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

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For some reason I was under the impression that the phone back then was at the opposite end of the parking lot where the vacuum is located. maybe something I read years ago but I'm unable to find anything that states this so we'll go with it being where it is now unless we hear different.

and I take it the abandoned building is a old train depot? still wonder what led them there.
 
Has anyone checked if Kemberley Ramers car keys were also missing? Given the similarities between the cases apart from jB & Tracie being 2 females instead of just one.

MOO
 
Video #1:
State Route 123 South​

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SR 123, Ozark, AL - YouTube

Heading south on SR 123 immediately after making the left turn from Hwy 27 in downtown Ozark. If the girls made it beyond Depot Lane, this may have been the route the girls took as directed by Marilyn Merritt on the night of July 31.

Hopefully this video conveys the general feel of this stretch of 123 south — four lanes, lots of businesses though many appear to be closed down. As the video ends we are nearing Edna Drive.

Please pardon the shakiness and quality of the image. This was recorded on an iPhone from a moving vehicle.
 
Dixie811 said:
Thanks for all the leg work, Killarney Rose! Those pictures are really great.

I also feel as though JB was the target. Perhaps because of her more difficult family life (wasn't she in foster care at the time of the murders? Correct me if I'm wrong!) maybe the killer found her more vulnerable?
Click to expand...

Her dance instructor was her legal guardian and I don't ever remember a statement regarding this case attributed to the instructor. In fact I'm not sure if male or female.
 
ceecee30 said:
Has anyone checked if Kemberley Ramers car keys were also missing? Given the similarities between the cases apart from jB & Tracie being 2 females instead of just one.
Click to expand...

Great question, ceecee. I zeroed in on Kemberly's car keys too, hoping to find that same connection, and in every single MSM report and missing persons site summary I could find where her car keys are mentioned, it is stated that her keys were left behind with the rest of her belongings.
 
Video #2:
Edna Drive

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Edna Drive, Ozark, AL - YouTube

Turning left from SR 123 onto Edna Drive, which will take us toward James Street and Herring Avenue.

Edna is heavily wooded on both sides, and there are absolutely no lights down here.

At the tail end of the video we see a break in the desolation, as an apartment is glimpsed on the left.
 
LR1 said:
Did you happen to check out the Ozark offenders and spot the one that was convicted of 2nd degree rape in Dale county (Ozark) back in 1995 and has a 1999 Chevy S-10 and lives on the same road barrentine lived on back in 99 very near the b/l store?

I cant tell from the page the length of his sentence however neither can I place him as living their in 99 so probably another dead end.

Does anyone happen to know when Al. started requiring offenders to register?
I cant find that for some reason.
Click to expand...

There were almost three hundred of them and I knew that if I went through each profile that I'd just strain my eyes plus it was after 1am. I just looked at the guys that seemed to be in their mid-thirties. For some reason I was thinking "Dothan" as Dime pointed out earlier. LR1, If you'd be so kind, could you link that profile here so that we all can take a look at it?
 
DimeDetective said:
Video #2:
Edna Drive

_____​


Edna Drive, Ozark, AL - YouTube

Turning left from SR 123 onto Edna Drive, which will take us toward James Street and Herring Avenue.

Edna is heavily wooded on both sides, and there are absolutely no lights down here.

At the tail end of the video we see a break in the desolation, as an apartment is glimpsed on the left.
Click to expand...

I see that. I also notice a drop-off to the left. I wonder if LE has ever went over this area with metal detectors, or near the creek for that matter.
 
Photo File #3:
Herring Avenue/The Memorial

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Looking down Herring Avenue toward James Street, the memorial on the left:

f7a638fa-9520-4835-93e7-8974ee8ce7cb.jpg




fff5b561-2135-4079-b1c1-b9e54b7e59ac.jpg




5a3f8081-b0c9-4040-b6b6-a44adc896c25.jpg




09595694-4932-4978-b716-259fa5516a79.jpg




67092769-ecf6-436b-8c0a-1eff864a919f.jpg
 
You know..we keep going over the distance thing, realizing it doesn't make sense. Maybe the girls were being followed. (Not necessarily by someone they knew) but lets say they were. They took a bunch of backroads and didn't get necessarily lost. They were just freaked out. When they think they've lost the person they try to shake it off, not letting it ruin their night and they stop. But they didn't know that the person just took a different rout headed toward the same destination. Make sense?
(I was followed by a bunch of kids one time, speaking from personal experience..I went and parked at the best nearby lit place where either the person had to confront me..or continue down the road.)
 
DimeDetective said:
Great question, ceecee. I zeroed in on Kemberly's car keys too, hoping to find that same connection, and in every single MSM report and missing persons site summary I could find where her car keys are mentioned, it is stated that her keys were left behind with the rest of her belongings.
Click to expand...

Damn well there goes my little detective work after reading the whole thread :)
 
Thank you for the pics Killarney Rose and Dime Detective!

Just now getting caught up.
 
jenstar said:
There were almost three hundred of them and I knew that if I went through each profile that I'd just strain my eyes plus it was after 1am. I just looked at the guys that seemed to be in their mid-thirties. For some reason I was thinking "Dothan" as Dime pointed out earlier. LR1, If you'd be so kind, could you link that profile here so that we all can take a look at it?
Click to expand...

without being able to place him out of prison and living there at the time in question I would rather not single this guy out or appear to link him to this double murder. If I could I wouldn't hesitate but something tells me not to.

I found it at this link, there's about 40 in the local area, you have to accept the terms and type the zip (36360) in the form on the right of the page.

http://dps.alabama.gov/Community/wfSexOffenderSearch.aspx
 
OMG. I just now found this case and I thought I should share it here. It seriously reminded me of this case although I don't think there is a direct link. The perp on this one was arrested in June 1999. However I wonder if there could have been a copycat or an accomplice.

In this case, a young lady named Kate Poirier was abducted from a convenience store and taken into the a man's pick-up truck. It was black but he also had a white one on his driveway. He had a previous history of rape and kindap attempts, including one where he locked a girl in the trunk of his car but she escaped.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/donald_blom/1_index.html


It also found this piece of news, suggesting that another murder could have been linked to him, in April 1999:

http://www.waseca.k12.mn.us/vhm/1991-2000/Cally_Larson/1999/huntgoesforkiller.html

There was no evidence that I know of that linked him to Cally Larson's case, although a pick-up truck had been sighted near her house and this man made frequent trips to the town where she lived. So I wonder if maybe he could have had an accomplice or if this case could have been the work of a copycat.

FYI, he was arrested on June 20 of that year.
 
LR1 said:
without being able to place him out of prison and living there at the time in question I would rather not single this guy out or appear to link him to this double murder. If I could I wouldn't hesitate but something tells me not to.

I found it at this link, there's about 40 in the local area, you have to accept the terms and type the zip (36360) in the form on the right of the page.

http://dps.alabama.gov/Community/wfSexOffenderSearch.aspx
Click to expand...

Could you tell us at least the area to search for?

I found a man who would have been in his 30s who has a 1998 pickup and his victim was close in age to Beasley and Hawlett (she was 18). I also found two other guys with a pick-up but one is color "unknown" and it's a 1995 model and the other is a 1999 model in purple (could he have painted over it, perhaps?).
 
jenstar said:
You know..we keep going over the distance thing, realizing it doesn't make sense. Maybe the girls were being followed. (Not necessarily by someone they knew) but lets say they were. They took a bunch of backroads and didn't get necessarily lost. They were just freaked out. When they think they've lost the person they try to shake it off, not letting it ruin their night and they stop. But they didn't know that the person just took a different rout headed toward the same destination. Make sense?
(I was followed by a bunch of kids one time, speaking from personal experience..I went and parked at the best nearby lit place where either the person had to confront me..or continue down the road.)
Click to expand...

I remember my sister and I being followed one night like that on a dark road. We were scared to death! We pulled into the driveway of the first house we came too.

I wish I could convey to all of you how close in distance all these locations are to each other. The pictures just don't bring that out. It really gave me a different feeling for what happened that night . It was one thing to try to visualize it, but completely different when I was actually in those locations.
 
killarney rose said:
I wish I could convey to all of you how close in distance all these locations are to each other. The pictures just don't bring that out. It really gave me a different feeling for what happened that night . It was one thing to try to visualize it, but completely different when I was actually in those locations.
Click to expand...

ITA. Especially if the events of that night took place between the Big/Little Store, Depot Lane, and Herring Avenue. Heading north on Herring after stopping at the memorial, I was shocked to find just how close the Big/Little Store is to the north end of Herring. It's right there. And Depot Lane is just 1600 feet beyond.
 
When my DH and I went to Depot Ln, I got this overwhelming feeling looking at the old depot building. I'm glad I wasn't alone! We took the same pics Dime Detective did, so I won't repost them.

We were on our way home and it came to me out of the blue- so much that I had DH turn around and return to Ozark in order to make these pictures.

053_zps9453cba4.jpg



What do we see ?

052_zps1613975c.jpg



On Jones St is an ice plant! There are piles of ice all over! the following pictures I made when we drove behind the dilapidated old house at the intersection of Jones & Depot. We were actually in the back yard!

056_zps5eeb1438.jpg



057_zpsc0cf6988.jpg


THis picture is in front of the dilapidated old house. If you look way back through the bushes at the white in the picture- that is a pile of ice. Now some of you might think nothing of ice in the winter. But remember- this is south AL and it was around 60* yesterday afternoon here.

If this business for whatever reason piles ice around all day, what will that ice do rather quickly in July? Melt. What does melting ice make? Mud. Could this be the source of the unexplained mud on the girls?

055_zpscadf525a.jpg
 
DimeDetective said:
ITA. Especially if the events of that night took place between the Big/Little Store, Depot Lane, and Herring Avenue. Heading north on Herring after stopping at the memorial, I was shocked to find just how close the Big/Little Store is to the north end of Herring. It's right there. And Depot Lane is just 1600 feet beyond.
Click to expand...

Me too! When we drove that- it was just overwhelming to me!
 
This case resonates with me because I am the same age these girls would be now and was starting my senior year in the fall of 1999. Is it possible they trespassed on the wrong person's property, either on foot or in their car? If on foot, could explain the mud. Someone goes after them with a gun, he's a little nuts in the head, turns it into a hunting game, sexually assaults JB and kills them.
 
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