittany did not have a car so we can only assume that it is her that was spotted we can assume that she
00:38:17
walked to this hotel despite her not liking to walk places the street cam shows her texting on her phone as she
00:38:26
walks which as we we all know can mean that she's not really paying attention to her surroundings at time at this time
00:38:35
this area of the main strip is basically a road running between the large hotels
00:38:40
and resorts all along Ocean Boulevard police later confirmed that she had been Brittany had been texting her boyfriend
00:38:48
as well as Peter whose Hotel she was heading to sure enough Blue Water Resort cameras caught Brittany entering the
00:38:58
lobby at approximately 8 35 PM with her purse over her shoulder note however that the actual videos are are time
00:39:08
stamped they have a different time uh there seems to be a common discrepancy between recorded times and you know on
00:39:17
the surveillance videos in the actual time almost every case we cover have you noticed that that happens if you're
00:39:23
going to have time right but if you're going to have security cameras just make sure that you set the time right okay
00:39:28
just do that well can I tell you why that happens at most of these places uh for and I know this from from work
00:39:35
history this happens because a lot of times places will install security cameras and they will take certain
00:39:41
security measures but they will not have anyone that is in fact in charge of security you need you need a point
00:39:48
person you need somebody you can go to and say why is this this way correct it so obviously either this person they had
00:39:56
one and they did a shoddy job or they didn't have this person at all so we do see Brittany walking into the blue water
00:40:03
hotel the resort there in any event regardless of what the time stamp says Myrtle Beach PD believes that Britney
00:40:12
entered the blue water at around 8 35 p.m so about 20 minutes after she passed the street cam yeah Brittany enters to
00:40:23
her right and goes to the sixth floor this is where Peter and his friends are staying the boys are in room
00:40:30
601 now they said that that night they were watching the Boston Red Sox versus the New York Yankees game so big time
00:40:39
baseball game the game started at 4 P.M and it ended at 8 31 PM they stated to Myrtle Beach police that Brittany
00:40:48
visited during the actual baseball game although they would be proven wrong or to be at least slightly off on their
00:40:56
timing because we know from the camera footage she did not arrive until after the game was over just minutes just a
00:41:03
few minutes after the game so we can surmise that Britney came to Peter's Room to retrieve the flip-flops that she
00:41:11
had left in his car she is visible on camera leaving the blue water at 8 48 PM still with her
00:41:19
purse yeah so she's in their hotel room for maybe 10 minutes yeah so why would Brittany walk that far to Peter's hotel
00:41:27
which would likely take probably 25 or 30 minutes only to stay for 10 minutes well the answer is according to Peter
00:41:36
and his friends this is cited in the police report that Brittany and Jennifer her hotel mate and supposed friend had
00:41:47
been having a disagreement over text about a pair of shorts that Brittany was wearing the shorts actually belonged to
00:41:54
Jennifer and she wanted them back she wanted to wear them that night so she needed Brittany to return and give her
00:42:02
back her article of clothing yeah that's this really makes me wonder because did Brandon he take these without your
00:42:12
permission or did you say that she could wear them and then you decided to be an
00:42:16
Uber [ __ ] and text her once she got down you know once she started walking to Peter's Place hey
00:42:22
I changed my mind I want my shorts back well because they're playing pranks on her they're bullying her this just seems
00:42:28
like you know some kind of rouge you know to get her back regardless the according to these friends these young
00:42:35
men the group of young men right uh Brittany had to leave and walk back to the bar Harbor to return the shorts
00:42:42
there is quite a bit of debate as to why this group of guys at the Blue Water Resort allowed this teenage girl to
00:42:50
leave their hotel and walk nearly a mile and a half almost at 9 00 pm at night all by herself
00:42:59
Peter says that it wasn't Dark Yet at that time according to his memory and he offered he claims he offered Brittany a
00:43:07
ride which she declined according to what her mother believes of her daughter would seem out of character
00:43:14
for her daughter unless there was something going on that we're unaware of yeah but here's what we do know we do
00:43:20
know we have proof that she walked to their hotel room or to meet them multiple times we also
00:43:27
have proof that Peter drove her back at some point so we should not not believe that Peter asked her hey do you want me
00:43:34
to drive you back and we do know she left there fine you know she left there uh visibly with the items that she brought
00:43:41
to the hotel she's leaving there 10 minutes later in an interview with Dr Phil Peter who's that uh he's he's a guy that
00:43:50
claims to be a um doctor doctor and he's a TV Doctor he's a thief yeah just like
00:43:57
you're a garage Captain yeah I don't need it I don't need to put my head up his ass to find out he's not a doctor in
00:44:04
an interview with Dr Phil Peter who let's just to put it as simple as possible he comes across as a total
00:44:12
douche canoe in this this interview he says we differ on that but well that's my opinion and I'll tell you why uh he
00:44:20
says quote this is a direct quote I I wasn't in Myrtle Beach to babysit which seems look here's the thing I'm
00:44:29
not saying he's a douche canoe in the sense that I wonder if he's covering something up he could be he could be
00:44:35
what I mean is I think there's better ways to deliver your words when you're on national TV and you're discussing The
00:44:43
Disappearance impossible murder of a young girl yeah I think the problem though is his emotions were way
00:44:50
out of whack he's still 20 years old this happened weeks after she went missing and his his emotions were just
00:44:58
way out of control I think this guy knows how to talk to people I think he knows how to be slick if he wants to be
00:45:03
I don't think he could be uh on this show because I think he was just so irritated about his name being thrown
00:45:11
under the bus and and really everybody kind of pointed to here's this guy and he's the number one suspect when there
00:45:18
was no evidence of that at all and I think that's where he comes across maybe a little douchey because he's upset he's
00:45:27
angry and yet she's in his defense she's seen leaving perfectly fine he offered her a ride
00:45:34
perfectly according to him he offers a ride so so Britney leaves the blue water at 8 48. when we see her in the video
00:45:42
she is still holding her purse it is hard to tell whether she it's totally dark outside because the entrance area
00:45:49
to this Resort is illuminated by exterior lights well like I said the this strip is lit up man not only with
00:45:59
the street lights but with the thousands of cars that are on the Strip as Britney
00:46:05
walked presumably a long Ocean Boulevard in the direction of the Bar Harbor she was also texting her boyfriend in one of
00:46:13
those texts he said he has said she told him how she was so miserable she had already packed up and she was ready to
00:46:23
leave for home he encouraged her the boyfriend encouraged her to try to have a good time she told him she was going
00:46:31
to chill in the hotel and go to bed I would have said f off hey I know you had an awful time but try to have a good
00:46:41
time F off man the last text from her was at 8 58 pm after this text John wouldn't get another reply from Brittany
00:46:52
he continued to text her but got no response he even threatened via text that if she didn't answer him
00:47:00
he'd call her parents and tell them what was really going on then then oh this is two things one he
00:47:07
is obviously concerned as her boyfriend but this is also um you know jealousy then police later
00:47:15
confirmed Brittany had not been picked up by the street cam so to be clear she was not seen by the street camera that
00:47:24
she would have passed would have had passed by to return to her hotel did her hotel have security footage I don't
00:47:33
believe so yeah so you know just because we don't have her on the street cam does not mean
00:47:39
that she didn't kind of avert the street can right but what it does mean is that it's possible
00:47:48
that she did not make it back to that location okay so presumably if that was her on the street Cam that was seen
00:47:57
walking from her hotel to Peter's hotel which it seems incredibly likely because
00:48:02
we know what time she would left her hotel what time she arrived at Peter's hotel we know about how long it would
00:48:09
have taken her to make that route by foot and we know what she was wearing we also have her texting we have her phone
00:48:16
records from that time where she's seen texting there's the person on camera seen texting and we know she was sending
00:48:24
texts at that time so if she were to take the the same route back to her hotel on foot she didn't make it back to
00:48:33
that same location of that street camera so about an hour after John Greco after he's not receiving any any word
00:48:42
from Brittany and he's already threatened to call her parents and still nothing now he calls Don Drexel to tell
00:48:49
her that he couldn't get a hold of Brittany and he was very concerned like many teens Brittany was generally
00:48:56
glued to her pink cell phone we can only imagine how upset Dawn must have been to learn that her daughter had
00:49:05
lied to her in a very in a very big way for days John says Dawn was initially very angry
00:49:13
but then became worried after the information set in I believe it's roughly like a 14-hour drive so I mean
00:49:22
this is a you know it's one thing you're if your kid lied to you in in their hour
00:49:26
away or two hours away but to be roughly about 14 hours away that's I mean it definitely as a parent you you can't
00:49:34
correct the situation right now or within an hour of driving well the two Brittany's boyfriend and her mother they
00:49:41
are going to try to track her down so her mom and John called Brittany's phone over and over and over again now
00:49:49
according to them the phone would ring on their end but no one ever answered so her mother even tried calling both
00:49:57
Alana and Jennifer that night but she has said that neither of them answered her call even after she left voicemails
00:50:06
for both of these girls uh a couple things here you have to wonder about these girls at this point right why why
00:50:14
wouldn't they answer well why wouldn't they answer or return the Frantic late night calls from Britney's mother if
00:50:20
they're if they're sober and awake well but yeah but even if they're drunk they're on their phone texting you get a
00:50:27
random number from your hometown you probably would check the message you know yeah maybe you don't want to get
00:50:34
Brittany in trouble but uh you know this is a frantic mother you need to you know
00:50:39
act responsible according to Don Drexel none of these girls has ever at any time
00:50:45
reached out to Brittany's family in any way Don did manage to make phone contact
00:50:51
that night with Peter speaking with him more than once but he said he didn't have any idea
00:50:59
where Brittany was and he had not seen or heard from her since she left his room this around 8 45.
00:51:08
after being told by the Rochester Police that they couldn't do anything more to help Don decided to call this man his
00:51:17
name is John Hahn okay he's a family friend who was stationed in North Carolina which is about three months
00:51:24
three hours away from where Brittany would have been right she asked him to drive to Myrtle Beach and to look for
00:51:33
her daughter and if he can't find her to please alert the local authorities Dawn made arrangements to get to Myrtle
00:51:42
Beach as soon as she can but in the meantime she's going to have her friend John looking for Brittany
00:51:48
right she was so sure that something she okay she wanted to get there because very
00:51:55
quickly she is starting to think something has happened to her daughter that her
00:52:01
daughter's not just not picking up her phone or ignoring her mother or that the the the friends are ignoring the mother
00:52:08
yeah 30 minutes go by maybe not so big of a deal once a couple hours start going by especially somebody that's
00:52:14
connected to their phone as much as Britney was now this I mean this is huge this is a big red flag John Han arrived
00:52:22
and found that Britney had not returned to her hotel he then reported Britney as
00:52:27
missing the missing persons incident report uh filed with mbpd the next morning is dated April 26 2009 and the
00:52:37
time stamp is 1902 so 702 p.m although John met the officers at the hotel in the early morning
00:52:46
according to this incident report Han met with offers officers Cleary and Dam at the bar Harbor Hotel where they
00:52:55
attempted to make contact attacked with the occupants of room 305 officers found no one in the room
00:53:03
but they did find occupants belongings in the room officer Cleary then made a telephone call to Alana lippa remember
00:53:12
that's one of the friends using a phone number provided by John which presumably
00:53:17
he must have got from dawn or from John Greco more likely Alana told the officers that she had not seen Brittany
00:53:26
officers Cleary later telephone the guys staying at the Blue Water Resort this is
00:53:31
Peter's Room according to the incident report the four friends of Peters reported to the officer that they had
00:53:38
met Brittany on Friday night at Club Kryptonite although we believe that she was actually there on Thursday night
00:53:45
instead so and we know this because she was video videoed in a hotel room at 10 36 pm on Friday night so it's not likely
00:53:55
she was at both the ho hotel room this other hotel room and the club at the same time
00:54:00
it's unclear whether the guys were just confused about the day or whether they were deliberately trying to hide
00:54:07
something yeah I think most likely just confused I mean you're out in the sun you're drinking beers you're an amateur
00:54:14
you're 20 years old you're amateur so they're probably just confused when they're speaking with these guys this is
00:54:19
also when the officers learned that Brittany had been at the Blue Water on Saturday night in the boys room but as
00:54:26
we had said only stayed for about 10 minutes leaving after an argument with Jen regarding the pair of shorts and
00:54:35
then presumably returning to the bar Harbor another thing that's unclear Captain is exactly who's possess whose
00:54:42
possessions were in the hotel room remember the police they they're looking into hotel room 305 for the girls the
00:54:50
girls are not there however there are belongings in there the the girls that Brittany was staying with Jen and Alana
00:54:56
they had either already relocated or were planning to relocate to the Boardwalk Motel and this is room number
00:55:06
1435. we do know that Britney's things were in room 305 all of her luggage clothes makeup and her hair stuff was
00:55:15
there Brooks explained to me why they're relocating Saturday night when they're possibly going to be
00:55:23
leaving Sunday I don't have an explanation for this yeah that don't seem right so as far as
00:55:30
Britney's concerned only her purse and cell phone were missing the fact that Brittany had left behind her this is
00:55:38
according to her mother her beloved flat iron kind of sealed it for her mother that
00:55:44
something bad had happened to her daughter stating that Brittany would never go anywhere without that flat iron
00:55:50
so as far as the family is concerned Brittany had not she had not run away or left on her own accord
00:55:57
one more question arises about this hotel room you know you'd mentioned it their boyfriends were on the trip and
00:56:05
the boyfriends were all college age why wouldn't they stay with their boyfriends you know and why
00:56:12
did they they switch like you said hotels on that Saturday night was was this planned or was this something that
00:56:19
just happened was Britney supposed to stay in that room by herself that night right because
00:56:27
they had this argument and maybe they maybe they just thought hey we're gonna move we can't stand this girl anymore
00:56:33
so even though they're the ones you know seems they're the ones being mean to her
00:56:38
anyways well One online site dedicated to Brittany has pulled incident and arrest reports from that
00:56:47
weekend and reports that on Saturday night around the time Britney disappeared two of the guys in her party
00:56:54
this is the gentleman I had a had trouble saying his name is Uber ozturk and this other guy who's got even more
00:57:04
of a difficult name uh vit gayen these two guys they were arrested for um making out behind the McDonald's that's
00:57:14
not illegal one of these guys was Jen's boyfriend remember this ooger well I guess it depends on how passionate it is
00:57:22
okay so they were driving Jen's Brothers uh Phil they were driving his 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix GT that
00:57:33
night ball uh they were pulled over for a noise ordinance the man was ticketed further for driving
00:57:42
without a license and the passenger was ticketed for littering oh yeah reportedly [ __ ] Jennifer and
00:57:52
Phil were called to come to the police station to pick up the car and post bail for the two guys
00:57:59
all of this is said to be around the time that Britney disappeared although you know we can't confirm that because
00:58:06
we don't know exactly what time Britney disappeared right in addition to the girls that Brittany had been traveling
00:58:12
with relocating hotels there was the the very strange fact that between 1 and 2 A.M uh Saturday night well I guess
00:58:21
really Sunday morning Peter and his four friends checked out of the Blue Water Resort and they they left town yeah now
00:58:31
what he States is that they were planning on leaving around five six in the morning because they had a 14-hour
00:58:37
trip for them to go all the way back and to get back super late on a Sunday and then to be ready for work or whatever
00:58:44
they had to do Monday morning was going to be difficult so they decided hey we'll just leave at two we're gonna get
00:58:51
back you know Midday Sunday so then we can sleep whatever get everything ready for Monday
00:58:56
the the issue I I don't have a problem with that because I think on our our trip we went to stay in Cincinnati
00:59:04
and we were going to wake up the next morning to leave to go to Panama roughly the same time these guys said they were
00:59:10
going to leave five or six in the morning we were going to leave very early in the morning right and then we
00:59:14
were at this party and we were just being kind of dumb and we're like let's go now well I think we were pumped up
00:59:21
and we could you know you couldn't sleep anyway so you're like well it does mean
00:59:24
no good to just lay here right you know so so I kind of see their story the thing I what's weird about is that they
00:59:31
went to a club they were partying this is what they claim and so to take a 14-hour drive after you've been partying
00:59:38
I don't know if that's the smartest thing in the world the other big wait wait in the other red flag that I have
00:59:45
there is he talked about if you left like at 10 o'clock in the morning or 11 o'clock in the morning with the strip
00:59:51
being the way it is you weren't going to get out of there well and that's reasonable right but you leave at 2 A.M
00:59:58
the strip is still happening yeah see what I mean yeah that's a good thought so if if you left at five maybe the
01:00:05
strip's not happening but you left that two strips happening and so it's really strange to me that you have these four
01:00:11
individuals and then you have these girls and they're both switching their plans roughly around the same time so
01:00:17
they also these guys left some of their clothes in the room which is not a huge red flag to me I've been on trips where
01:00:26
I've probably partied a lot less than these guys were partying this week and I've left things in in the hotel
01:00:33
room on accident to the point where I'm like halfway home and I'm cursing myself
01:00:36
thongs um but one thing that I wondered about was by leaving in the middle of the
01:00:43
night they actually these guys forfeited their room deposit wow which which seems a little strange
01:00:50
for guys in their early 20s maybe they didn't know that was going to happen that's true that's true we don't know
01:00:57
the time of the calls that Dawn made to Peter we do know they happened where you know he tells her he didn't
01:01:04
know where Britney was but since John alerted Dawn to Brittany being missing around 10 or 11. it would likely have
01:01:12
been before 1am or right around that time okay so Peter and his friends leaving Myrtle Beach so abruptly well
01:01:22
this makes me very suspicious because it could be roughly around the same time or
01:01:26
just after receiving these calls from dawn that right right that had he done something
01:01:34
or his boys or all of them done something wrong something bad now he's aware that other people are aware that
01:01:41
that something happened that Britney's missing it didn't help that as soon as Peter got to Rochester and learned that
01:01:48
Brittany had not been located he lawyered up and this lawyer told nbcnews.com that
01:01:57
Brittany began hanging out with the guys after several disagreements with the friends that she was traveling with
01:02:03
he said that after Britney left the hotel the guys Peter and the guys went to as
01:02:10
you stated a nearby club I think he might have called it a college party but it doesn't mean that it was not at a
01:02:17
club right but but there's several eyewitnesses yes uh then the young men they decided just to leave and get a
01:02:25
head start on their long drive Peter's lawyer went on to say that the car that the man had been traveling in has been
01:02:32
searched by the time of this interview and that Peter was willing to submit DNA now you bring up something very
01:02:39
interesting here because if all of this is true then Peter was seen at this party or Club
01:02:46
so therefore around the time that we think Britney went missing right therefore he would have an alibi at the
01:02:52
at least for the time that he was there at this party or at the club Peter was initially named a person of
01:02:59
interest by the Myrtle Beach police but by May 7 2009 he had been cleared of having any involvement this was puzzling
01:03:09
to Brittany's family who believed that Peter Not only was the last person to see Brittany but they believe that he
01:03:16
knew much more than he was willing to say foreign [Music] thanks everybody for listening thanks
01:03:28
for telling a friend make sure you join us back here in the garage tomorrow for part two of the Brittany Drexel
01:03:34
disappearance story and also check out our show off the Record we just released episode 8 on Stitcher premium until
01:03:43
tomorrow everybody be good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause] [Music]