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

[killarney rose]

If this was a crime of opportunity, and I believe that it is....

In 1999, debit cards were just getting popular. MOO is that as teens, its is quite likely that they paid for whatever they might have stopped to buy in cash, whether it was gas or food. So no electronic trail there.

Its possible they stopped for gas, and encountered the killer before they were able to pump and purchase gas.

If they left Ozark, headed south on 231 toward Dothan, then decided to stop at the truck stop, that could have been a likely place for the encounter. Also, this is near south 123 the road where a resident claimed to have heard gunshots that night. Its possible that was t he murder scene due to the proximity of that site to the truck stop, if indeed they met the killer there.They might have stopped simply to use the bathroom, or to purchase a snack or gas.

I wondered if they might have encountered a trucker there, but from where the car and bodies were left on Herring St, this does not make sense as the killer would have had a good little walk back to the truck stop to retrieve his rig. Certainly he would not want to take the chance of being seen walking back to the truck stop either.

Unless he was driving as part of a team and had help.....

 

[LR1]

That makes a lot of sense KR. If I'm looking at the same truck stop the one at the intersection of 231 and 123 where the kangaroo express sits it looks to be right at 2 miles from the spot on herring. Looking at the older imagery on google earth it doesn't show it there in 97. The next image is 03 but its the same image from 97, it don't show up until the 05 image. Do you know if it was there in 99?

Another point that comes to mind is the placement of the car. whoever put it there I don't think they just happened to stumble on one of the most desolate spots in the town. so if it was someone from the TS its likely they knew about this spot and unlikely to be a random trucker just passing through or parked up for the night.



snipped

Does the Ramer case bear enough of a resemblance to call for this task force to focus on the Beasley-Hawlett case two counties away?

It would be great if they could generate some progress in either case. Its likely members are well aware of the Ozark case maybe even worked on it at some point.

I like this tidbit from the Rickey Stokes article,

The assignment was for members to review the case file and present a theory as to the responsible parties. Among themselves, the Task Force developed five theories of the crime which seemed to be the most probable. Systematically, the Task Force eliminated all but one of those theories, and as they tried to eliminate the final remaining theory, only found more and more evidence to substantiate it.

 

[honesty]

I cannot see a truck driver being the perp in this case. Almost all victims of truck drivers are found on roadsides or back rows of truck stops. Your theory is great, but it would involve too much movement for a trucker. I do not post much, but I have read everything presented here. I believe this was a crime of opportunity, just not one committed by a trucker.

 

[killarney rose]

I agree with both of you. IF the killer was encountered at the truck stop, it could have been a local who happened to be there the same time at the girls, for the same reason-it was the only place open.

The possible murder scene out 123, and the Herring St dump site makes that more credible IMO.

I am wracking my brain trying to remember if there was an old truck stop on the site of the Kangaroo. I am pretty sure, but not 100% positive there was, and it was torn down and rebuilt into the Kangaroo.

Maybe a local can chime in on this.

 

[Veidt]

I have some things to say but for now, I have a question. Would the area where the car was found be in the way to any important spots? In other words, was it a place someone who wasn't local would likely drive past going between whatever locations non-locals would gravitate to like the truck stop?

Otherwise, I have to agree with honesty's post (snipped by me, I only put in the quote here for reference):

I cannot see a truck driver being the perp in this case.

Let's think about it... a trucker finds the girls and kills them. Why would he even bother moving the car and the bodies if he was probably leaving again sometime soon? Even if he had a reason (wanting them to be found, deflecting attention from the truck stop, evidence left behind at the scene...) it seems odd that he'd take the trouble to driver the car all the way to that spot specifically. He could have used his truck to move the bodies as leaving the next day or so would guarantee the truck probably wouldn't be investigated.

The only way I can think of is if the trucker was afraid his truck would be spotted and identified and/or if placing the bodies in his truck would be difficult and risky. A trucker at the stop wouldn't necessarily be in his truck, he could be wandering around the stop or even around the general area of it, smoking or stretching his legs. Getting to the truck (at the stop) could be hard if it was being repaired or if there were more people at the stop, for example.

It only makes me wonder WHY that spot to leave the car, specifically. But maybe there wasn't any real significance to it. Someone from out-of-town could have been wandering around and found it, and maybe decided it was more convenient or that it would allow the car to be found in the morning without the area being too crowded at that hour.

Someone I've wondered is, what about a local trucker? Someone who knew the area, maybe even knew the girls, but who would be going away soon and that wouldn't seem suspicious.

I also don't see why a perp having his own vehicle would rule out the car being moved. It's more work but it could have seemed worth it if the perp wanted to divert attention from the original crime scene for some reason or wanted the car to be found, etc. The perp having to walk back to his own vehicle could be relatively easy if it was nearby. Wandering around could have made him noticeable but it could have provided some cover if he stuck to dark areas and short cuts.

Even a couple of km isn't such a big distance to walk, I've done it before. Of course, I wouldn't do it at night in an empty area, but then again, an adult man who had a gun on him and didn't mind killing people probably wouldn't be afraid of running into shady types.

:twocents:

 

[killarney rose]

Ok y'all, something fu-reek-y happened to me today. It wasnt a big deal, but it was still kinda freaky/creepy. Lots of out of town relatives visiting for the holidays. We met at a favorite restaurant for lunch today in my town, not Ozark. We were standing outside making pictures, I looked up and parked right in front of us is the big 'ol American Towing truck complete with much discussed logo on the door! I've never seen them in my town before and they were having lunch the same place as us...

 

[killarney rose]

Veidt, if you go back in this thread aways, I,was talking about feeling the same as you about the Herring St location. When I went to Ozark and visited that place, I was immediately struck with the thought that this car was left there for a reason. This is not a place you would randomly drive by. It is in a location that you would be in for a purpose. Because it is out of the way.


Also, one of my sons and his wife team drove long distance. When they were home to visit her mom, they parked the rig at a nearby truck stop because her mom lived in a subdivision where there was no room for the truck. So it was possible this was a local and a trucker who was parking his truck there. Crime of opportunity , and ties to the Herring St area possibly.......

 

[honesty]

I agree with both of you. IF the killer was encountered at the truck stop, it could have been a local who happened to be there the same time at the girls, for the same reason-it was the only place open.

The possible murder scene out 123, and the Herring St dump site makes that more credible IMO.

I am wracking my brain trying to remember if there was an old truck stop on the site of the Kangaroo. I am pretty sure, but not 100% positive there was, and it was torn down and rebuilt into the Kangaroo.

Maybe a local can chime in on this.

There was a truck stop there before the new kangaroo was built. I am not local, I was a truck driver, now medically retired.

 

[DimeDetective]

I have some things to say but for now, I have a question. Would the area where the car was found be in the way to any important spots? In other words, was it a place someone who wasn't local would likely drive past going between whatever locations non-locals would gravitate to like the truck stop?

Veidt, if you go back in this thread aways, I,was talking about feeling the same as you about the Herring St location. When I went to Ozark and visited that place, I was immediately struck with the thought that this car was left there for a reason. This is not a place you would randomly drive by. It is in a location that you would be in for a purpose. Because it is out of the way.

[Respectfully snipped.]


"If you are not from Ozark, how did you wind up there?"
—Ozark Police Chief Tony Spivey on Herring Ave. as a dump site, The Albany Herald, August 3, 1999


Here, Herring Avenue is highlighted on a map of downtown Ozark:

Herring Avenue is only 0.4 miles long. According to Google Maps, it would take approximately 8 minutes to walk it from one end to the other:

Herring Avenue's north end is not exactly obvious to passing motorists. It is hidden behind some very sharp turns involving Atlas Street, Eufala Street, and Clinton Place/27. From experience, I can tell you: even when deliberately looking for these sudden sharp turns that would lead me to Herring, I drove right by one and nearly missed another. That's the Big/Little Store where the route ends upper left:

Herring Avenue is accessible from the south via James Street, highlighted here [the car/bodies were found just north of James, facing north, pulled to the right side of Herring]:

And Herring is accessible via Martin Street, highlighted here:

Map of Ozark, car/bodies dump site marked:

Hopefully these maps will help put Herring Avenue into context.

One other thing: I recently read a comment on a message board where a resident of Ozark remarked, "I also believe the killer was local I have lived here 20 years and never traveled on herring street."

 

[DimeDetective]

Speaking of the military angle this is probably already known to most of you but the sk Robert Yates was stationed at Ft. Rucker at different times starting in the early 80s and also for a time in the 90s. he was convicted of 10 or so murders up in Washington state in 02. he was arrested in April 2000. the prostitutes he killed were shot in the head with a .25 caliber. I'm sure they must have checked this guy out. probably not related but just another strange twist in an already strange case.

Following up on this very interesting post from LR1 back in March:

While reading back through the Chronology of Events today, I started clicking around and discovered that this old Ozark, AL news archive can be viewed as full weekly posts from 5/2/99 through 10/30/05 here, a perusal of which yields a week-by-week account of the investigation as it unfolded, including some information new to this discussion.

One such new item, found here, possibly eliminates Yates as a suspect in the Beasley-Hawlett killings:

Yates was stationed at Ft. Rucker during the July 1995 - April 1996 time frame, while he was an instructor pilot at Lowe Army Airfield on OH-58C helicopters.

It doesn't appear that Yates was in the area during the murder of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett.

ETA: More here:

Yates wasn't in the Wiregrass area at the time of the murders of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, so he isn't considered a suspect in their slayings.

 

[LR1]

Good job finding the full weekly posts page Dime. I thought I'd found everything worth finding on that old archived site but it keeps paying dividends. I'll be looking through it for sure. And happy new year to everyone, lets hope this will be the year.

 

[LR1]

We've all heard the different theories in this case, one of which is that it might be a police officer because of the license being left out and window down and that they would not have stopped for anyone but a cop. I haven't necessarily subscribed to this theory, I think LE involvement is unlikely while at the same time have not entirely ruled it out. I bring this up after looking at a page from Sunday March 5, 2000 from the archived wiregrass site where they have the crime statistics listed for Ozark in 1999. The last statistic stood out for obvious reasons.

Bike patrol mileage:
2,464 miles

Not implying anything per se its just that I wasn't aware or had not thought of there being bike patrols.

 

[killarney rose]

That is a lot of miles for what I am assuming is a bicycle patrol in a town the size of Ozark!

That brings a different type scenario to mind, and the bike could have been in the trunk while girls were subdued up front, however, would we see a legit bike patrol that time of night? Not legit maybe, but then he would be taking the chance of being seen by his coworkers....

 

[LR1]

That is a lot of miles for what I am assuming is a bicycle patrol in a town the size of Ozark!

That brings a different type scenario to mind, and the bike could have been in the trunk while girls were subdued up front, however, would we see a legit bike patrol that time of night? Not legit maybe, but then he would be taking the chance of being seen by his coworkers....

It is a lot of miles and I considered it being motorized bike patrols but it was listed under foot patrols so I'm assuming its bicycle patrols. Take a few separate patrolmen covering lets say 10 miles each every other day or so and I can see where the miles would add up.

I was thinking not legit but I suppose it could be either and the chances of being noticed are there but less than if he were in a car. I also recall talk of a grease stain on the back seat.

Again, I put it out there because of the speculation we've all heard and the fact that there's something being missed in their search for the perp, not that I think this is how it happened.

 

[killarney rose]

Yes, I thought of the grease stain also.



What are we all missing?

 

[DimeDetective]

I also recall talk of a grease stain on the back seat.

Yes, I thought of the grease stain also.

[Respectfully snipped.]

At 6:48 in this previously posted video tour of the 1993 Mazda 929 (J.B.'s vehicle), we are given a look inside the back seat. What do we think: Is there enough room for a bike back there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE_WW1f4Ltk

 

[LR1]

Yes, I thought of the grease stain also.



What are we all missing?

Besides the obvious - A matching DNA sample and the keys I don't know.

If you think about it there's a ton of evidence in this case. DNA, fingerprints, ballistics, the bodies themselves, the car they were transported in, witnesses that interacted with them in the minutes/hours before the murders.

You also have state and federal agencies helping out as well as at one point a world renowned forensic psychologist in Richard Walter.

How has this case not been solved by now?

 

[killarney rose]

Thinking along these lines......if there was a bike in the back seat, where was the perp? Where were the girls? Was one already in the trunk? Remember, he had to gain control of them rather quickly. Girls immediately in the trunk from the point of abduction to the murder site? Then they were brought out. Did they try to flee and that is when he made the decision to kill them? Or did he kill the one that tried to escape try to assault the other, was unable to perform, and so killed the other?

But, if this was a bike cop, he had to know he couldn't leave a live witness so he planned to kill them all along. He was too identifiable.

 

[Veidt]

I'm not really quoting any specific posts here, it could make this post seem confusing. I also have a head ache and I think it'll be easier for me to write down my thoughts without repeating myself too much if I'm not addressing individual posts but the last few posts in this thread and breaking my post down by subject. I hope this is ok.

DD, thank you so much for the maps. That makes a lot of sense. It still makes me wonder if someone from out-of-town could have done it. The area may be hidden but a few times when I was in a new place, I've gotten lost or just by wondering around I've come across streets that aren't obvious. I also wonder if there's something nearby that would be of interest to someone from out of town - because in trying to go to or from there to somewhere else, the perp may have found out about this spot.

Something I wonder is if maybe the perp didn't know the location prior to leaving the car there. I would have thought so, since it seems risky if he didn't know the odds of being caught or seen by someone. However, what if he got into the car, drove around looking for a place to leave it, and as soon as he found a convenient spot he left the car there?

Also, if that was the case, what if he was spooked by something - maybe another car driving past, a noise, his own fear of getting caught - panicked, and left the car right where he was?

From the maps, I have a question. I was under the impression that the B/L store was rather far from the street where the car was found. From the maps it seems like it was relatively close. Is this correct?

I have to wonder about the factors that led Robert Yates to be ruled out. I'm going to read this articles now and maybe this is clarified on those but - is there 100% certainty he was out of town? Even if he was on leave and could go anywhere, it doesn't mean he went very far. He could have just stayed right in town or at least nearby... especially if it was possible to lead people to think he was away and deflect attention from himself.

About the bike patrols, I too assumed we were talking about motorbikes. That seems far more common. When it comes to non-motorized bikes, it seems more likely to me that they'd be used for a very specific type of area like a downtown area with lots of traffic or streets closed off to cars, maybe residential areas during the day. I can't imagine that type of patrol being on duty at night in what seems to be an out-of-the-way location where a car would make more sense.

What if he was an off-duty bike patrol? It could make it seem odd that he was wandering around in his bike if he was spotted but it could also provide a good excuse - being just done with work elsewhere, his car breaking down and using his work bike instead... who knows.

I think it would be helpful to know more details about the bike patrol and how it operates. It seems rather unlikely to me if it's not a motorized bike patrol, though.

I don't think a bike would have easily fit into the car and IMO it would make it riskier to get caught. If he was driving around and got stopped by the police or someone, the bike could be seen. It wouldn't have brought up questions immediately. But while otherwise the perp could pretend the car was his and keep driving, in this case someone seeing the bike would link the case to the bike patrol in some way.

But I don't know. Maybe it did fit into the car. Maybe it was foldable - would local police own that type of bike in 1999? Another hypothesis is that maybe he hid it. Hiding a bike while he drove away in the car to leave it where it was found would be easy and even get less attention than a seemingly abandoned car or truck.

Also, one of my sons and his wife team drove long distance. When they were home to visit her mom, they parked the rig at a nearby truck stop because her mom lived in a subdivision where there was no room for the truck. So it was possible this was a local and a trucker who was parking his truck there. Crime of opportunity , and ties to the Herring St area possibly.......

Respectfully snipped. This makes a lot of sense to me, if not this exact scenario then something very similar.

I think there's a chance that the pick-up seen in the surveillance video was a red herring, but if it wasn't - maybe the perp could have a job on the side while in town or be driving a friend's truck while in town. Maybe if more than one person was involved, the driver of the pick-up may have been friends with a trucker.

Besides the obvious - A matching DNA sample and the keys I don't know.

If you think about it there's a ton of evidence in this case. DNA, fingerprints, ballistics, the bodies themselves, the car they were transported in, witnesses that interacted with them in the minutes/hours before the murders.

You also have state and federal agencies helping out as well as at one point a world renowned forensic psychologist in Richard Walter.

How has this case not been solved by now?

This is what I wonder too. :banghead:

As usual, this is just my :twocents:.

 

[DimeDetective]

The white pickup truck captured on the Big/Little Store surveillance video that night has been a hot discussion topic throughout this thread. Even after the discovery of a blurb in the original Chronology of Events dated July 18, 2004 which stated, "The driver of the white truck shown on the security camera at the Big/Little store has been identified and cleared of any involvement," many posters here at WS still didn't feel comfortable letting go of the notion that the occupants of the white truck may have been somehow involved, whether as perpetrators or witnesses. One major sticking point was that, apparently, the white truck and its driver were not identified until nearly five years after the murders.

This evening, as I was reading through the full weekly Ozark news archive just discovered here, the story of the white truck seemingly became a little clearer:

From the August 5, 2001, edition:

A new aspect in the case was released when Chief Spivey said that the owner of the white truck had been located in Delaware, but the person didn't remember seeing anything. The truck was examined and there wasn't any evidence linking the truck to the crime.

http://web.archive.org/web/20050504074644/http://www.wiregrass.com/Ozark/news119.html

So the white truck connection was eliminated by LE approximately two years after the murders instead of five, calling the accuracy of the Chronology of Events into question. Given the scarcity of details presented in regards to the lack of evidence here, however, we just have to trust that LE was satisfied with what they found (or didn't find).

Keep in mind: we still don't have a link to MSM confirmation that the white truck was indeed eliminated. But this new information helps.