wistv.com - Columbia, South Carolina |Convicted sex offender named person of interest in Brittanee Drexel case

Convicted sex offender named person of interest in Brittanee Drexel case

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Raymond Moody (Source: Georgetown County Sheriff's Office) Raymond Moody (Source: Georgetown County Sheriff's Office)

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MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) - Six months after staying tight lipped about who they were investigating as a person of interest in the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel, investigators in Myrtle Beach are releasing names.

Capt. David Knipes, spokesman for the Myrtle Beach Police Department, confirmed to WMBF News that investigators are now naming Raymond Moody, 51, of Georgetown County as a person of interest in the 2009 disappearance of New York teen Brittanee Drexel.

At the beginning of August, investigators executed a search warrant at a Georgetown motel room Moody had stayed in around the time of Drexel's disappearance. At the time, MBPD would not name Moody as a person of interest.

After the search, Knipes said the search was one of several done for the investigation and no arrests were expected as a result.

Thursday, Knipes confirmed to WMBF News that Moody received a traffic ticket in Surfside Beach on April 26, 2009, just one day after Drexel went missing.

Drexel was last seen along Ocean Boulevard around 9 p.m. on April 25, 2009. She was just 17-years-old at the time of her disappearance.

According to the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office sex offender registry, Moody is a registered Adult Tier III Offender who was convicted in 1983 of rape by force, kidnapping and lewd act on a child under 14, among other charges.

He was released in June of 2004.

Thursday evening, Detective Phillip Hanna with the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office confirmed to WMBF News they are also looking into Moody as a person of interest in the 2005 disappearance of Crystal Soles.

Soles vanished while walking home from the Shaw Corner Store in January of 2005.

Copyright 2012 WMBF News. All rights reserved.

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