GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. — The Georgetown County Coroner’s Office has listed Brittanee Drexel’s death as undetermined after the discovery of her remains earlier in May, according to reports from WPDE.
Coroner Chase Ridgeway said, “the cause and manner of death to be undetermined.”
Ridgeway also said that Drexel’s skeletal remains will be examined by a forensic anthropologist and a forensic odontologist at the Charleston County Coroner’s Office, according to reports from WPDE.
“It was during this examination that the remains were confirmed to be that of Brittanee Drexel, which was collaborated by a DNA analysis performed by SLED,” the coroner said. “Due to the condition of the remains, manual strangulation could not be confirmed.”
Drexel went missing from Mrytle Beach in 2009 when she was just 17 years old. WPDE said initial arrest warrants stated that Drexel’s cause of death was manual strangulation by Raymond Moody.
Drexel, a New York native, had traveled to South Carolina over spring break when she disappeared, according to reports from WPDE.
Authorities said Moody buried Drexel after she died. WPDE said he is facing several charges including rape, murder and kidnapping. Moody is in custody.
According to arrest warrants, authorities said Moody took “overt actions to conceal and/or dispose of evidence of a crime.”
Moody is also accused of unlawfully “seizing, confining, or inveigling” Drexel without the authority of the law, according to reports from WPDE.
WPDE said he also committed non-consensual sexual battery against Drexel during the commission of a kidnapping and was done by “utilizing aggravating force.”
According to 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson, Drexel was raped and murdered at the Santee River and then her body was moved to Old Town Avenue.
The search, which resulted in the discovery of the remains, happened approximately 2.5 miles from a motel called Sunset Lodge, where Moody had been living when Drexel went missing.
(WATCH BELOW: SC authorities find remains of Brittanee Drexel, who disappeared in 2009; arrest made in case)
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