by Maren Spangler
I heard about Brittanee Drexel walking down the street last week, listening to a true crime podcast. I often enjoyed “mysterious” or unsolved cases I came across, but this one was different. Not only was the girl only a year older from my current age, but her tragedy occurred in the place I call home. South Carolina could be dangerous, but overall, it’s not that much different than any other state … right?
In 2009, Brittanee went on spring break vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, traveling 806 miles from her home city of Rochester, New York. She was having an awful time, bullied by the kids who invited her to go with them, kids she called friends who promised her it would be fun, that she was one of them. If she had been able to leave, if one of them offered to drive her home, maybe she’d still be alive. Maybe if she had known the danger Myrtle Beach held, she would have texted her mom. But she didn’t know what would happen, how could she have? She had snuck out, said she was going to a nearby friend’s house, hopped in a car going seventeen hours south, and was now stuck in a new city.
On April 5, 2009, Brittanee disappeared, attempting to return the shorts she had borrowed from another girl. She was walking late at night, to the hotel, but vanished before she arrived. That’s it. The rest of the story is her mom and stepfather searching frantically for her for thirteen years. Now, the podcast I was listening to, appropriately named “Morbid,” labeled her case unsolved, but since the recording, it has been solved and closed. So, what happened to Brittanee Drexel?
Human trafficking is one of the most significant crimes in America. The targets are normally young girls or women who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, at completely no fault of their own. Targets like Brittanee, who was murdered shortly after her kidnapping because all the media attention made her a “liability.” Maybe if she had told her mom where she was going, it wouldn't have happened. Maybe if she had gone with better people. But how many theories can you propose until you realize she was never the problem? What would have saved her is fixing Myrtle Beach, fixing South Carolina. Anyone’s chance of being a victim of crime here is one in fifteen, according to Neighborhood Scout’s Security Gauge, making Myrtle Beach one of the most dangerous cities in America. In fact, it’s a worse place to be than even Chicago in terms of violent crime.
If there was something I could improve in South Carolina, it would be our knowledge and safety measures for human trafficking. Brittanee was only one of thousands, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, of girls and young women being abused and humiliated daily for the amusement of people walking the streets of Myrtle Beach, Columbia, or even my own city, Charleston.
All my peers and I should not have to be scared to walk at night, or to pass a random van on the side of the road. I should not have to be “constantly vigilant” with keys between my fingers and emergency services on speed dial. I should not have to avoid being a victim because the risk of being one never should have been a problem.Instead, I should be able to go on spring break and be safe. Brittanee Drexel should have been able to be safe. She should have been able to hug her mom again. She should have been able to hold her boyfriend’s hand when she got home.
The state of South Carolina failed her and fails hundreds of girls every day. It was Brittanee, but it is also my best friend, my cousin, your sister, your daughter. It is me and every girl who has felt the fear of being alone and targeted. We are all potential victims of sexual and violent crime. We are all terrified. I call upon the state of South Carolina, on school board members, on government officials, and parents of a child you love. I call on you to help us.
Educate your children. Teach your sons to be good and safe and to offer to drive a girl even seventeen hours to prevent violence. Teach your daughters to be friends, to protect our own, to not let someone walk alone at night just to return a pair of shorts. But most of all, ask yourselves the question: what have you done for girls like Brittanee? You can always be doing more. More learning, more research, more prevention. South Carolina can be whatever we want it to be, and we want it to be safe.
About Maren Spangler
Maren Spangler is a junior at Charleston County School of the Arts, where she studies creative writing under Danielle Detiberus, Francis Hammes, and Beth Webb Hart. The daughter of Janet and Jim Spangler, Maren is a regional winner of multiple Scholastic Arts and Writing awards in poetry, non-fiction, and fiction. After publishing a novel as her senior thesis, she plans to earn a college degree and a Ph.D. in neuroscience.