Timothy Da’Shaun Taylor, a Black man who nearly confessed to killing a white woman, hoping to protect his family from death threats, is now telling his story publicly after investigators identified the real killer. DaShaun Taylor and his father Timothy Shaun Taylor were falsely accused of raping and murdering 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel in 2009 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Speaking to ABC News 4, DaShaun Taylor said his family was threatened, fired from jobs and constantly harassed while facing accusations. The family didn’t find relief until the real killer, registered sex offender Raymond Moody, was arrested in May after he confessed to the crime and led authorities to Drexel’s remains.
“You know the movie 12 Years A Slave? Living under that stuff, it felt like 13 years a slave,” DaShaun Taylor, who was 16 when Drexel went missing, told ABC News 4.
According to the Atlanta Black Star, there were no charges brought against the father and son, but they still remained under investigation.
During a court hearing in 2016, the FBI said the pair killed Drexel and fed her to alligators in a swamp. A jailhouse informant also told investigators that he saw DaShaun raping Drexel with a group of Black men.
The informant failed the polygraph test. Still, the FBI proceeded to say that DaShaun killed Drexel after seeing her missing person flyers.
In his testimony, the informant said he was conducting a drug deal with Taylor at a stash house when he saw Drexel running out of the house. The informant added that he saw Drexel being caught and pistol-whipped, then heard gunshots as he left the house. Adding to his claim, the informant said he later saw the girl’s body wrapped in a carpet which was then disposed in an alligator-infested swamp.
The family’s lawyer, Ryan McKaig, said the FBI tried to pressure DaShaun Taylor into making a confession.
“The whole point of them bringing that prosecution was to put his name in that to put pressure on him,” McKaig said according to the Black Star.
When Moody confessed to the crime, he said he strangled her and hide her body near a boat landing before burying it in Georgetown County.
“The Drexel girl was walking on the sidewalk,” Moody said. “I was smoking pot and she noticed that and walked over to the door and said something about, ‘It smells like good weed.’ I said, ‘Hey yeah you want some? Get in.’ She hopped right in the back without a problem.”
