AL AL - J.B. Beasley, 17, & Tracie Hawlett, 17, Ozark, 31 July 1999 #1

Bumping this thread on what I'm sure is a difficult day for a couple of families.

Happy Moms day. May God especially bless you all today.

A few days ago I read the Christie Lynn Mullins thread which links to the article written by Websleuths user Nycsleuth that has recently brought about some astonishing developments in that case.

As it turns out, the incredibly well-researched and -written article happens to contain information that sheds some light on one of the key questions we've asked when looking at the Beasley-Hawlett case.

From page 30 of the Mullins article:

There was precious little forensics evidence introduced — no fingerprints, no blood typing, no hair or fiber analysis. Either it didn’t exist, was never collected, or could not reliably be tested.

Dr. Nobuhisa Baba, the deputy coroner, testified that Christie was not raped (she was still a virgin) and that there was no evidence of semen to be found anywhere. A police chemist, however, testified that there appeared to be semen on the bathing suit bottom she was wearing beneath her blue jeans. That seemed inexplicable, given that the jeans, though unzipped, were not pulled down, and her swimsuit bottom was undisturbed.

Another possibility is that whatever semen was there came from the boyfriend of some other girl. Christie and other girls in the neighborhood frequently borrowed bathing suits from one another, and Christie’s sister Melony believes that Christie was wearing a borrowed suit the day she was killed. (A day or so before the murder, Christie had borrowed a suit from an older, sexually active girl, which she never returned.)

Christie did not go in the water the day of the murder, and even if the borrowed suit had been recently washed, that would not necessarily have eliminated all traces of semen. According to one scholarly article, washing semen-stained fabrics with detergent fails to remove the stains 25% of the time.

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Thanks to Nycsleuth for not only giving me permission to quote his article on the Christie Mullins case, but also for sharing the "scholarly article" he refers to:

http://www.lumatec.de/downloads/semen_saliva_e.080501.pdf

To the best of our knowledge, the discovery of semen on the clothes of J.B. Beasley about 70 days after the murders changed the investigation entirely, as suspects have since been ruled out through DNA comparison made possible by that discovery.

We have often wondered about the possibility that the semen originated from a previous (consensual) sexual encounter unrelated to the murders — thus throwing the investigation, as it has seemingly hinged upon DNA evidence, entirely off-track. Now we have a source that indicates this could very well be what happened. To say nothing of the possibility that the clothes J.B. was wearing that night were unwashed.

Or borrowed. At that age, I had the clothes of several besties at my house, wearing them. And they had some of mine. Two of us were not sexually active, one was. It could easily happen!

This doesn't have anything to do with the case, and from what little we've learned this company most likely doesn't either. However, I certainly got a very creepy feeling when it happened due to our sleuthing in the past!

My DD and I were in Dothan yesterday. She's the one that was with me when we went to the Eagle Towing yard and took pictures. We were on 231 leaving the mall. Looked up there was a huge Eagle Towing truck next to us at the traffic light. I suppose it wouldn't have been so creepy if I had ever seen one of their trucks out on the road before, but this was a first. Adding to the creep factor was that we had been in Ozark earlier in the day on a side trip to the vet to pick up meds for her dogs. And we had been talking about the case.

Today I was contacted by Officer Tony Smith of the Headland Police Department. Officer Smith was on patrol the night of July 31, 1999; he is the officer who saw J.B. Beasley's car twice in Headland that night. He wanted to clear up an important discrepancy in our information, and he was also willing to tell me about the two Headland sightings:

The witness [Marilyn Merritt] that stated the car was spotless in Ozark, that was not true. The car was dirty, that's one thing that stuck out with me. I thought to myself, that's a nice car to be dirty. I turned beside them at a red light on the square in Headland. Just wanted to clear that part, the car was dirty just like police photo shows, was not spotless.

I saw them twice, once at BP talking with someone in a tan truck, side by side, and when I turned beside them at red light.

When I saw them it was just them two [in the car], they appeared to be headed out of Headland. The car looked exactly the same as it did from police photo. No one was following them because I turned into the parking lot right behind their car to speak with kids on the square.

I remember all this because it hit me hard knowing I had just saw them.

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A former investigator for the military has agreed to look at the case:

I would be more than willing to volunteer my time. I will read through everything and take good notes. See what I can come up with.

I may have a few retired CID Agents who might try as well.

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I have sent a link to this thread and invited this investigator to join us.

DimeDetective said:

Today I was contacted by Officer Tony Smith of the Headland Police Department. Officer Smith was on patrol the night of July 31, 1999; he is the officer who saw J.B. Beasley's car twice in Headland that night. He wanted to clear up an important discrepancy in our information, and he was also willing to tell me about the two Headland sightings:

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That is very cool of the guy to reach out to you with that info. I take it the red light he's referring to is at Church and Main, I see a little square there. I haven't seen a good photo of the car showing how dirty it was. The first thing that comes to mind as to the discrepancy of the state of the car from the witnesses is, I wonder if they stopped at a car wash before arriving at the BL store. I think there was about an hour between the Headland an Ozark sightings. The discrepancy is odd to say the least.

I can't tell from that phrasing if the red light sighting was the first or last. I'm thinking last? The tan truck I've never heard of. This was probably the friend they were seen talking to at the BP that was mentioned at one point.

DimeDetective said:

To the best of our knowledge, the discovery of semen on the clothes of J.B. Beasley about 70 days after the murders changed the investigation entirely, as suspects have since been ruled out through DNA comparison made possible by that discovery.

We have often wondered about the possibility that the semen originated from a previous (consensual) sexual encounter unrelated to the murders — thus throwing the investigation, as it has seemingly hinged upon DNA evidence, entirely off-track. Now we have a source that indicates this could very well be what happened. To say nothing of the possibility that the clothes J.B. was wearing that night were unwashed.

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The DNA whether related or not I feel has been a hindrance in moving the case forward. With such little exposure of this case in the media the last several years its like they're relying on it solely to provide the answers. The only time they reach out to the public is on the anniversaries and its with with very little effort and what seems to be no strategy whatsoever.

Since we don't know all that they know it could be that they have the same DNA on the steering wheel or other places on the car or other evidence that they might have which tells them with little doubt that the dna is related. For all we know they might have a good timeline on JB's movements that entire day up until they left Tracie's, leading them to believe there was no previous consensual hook up. Besides, the sexual motive seems the likeliest motive with the little we have to go on.

I think I posted way back about the ability of some DNA to withstand a wash cycle so that I've known but if they have it on two separate places on JB, I think that would make this scenario unlikely.

Some fresh eye's wouldn't hurt. They need to reach out to Kelly Siegler while they still have a show and see if she'll take a crack at it. It wouldn't cost them a dime and if nothing else would give this case some exposure.

I totally agree about Kelly Seiglar!

If we all go to the Cold Justice page on TNT' site, they have an area to submit cold cases. I encourage everyone to go there and submit this case. If they get enough submissions, it might make a difference and get the case on the show.

killarney rose said:

If we all go to the Cold Justice page on TNT' site, they have an area to submit cold cases. I encourage everyone to go there and submit this case. If they get enough submissions, it might make a difference and get the case on the show.

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In order to begin an investigation for the show, local law enforcement must invite Cold Justice to examine the case, and the victim's family has to be on board, as well. Perhaps a local petition is in order?

http://www.tntdrama.com/series/cold-justice/tips/

DimeDetective said:

In order to begin an investigation for the show, local law enforcement must invite Cold Justice to examine the case, and the victim's family has to be on board, as well. Perhaps a local petition is in order?

http://www.tntdrama.com/series/cold-justice/tips/

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If they get enough submissions from the public, would it pique their curiosity so that they might contact LE? If LE really wants the case solved and they are not covering up, I would think they would welcome the team coming and the resulting publicity.If nothing else, it could make the killer(s) uncomfortable and they might slip up.


I know that several, myself included have been to the site and submitted the case. I am on board for a petition as well.

killarney rose said:

If they get enough submissions from the public, would it pique their curiosity so that they might contact LE? If LE really wants the case solved and they are not covering up, I would think they would welcome the team coming and the resulting publicity.If nothing else, it could make the killer(s) uncomfortable and they might slip up.

I know that several, myself included have been to the site and submitted the case. I am on board for a petition as well.

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I just submitted the case too. I also posted the link to the submission form on the Facebook page and asked if anyone wants to start a petition (maybe someone who has experience with this will volunteer).

Hopefully Ozark LE will be open to inviting and working with Cold Justice; the fact that they've been willing to feature the case on television shows in the past (America's Most Wanted, Haunting Evidence) is a good sign I think.

I don't know if a local petition would help much, because from what I saw the town looks more like a village (meaning not that many ppl might sign it and as we know the more signatures you have the more the petition is taken seriously)

If ppl from other parts of the continent were to sign a petition, do you think that would count and help more? If the show receives the petition with signatures from everywhere, they will see there is a huge interest to solve this case and not only a local interest.

I'm asking because to reach as many ppl as possible it would be nice having this petition on a site such as change.org which is a well-know petition site.

While it is a small town, Ozark is definitely more than a village. Also, the proximity to Dothan, Ft Rucker and Enterprise will let more people see the petition. Ozark is the Dale County seat. The courthouse is downtown on the square. Its one of the biggest towns in Dale County. Dothan is the city that carries the local TV news so it would be nice to get some publicity there as well. They cover the tri state area. Because the girls are from Dothan, this is a crime that affects that city and they are the biggest city in the area.

Thanks Killarney Rose for the info's about the town! I live far away upnorth in Canada and only saw some photo's here and there hence the reason why I thought it was a village. I hope I didnt sound disrespectful when I said village as it wasnt my intention at all.

But if anyone creates a petition in which ppl from abroad can sign, I will definitively add my name to it!

Not at all Iron_Angel! Just want to kind of give you an idea how the towns were in relation to where they are located..their proximity, etc.

I don't know a thing about starting petitions, however, I think, because WS members are spread out in so many locations that it is a good idea to have the petition set up in such a way that all members have access to signing it.

I was brought here by the post made by Dime Detective on Reddit.

There seems to be some speculation on where the murders were actually committed. Two sites have been mentioned and/or investigated by police.

The first is at Depot Ln and Jones St in Ozark. This is just west of the Big/Little gas station/convenience store from which the girls made their final call. This is fairly easy to see using Google Maps Street View.

The second is described as within the Ozark city limits, south of town along AL-123.

The True Crime Notebook states

"The area, next to what neighbors said is a now-vacant house, is surrounded by trees and has two World War II-era buildings on the property. The spider-web-encrusted buildings — wooden structures that appear to be a barn and a half-collapsed garage — sit about 100 feet off the roadway."

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The True Crime Notebook has this photo of the suspected murder site.

After a bit of Google Street Viewing, I believe this is the same site today.

In examining the two images for points of comparison, we can see the two trees in the foreground on the right side, the fence post and fenced area of the yard to the left, the horizontal construction of the wood on the barn and what appears to be an old tractor appears in both shots in the right "bay" of the barn. In the new imagery, the left side of the barn appears to have mostly collapsed. If you use the Google Street View historic imagery, you can see an image shot in 2008 where the left side of the barn was yet uncollapsed.

If this site on AL-123 was truly the murder site, what strikes me is how close it is to the road itself and how close it is to neighboring properties.

Also, this site is south of US-231, which the girls were trying to reach after being given directions by Marilyn Merritt.

As a local resident to the area pointed out earlier in this thread, the way someone familiar with the area would have driven to US-231 would have been to take AL-27 west to AL-123 and then south on AL-123 to US-231 rather than taking AL-27/AL-249 all the way west to where it intersects with US-231.

The questions that this location raises for me are:

If the girls were trying to reach US-231 via AL-123, why/how did they miss the MAJOR intersection at US-231/AL-123?

If they did miss the intersection due to confusion/darkness, etc, why did they continue for another 2 miles before turning around?

Is it possible that they missed the intersection, traveled 2 miles before realizing their error and decided to use the driveway at the suspected murder site to make a quick turn around and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and encountered the killer?

Random chance encounter results in a multiple murder with the vehicle moved all the way back to Herring Rd in Ozark? Seems unlikely to me.

Could the girls have missed the intersection and then been flagged down by someone at/near the suspected murder site?

It seems unlikely to me that someone would use this area as a pre-meditated murder site unless they were using the barn/house on the property given how exposed the yard area is to the road and how close the property itself is to other properties. This isn't exactly a secluded site by any means.

Anyway, this line of thinking leads me to more questions, but I'll just leave this post to see what others think.

Cheers!

I'm curious now. If indeed the Google Street view of the suspected murder site is correct, then was this house occupied at that time? Who lived there?

Welcome to WS Gimpalong!

Killarney Rose,

The True Crime Notebook states:

The area, next to what neighbors said is a now-vacant house, is surrounded by trees and has two World War II-era buildings on the property. The spider-web-encrusted buildings — wooden structures that appear to be a barn and a half-collapsed garage — sit about 100 feet off the roadway.

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Using Dale County's GIS [Geographic Information System] for property information, it appears that house/barn at the suspected murder site is part of a larger 130 acre parcel that has been owned by the same people since 1993. The property includes both the falling down barn as well as what the True Crime Notebook calls a "now-vacant house" in addition to a currently occupied [2014] house. So three structures sit on the property in relatively close proximity to one another along the road way.

Whether the "vacant" house on the property was occupied in 1999 is hard to determine. It's also impossible to say if the other house on the property, just north of the "vacant" house and barn was occupied.

So, in this image, all of the structures belong to the same people.

So the house on the left is owned by the same people who also own the barn and run-down/"vacant" house on the right.

It is also interesting to note, again using the GIS, that the property contains both a creek (Klondike Creek according to the legal description) and a small pond. The creek sits on the far side of the property quite a ways from the road, but the pond is closer to the structures.

Very interesting! I wonder if the residents of the brick house are the ones that heard the gunshots the night of the murder?

Gunshots, shell casings, water on the property really add to the likelihood of this being the murder scene.