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An alleged co-conspirator in the 2009 kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of 17-year-old Britanee Drexel has rejected a federal plea deal and will stand trial this fall on charges of lying to federal agents.
And perhaps additional charges…
Angel Cooper Vause, 56, of Georgetown, South Carolina could also face a kidnapping charge, according to attorneys in the office of Adair Ford Boroughs, the top federal prosecutor in the Palmetto State.
Vause appeared on Tuesday morning (August 27, 2024) in U.S. district court in Charleston, S.C. – where she was expected to enter into a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. The girlfriend of confessed murderer Raymond Moody, Vause was indicted by Boroughs’ office five months ago on three counts of “making false statements to federal investigators.”
Vause was set to plead guilty to two of those charges this week – but changed her mind at the last minute.
According to a news release announcing her indictment, Vause “lied to investigators with the FBI during the investigation into the 2009 disappearance and murder of Brittanee Drexel.”
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Drexel – of Chili, New York – vanished without a trace from a Myrtle Beach, S.C. hotel on April 25, 2009. Her disappearance remained a mystery until May of 2022, when her remains were discovered in a wooded area west of Georgetown, S.C.
Moody confessed to killing Drexel – and was subsequently charged with murder, kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct in the first degree in connection with her homicide. As we reported at the time, the Myrtle Beach, S.C. police department first named Moody as a person of interest in connection with Drexel’s disappearance on February 16, 2012. Prior to that, police searched an apartment where he resided at the Sunset Lodge on U.S. Highway 17 on August 1, 2011 – more than two years after Drexel was last seen.
Nothing was found there linking him to the missing teenager, however.
Meanwhile, based on the word of a jailhouse informant, the federal investigation got stuck on the wrong suspect – then-26-year-old Timothy Da’shaun Taylor. Our founding editor wrote extensively about the case against Taylor at the time, including the filing of a controversial “double jeopardy” charge against Taylor in the hopes of forcing him to confess to his alleged involvement in Drexel’s abduction and murder.
Despite the federal pressure, Taylor steadfastly maintained his innocence.
“I had no involvement with anything to do with Brittanee Drexel,” Taylor told us back in 2016.
Look for extensive coverage of his lawsuit in the weeks and months to come…
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RELATED | CHARGES FILED IN DREXEL CASE
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As for Vause, she rejected the plea deal after learning she could spend up to 16 years in prison – not the ten years she was expecting. She had reportedly agreed to plead guilty to two counts of lying to federal investigators – charges which would carry a maximum sentence of five years each. However, since the crime involved the sexual abuse and murder of a minor, the maximum sentence could be up to eight years for each charge.
There is no parole in the federal system.
U.S. district court judge Richard Gergel granted a ten-day continuance and Vause appeared in court on Tuesday and rejected the plea deal. A pretrial hearing has been set in Charleston for November 15, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. EST.
As with anyone accused of committing any crime, Vause is considered innocent until proven guilty by our criminal justice system – or until such time as she may wish to enter some form of allocution in connection with a plea agreement with prosecutors related to any of the charges filed against her.
In addition to contemplating additional charges against Vause, prosecutors made it clear they planned on laying out every detail of the Drexel case – promising the public would “see how the FBI put the case together.”
Count on our media outlet to keep close tabs on that process… and to keep tabs on the civil lawsuit filed by Timothy Taylor.
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THE PLEA DEAL…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Callie Lyons is a journalist, researcher and author. Her 2007 book ‘Stain-Resistant, Nonstick, Waterproof and Lethal’ was the first to cover forever chemicals and their impact on communities – a story later told in the movie ‘Dark Waters’. Her investigative work has been featured in media outlets, publications, and documentaries all over the world. Lyons also appears in ‘Citizen Sleuth’ – a 2023 documentary exploring the genre of true crime.
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