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

[LR1]

I am from Dothan. Was born and raised there and didn't move away until 2007. I was a freshman the year they'd have been seniors. I remember the moments of silence we had for them at the DHS vs NHS football game that year. My cousin was 1 year older than them and best friends with them. A few insights from me:

1) ozark has and had no motorcycle gangs. Ozark is the kind of place you tip cows and go jugging on a river.
2) these cities shut.down.entirely at 9pm. You could easily ride around and not see a soul.
3). I worked at JC penny's in the men's dept my senior year of high school and it is in wiregrass commons mall directly on 231. In that year, not long after passing the mall headed north you were quickly looking at nothing but woods. It's very built up now. Not so back then.
4). If any students had cell phones at that point in time it would be NHS people. That school had zoned to it the much much more affluent areas. There could have easily been people at that party with a cell phone that they called.
5) ozark is a small town. Everybody knows everybody for generations back. If there was a crazy/sketchy person in the area that was capable of murder, everyone would point the finger. I got a ticket close to there once when I was 16 and someone recognized my car and called my parents and informed them before I got home. These are small towns.
6) I know this from experience: what if they did turn off somewhere and got stuck in mud. Boys of these towns have wenches on their trucks because they so go mudding so often and can unstuck their friends. Maybe they waved a truck down such as this and picked the wrong person. Pants and shoes are nasty from getting out of the car for it to be yanked out.
7) 231 is often traveled. It's the major highway connecting to Panama City and Florida beaches. People most often know of Dothan for reason. Would be easy for someone passing through to turn off towards ozark. Between Troy and Dothan ozark is the only other town/city.

Sorry if some of these points are redundant. Was trying to wait till the end to post but am on page 15 with no end in sight.

Thanks for taking the time to read the thread Stitch. Do you know if Northview would have competed against Carrol high in football? I'm wondering with Tracie being a majorette and JB at one time a cheerleader would they have not been at least somewhat familiar with the location of the store seeing how its in close proximity to Carrol high? Another question if I may. We have multiple locations of where the party was supposed to be in the media through the years, did you ever hear where it was being held at that night?

 

[Kell1]

The first link shows a page from march 12 2000 and on it is a thumbnail map of the location on 123 south. It will not let you click on the thumbnail to enlarge it but if you save to your pc and magnify it the place appears to be in the curve in the vicinity of the waste water treatment plant, maybe across the street.

Looking at older aerial photos on google earth from 97 you can clearly see a road across from the entrance to the treatment plant that goes back a fair piece. A older article mentioned some old ww2 era structures but I cant find them from the aerial photos. There is a creek close by that could have been the source of the wet and muddy clothing/shoes. It looks to be about 1/4 - 1/2 miles to the nearest house.

This is my best guess as to the possible murder location going by the small map as well as a distance that was given from 231 that I read in a article awhile ago but can't find now, it was something like 2 miles or so.

http://http://web.archive.org/web/20050504054737/www.wiregrass.com/Ozark/news46.html

And the following week you get this quote from the site...



http://web.archive.org/web/20050222202205/www.wiregrass.com/ozark/news47.html

When I read this back a few months ago when Dime posted the link to all the previous editions I was kind of taken aback because I don't remember reading that they felt confident of the location. Last I heard they were still waiting for soil samples to come back from the lab and that was a decade ago. I have no idea if they ever determined if this was indeed the location.

Here's a street view of the location,

http://goo.gl/maps/K8vQf

And @ RichKelly, Thanks for the detailed analysis.

And thanks to you , very nice work on the maps.

I still think its the same scenario, but the walk for the offender is longer, if he has to get back to the area on 123, which makes, me think he lived(s) near the dump site, as opposed to the spot off rte123

Unless he had someone meet him which cant be ruled out either.

 

[Kell1]

I tend to agree if the killer is local. I actually looked at 1 mile radius overlay, to get an idea of water, likely staging areas, etc.

A mile radius would provide close enough sanctuary without a prolonged time exposed to possible traffic/witnesses as he/they left the scene.

Exactly, I think he's within walking distance, of where the car was dumped to be honest.

Especially if the site where the police searched IS the site where they were murdered.

That's over an hour walk back to that location off 123 like you said that's ALOT of time out in the open.

The car was something like 30 yards from the intersection.. I may even venture to say he might've cut through the woods. He's not too far off to parallel James St, and keep his bearing in the woods. There's also a ball field to the east

The spot where they were "possibly " killed is north of where they had to go to get to Dothian, so now I feel pretty confident they picked someone up who lead them somewhere, at gunpoint, or by ruse, or possibly even car jacked .

this guy knows the area too well .

I also just looked on Google earth, at the spot where the car was located there appears to be a small memorial ( statue of the virgin Mary and a bench) in memory of the girls

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.452...m4!1e1!3m2!1sBhUW-UvMw5PUwNcNQbjb9Q!2e0?hl=en

you can also see homes through the woods ...

 

[LR1]

And thanks to you , very nice work on the maps.

I still think its the same scenario, but the walk for the offender is longer, if he has to get back to the area on 123, which makes, me think he lived(s) near the dump site, as opposed to the spot off rte123

Unless he had someone meet him which cant be ruled out either.

Right you are. And if this is the location it begs the question, why did he bring the bodies back to town? He took a hell of a chance with what had to be dripping out of that trunk to leave it where it would surely be found and rather quickly with morning approaching.

The keys being taken would prevent anyone from driving off with the vehicle, he could have even been the one who left her DL out in the open hastening the ID of the owner.

Does this show some type of remorse or dare I say empathy postmortem or am I way off?

 

[Kell1]

Right you are. And if this is the location it begs the question, why did he bring the bodies back to town? He took a hell of a chance with what had to be dripping out of that trunk to leave it where it would surely be found and rather quickly with morning approaching.

The keys being taken would prevent anyone from driving off with the vehicle, he could have even been the one who left her DL out in the open hastening the ID of the owner.

Does this show some type of remorse or dare I say empathy postmortem or am I way off?

He brought them back to town because he lives there, he knew Herring was a dark quiet spot where he could get out cut through the woods, and get home.

At least that's what I think

There's no remorse there, he'd show it .. for damn sure.. just as soon as he was in front of a judge. But in reality . he executed 2 girls for no other reason than he wasn't able to rape one of them .

they were "things" not people, they were tossed in a vehicle trunk, shot to death , then this used their vehicle to get somewhere "safe"

As for the trunk, vehicle trunks are pretty watertight, plus there's also a lot of other factors that would ever prevent anything from leaking out of it

Ive personally never seen anything ever leaking from a vehicle trunk

But
-victims who bleed out only do so till the heart stops and pressure stops. This happens LONG before the total blood volume is exsanguinated. Hunters can explain thats why blood has to be drained from a kill

Other factors like vehicle carpeting in the trunk, and even the victims clothes, can stem blood flow

The license could be for a few different reasons , but most likely he was looking for a trophy he took the keys either in panic, as a trophy, or more likely to delay discovery of the girls bodies in the trunk. He quite possibly tossed them somewhere in the woods.

 

[killarney rose]

Thanks, so it most likely turned north from James st onto Herring.

I think your offender lives (or lived) right in that area , WAAAY too comfortable in that 1 mi radius.

I don't know if you saw my post up thread about that. But they day I went over and took the pictures, and saw Herring St for the the first time. I was immediately struck by the same thought. That is not an area that you just happen to drive through for no reason.you go there with a purpose, you have ties to it. And as for the area of Herring St, Big Little, Depot Ln. Yes. That is a local. His turf.

 

[killarney rose]

Exactly, I think he's within walking distance, of where the car was dumped to be honest.

Especially if the site where the police searched IS the site where they were murdered.

That's over an hour walk back to that location off 123 like you said that's ALOT of time out in the open.

The car was something like 30 yards from the intersection.. I may even venture to say he might've cut through the woods. He's not too far off to parallel James St, and keep his bearing in the woods. There's also a ball field to the east

The spot where they were "possibly " killed is north of where they had to go to get to Dothian, so now I feel pretty confident they picked someone up who lead them somewhere, at gunpoint, or by ruse, or possibly even car jacked .

this guy knows the area too well .

I also just looked on Google earth, at the spot where the car was located there appears to be a small memorial ( statue of the virgin Mary and a bench) in memory of the girls

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.452...m4!1e1!3m2!1sBhUW-UvMw5PUwNcNQbjb9Q!2e0?hl=en

you can also see homes through the woods ...

Yes, the memorial is set up where tha car was found. On the site, you can look through the woods and see trails where people cut through them all the time. Small trails as well as litter.

That is a road that you would travel down in order to get from point A(where you have been) to point B(home)

I hope y'all understand what I am trying to say. Its not in a place where you would ride down it just because. Due to its location, you would have a specific reason to be on it. I have been going to Ozark for one reason or another since I moved to the area in the late 70s. The day we drove over and took pictures was the first time I had ever been on Herring St, we had to look for it.

 

[LR1]

He brought them back to town because he lives there, he knew Herring was a dark quiet spot where he could get out cut through the woods, and get home.

At least that's what I think

There's no remorse there, he'd show it .. for damn sure.. just as soon as he was in front of a judge. But in reality . he executed 2 girls for no other reason than he wasn't able to rape one of them .

they were "things" not people, they were tossed in a vehicle trunk, shot to death , then this used their vehicle to get somewhere "safe"

As for the trunk, vehicle trunks are pretty watertight, plus there's also a lot of other factors that would ever prevent anything from leaking out of it

Ive personally never seen anything ever leaking from a vehicle trunk

But
-victims who bleed out only do so till the heart stops and pressure stops. This happens LONG before the total blood volume is exsanguinated. Hunters can explain thats why blood has to be drained from a kill

Other factors like vehicle carpeting in the trunk, and even the victims clothes, can stem blood flow

The license could be for a few different reasons , but most likely he was looking for a trophy he took the keys either in panic, as a trophy, or more likely to delay discovery of the girls bodies in the trunk. He quite possibly tossed them somewhere in the woods.

I think some of us (maybe just me) we're assuming that there was blood on the undercarriage of the car and this was how they came to the conclusion that the girls were not killed where the car was found, this determination was put out in the first few days of the investigation. Thinking further on this I guess there could have been some blood spatter on the outside of the trunk, maybe the bumper but enough that led them to believe that if this was the location they were shot that some would also be found on the ground.

It was stated in an article out of the Birmingham news in an interview with JB's father that she was shot in the cheek and Tracie in the head. this was one of several details that were new at the time. but he took exception with the way the article quoted him the following week without saying which detail was taken out of context or whatever. They stood by their article so long story short JB might not have died that quickly.

 

[killarney rose]

I believe that OPD did release that there was blood spatter on the undercarriage that led them to believe the car was driven as the blood leaked. It is somewhere way up thread.

 

[LR1]

I believe that OPD did release that there was blood spatter on the undercarriage that led them to believe the car was driven as the blood leaked. It is somewhere way up thread.

To tell you the truth KR I don't think that was ever reported, at least I don't have it in my memory bank, I think that was all speculation both here and elsewhere. I could be wrong though.

 

[killarney rose]

To tell you the truth KR I don't think that was ever reported, at least I don't have it in my memory bank, I think that was all speculation both here and elsewhere. I could be wrong though.

I'm probably wrong, but I thought I read that way back in the thread. I'll try to look for it later if I have time.

 

[killarney rose]

When the bodies bled out, the blood would have just dropped out of the bottom of the car in a manner consistent with gravity and a stationary object. Instead, the police observed that the blood sprayed along the bottom of the car in a manner consistent with wind impacting the blood as left the car. This would not happen if the girls had been killed at the final resting place of the car.

I did find this. I think there was a mention of this from a member of LE in an article earlier on. I will look more, later.


Ok, back to beating a dead horse here. RichKelly has posted his thoughts about the killer living in the Herring St neighborhood, being comfortable with it. IMHO, this leads right back to Barrentine. I think he stumbled upon this murder. I don't think he acted alone, but KNOWS something, possibly ditched the car there under threat. Dumb luck has kept him from being prosecuted. I will always believe this until I see official documents or have confirmed to me by LE he is not involved. I feel that strongly.

I also would love to know the results...the true results of that train company logo being checked out-if it was. And those of American Towing.

Ok, that's my rant for the day.

 

[Archangel7]

I too remember the posts about the blood spatter. More along the lines of questioning whether it was discovered AFTER the vehicle was taken to Dothan.
In other words did the platter come from the car during the drive from the murder scene to the dump spot on Herring or from the trip from Ozark to Dothan by the towing Co.

I would think even Ray Charles could have seen blood splatter, but you do have to look. I just can't believe it was missed, given the list of agencies involved.

To have so much info from Barrantine and still couldn't convince a Grand Jury is very troubling also. Either he is well on the periphery of all this or LE could have done better with the evidence.

 

[Kell1]

Yes, the memorial is set up where tha car was found. On the site, you can look through the woods and see trails where people cut through them all the time. Small trails as well as litter.

That is a road that you would travel down in order to get from point A(where you have been) to point B(home)

I hope y'all understand what I am trying to say. Its not in a place where you would ride down it just because. Due to its location, you would have a specific reason to be on it. I have been going to Ozark for one reason or another since I moved to the area in the late 70s. The day we drove over and took pictures was the first time I had ever been on Herring St, we had to look for it.

He knew he could bail out onto one of the trails through the woods.

Seems he was familiar with quite a few secluded places around the area, but he chose that as the place to leave the car.

He's VERY comfortable right there .

 

[Kell1]

I think some of us (maybe just me) we're assuming that there was blood on the undercarriage of the car and this was how they came to the conclusion that the girls were not killed where the car was found, this determination was put out in the first few days of the investigation. Thinking further on this I guess there could have been some blood spatter on the outside of the trunk, maybe the bumper but enough that led them to believe that if this was the location they were shot that some would also be found on the ground.

It was stated in an article out of the Birmingham news in an interview with JB's father that she was shot in the cheek and Tracie in the head. this was one of several details that were new at the time. but he took exception with the way the article quoted him the following week without saying which detail was taken out of context or whatever. They stood by their article so long story short JB might not have died that quickly.

Its always possible, I can only speak from what I have experience with , ive never seen blood leak from a vehicle trunk

 

[LR1]

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,

I read through all these a few months ago when this was posted and jotted down some but not all mentions of the investigation, thought I might as well post them before I deleted them. not much here we didn't already know but oh well. The first one is a readers comment that was posted.

Sunday October 10, 1999

A Readers Comments

There is one fact that I have not seen reported from the preliminary hearing that I think would mean a lot to Tracie's family. There was so much speculation about the girls going to a party that night. This made the girls look like they were "looking for trouble". It was revealed at the hearing that there were no traces of alcohol or drugs found in either girl. I think the Dothan Eagle should have run that since they focused so much on the party aspect but maybe at least you will consider it.
____________________________________________
Sunday October 17, 1999

WTVY has reported that fingerprints found on J.B. Beasley's vehicle don't match those of John Barrentine. Police Chief Tony Spivey refused to comment and referred questions to District Attorney David Emery. Emery also didn't have any comment on the report.
_____________________________________________
Sunday October 31, 1999

After initial reports from authorities that no evidence of sexual assault took place against the two Dothan teens found murdered in Ozark, the crime lab has found evidence of semen on the clothing of one of the victims. The reports are coming from unnamed sources close to the investigation, with a couple of different versions being reported by local media.
One version reports that the semen was found on J.B. Beasley's dress while some of the other reports say that the semen was found on Beasley's bra and panties.
______________________________________________
Sunday January 16, 2000

New Information Received

Ozark Police Chief Tony Spivey said that investigators had received new information in the murders of two Dothan teens, and they were hopeful that it is valuable in solving the case.
Spivey wouldn't say what the information was but he did say that the state forensics lab had sent some evidence back which has been forwarded to the FBI for further analysis.


Chief of Police Tony Spivey said it was a case of being at the mercy of the department of forensics in Alabama and Washington, D.C. Evidence items that haven't been processed with results returned are:

particles from inside J.B. Beasley's Mazda car
tire impressions from the scene where the bodies were found
soil found on the clothing of the girls
fingerprints found on the car

_______________________________________
Sunday February 27, 2000

Police Release Details of Evidence

A list of six possible suspects were interviewed and had their blood DNA tested. The results were negative for a match with the victims DNA.

Four handguns were tested by a ballistics laboratory. None of the guns matched the murder weapon.

One possible suspect had bloody clothing which was tested for DNA. The results were negative for a match with the victims DNA.
_______________________________________
Sunday March 12, 2000

Police began searching an area off Hwy 123 inside the city limits of Ozark last week, believing that it may have been the location where Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley were murdered. Investigators related that they believed the location on Herring Ave. where the car and bodies of the Hawlett and Beasley were found wasn't the location where the shooting actually took place. The location off Hwy 123 developed from a new lead that came about last week.

_______________________________________
Sunday March 19, 2000

Investigators are reported to feel pretty confident that they have found the site that the murders took place on Hwy 123, south of Ozark. Evidence has been collected from the scene including a 9mm bullet found a the location. Another item of evidence collected at the scene has been sent to the lab for processing.

________________________________________
Sunday March 26, 2000

Spivey still feels like more than one person was involved in the murders and that just because someone's DNA doesn't match the semen found on the clothing of one of the teens, doesn't necessarily rule that person out as a suspect in the case.


_______________________________________
Sunday January 07, 2001

WTVY television news reported this week that investigators had new information that involves the white truck but that police chief Tony Spivey said it was too preliminary to go into anymore detail about the evidence.
Workers at the Big-Little Store on East Broad St. told a reporter for WTVY, that investigators were there this past week with a white truck and were parking it at the pumps and taking pictures of it.
Investigators have always said that the driver was being sought as a possible witness to something that may have occurred and not as a suspect in the case.
Spivey didn't say when or if the new information would be made public.

___________________________________
Sunday April 25, 2004

Murder Investigation Continues

The murder of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, two Dothan teens who were found murdered in the summer of 1999, continues to this day. Ozark Police Chief Tony Spivey had some cold-case experts look at the case last week while attending a conference in Montgomery.

Members of the Vidocq Society, renowned forensic specialists, were conference instructors and they were meeting law enforcement officials throughout Alabama who had cold cases.

Investigators from the Ozark Police Department along with the FBI and ABI have chased hundreds of leads and rumors. Chief Spivey has his investigators looking into the case everyday rechecking leads and interviews, just in case something was missed.
_____________________________________
Sunday July 18, 2004

New Details in Murder Case Released

Ozark Police Chief Tony Spivey Spivey said that evidence reveals that the killer of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, likely suffers from a sexual dysfunction which leaves him unable to perform normally. Some of the evidence mentioned was that neither of the two Dothan teens was raped although semen was found on Beasley's bra and other clothing.

At lest 100 people have been ruled out as possible suspects when the DNA hasn't matched. Investigators are still waiting for results on evidence collected at the scene, such as soils samples on the clothing from the girls.

The driver of the white truck shown on the security camera at the Big/Little store has been identified and cleared of any involvement.

 

[killarney rose]

_____________________________________________
Sunday October 31, 1999

After initial reports from authorities that no evidence of sexual assault took place against the two Dothan teens found murdered in Ozark, the crime lab has found evidence of semen on the clothing of one of the victims. The reports are coming from unnamed sources close to the investigation, with a couple of different versions being reported by local media.
One version reports that the semen was found on J.B. Beasley's dress while some of the other reports say that the semen was found on Beasley's bra and panties.
______________________________________________

This is probably nothing in the big picture, but I was under the impression that the girls were both wearing jeans.

 

[LR1]

Anyone know how common it is for determining the race of the subject from DNA or at least the probability of it being a certain race in unsolved cases where DNA is available? I'm pretty sure it can be done, the derrick todd lee case comes to mind and I've heard of a few others. I wonder if they did this in this case. This guy is probably caucasian but if it were possible I would want to be sure.

 

[Archangel7]

Anyone know how common it is for determining the race of the subject from DNA or at least the probability of it being a certain race in unsolved cases where DNA is available? I'm pretty sure it can be done, the derrick todd lee case comes to mind and I've heard of a few others. I wonder if they did this in this case. This guy is probably caucasian but if it were possible I would want to be sure.

I believe in the early to mid 2000s there has been the ability to DNA/ancestry/race test for European, Native American, African and Asian maybe more, or combinations of.

There was a company in Florida marketing kits that were popular in determining NA ancestry. Popular, in order to be exempt from taxes, get free healthcare and unlimited fishing/hunting rights. I don't know the current status of the company or kits.

LE has used the relatively new DNA/ancestry tests to help solve crimes(by providing leads) in the past. So it is an option now.

The big stigma in requesting those tests is the sure to come defense challenge about "racial profiling." So not likely to be an everyday test, but I could easily defend it in Court on a cold case.

 

[Simply Caustic]

I love seeing activity on this thread...these girls deserve justice. I think about this case often.

Via Kindle, like a true Amazon junkie