when i had brittanee, i was 20. kind of still young to have a child, but it brought a lot of joy into my life. >> when brittanee came into our lives, it was a big surprise, a welcome surprise, but we were very young. >> but when brittanee was about 2 years old, her parents, dawn and john, decided to go their separate ways. >> things just didn't work. we were kids ourselves and lost touch. >> they had separated, and her mom had married chad drexel. they live up in rochester. rochester's upstate new york. >> brittanee had a little sister, myrissa, and she had a little brother, cam. >> that one's brittanee. that's myrissa and camdyn. >> i was the middle child in the siblings. >> i was 12 years apart from brittanee and very close with her, even though i was little. >> oh, my god. she adored him. look at how happy he was. >> she was just always my protector. she was always there to hold us, to comfort us, to make sure we're always safe anywhere we went. >> we became best friends from day one. she was a very, very kind an