'I Was a Monster,' Says Brittanee Drexel's Killer

The man arrested in May in the 2009 disappearance of 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel pleaded guilty to murder on Wednesday, calling himself a "monster." Raymond Moody, 62, was sentenced to life in prison for murder, kidnapping, and first-degree sexual misconduct. Prosecutors said the registered sex offender had confessed to the crimes—though they described elements of his confession as "self-serving"—and led them to the site south of Myrtle Beach where he buried her body, the Democrat and Chronicle reports. Drexel had been visiting South Carolina with friends from Rochester, New York, for spring break.

According to Moody's version of events, he was driving through Myrtle Beach with his girlfriend, Angel Vause, when they saw Drexel and invited her to party with them. He said they smoked marijuana at a campsite and after Vause left, he raped and strangled Drexel when she rejected his advances. In her victim impact statement, Dawn Pleckan said evidence contradicted Moody's claim that her daughter went with him voluntarily. "She fought for her life," Pleckan said. "We know now she scratched the hell out of your face, head and neck. You will forever carry the scars of what my daughter did to you and I hope you are haunted by her." She urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence. "I hope you suffer in prison for the rest of your useless life," she told Moody.

Pleckan said Moody's crime was especially sickening because he has three daughters of his own. Prosecutors say a breakthrough in the case came when advances in technology allowed them to determine the exact time Drexel's cellphone went from walking speed to driving speed, which led them to surveillance footage of Moody's SUV, the AP reports. Moody said he killed the teen after forcing her to have sex with him because he didn't want to go back to prison, where he served 20 years for the 1983 kidnap and rape of a 9-year-old girl in California. "I served 20 years and I thought it was enough, but it wasn't," he said. "I was a monster then, and I was a monster when I took Brittanee Drexel's life." (More South Carolina stories.)