GEORGETOWN, S.C. — A man has been sentenced to life in prison after confessing to the 2009 killing of a 17-year-old girl who disappeared while on a beach vacation in South Carolina.
Raymond Moody, 62, pleaded guilty Wednesday to murder, rape and kidnapping in the death of Brittanee Drexel.
Moody led police to her body in May after a breakthrough helped investigators determine the teen got into Moody's SUV after she was last seen in Myrtle Beach in April 2009.
Moody says he offered Drexel marijuana, then raped and strangled her after she refused to have sex. Drexel was a high school student from Rochester, NY who had been celebrating spring break with friends.
"I hope you suffer in prison for the rest of your useless life. I have no regard for you just like you had no regard for my daughter's life," said Drexel's mother, Dawn Pleckan, while delivering a victim impact statement in the courtroom.
Pleckan also noted Moody's prior history of raping young victims, for which he still would have been in prison at the time of her daughter's murder, had he not been paroled after 20 years.
Moody acknowledged this and referred to himself as a monster when he spoke prior to sentencing.
"I was a monster then, and I was a monster when I took Brittanee Drexel's life. I don't have the words to express how horrible I feel and how horrible I felt since that day, and I'm very sorry," Moody said
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