Vigil to mark nine years since Brittanee Drexel’s disappearance

Nine years ago today Brittanee Drexel was reported missing. Without her mother’s permission, the Chili teen went to Myrtle Beach with a group of friends during spring break. Two days later she disappeared.

Drexel was supposedly heading back to the motel where she was staying but never made it. The FBI says a jailhouse informant told them she was taken to McClellanville, where she was sexually assaulted and murdered before being thrown into an alligator pit.

The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

On Tuesday, Drexel’s grandparents stopped by News10NBC’s affiliate in Myrtle Beach, WMBF News, to talk about the anniversary and finding closure in the case.

"We need justice for Brittanee,” grandmother Carol Wagner said. “We need to find the person who did this and every year we have to keep her out there."

For Wagner, it’s a struggle to accept the FBI’s belief that her granddaughter is dead.

"I don’t have that closure or anything. My daughter may feel differently than I do, but we have no body, we have no purse, we have no cellphone,” Wagner said. “It’s just on hearsay, so I really don’t know.”

A vigil will be held Wednesday in Myrtle Beach, Drexel’s grandparents and other family members are expected to be there.