MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. In the hours following her daughter's disappearance, Dawn Drexel said she wanted answers to several questions, most importantly "Where is Brittanee?" and "Who is searching for her?"

When 17-year-old Brittanee Marie Drexel disappeared April 25, many of her family members and friends made the 800-mile trip from Rochester, N.Y., to Myrtle Beach to learn those answers from police.

"They were working on tips and leads," Dawn Drexel said. "They were doing what their protocol follows."

While the search for Brittanee Drexel was widely publicized, even drawing national media attention, her disappearance is just one of the 141 cases of missing persons between the ages of 15 and 25 reported so far this year in Horry County. Thirty-nine cases have been reported this year in Georgetown County and 55 in Brunswick County N.C., according to the FBI National Crime Information Center.

None of the disappearances is considered suspicious, and many of the cases are now considered closed because the people were located, officials said. The numbers demonstrate the fine line investigators must tread when called on to find older teens and young adults. Those cases can be the most challenging because it can be time consuming to determine if the missing person has simply run away from home, investigators said.

For law enforcement officials, each case is unique but their response must follow specific guidelines.

"Each case deserves its own special treatment," said Capt. David Knipes, spokesman for the Myrtle Beach Police Department. "Every situation is different because you are dealing with different circumstances and different individuals."

The first 24 to 48 hours are crucial in a search for a missing person, Knipes said.

Officers try to interview witnesses who last spoke to the missing person while the memories are fresh in their minds. Authorities gather a photo of the person and obtain any security videos of where he or she was last seen.

Officers must quickly determine the person's mental status, health issues, and recent relationships with friends and family members to determine what route to take.

"It's not like the old days when you had to wait for 24 hours before police would go looking," Knipes said. "Those first 48 hours are a crucial time to get out there before the case goes cold."

When a case is considered suspicious, the subject's name immediately is placed into an FBI missing persons database.

Family members or police officials can also notify the CUE Center for Missing Persons in Wilmington, N.C., which has 1,852 open cases across the country as of June 17.

"With Brittanee, we hit the ground running because there was hope, and there still is, that she could be alive," said Monica Caison, founder of CUE. "Finding her was vital immediately."

Police and CUE officials said it can be difficult to deal with friends and family members of a missing person in the hours following a disappearance.

"You just try to tell family members that there are people out there looking for them," Caison said. "They need to know that they are not alone, that there are people looking for them."

Myrtle Beach police detective Vincent Dorio said the hours following Brittanee Drexel's disappearance were "overwhelming" because officers were trying to interview people at the scene, and others who had left Myrtle Beach to return to New York.

In Drexel's case, police were able to quickly determine that the teen was not a runaway, Dorio said.

Plus, officers learned that Drexel was dealing with depression, which added to the urgency of locating her.

"It only took a few hours to change from 'This is a missing persons case and we have to hunt her down pretty quick' to 'This is serious,'" Dorio said. "This is not a kid hiding at the beach to stay away from mom. She just stopped all communication immediately, which wasn't the norm for her."

Police often receive calls about missing children who turn up at a friend's or neighbor's house the next day, said Sgt. Robert Kegler, spokesman for Horry County police.

"A lot of times parents will come out and tell you the child has left without permission," Kegler said. "If that happens, they are a runaway. But you are likely to get as much [police] response to a recovery of a 5-year-old who went missing from a backyard as you would a 16-year-old who snuck out to see his girlfriend. No two incidents are the same."

Law enforcement officials also said they must balance the priority of finding a missing person with giving up patrols in other areas, Knipes said.

"It can also depend on the time of year," Knipes said. "If it's December and nothing is going on, you can devote more resources to handle one case."

Dawn Drexel said local police made her feel like Brittanee's case was important and that officials were "very supportive" in the hours after her daughter's disappearance.

"They had police looking on Ocean Boulevard right away," Dawn Drexel said. "In Brittanee's case, they had quite a few people working on it."

Three officers in Myrtle Beach are continuing to monitor the case and follow up any potential leads they receive.

"We talk to the police every day, or every other day," Dawn Drexel said.

The family is also still searching and placing signs in the area. They held a fundraiser in Mount Pleasant last weekend. The money collected will go toward helping to print fliers and paying for hotel, gas and meal expenses for the team of people searching for Drexel.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Myrtle Beach Police Department at 918-1382 or 918-1952.

Crime Stoppers is also offering a reward for anyone with information leading to finding Drexel. Call 888-274-6372.

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