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Raymond Moody and Britanee Drexel composite via FBI and Charleston County Sheriff's Office
Images via FBI/Charleston County Sheriff's Office

‘We were hunting’: Brittanee Drexel’s murderer provides chilling details of the crime

The murderer says his girlfriend was more involved in what happened than what she told the police.

Content warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of murder and sexual assault. Please take care while reading.

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Raymond Moody, who confessed in 2022 to the abduction, rape, and murder of Brittanee Drexel is serving a life sentence for the crime. According to legal documents, Moody recently disclosed disturbing details about the night Drexel died, and he says his longtime girlfriend, Angel Cooper Vause, was involved in what happened to her.

Drexel, who was 17 when she died, was from New York, but in 2009, she was visiting friends in Myrtle Beach when she was killed. Moody — who served 21 years in California for stalking, abducting, and raping seven young women, including an 8-year-0ld girl — disclosed the alarming information in an agreement with authorities that would allow some of Moody’s property to remain in a trust for his grandchildren. Vause is set to be sentenced for lying to the authorities next month, according to Myrtle Beach, SC news outlet, WBTW.

“So you want to go hunting with me, huh?”

https://twitter.com/AnneTEmerson/status/1880320584116285616
via Anne Emerson/X

According to recently revealed legal documents, Vause told Moody via text she “fantasized about snatching some girl,” according to ABC News 4. “So you want to go hunting with me, huh?” Moody says he responded, and Vause said she did.

The night Drexel was murdered, Moody says he and Vause set up a tent in the area and drove the streets of Myrtle Beach looking for a victim. Moody says he and Vause did the same thing the night before but didn’t follow through on their plan, concerned that their cell phone data might reveal their locations.

On the night Drexel died, Vause and Moody spotted her walking on the sidewalk, and it was Vause, according to Moody, who talked to Drexel first to gain her trust and convince her to get in the vehicle. According to Moody, he and Vause pretended to be tourists and said they were lost but took Drexel to the tent instead of back to her hotel as they promised.

Back at the tent, Moody says Vause was present when Drexel was raped, but did not recall her participating in the attack. Moody says he and Vause had agreed to rape Drexel together. Moody also says Vause was also not involved in Drexel’s murder and was unaware he planned to kill her, but that she was there when it happened.

According to Moody, Drexel was the first and only person he killed. Moody’s version of events suggests Vause had several opportunities to let Drexel go or stop her murder.

Vause could spend up to 24 years in prison

https://twitter.com/katysolt/status/1880338345240486116
via Katy Solt/X

Moody says he later disposed of Drexel’s body alone, and because Vause told him she was scared, he considered killing her, too but decided against it. According to the Myrtle Beach Post and Courier, Vause was arrested last year and charged with making false statements to the FBI, including that Drexel joined the couple to take drugs voluntarily. Vause also told the police when she returned to the tent, Drexel was gone. Moody now says he instructed her to give them that story. Vause pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and could spend up to 24 years in prison.

Drexel’s case went cold but in 2022, Moody, a registered sex offender and already a person of interest in the case, turned himself in and confessed. “I served 20 years and I thought it was enough, but it wasn’t,” Moody said in court when he was sentenced, referring to his earlier prison sentence in California. “I was a monster then, and I was a monster when I took Brittanee Drexel’s life,” Moody told the court.

If you know someone suffering from sexual violence, contact RAINN or the National Sexual Abuse Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.


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Author
Image of William Kennedy
William Kennedy
William Kennedy is a full-time freelance content writer and journalist in Eugene, OR. William covered true crime, among other topics for Grunge.com. He also writes about live music for the Eugene Weekly, where his beat also includes arts and culture, food, and current events. He lives with his wife, daughter, and two cats who all politely accommodate his obsession with Doctor Who and The New Yorker.