Arrest made in ‘cold case’ murders

A Dothan man remains in Dale County Jail in Ozark on no bond after being charged with five counts of capital murder and one count of first-degree rape.

Coley Lewis McCraney, 45, was arrested March 16 and charged in connection with the 1999 deaths of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett.

Beasley and Hawlett were 17 years old in 1999 when their bodies were found Aug. 1, 1999 in the trunk of Beasley’s abandoned vehicle on Herring Avenue in Ozark.

The case has remained unsolved since that time.

At a news conference held March 18, Ozark Police Chief Marlos Walker outlined some of the genetic testing results that led to McCraney’s arrest in the 19-year-old case.

The council chamber in the Ozark Municipal Building was filled to capacity with journalists and law enforcement agency representatives from throughout the Wiregrass who came to the news conference to hear Walker talk about the genetic genealogy testing conducted by Virginia-based Parabon NanoLabs, Inc., a DNA technology company that led to McCraney’s arrest.

Walker said that the 2018 arrest of 72-year-old Joseph Deangelo in California through the use of genealogy and DNA brought national attention to the new advancements in DNA testing and he reached out to the Parabon NanoLabs.

“Last fall I sought the services of Parabon NanoLabs to assist us in the investigation,” Walker said. “Law enforcement agencies across the country use the company’s Snapshot DNA Analysis Service to advance investigations when traditional DNA methods fail to produce any DNA results.”

Walker said that Phenotyping Testing provided a description of an unknown suspect. “Genetic Genealogy helped us identify the family from which he descended and Kinship Testing ultimately narrowed the suspect list down to a single individual.

“We collected a DNA sample from (McCraney) and our state crime lab concurred that it matched the DNA from the crime scene,” Walker said. “The genetic genotyping yielded a match to the DNA sample we had taken from the crime scene in 1999.

“For more than 19 years, the person responsible for the crime has been a mystery,” Walker said, thanking the Parabon team. “Without their assistance we would not be here today.”

Walker described McCraney as a person who had grown up in Ozark, attended “all levels of schools here” and as a truck driver who spent some time in the military. McCraney was arrested by members of the OPD’s Investigations Division, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Alabama Attorney General’s Office without incident during a traffic stop near Parrish Road in Daleville, Walker added. “We had no issues, no problems.”

The state will seek the death penalty in this case, Thirty-third Judicial Circuit District Attorney Kirke Adams told those attending the news conference. “I made that decision about 10 years ago,” the man who has served as district attorney for Dale and Geneva Counties for 14 years said.

“To the family, I can’t thank you enough for your patience,” Adams said. “I cannot imagine what you have been through but I will pledge you this: My office will be the voice for J.B. and Tracie. I pledge to you that.

“This is just the first steps,” Adams added. “I can tell you that a preliminary hearing will be set in the next couple of weeks.”

“What you have heard called a cold case I hope you realize was an open case, an ongoing investigation,” said Alabama Attorney General General Steve Marshall, addressing family members of e Hawlett and Beasley who attended the news conference. “Today is a beginning. It is not ultimately justice for you but what I hope it ultimately does is begin to provide some answers to questions you have thought about for almost 20 years now.’

“DNA evidence recovered from Beasley’s body and clothing helped to create a profile of the suspect but despite our best combined efforts law enforcement were never able to find a genetic match—until now,” Marshall said after the OPD news conference in Ozark.

Marshall noted that McCraney had no prior criminal record which would have previously provided his DNA profile to law enforcement in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) run by the FBI. “McCraney has remained anonymous to investigators until new DNA testing of forensic evidence utilizing family genetic analysis finally led law enforcement to McCraney as a suspect,” Marshall said.

“What today reflects is simply someone who is passionate in providing justice for victims and Chief (Marlos Walker) I commend you for that.”

Walker thanked the Alabama Attorney General’s office, the Dale County Sheriff’s Office, the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Dale County District Attorney’s Office, the Dothan Police Department, the Houston County Sheriff’s Office and the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for assistance in the case.

“Today, all who have sought justice for Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley—including all the residents of the Wiregrass—are finally near closure in this long and painful case,” Marshall said. “Cases are not forgotten, cases are not filed away but instead we are simply looking for that next link.”

“It’s been a long time coming,” Walker said, citing “relief” and joy as reactions from people in the community since the news of McCraney’s arrest. “To the family, we thank you for your patience with law enforcement as we worked to bring this suspect to justice. We know it’s been a tough road, a long road.”

After the results of the genetic tests revealed McCraney’s identity, Walker said he had simply sat in his chair for about three hours. “I had to take a little time to think and reflect,” he said.

“I’m a spiritual guy,” Walker added. “It was all God’s work.”