N.Y. High School Junior Disappears In Myrtle Beach

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Brittanee was last seen on April 25, 2009 at 8 p.m.

A 17-year-old high school junior disappeared from her Myrtle Beach, S.C. motel on Saturday, April 25, 2009.

Police say Brittanee Drexel was on a Spring Break trip with some of her friends, but didn't have her parents' permission to be there.

When Brittanee's mother, Dawn Drexel, first heard her daughter was missing, she asked a family friend who was in the area to travel to Myrtle Beach to look for her.

The friend called police from the Bar Harbor Hotel, where she was staying.

Brittanee's friends, who were staying with her, said the last time they saw her was around 8 p.m. on that Saturday evening.

She planned to return to the hotel room and didn't take any of her clothing with her. She hasn't been seen since.

She walked more than a mile down the road to The Blue Water Resort, where a friend from New York and a group of his male buddies were staying, according to police.

Surveillance video captured her entering the resort and then leaving sometime after 8:30 p.m.

Family, Friends Search The Myrtle Beach Area

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Brittanee is from Rochester, N.Y. where she is a high school junior.

Now Dawn, along with Brittanee's long-time boyfriend, extended family, friends and Myrtle Beach Police are scouring the Myrtle Beach area in hopes of finding her.

Her father, Chad Drexel, is leading the search from New York. He's ordered billboards and is working to place pictures of Brittanee on tractor-trailer trucks.

Brittanee attends Gates-Chili High School in her hometown of Rochester, N.Y., where she lives with her mother. She frequently visits her father, who lives nearby. The two are legally separated.

Brittanee is on a local "house league" soccer team and team members say she is a happy and friendly person.

Chad tells AMW that he and Dawn are holding out hope that Brittanee will return home safely. He says his past military carer has meant they had to move and travel often, so Brittanee is very resourceful.

Since her disappearance her parents have added more money to her debit card in hope that it will help her if she is in trouble.

She has brown hair with blonde highlights. Chad said Brittanee was studying cosmetology in high school and frequently changes her hairstyle and hair color.

She is also interested in fashion and wears trendy, up-to-date clothes.

Cops say the night Brittanee disappeared she borrowed a teal, purple and black spaghetti strap shirt from a friend and was wearing it with black shorts and silver flip flops when she left the motel.

Police are still searching for a pink cellphone that cops say Brittanee was carrying the night she disappeared.

Police followed up on a report on Thursday that said Brittanee has been spotted on a bus, but determined the girl was only a look-a-like.

Team ADAM is also in Myrtle Beach assisting with the search.

If you have any information that may help police find Brittanee, call our hotline right away at 1-800-CRIME-TV.

Possible Sighting In S.C.

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A surveillance camera captured this image of Brittanee as she was leaving her motel the night she vanished.

Horry County, S.C. Police received a tip around 8:30 a.m. on Thurs. May 14, 2009 that Brittanee was spotted nearby.

The caller said she saw a young woman who fit Brittanee's decription at Scotchman convenience store in Socastee, S.C., just outside of Myrtle Beach.

The young woman came into the store and used the ATM machine, then left in a red Dodge Stratus with New York tags EJS9543.

Cops say the young woman wasn't Brittanee, after reviewing the surveillance video.

An earlier tip placed Brittanee on a Myrtle Beach us, but after investigating police determined that the girl spotted was not Brittanee either.