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

[December]

Another idea I had which relies on more than one person being involved, but what if the DNA was never directly on J.B. The person it belonged to spent some time with her clothes never expecting she'd be killed and this would be major evidence.

The main reason I am thinking this is rapists don't stop. Why hasn't this guy turned up in a database in all of these years?

I guess it's possible he disappeared after that and hasn't been found yet. Thus wasn't able to do anything else. (I mean an involuntary disappearance.)

I don't know, I just think if it was the most obvious thing then the police would have solved this by now. The town this happened in only has so many people. They could've tested everyone four times over by now.

 

[wanttohelp]

Another idea I had which relies on more than one person being involved, but what if the DNA was never directly on J.B. The person it belonged to spent some time with her clothes never expecting she'd be killed and this would be major evidence.

The main reason I am thinking this is rapists don't stop. Why hasn't this guy turned up in a database in all of these years?

I guess it's possible he disappeared after that and hasn't been found yet. Thus wasn't able to do anything else. (I mean an involuntary disappearance.)

I don't know, I just think if it was the most obvious thing then the police would have solved this by now. The town this happened in only has so many people. They could've tested everyone four times over by now.

if what they really want is to actually solve this

 

[Archangel7]

if what they really want is to actually solve this

If you have proof of impropriety with any AL. local or state LE agency you should notify Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange or at least call their complaint line @ 1-800-392-5658 and give them your proof.

Assuming of course you "really" wanttohelp.

 

[December]

Oh, I sort of took the really want to solve this as being it's a murder from 1999, maybe they can only afford to do so much work on it. I didn't even think about it being a criminal conspiracy on the part of the police.

Or maybe the police know and can't prove it and are having to bide their time.

 

[December]

I have finally read this entire thread. (faints)

I really think the B/L store encounter happened at 11 p.m. Because then Mrs. Merritt could have bought her daughter a coke and at five minutes before close. Maybe she just remember the time when she finally got home more than when the encounter with J.B. and Tracie took place.

There should be phone records, so IDK. Did B/L weirdly stay open 30 minutes later that night because I just don't see how all of these time match otherwise.

 

[killarney rose]

If you have proof of impropriety with any AL. local or state LE agency you should notify Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange or at least call their complaint line @ 1-800-392-5658 and give them your proof.

Assuming of course you "really" wanttohelp.

:floorlaugh::floorlaugh::floorlaugh::floorlaugh:

I'm sorry:floorlaugh::floorlaugh:you have to live in AL to understand....Big Luther and his cronies in Montgomery.....:floorlaugh::floorlaugh:

 

[Archangel7]

:floorlaugh::floorlaugh::floorlaugh::floorlaugh:

I'm sorry:floorlaugh::floorlaugh:you have to live in AL to understand....Big Luther and his cronies in Montgomery.....:floorlaugh::floorlaugh:

I do understand.

 

[December]

Well, does anyone local know how the police feel about this case?

My cousin, Kathy Jones was murdered in 1969 (Nashville, TN). A lot of people might think the police aren't doing anything, but they have investigated it. Even when no one knew about it, they were working on it. I know this because they talked to various people in my family. I don't know how high of a priority it was for them, but they did try. And I think they still are trying, but logically, they have to balance it against newer cases or cases they have more of a chance of doing something about.

My friend's murder case, which is solved, was never actually a cold case. But, the police let SOME people think it was because it served their purposes. They wanted a particular person to slip up. However, I knew enough people through the years who talked to them to know they were actually working on it a lot harder than they let on that they were.

But, I see a big difference between the way those two cases were handled and the way this case is handled. This case has been all over the TV from what I can tell from people coming on here saying they saw it on this or that show. A lot of these shows, I think, sort of need participation by law enforcement. So, the police are trying to get something from the public or they wouldn't want to have it on all of these shows. What are they looking for? Leads? A tip to unravel some part of the story they know isn't exactly right?

I think their timeline is wrong. And I think they know it is wrong. But, this is the best one they have. They need someone who actually knows something to nudge it one way or another. Just a vibe I get from it.

Because I think they probably have checked all of the gas stations and the fast food restaurants that may have been open. That simply required some officer to drive over, show photos of the girls and the car, and ask a few questions. Sure, maybe no one remembered or maybe there was no video, but I think those are slim chances. Two cute teenaged girls at a place that very well had other teens would be remembered.

The only place they really couldn't have checked (with any accuracy) would be the rest stop. They might have tried, but the place was probably pretty deserted and there wouldn't be any cameras. Also, it'd be dark. So, even if there were cameras, it'd be a black car driving in a dark parking lot..so, not too much to see there anyway.

ETA: I have been in a rest stop at night in 2012 and it was exactly as described above. DARK.

 

[Ellery Queen]

My lastest theory:

JB was the target and Tracie was collateral damage.

My initial thoughts as well as those of my very experienced
investigative associate, is that the perp was LEO.
This is still a primary consideration.
Ozark LEO is not beyond reproach and suspicion.

But I am now considering a different line of reasoning.

First a question.

Why does everyone assume the victim/s were abducted/accosted
immediately after leaving the Big Little store ???
Because the car ended up on Herring?

Could they not have been persuaded to pause their progress
anywhere between Ozark and Dothan? As we are dealing with
a large time window with this crime.

What could have had them halt there progress other than LEO?
*(I don't buy the fake LEO someone with a blue light theory)

SOMEONE JB KNEW, that pulled up beside them on a four lane
road, 123 or 231. And waved them down.

Someone that had stalked them all night. Someone madly in love
with JB.

Someone that possibly seen her hug someone at the BP in Headland
that futher enraged them. Boosted by their prejudicial
disposition, their blood begin to boil. And they committed this
heinous act.

Not a pre-planned act, as witnessed by the mistakes the perp
made, but a crime of passion, aided by luck and the ineptitude
of the Ozark police department.


(BTW...it was stated that the victims were not shot on Herring because of the
directional blood spatter under the car, beneath the trunk indicated the car was
moving after they were bleeding. Was this determined on site at Herring, or after
they hauled the car to Dothan on a rollback? Maybe the directional blood splatter occured while it was on the rollback on the way to Dothan). DUH!

Who knows? Obviously a lot of clowns were involved with this criminal investigation.

 

[December]

Ellery Queen, I do think you have two excellent point.. that someone may have waved them down on the highway.

AND wondering when the blood spatter under the car was detected. The only other reason I can think that the police may have believed they weren't shot on Herring is the noise from the gun might have been heard.

I don't think the police in this case are above reproach at all. But, I need a specific reason to reproach them.

We don't know if they are not solving this case because they don't have enough evidence. Or maybe they don't know what to do with the evidence they have. Or maybe there is more to it than that. I don't really know anything about the police of Ozark, AL. I guess I am hoping for the best case scenario that they want to solve the case and are trying their best.

One thing I have thought about is the very first reports have let us know Tracie was first into the trunk of the car. Which seems a little odd. Unless there was a significant amount of time between the death of Tracie and the death of J.B. Since we do not really know what happened to the girls and how upset they might have been, then we cannot guess at the state of mind of J.B. when she got into the trunk with her dead friend.

In her normal state of mind, no way she would have climbed into the trunk to be shot. But, we don't know what she had endured or what she thought would happen if she didn't comply. Someone could have convinced her they would go kill her entire family, for example, if she refused.

 

[wanttohelp]

If you have proof of impropriety with any AL. local or state LE agency you should notify Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange or at least call their complaint line @ 1-800-392-5658 and give them your proof.

Assuming of course you "really" wanttohelp.

Thanks for contributing to the thread.

 

[DimeDetective]

I'm back from what turned out to be a three-month hiatus. The break I took from working on this case was unplanned, but necessary for personal reasons. Apologies.

Thank you to those who have kept up the great work over the past few months. Thank you for keeping the conversation alive.

I have a lot of catching up to do. While I was away, some new information came through my blog on the case, as well as the Facebook page I set up. My work on the case was interrupted a few days after I created the Facebook page; last I looked, in early July, there were 4 likes — now there are nearly 2,500. And I feel we haven't even scratched the surface as far as using this page as a tool for discussion and investigation. If you haven't yet, please consider joining us:

Justice for J.B. Beasley & Tracie Hawlett

I'm ready to dive in and get back to work with renewed energy and focus. There's so much we can be doing for J.B. and Tracie and their families. We can always be asking new questions, re-examining the facts as we know them, and inviting others — who will bring new eyes and fresh minds — to join us. Getting people thinking about this case will get people talking about this case; as the conversation grows and spreads, progress can and will be made. I believe in the power of many compassionate minds focused on a common goal. I want to really step it up now and take things to the next level with my own efforts. I hope you will, too.

Reaching back to July 31, here are some links to news stories on the 14th anniversary of the crime:

http://www.wtvy.com/news/crimes/headlines/Family-and-Friends--217839491.html (VIDEO)*

http://www.wtvy.com/news/crimes/headlines/Mothers-of-1999-Teen-Murder-Victims--217861161.html (VIDEO)

http://www.dothaneagle.com/news/article_c995183e-fa48-11e2-baa7-0019bb30f31a.html

http://www.dothaneagle.com/news/crime_court/article_6a0511ae-f9e3-11e2-a9e8-0019bb30f31a.html

http://www.dothanfirst.com/story/ki...teens-murdered/d/story/miCDzQsTNUWDT7OVoQn72A

Also, I thought I'd share this short slideshow. I came to it through one of the more stellar true crime websites I'm aware of, and though it's just a brief preview for a potential panel discussion, I found it informative, eye-opening, and inspiring:

Solving Murders with Social Media

* - After many failed attempts at connecting with a local reporter we might be able to talk to and work with, finally, a breakthrough: WTVY reporter Sarah Cantey has contacted me through the Facebook page. Slowly but surely: Progress.

 

[DimeDetective]

A recent article on her case as it's been discussed here before: http://dothanfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=282132

Thanks so much, newshound81, for alerting us to this update on the search for Kemberly Ramer. The link you posted back in July has since expired; here's a new link to that same article and video:

http://www.dothanfirst.com/story/la...rly-ramer-case/d/story/s4s3es90pEuCWF99ZeVAfQ

 

[DimeDetective]

Hi all -- Has anyone else ever considered the case of Elaine Nix as possibly being related? She was the same age, one state over and was also killed after using a payphone late at night, a little under two months after the girls were killed.

GA GA - Elaine Nix, 18, Gainesville, Sept 1999 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

Great work, newshound81. There are certainly some striking similarities here.

Though the Nix case is not nearly as close to Ozark as the Kemberly Ramer case in Opp, Alabama, it's plenty feasible that a killer roaming this part of the country could hit Ozark and Gainesville: Gainesville is approximately 250 miles — about a four-hour drive — from Ozark.

In addition to the similarities you mentioned — Elaine Nix was 18, Beasley and Hawlett were 17; all were last seen alive using a payphone at a closed convenience store between 11:00 p.m. and midnight; and, of particular interest, these murders occurred only 51 days apart — we also have the following:

• Nix's car was found by a police officer with the driver's side window down; Nix's purse, keys, and other belongings were in the unlocked car. Beasley's car was found by a police officer with the driver's side window down; purses belonging to both Beasley and Hawlett were in the unlocked car.

• Nix's body was found nude, suggesting a sexual element to the crime; however, an autopsy revealed no signs of sexual assault. Semen was discovered on Beasley's clothes and skin; however, autopsies revealed that neither Beasley nor Hawlett had been sexually assaulted.

• Nix was found in an isolated, wooded area. Beasley and Hawlett were found in a car parked next to woods on an isolated stretch of road.

Important differences in these two cases include the fact that the clothed bodies of Beasley and Hawlett were discovered almost immediately, while Nix's nude remains were not found until nine days after her disappearance; and while it was obvious from the start that Beasley and Hawlett had each been shot once in the head, Elaine Nix's autopsy revealed no gunshot or stab wounds, and no sign of strangulation: her cause of death has been listed as undetermined.

 

[DimeDetective]

Reading back through the thread, I feel the following post was especially valuable and deserves another look:

We have several members who did amazing research and we have an excellent timeline of what we think was going on, but, the reality is that timeline has left the case cold for a long time...so we need to think out of the box. We have had many great suggestions, such as the girls getting out to pee, not intended to go to the party, etc. and we need to look at those even if it does not fit LE's timeline of things. I grew up in rural America and half the stuff we intended to do or told are parents we were doing, was not what we ended up doing. And we were good kids with straight A's, jobs, etc. Even great kids have a private life. I know in my experience, often parents did not know what we were doing unless something bad happened. In my time (early 1990's) the only time parents found out was when something bad happened, like car accidents (many fatal), or minor in possession charges when the parents thought a kid was at "the movies", etc. I just think that looking at stuff like the possibility they never intended to go to the birthday party is important. Or they were trying to score a few wine coolers, etc.

The other thing we need to look at is had JB ever been in foster care? Often a child displaced will be more mature (grown-up) in someways then peers and run with many different circles instead of typical high school peers. And often kids who are neglected or abandoned by parents resulting in foster care, do subconsciously seek out attention from or interact with older people to fill that void. I guess the biggest thing in this case is while we have a great timeline and information, we have very little actual knowledge in many ways. So, we do need to keep thinking outside the box and flex what is known, because obviously, the results of the girls simply getting home late did not occur. This is more just a general comment, because I have noticed we/all posters tend to go back to the LE timeline and unless this was an LE conspiracy murder thing, obviously, something is NOT right with what is assumed to have happened otherwise this would be solved. I notice this in other forums as well, where we stick with certain facts and sometimes those very facts are what stand in the way from solving a case.

 

[DimeDetective]

A link to this early MSM report on the case was included in a list of Google News Archive stories posted back on Page 5 of the thread; another look sheds some light on topics recently discussed here (a field party in Skipperville; incorrect early reports that autopsy results showed the girls had been in water up to their waists before they died), as well as a statement made by Chief Spivey concerning a detail that we may have overlooked: that "one of the girls did have damp feet."

"Police Doubt Victims Attended Party as Reported," Times Daily, August 13, 1999:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...nE0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=b8kEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6184,1965589

 

[DimeDetective]

Here's a scan of the full Dothan Eagle report on the vigil held on the ninth anniversary of the crime; this is an article we haven't seen here before. (From the Dale/Geneva Counties District Attorney's website.)

"Holding On To Hope," The Dothan Eagle, August 1, 2008:

http://dalegenevada.org/dothaneagle08012008.pdf

 

[Veidt]

I thought about this due to a couple of comments. One was someone found a small road with a chain gate just really close to where the girls' car was found. The poster said she almost didn't notice the road. I guess it may be private property or something?

Another was a commenter on topix (linked early in this thread) who claims there is (or was) a house where people were making drugs. And some of those people, even as they made and sold drugs, informed police as to their buyers. So, the girls accidentally ran across these folks and were killed due to that (the girls weren't doing anything with drugs, they were just lost). Then someone else affiliated with the drugs people drove the car and parked it. And that person took the keys which he later claimed to have thrown in the Ohio River (while in Ohio). The topics poster gave two sets of initials R.C. and T.J. The one thing about this, is it explains why their clothes looked like they'd been running around in weeds and woods. They knew they needed to get away and they ran.

Snipped by me.

Has anyone looked into this chained off property at all? I can think of a couple of scenarios, both of which are tied in with the fact that the girls' jeans were muddy and damp at the bottom of the legs IIRC.

1. They accidentally drive into the property, like maybe an entry existed elsewhere that wasn't fenced off and they believed it to be a shortcut, something like that... then they have to get out of the car to remove the chain.

2. Someone lures them in there or invites them in.

At any point of these, maybe someone could have showed up. Even if not the owner of the property then someone lurking around or someone following them. Threatens to call the cops on them for trespassing or promises to help, maybe even the scenario where the perp pretends to be a cop could be a part of this. The cars get out of their car to talk to him, end up getting killed in the woods. From then on the person who did it just drives out of the property, disposes of the car and walks back inside where they left their own car or something.

JMO.

Another idea I had which relies on more than one person being involved, but what if the DNA was never directly on J.B. The person it belonged to spent some time with her clothes never expecting she'd be killed and this would be major evidence.

The main reason I am thinking this is rapists don't stop. Why hasn't this guy turned up in a database in all of these years?

I guess it's possible he disappeared after that and hasn't been found yet. Thus wasn't able to do anything else. (I mean an involuntary disappearance.)

I don't know, I just think if it was the most obvious thing then the police would have solved this by now. The town this happened in only has so many people. They could've tested everyone four times over by now.

IIRC in many if not most jurisdictions you can't test someone without a warrant or without them being a suspect, I could be wrong though.

I don't know if a rapist would necessarily get caught. Some rapists aren't. Also it could have been someone they knew who gained their trust instead of a stranger assaulting them, or someone who had an obsession with the girls... even someone just passing by who obviously never came up in the investigation.

:twocents:

Why does everyone assume the victim/s were abducted/accosted
immediately after leaving the Big Little store ???
Because the car ended up on Herring?

Snipped by me.

I don't think the universal theory is that it happened immediately after they left the BLS, just that it happened between them leaving the BLS and the car ending up where it was found.

 

[Catmommy]

:floorlaugh::floorlaugh::floorlaugh::floorlaugh:

I'm sorry:floorlaugh::floorlaugh:you have to live in AL to understand....Big Luther and his cronies in Montgomery.....:floorlaugh::floorlaugh:

My stepson was murdered in Montgomery in 1998. I'll not try to defend every LE agency in Alabama, only the one I've had direct experience with. Since both criminals claimed to not even know each other much less my stepson it was the tireless and thorough work of the City of Montgomery Police Department that was able to link them together and get us a righteous conviction.



we may have our problems but Alabama doesn't necessarily = incompetent or cronyism and the snark was not appreciated by me, someone who has witnessed "the system" successfully to work

 

[killarney rose]

My stepson was murdered in Montgomery in 1998. I'll not try to defend every LE agency in Alabama, only the one I've had direct experience with. Since both criminals claimed to not even know each other much less my stepson it was the tireless and thorough work of the City of Montgomery Police Department that was able to link them together and get us a righteous conviction.



we may have our problems but Alabama doesn't necessarily = incompetent or cronyism and the snark was not appreciated by me, someone who has witnessed "the system" successfully to work

The beauty of this country as well as this forum is that we are all entitled to our own opinions. It's nice to know a local police agency can get the job done in spite of all the cronyism our state has . You can't compare the police dept. of a large city to a small town and have them come out equal in terms of manpower, knowledge, training, etc. that is a cold, hard fact and has nothing to do with politics.