SC man wrongfully connected to Brittanee Drexel’s murder in Myrtle Beach suing FBI

A South Carolina man who had for years been wrongfully connected to the murder of Brittanee Drexel has filed a lawsuit against the United States over the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s treatment of him during the investigation.

Timothy Taylor was made the prime suspect in the case as the FBI conducted an investigation into the missing New York teen. Taylor’s suit, filed on Tuesday, states that the investigation caused him and his family great harm and accused the FBI of lacking evidence and an inability to follow FBI policies.

Kevin Wheeler, public affairs specialist with the Columbia division of the FBI, said the FBI does not comment on pending litigation.

Timothy Taylor, from McClellanvile, South Carolina, was 16 when Drexel disappeared. The night Drexel went missing, Timothy Taylor and his father Shaun Taylor were three hours away in Edisto, South Carolina for a car show.

The FBI alleged that Timothy Taylor was the one who kidnapped Drexel off Ocean Boulevard, despite the fact that Timothy Taylor had one arm and was roughly the same size as Drexel, according to the lawsuit.

Drexel went missing from Myrtle Beach in April 2009 while visiting the Myrtle Beach area for spring break with some of her friends. Drexel’s family searched for 13 years for the missing teen. Her case gained national attention and became the subject of TV documentaries and numerous stories.

It was finally revealed what happened to the missing teen when Raymond Moody admitted in May 2022 to killing Drexel and led investigators to where he dumped her body, The Sun News reported. Her remains were found in Georgetown County.

The FBI made the Taylor family its main subjects for Drexel’s disappearance after an inmate at Georgetown County Jail told agents that Timothy Taylor had kidnapped Drexel and his father, Shaun Taylor, had killed her, according to the suit. The FBI was unable to verify this story and it later came out the inmate had lied, according to the court complaint.

Agents used the unconfirmed story and gossip as reasons to investigate the Taylor family. The FBI arrested Timothy Taylor for an unrelated charge in 2016 but only questioned him about Drexel, the complaint states.

The FBI publicly announced its findings, including that they believed the Taylors had dumped Drexel’s body in a “gator pit.” Before agents were able to confirm their evidence, they told the Drexel family that the Taylors were responsible for Drexel’s death, according to the lawsuit.

Joan Taylor, Timothy Taylor’s mother, lost her job because she advocated for her son and Shaun Taylor’s business suffered after their Timothy Taylor was arrested. This caused a financial struggle and, as friends left them, they had few people to turn to for help.

People also attacked the family online for years, causing Timothy Taylor to stop using social media.

The FBI was able to rule out Timothy Taylor as a suspect in 2018. But the FBI never went public with this information, the suit said.

“We want them to at least acknowledge the wrong that they have done,” Joan Taylor said. “At some point, take some responsibility of the life they have created for us for the past nine, 10 years.”

What are the charges?

Timothy Taylor is suing the United States for abuse of process, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.

He alleges abuse of process because the FBI officially arrested him for a petty robbery from five years prior, but during that arrest told him he was under arrest for kidnapping, human trafficking and murder. Once in jail, the FBI only asked Timothy Taylor about Drexel.

The complaint states the FBI wanted to arrest Timothy Taylor for Drexel’s murder or have him give information, regardless if he committed the crime, and willingly abused the process to do so.

The FBI intentionally inflicted emotional distress by arresting him prematurely and engaging “in a relentless six-year campaign of terror against him and his family based on nothing more than the uncorroborated word of a prison informant and bits and pieces of anonymous gossip,” the lawsuit says.

The charges released by the FBI continue to impact Timothy Taylor’s life today.

Timothy Taylor is requesting damages including the FBI stating he was not involved in Drexel’s murder and paying the costs associated with the lawsuit.

The impact on the Taylors

Joan Taylor, Timothy Taylor’s mother, said Monday that the case has left a lasting impact on her family. Joan Taylor split up from her husband, Shaun, as their relationship couldn’t handle the stress.

After losing their jobs and a significant amount of business, the roof of their home began to leak. The Taylors did not have the money to repair the roof, and as a result, mold began growing in their home. The mold then made Joan Taylor very sick.

People continue to treat Timothy Taylor as if he murdered Drexel, Joan Taylor said. People across the country stare at him and take pictures of him in public. Once, after flying to Detroit from Myrtle Beach, someone followed Timothy Taylor to his car while taking pictures the entire time.

The court complaint states that Timothy Taylor stopped taking his children to the beach, stopped going in public and would receive extremely hateful comments and messages online.

Joan Taylor said she wants the FBI to admit their alleged wrongdoing.

“It is not financial gain that we are actually looking for. We want to try and rewrite the narrative,” she said. “I want the government to be affected enough that they will come forth and say, ‘We had the wrong person.’”

What happened to Drexel?

Drexel was last seen alone leaving the Blue Water Resort on Ocean Boulevard the night of April 25, 2009, The Sun News reported. Investigators relied on advancements to technology to pinpoint the location of Drexel’s phone as it traveled around Georgetown County.

Officials said during a court hearing that agencies were able to determine when Drexel was no longer walking but traveling by vehicle because her phone was moving about 60 mph. Officials were able to identify the vehicle Drexel had been in and the vehicle was linked to Moody.

Moody told investigators that he and his girlfriend at the time, Angel Voss, had went to Myrtle Beach to party when they saw Drexel walking by herself down the street. Moody alleges Brittanee Drexel willingly got in the car with them to smoke marijuana, and that’s when they headed to Moody’s campground in Georgetown.

Moody said he had hoped under the influence of marijuana, Drexel would have consensual sex with him. But, when that didn’t happen, he forced her to take off her clothes and proceeded to rape her before strangling her and wrapping up her body in a blanket. Voss wasn’t around when the crimes were committed, officials said.

Moody later came back to the site, where he disposed of her body, and buried it in a wooded area.

In 2022, Moody plead guilty to murder, kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct. He was sentenced to life in prison plus 60 years, according to The Sun News.

Drexel’s mother has also sued Moody for wrongful death and the Myrtle Beach hotel where Drexel stayed for wrongful death and negligence, The Sun News reported. The lawsuit against the Bar Harbor Hotel alleges it did not follow protocol for when a minor showed up unaccompanied.