Jury Awards Family Half A Billion Dollars In Punitive Damages After Murder Of Teen On Spring Break

A South Carolina jury awarded a family $700 million in damages after a 17-year-old girl was murdered on spring break in 2009, Fox News reported.

Dawn Pleckan, the mother of teen Brittanee Drexel, filed suit in January 2023 accusing the man who killed her daughter, Raymond Moody, as well as Bar Harbor Resort, Inc. and Smith Family Partners, LLC, of wrongful conduct resulting in Drexel’s death, according to Fox News. Drexel was on vacation with her friends in Myrtle Beach when she was kidnapped, raped and murdered.

The jury found in February that Moody caused the teen’s family emotional distress, awarding them $500 million in punitive damages and $200 million in actual damages, the outlet reported, citing county records. (RELATED: Court Awards LA Man $50,000,000 After Suffering Major Injuries From Spilled Starbucks Drink).

Moody’s girlfriend, Angel Cooper Vause, 57, was recently sentenced to 18 years in prison for lying to federal investigators about the role she played in Drexel’s death and kidnapping, the outlet noted.

The last time Drexel was seen alive was on April 25, 2009, after she left the beach and Bar Harbor Hotel to meet with a friend at another nearby resort, Fox News reported. Around 9:00 p.m. that night, Drexel was seen walking alone when Moody approached her in a Ford Explorer, kidnapped her and brought her to a remote campsite near his home in Georgetown. Moody then raped and killed her, the outlet reported. He also threw Drexel’s phone into the North Santee River and buried her in a “shallow grave,” according to the outlet.

2009 spring break murder victim Brittanee Drexel’s family awarded $700M in civil suit https://t.co/ERRnA1ei0h pic.twitter.com/Ab9eNgDS6X

— New York Post (@nypost) March 16, 2025

Vause is accused of luring the teen into the vehicle, supposedly promising to give her a ride back to the hotel in which she was staying, Fox News reported, citing the Justice Department. Vause reportedly kept details of her involvement and Drexel’s murder a secret before officials found Drexel’s remains in 2022.

Moody pleaded guilty to the kidnapping, raping and murder of Drexel in October 2022 and was sentenced to life in prison, according to the outlet.

“For more than a decade, Brittanee’s loved ones were left to imagine the worst possible scenario in Brittanee’s disappearance while Vause withheld the truth,” U.S. Attorney Adair Ford Boroughs said in a statement. “We hope Brittanee’s loved ones can now have both the closure and a measure of justice that comes with this sentence. May she rest in peace knowing that her mother Dawn was relentless in her pursuit of justice.”