Mother of Brittanee Drexel files civil lawsuit against Raymond Moody

GEORGETOWN, S.C. (WCBD) – The mother of Brittanee Drexel has filed a civil lawsuit against the man who admitted to kidnapping and killing her daughter while the teenager was visiting Myrtle Beach on spring break with friends back in April 2009.

Dawn Pleckan, the natural mother of Brittanee Drexel, was the custodial parent at the time of her kidnapping and murder.

The lawsuit alleges Drexel was walking alone in Myrtle Beach after leaving the Blue Water Resort on the night of April 25, 2009, when she was approached by a Ford Explorer driven by Raymond Moody, who was later named a person of interest in the case.

It is believed, based on the investigation and evidence presented, that either Moody or his girlfriend, Angel Vause, lured Drexel and took her to a camping sight near Moody’s home in Georgetown County where she was held against her will before being raped and murdered.

Despite being named a person of interest in 2012, he was never charged in connection with her disappearance or death in the years following.

But Moody was later arrested on May 4, 2022, and charged with obstruction of justice following years of questions from the teen’s family and members of the community regarding her sudden disappearance.

Drexel’s remains were found just days later in a wooded area of Georgetown County and Moody was then charged with murder, kidnapping, and criminal sexual conduct for her death and disappearance.

Since Drexel’s disappearance, Pleckan said she has suffered severe and emotional distress. Something her attorneys say in the lawsuit she will forever experience. The lawsuit states Moody’s actions deprived her of the love and affection that a child can give a parent.

“There is likely no greater sense of loss than that of a parent who has lost a child, such that the murder of a child is such extreme and outrageous conduct that it exceeds all bounds of decency,” the lawsuit reads. “The murder of a child is such that no reasonable man, much less the mother of the child, can be expected to endure the distress of a missing child.”

Moody is currently booked into the Kirkland Correctional Institution in Richland County.

Pleckan is seeking judgment against Moody for all “damages” suffered which resulted from the loss of her daughter and had demanded a jury trial.