JAILHOUSE CONFESSION CHALLENGED …
Remember Brittanee Drexel?
The New York teen has been missing since April 25, 2009 – when she vanished without a trace en route to meet friends at the Blue Water resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Drexel was 17 years old when she disappeared. She was a junior at Gates Chili high school in Rochester, N.Y. She wanted to be a nurse. She loved soccer.
What happened to her? No one knows … but a (formerly) confidential informant outed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in open court earlier this month apparently has a theory.
Taquan Brown, the informant, is currently serving a 25-year sentence in state prison. If you’re interested in seeing his rap sheet, click here (.pdf).
According to testimony from FBI agent Gerrick Munoz, Brown told investigators he was present at the moment of Drexel’s death in 2009.
According to Munoz’s narrative, Drexel was forcibly abducted by a group of black men in Myrtle Beach, S.C. These men allegedly beat her up, sexually assaulted her and transported her to a “stash house” near McClellanville, S.C. – a small fishing village located on Highway 17 roughly halfway between Myrtle Beach and Charleston, S.C.
There, the story goes, Drexel was allegedly chained to a wall while the men who abducted her charged other black males to “f*ck the white girl” – a process known as “bunnying.”
According to Munoz’s narrative, Drexel somehow managed to free herself from her chains – but was pistol-whipped, shot and killed before she could escape from the house.
In fact, Munoz testified that Brown told the FBI he heard the shots that killed Drexel with his own ears.
At this point, according to the story, Drexel’s body was allegedly taken to an alligator pit in the Santee region of the state – where it was disposed of on May 2, 2009.
No trace of Drexel has ever been found – and investigators claim there are as many as three dozen possible locations of the alligator pit where Drexel’s body was allegedly taken.
So … who did it?
According to the FBI, Brown named multiple perpetrators in connection with Drexel’s murder – including Timothy Da’Shaun Taylor, and his father, Timothy S. Taylor.
No one has been charged at this point in connection with Drexel’s kidnapping, rape or murder. However, the younger Taylor has been charged by the feds in connection with a September 2011 robbery of a McDonald’s fast food restaurant.
In fact, it was at a detention hearing for Taylor that Munoz offered up the chilling narrative of Drexel’s demise.
The federal government is charging Taylor with conspiracy to commit armed robbery in connection with the 2011 McDonald’s heist – even though he already pleaded guilty to state charges related to this robbery more than three years ago.
And even though he already completed his probationary sentence related to those charges.
(Click to enlarge)
(Pic via Charleston County)
This week, Taylor issued a statement in response to Munoz’s testimony about Brown’s allegations.
“I had no involvement with anything to do with Brittanee Drexel,” Taylor said. “I don’t know Taquan Brown and I don’t know why he would call my name. I am being prosecuted again for a crime I already helped them solve and already did my time for, all because some guy in prison is trying to cut a deal. It’s not fair to be charged for the same crime twice and that’s not how our system is supposed to work.”
Taylor’s attorneys, David Aylor and Mark Peper, added that the federal government was engaged in a “far reaching and blatant abuse of the criminal justice system.”
“The squeeze is on,” Aylor said.
Clearly this case – dormant for so many years – is once again heating up. And we’re told the bombshells have only begun to drop.
Stay tuned for updates …