Thursday, February 16, 2012

BRITTANEE DREXEL UPDATE: RAYMOND MOODY, CHILD RAPIST, PERSON-OF-INTEREST

Sex offender eyed in cold case disappearances of 2 women in South Carolina
By Cristina Corbin
Published February 16, 2012  /  FoxNews.com

A convicted child rapist is being eyed by South Carolina cops in the disappearances of two young women, including a New York teenager who disappeared while on spring break in Myrtle Beach almost three years ago, FoxNews.com has learned.

Detectives say Raymond Moody is the primary “person of interest” in the 2009 disappearance of 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel, who was last seen on surveillance video leaving a popular Myrtle Beach hotel along Ocean Boulevard in a case that sparked widespread media coverage. Moody, who served 21 years in prison for abducting and raping a California girl in 1983, is also being looked at in connection with another missing woman, 28-year-old Crystal Soles, law enforcement sources told FoxNews.com.

Both women are presumed dead, though exhaustive searches in the rugged terrain between Myrtle Beach and Moody's home some 50 miles south of the popular destination have been fruitless. Authorities have classified Drexel's disappearance a "cold case," meaning they renew their probe whenever they receive credible, new information. Myrtle Beach investigators have received such information within the last week, though they declined to elaborate.

Drexel, a high school junior from the Rochester area, went with friends and without her mom's permission to Myrtle Beach on April 23, 2009. A video camera at the Blue Water Resort captured her leaving the hotel on April 25 close to 9 p.m., police said. The footage is the last known sighting of her.

Investigator Phillip Hanna of the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office said a signal from Drexel’s cellphone was detected about 50 miles south of Myrtle Beach later that night – in a remote boat landing area near the South Santee River and roughly 8 miles from the Sunset Lodge apartments in Georgetown County where Moody had been living at the time.

READ: UPDATE ON MISSING BRITTANEE DREXEL; RAYMOND MOODY IS PERSON OF INTEREST...
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/16/south-carolina-sex-offender-eyed-in-cold-case-disappearances-brittanee-drexel/

Sunday, February 12, 2012

TACOMA, WA: SUSAN POWELL'S SONS, CHARLIE AND BRADEN, MORE THAN A THOUSAND AT FUNERAL

AP / Feb. 11, 2012: Photos of Charlie, right, and Braden Powell are displayed next to the casket they shared during their funeral service.

                                   Kids Choir Sings At Charlie And Braden Powell's Funeral
More than a thousand remember Powell boys at public funeral
Published February 12, 2012  /  Associated Press  /FOX NEWS

TACOMA, Wash. – More than a thousand people mourned the deaths of Charlie and Braden Powell at a public funeral Saturday, nearly a week after the young boys' father killed them and himself in a gas-fueled blaze.

"We want to celebrate their innocence today," said the Rev. Dean Curry, lead pastor of Life Center Church in Tacoma. "We want to be grateful for the moments we had with these children."

The boys' grandfather Chuck Cox thanked police, social workers, teachers and everyone who cared for Charlie, 7, and Braden, 5, as well as people who had prayed for the boys after they died.

It "helps us to know that there are good people in the world -- good people who fight against evil," Cox said.

At the front of the church's sanctuary, the boys were in a single casket topped with a large flower arrangement that included daisies, roses and sunflowers.

"We know that they're with their mother," Cox said, remembering his daughter, Susan Powell, who has been missing for two years and is presumed dead.

The boys' father, Josh Powell, was in the middle of a custody battle with Cox when he torched his rental home in Graham last Sunday.

Josh Powell was a person of interest in his wife's disappearance in Utah two years ago, and prosecutors consider the fire an admission that he killed her.

Cox gained custody of the children more than five months ago after police arrested Josh Powell's father, Steve, on voyeurism and child pornography charges.

The kids were arriving for a supervised visit when Josh Powell blocked a social worker from entering the home. He then attacked the boys with a hatchet and torched the house, authorities said.

Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said Saturday that Josh Powell's body will be released to a cousin Monday.

About 1,200 people attended the boys' funeral at Life Center Church in Tacoma. Many of them wore purple and blue ribbons in memory of Susan, Charlie and Braden.

READ: MEMORIAL FOR SUSAN POWELL'S BELOVED SONS, CHARLIE AND BRADEN...
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/12/thousands-remember-powell-boys-in-public-funeral/