[Previously on this case:
“Trial Date for 1999 Alabama War Crime Murders”; and
“the usual suspects are up to their usual tricks, engineering a hoax, in seeking to sabotage justice in the war crime trial over the rape-murders of Tracie Hawlett-J.B. Beasley.”]
https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/J.B._Beasley_and_Tracie_Hawlett
Crimes committed on August 1, 1999
Location: Ozark, Alabama
Details: On July 31, 1999, seventeen-year-olds J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett went out to celebrate J.B.’s birthday by going to a party near their Dothan, Alabama homes. However, they got lost and stopped at an Ozark convenience store to ask for directions. Tracie called her mother and told her that they had gotten lost and ended up in Ozark. A lady who worked at the store gave the girls directions back to Dothan. She saw them drive out of the parking lot and onto the highway. This was the last time they were seen alive.
According to authorities, after the girls drove off, someone forced them to a remote location, performed sexual acts on them and shot them in the heads. At 9 A.M. the next morning, the girls’ bodies were discovered in the trunk of J.B.’s car. Their killer has never been caught.
Suspects: Johnny Barrentine was originally arrested after he implicated himself in the murders, claiming that he was at the crime scene. However, he later told authorities that he made up the stories in order to get the $35,000 reward that was being offered at the time. DNA evidence later cleared him in the case.
Extra Notes: The case was not featured on Unsolved Mysteries. It was profiled on America’s Most Wanted and Haunting Evidence during the investigation.
Results: Solved. In March of 2019, Coley McCraney was arrested and charged with J.B. and Tracie’s murders. DNA found on their bodies was matched to McCraney through genetic genealogy. Investigators submitted the DNA profile from the crime scene to a genealogical database. They were then able to locate McCraney by mapping his family tree and identifying his relatives. A similar method was used to capture the Original Night Stalker. McCraney is from Ozark and lived in Dothan prior to his arrest. He had no criminal record and was not considered a suspect prior to the DNA match.
Links:
- 15 year old Double Homicide remains unsolved - August 1, 2014
- Breaking Their Silence: Sisters & Family Talk About Unsolved Murders August 21, 2015
- 19 years pass since double-murder of teen girls in south AL - August 1, 2018
- Who Murdered Teen Friends J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett in 1999? - October 16, 2018
- Man charged in cold case murders of Dothan teens - March 16, 2019
- How Police tracked down suspect Coley McCraney - March 17, 2019
- Anniversary of teen murders, accused killer still awaits trial August 1, 2020
- McCraney's jury trial in deaths of J.B. Beasley, Tracie Hawlett continued to 2021 - September 23, 2020
- J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett at Find a Grave
- Websleuths Discussion Forum
- Tracie Hawlett memorial
4 comments:
jerry pdx
This is the most I could find on the (White?) police officer they claim "really" did it: https://www.wtvy.com/2022/03/17/retired-officer-named-dothan-teens-killer-court/
According to the article, a witness heard him confess to the crime while he was in a drunken stupor.
Article stated that the Channel 4 news station that had somehow obtained this information would not release the identity of the police officer unless he was named in court. Apparently, they are not naming the witness either.
In another article I saw on the case, McRaney's defense attorney's state that DNA is not infallible.
I have to wonder, did anybody says that about the CP5? A simple scan through articles about the case and DNA, show an absolute 100% faith that DNA is infallible and inarguable. Completely ignoring, of course, that the lack of DNA only indicates that Reyes was the only one who committed penetrative rape, it did not prove the CP5 didn't help nearly beat Tricia Meili nearly to death.
"Completely ignoring, of course, that the lack of DNA only indicates that Reyes was the only one who committed penetrative rape, it did not prove the CP5 didn't help nearly beat Tricia Meili nearly to death."
The one colored boy Yusef [Hawkins I think] said he held the woman down while the others raped her, and then he hit her on the head with a brick trying to kill her, but he DIDN'T rape her. Facilitating rape is rape by law, even if his negro you know what did not penetrate her.
jerry pdx
CP5 supporters will of course, claim Hawkins just made it up to get out of the interrogation room. That it was a "false confession". There may be some truth in that because pack were selling each other out trying to mitigate what they did while making the other look more guilty. In his dim way Hawkins thought "well, at least I didn't rape the bitch", I just hit her. He may have sexually assaulted her to but just left that part out. It's not unusual in gang rape situations for just one or a couple of assailants to commit the sexual assault, others will just help facilitate others in the act...and you're right, they should be considered rapists by law also. Rapists often also fail to achieve climax, Reyes was likely the only one to do that. There are other possible scenarios, like maybe Reyes was lurking around, the gang attacked Tricia, beat her and sexually assaulted her but maybe not with penetrative rape, he then went back and finished her off, tying her up to keep her from escaping and beating her to near death. We'll never know the whole truth and what is another huge shame is that likely there were more involved in the attack on Meili, they just got away because it was a large group of around 30 negro and hispanic males involved in the act. That's one of the reasons why they form large packs like that, they know that the sheer numbers make it difficult for law enforcement to catch all of them and the judicial system to prosecute so while a few might get caught, the rest get away.
CP5 supporters will of course, claim Hawkins just made it up to get out of the interrogation room. That it was a 'false confession'. There may be some truth in that because pack were selling each other out trying to mitigate what they did while making the other look more guilty."
That statement of Hawkins was made on Sixty Minutes while he was still in prison.
Post a Comment