Is Mystery of Missing Spring Breaker Nearing an End?

(April 12) -- Almost a year after a New York teen vanished while on spring break in Myrtle Beach, S.C., news wires have begun buzzing with reports about people of interest and possible arrests in the case.

But even though authorities say a break in the disappearance of Brittanee Drexel is "at our fingertips," they're still looking at several individuals and are not ready to issue any warrants.

"Let me clarify to you: These are not guys that just popped up last week," Lt. Neil Johnson, a Georgetown County Sheriff's Office spokesman, told AOL News. "We've been looking at these guys since about the first of the year, and we're not fixing to make an arrest."

The 17-year-old Drexel was last seen by friends on April 25, 2009, when she left the Bar Harbor Hotel in Myrtle Beach to meet friends at the nearby BlueWater Resort. Surveillance footage shows Drexel arriving at the resort, then leaving roughly 10 minutes later. What happened to her after that remains a mystery.

Johnson said the people of interest include three, possible four, individuals who live in the Myrtle Beach area. He declined to name them, and none has been charged.

"About 20 people have given us information, and the information they're giving to us is leading back to these few, but it's not enough to get an arrest warrant," Johnson said. "I would love to be able to get probable cause to get an arrest warrant to put them in jail today, but we don't have it.

"We feel like it is right there at our fingertips, but we've got to wait until we get enough."

Johnson wouldn't comment on what type of information the authorities have received, but he did say it has led them to believe Drexel is no longer alive.

Her family is not yet ready to give up hope, however. "They have no evidence. They have not found her body, and that's why our hope is alive," Drexel's aunt, Keri Drexel, told AOL News. "We need answers. Somebody knows something. Someone out there has the piece of the puzzle we've been looking for."

Monica Caison, director of the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons in Wilmington, N.C., agrees with Drexel's aunt.

"As an advocate for the missing, I will always remain hopeful," she said. "For the past nine months, [while leading search efforts] I have looked in the woods -- and I think it is obvious that we were looking for a deceased individual there -- but also during those nine months I have looked at everything that could possibly point to her being alive, too."

In the event her niece is no longer alive, Keri Drexel said she wants those responsible to know they will be held accountable.

"Who do they think they are, taking an individual from our family and doing something to her?" Keri Drexel said. "If somebody has, they're going to pay dearly. The whole family is going to stand behind it 100 percent and make sure they pay."

Meanwhile, an event planned for April 25 in Brittanee Drexel's hometown of Rochester, N.Y., has been postponed so her family can travel to Myrtle Beach to join other relatives in a march and candlelight vigil for the missing teen.

"I feel I need to return now to where my daughter was last seen in an effort to ask people not to give up looking for her," said Brittanee's mother, Dawn Drexel.

"I cannot focus here in light of the newly released information regarding my daughter," she added.