Man wrongly pursued by FBI in killing of Brittanee Drexel files federal abuse of power suit

Adam Benson
·2 min read

HORRY COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A McClellanville man who for years was falsely linked to the death and disappearance of Brittanee Drexel is suing the government, claiming false narratives pushed by the agency caused irreversible emotional strain.

Timothy D’Shaun Taylor’s complaint, which can be read below, was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Charleston.

Timothy-Taylor-complaintDownload

Drexel, who was from Rochester, New York, disappeared on April 25, 2009, while she was on spring break with friends in the Myrtle Beach area. Authorities said her cell phone last pinged that day near the Charleston and Georgetown County line.

Her remains were found in May 2022 after 62-year-old Raymond Moody led investigators to her body. Moody confessed to raping and killing the 17-year-old.

He was sentenced to life in prison on kidnapping and murder charges back in October 2022.

The FBI named Taylor a person of interest in the Drexel case in 2016 after a jailhouse informant said that Taylor had murdered and raped her.

Taylor’s team had reiterated that he was innocent from the beginning, stating that Taylor, then 16, was in class at the time of the crime. Documents released in 2018 showed that he failed a polygraph test, which are known to be unreliable and are generally not allowed to be presented as evidence in court.

” For over a decade, my son and his father were relentlessly pursued for a crime that federal law enforcement officials knew neither of them committed because they had evidence to the contrary,” Taylor’s mother Joan said in a statement on Tuesday. “Their illegitimate investigation wreaked havoc on our lives — and we demand answers from those responsible. Our family deserves a public apology, and my son deserves for the public to know his name without any association to Brittanee Drexel.”

This is a developing story.

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Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12. See more of his work here.

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