Brittanee Drexel got a pair of sunglasses in her Easter basket last year. There's a picture of the 17-year-old sitting next to her 12-year-old sister, Marissa, with the glasses on her lap.
Now her aunt Keri Drexel hopes those sunglasses may give her family some answers about what happened to Brittanee, who disappeared from a spring break trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C., on April 25.
Brittanee had traveled from her home in Rochester, N.Y., with a group of friends but without her parents' permission. A surveillance camera caught her leaving the Blue Water Resort. Another camera snapped a picture of her on the street out front, but no one has reported seeing her since.
Last month, someone found a pair of sunglasses similar to hers along the Santee River in Georgetown County, some 40 miles from Myrtle Beach. It's the last place a signal was picked up from the teenager's cell phone, and volunteers have been searching the area for months.
It hasn't been confirmed whether the sunglasses belong to Brittanee, but her aunt is optimistic. She hopes the sunglasses will lead to more clues.
Over the past eight months, the CUE Center for Missing Persons has organized five large-scale searches for Brittanee. Another search is scheduled to start this morning, and Keri will be there.
She expects 200 volunteers to comb the woods and marshes in the area, looking for anything that might lead to her niece.
Last week, a Web site was launched so the public can leave anonymous tips. Anyone with information is encouraged to go to helpfindbrittanee drexel.com.
"Every day you're on a roller coaster, and you know, there's so much anxiety that you don't know what to think to feel, but we're just trying to keep her picture and her name out there," Keri said.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement
Advertisement