Brittanee Drexel: Transcript details homicide claims
The FBI suspicions that 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel was sexually trafficked then fatally shot are based on the allegations of a jailhouse informant who claims he witnessed the crimes and another man who heard the allegations second-hand, court transcripts show.
The informants say that Drexel was killed in McClellanville, South Carolina, a town about an hour south of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where Drexel disappeared in 2009. The last signal from Drexel’s phone came from McClellanville.
In June police and federal authorities held a news conference in McClellanville, saying they believed Drexel was dead and making clear that they had some information, beyond the telephone signal, leading them to suspect she had been murdered.
The jailhouse informant, Taquan Brown, claims that Drexel was kidnapped, trafficked for sex, fatally shot, and then dumped in an alligator-infested swamp, according to the transcript of an Aug. 15 federal court hearing in Charleston, South Carolina. The Democrat and Chronicle obtained the court transcript Monday.
Drexel’s body has not been found.
Prosecutors could determine at some point that they have enough evidence, even without Drexel’s remains, to pursue criminal charges against suspects in her disappearance and homicide.
Just last month a federal jury in Rochester convicted a man, James Kendrick, of a role in the 1999 murder and dismemberment of Ryan Cooper. Prosecutors alleged that Cooper’s body parts were strewn across Rochester after the murder. His remains were never found.
“There’s no bar to a prosecutor pursuing a homicide case without a body,” said local attorney William Easton, who represented a man who admitted that he helped dismember Cooper. “It’s governed by ordinary principles of circumstantial evidence.
“The problems are, especially in a modern era, the body itself in a homicide is the best evidence,” Easton said.
The corpse can provide a bounty of forensic evidence corroborating or debunking a prosecution theory, Easton said.
It's publicly unknown whether the FBI has physical evidence beyond the telephone signal to corroborate the claims of Drexel’s homicide. And the supposed firsthand claims of Taquan Brown, now serving 25 year in prison for manslaughter, would by themselves be weak evidentiary fodder for a prosecution.
A South Carolina man, Timothy Da’Shaun Taylor, is the focus of the investigation into the possible “kidnapping, human trafficking and murder” of the Chili teen, the court transcripts show.
Taylor is suspected of kidnapping Drexel, FBI Special Agent Gerrick Munoz testified at an Aug. 15 bail hearing for Taylor in Charleston. No one, including Taylor, has been charged with a crime in connection with Drexel's disappearance.
“We’ve had several people have come up and give us testimony, outlining Mr. Taylor’s involvement in this particular case, “ Munoz said at the hearing for Taylor, who is facing charges in an armed robbery in South Carolina.
Taylor's attorney, David Aylor, declined comment Monday.
In an online posting, Drexel's father, Chad Drexel, claimed there is other evidence that the family cannot reveal.
"We know Timothy Da'Shaun Taylor was witnessed by others (Witnesses NOT IN JAIL) with my daughter — we are just praying that they do the RIGHT thing and (step) forward with what they know. Additionally he has been seen and followed to the EXACT area where my daughter's DNA was found," Chad Drexel wrote.
In 2011, Taylor, then 18, was the getaway driver in an armed robbery of a South Carolina McDonald's, during which the fast-food restaurant manager was shot in the leg.
Taylor cooperated with police and received a sentence of probation. However, this year a federal grand jury in Charleston indicted Taylor on a federal criminal charge connected with the robbery.
Typically, federal prosecutors will not pursue criminal charges against an individual already convicted in state court, but did so in this instance. The Aug. 15 bail hearing was to determine whether Taylor should be free as he awaits trial for the robbery. Munoz testified that Taylor's suspected role in the Drexel disappearance proves he is dangerous and should not be released.
Brown told investigators that he was in a McClellanville "stash house" in the days after Drexel's disappearance and saw her there, being "sexually abused" by Taylor and others, according to the hearing testimony. Taylor's father, Shaun Taylor, was also at the house, Brown allegedly said.
Drexel escaped, ran from the home, but was caught, Brown allegedly claimed.
"She was then described as pistol-whipped and brought back into the house," Munoz testified about Brown's allegations.
Brown said he was outside but heard two shots. "And then Brittanee Drexel was then wrapped up and taken away from the house," Munoz said. Brown suspected that Shaun Taylor shot Drexel, Munoz testified.
At the hearing Munoz acknowledged that Brown's allegations have not been substantiated by other eyewitnesses. The second informant said he heard of Drexel's murder from an eyewitness to the crimes, Munoz said.
At the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Holliday said that the suspicion that Taylor was involved in Drexel's disappearance was partly the reason prosecutors pursued federal charges for the 2011 robbery.
"Of course, you have the McDonald's case, but then you also have that he's a target in this abduction and murder of Brittanee Drexel," he said.
Court records show that prosecutors and Taylor's defense lawyer filed court papers under seal on Aug. 22 — papers that U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Gordon Baker requested before deciding Taylor's bail status.
On Aug. 22, she ruled that Taylor could be released on $10,000 secured bond. He also is confined to his home on electronic monitoring, records show.
In other developments Monday, The Post and Courier of Charleston, which first reported on the court transcript Friday, said investigators are exploring possible connections between the Taylor family and two other unsolved crimes in South Carolina involving young women.
One case was an attempted abduction and the other a murder, according to The Post and Courier. Randall Keith Taylor, a brother of Shaun Taylor, was accused of raping and fatally shooting Shannon McConaughey, 19, in 1998, but murder charges were ultimately dropped against him because of a lack of evidence, The Post and Courier reported.
►Previous coverage of Brittanee Drexel
►Report: Brittanee Drexel shot, dumped in alligator swamp
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : : vs. : : TIMOTHY Da'SHAUN TAYLOR : 2:16 CR 480
