By Allyson Bird
DeFilippo took her daughter to an event to raise awareness about Drexel, and they followed her case in news reports. So it particularly chilled the family when DeFilippo’s daughter received a Facebook friend request from a person who gave a different girl’s name, but the photo was Drexel.
“She wasn’t going to accept the friendship, but I made her,” DeFilippo said. “Because you never really know.”
Brittany asked the stranger in a message why she used Drexel’s photographs on the Facebook page. The person replied that those pictures were her own, DeFilippo said.
When a reporter sent a message to the person communicating with DeFilippo’s daughter, the person did not respond and blocked the reporter from any further interaction.
Monica Caison, founder and director of the North Carolina-based CUE Center for Missing Persons, said she has seen more than 35 false profiles using Drexel’s image on social media websites since Drexel went missing in April 2009.
“This is the new wave of social media with missing person cases. The exploitation level is so high,” Caison said. “It’s not just happened to Brittanee. It’s all the high-profile cases, especially the young girls.”
One person used Drexel’s photo to participate in an online promotion, and the picture wound up on a commercial that ran during the Super Bowl, Caison said. She reports the phony profiles to law enforcement officers, and they generally disappear within a week.
The fleeting impostors only light up tip lines and distract from more promising leads, Caison said. In some cases, strangers go so far as to set up websites that take donations for a missing person.
Caison worries that tips could come to those people with no law enforcement experience or connections, so she presses to get the websites taken down. On top of the investigative risks, the impostors place an extra emotional burden on family members, Caison said.
“I don’t know what it is that people want to do this type of thing, but they don’t understand how it destroys a family,” she said.
Drexel’s mother, Dawn Drexel, said she gives every tip a close and hopeful look and wonders what prompts the fake pages. She said some teenagers contacted her younger daughter, 14, saying they had locked Brittanee in a basement.
“She has a hard enough time, day by day, dealing with being a teenager and having her sister missing,” Dawn Drexel said on Friday. “It’s pretty sick that people do that and think nothing of it.”
Drexel hopes that anyone with true information about her daughter would come forward instead of hiding behind a webpage. And she hopes that someone does.
“I’ve been working on her case for over two and a half years, and the holidays are very, very, very difficult for me,” Drexel said.
This week, while decorating her Christmas tree, she placed a new ornament on the branches for each of her three children. While hanging Brittanee’s ornament, she broke down.
This, she said, was her daughter’s favorite time of the year.
Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or on Twitter at @allysonjbird.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/dec/18/drexel-impostors-on-facebook/
i just hope she is safe and sound withe her family my heart goes out to all of them
This is just not right. A group of teens contacted Brittanee’s younger sister and joked that she was locked in their basement? That’s not funny, that’s not a typical teenage prank. That is the most sickening thing I have heard in a long time-assuming I’ve heard something even sicker in my lifetime. One of my worst fears is something happening to my brother. I’ve had both a dream where he went missing, and another where I was falsely informed that he was dead. Ever since I’ve feared things like this happening, but those are just horrid fantasies. This is the REALITY for Brittanee Drexel’s younger sister. She’s only a year older than I, and she has had to deal with this for two and a half years. It’s bad enough that her youth is now plagued with fear and worry, others don’t need to give her any more scars than she already has.
I’m sorry for all the terrible things that have happened in the past two and a half years. When I have issues, I really forget that other people are dealing with deaths and heartaches and lost children, while I’m only having a disappointing week. To those who mock the situation at hand, they need to explore the troubled seas of the world, and learn that not everything in life is a big, comedic joke. Maybe one day they will experience heartache, living in fear that they will be attacked. Attacked just as others had been in the past. Since they had done it, who’s to say no one else will? These are fears they are only setting themselves up for in the future.
Your family is not the only one who wants Brittanee back, and who wishes to restore the happiness in your childrens’ youths. May they grow up to be strong, happy people.
-Lauren
I am so sorry for everything you and your family go through everyday. Almost a year ago I saw the disappeared episode that featured Brittanee and ever since then I have checked up on your site to see if she has been found. I want to let you know that your family is always in my prayers. I will continue to check the site for updates and hope and pray and one day she is found safe. Stay strong.
Hallo Family and friends of Brtittanee
I have just watched a program on South African TV about the disappearance of Brittannee…..it is so horrible, such a beautiful girl. I hope and pray that you find her! Be strong…..we will follow the news via internet! Much Love.xx
I hope brittanee is safe and alive all my hope goes to the Drexel family I just hope we find her