GEORGETOWN — Residents of a quiet neighborhood say there's something ominous brewing in the thick woods surrounding a dead-end, gravel road on the outskirts of the city. 
Foxfire Court used to go unnoticed by locals. The woods and swamp surrounding the short roadway are filled with biting insects and snakes, and the ground is littered with cast-off plastic bottles and aluminum cans. It ends after just a tenth of a mile and even longtime residents of the neighborhood, known locally as Greentown, say they had no reason to see what lay beyond the trees.
But everything changed after FBI agents showed up on Friday morning. Investigators cordoned off the road in yellow crime scene tape. Slowly, word got out that the activity was connected to the 2009 disappearance of Brittanee Drexel. The 17-year-old went missing after sneaking away from her home in New York to spend spring break in Myrtle Beach.
Shakira Wright, a 25-year-old who grew up in the community, said she was in disbelief and that the heavy law enforcement presence that continued Saturday was shocking to a community where many have never encountered federal authorities. 
"I don't see why anybody would go back there," Wright said as she smoked a cigarette and looked toward the woods. 
Brandon Hanna, a resident of the area for about a year, stood near Foxfire Court as unmarked vehicles drove in and out of the crime scene.
He, too, was shocked.
"I would have never thought that something like that would happen here," Hanna said.
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Brittanee Drexel was last seen on a security camera April 25, 2009, leaving a Myrtle Beach hotel. (Provided)
Several other residents described Greentown as a peaceful neighborhood with young families where people look after each other. Many said they felt for the Drexel family and that they'd been following Brittanee's case for years.
News of the connection to the unsolved missing persons case traveled through the city. On Saturday, people drove by the road and slowed down, craning their necks to see what they could see. Others came to a complete stop, rolled down their windows and asked nearby reporters what was going on beyond the crime scene tape.
"That's like a shocker," said one longtime resident, who declined to provide his name. "I'm praying and hoping for them."
Federal agents and local authorities began their search on Friday morning, concentrating on a wooded area and open field off of Foxfire Court, said Don Wood, a supervisory agent with the FBI. As the search continued throughout the day Saturday, authorities brought in a large excavator.
Wood did not comment on whether the search was related to the Drexel case but said the agency did not need a warrant to search this area in Georgetown County.
"The FBI and our partners have followed leads since last summer," Wood said in a statement Saturday.
Brad Conway, an attorney who represents Drexel's mother, Dawn, said the activity is related to the case but that no other information was available. Dawn Pleckan declined to comment for this story.
Brittantee Drexel, a Rochester, N.Y., teen who snuck away to the Grand Strand on spring break, was last seen April 25, 2009, on a Myrtle Beach hotel security camera.
She told her mother she was spending the weekend at a friend's house after her parents told her she couldn't go to Myrtle Beach because of poor grades. They didn't find out she had disobeyed their wishes until she had already gone missing.
Drexel's cell phone gave off its last signal near the South Santee River in Georgetown County the day after her disappearance. 
In a 2012 letter sent to a Myrtle Beach television station, Drexel's mother said she learned through text messages to Brittanee's then-boyfriend that her daughter had been miserable and packed to leave Myrtle Beach the day she disappeared.
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She vanished, however, after going to the Blue Water Resort to get a pair of shoes she left in a vehicle there earlier in the day, the letter said.
Authorities have pursued leads back and forth from Myrtle Beach to McClellanville for years without luck before catching a break in August. A prison inmate came forward with information that authorities used to piece together what they believe happened to Drexel.
She was abducted, gang-raped, shot to death and thrown into an alligator-infested swamp in a densely forested area near McClellanville, according to the FBI.
For nearly seven years, the Drexel family held on to hope that Brittanee was still alive. That hope vanished after the FBI's announcement last year.  
The inmate, Taquan Brown of Walterboro, told investigators that he went to a "stash house" near McClellanville days after Drexel went missing and implicated Timothy Da'shaun Taylor, then 16, and his father Shaun Taylor in the teen's death.
No body has been found, but the FBI has said that “several witnesses have told us Miss Drexel’s body was placed in a pit, or gator pit, to have her body disposed of. Eaten by the gators.”
David Aylor, an attorney who represents Timothy Da'shaun Taylor, said on Saturday that his client continues to deny any involvement in the teen's disappearance or alleged death.
No charges have been filed against Taylor or his father and federal authorities have found no evidence to link them to the case, Aylor said.
"He's refuted that account," he said. "We only wish the best for the Drexel family." 
Information on how long authorities planned to search the area, and why they believe the scene near Georgetown is connected to the case was not available