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

[Wondergirl]

Forensics: Fingerprints can be recovered from fired bullet casings

Scientists have developed a technique for retrieving fingerprints from bullet casings and bomb fragments after they have been fired or detonated. The new method, which relies on subtle corrosion of metal surfaces is already being applied for the first time anywhere in the world by two British police forces.

The patterns of corrosion remain even after the surface has been cleaned, heated to 600C or even painted over. This means that traces of fingerprints stay on the metal long after the residue from a person's finger has gone.

"All other conventional techniques that the police anywhere in the world would use require some kind of either physical or chemical interaction with the fingerprint residue. So for example if you are using powder the powder sticks to the tackiness in the sweat," said Dr John Bond of the University of Leicester and the Scientific Support Unit of Northamptonshire Police. Instead, the technique he has developed relies on permanent physical changes to the metal.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/03/fingerprints.bullets

 

[Wondergirl]

FTU

The Firearms-Toolmarks Unit (FTU) is one of many subdivisions of the FBI Laboratory devoted to a specific discipline of forensic science. They use Drugfire, an automated, national computerized forensic firearms identification system that integrates, cartridge case, shotshell and bullet analysis, as well as electronic firearms reference libraries, on a single computer platform.

Hits are made when a system user finds a match between a specimen they added into the database and a previously filed specimen.

http://suite101.com/article/what-is-forensic-ballistics-a51918

 

[jenstar]

I see the differences and the similarities btw the i-70 killer and ours. For me it's a 70/30 split on the negative end. But, I wonder what the timeline was on the killer as far as dates. I mean, does AL fit btw the time that I-70 was in Witchitaw and Terra Haute?

 

[killarney rose]

I see the differences and the similarities btw the i-70 killer and ours. For me it's a 70/30 split on the negative end. But, I wonder what the timeline was on the killer as far as dates. I mean, does AL fit btw the time that I-70 was in Witchitaw and Terra Haute?

IIRC, the Ozark killings were several years after the I-70 killings, which fits the speculation that the killer changed his M O after leaving a Victim alive. I also noticed they alluded to him changing guns but didn't say what kind, he did the original murders with a 22.

 

[jenstar]

IIRC, the Ozark killings were several years after the I-70 killings, which fits the speculation that the killer changed his M O after leaving a Victim alive. I also noticed they alluded to him changing guns but didn't say what kind, he did the original murders with a 22.

So, just a thought~
What if he was also picked up on a small charge and it scared him bad enough to stop for awhile? Then he gets his courage back and comes back less of a coward..bolder than ever.
But this time, after it's over, it hits too close to home. He knows he left something behind that links him directly to the case and knows it's a strong possibility he gets caught this time. So he flies WAAAAYY under the radar.

 

[PROTIPZ]

I am trying to find the right way to write this post. I'll probably not post this one.

Ultimately, this feels like we are at a standstill at this point, and will continue to be without new information.

-One of the key aspects of this case revolves around something we can't ever really know, and that is the true intentions of the girls when they headed out on the road that night. It is, in my mind, most likely that the girls never met their killer/killers (which, sadly, makes it all the more unlikely that the culprit will never be caught). But we can't know that with 100% conviction. The fact is, however unlikely, it is possible the girls went to meet someone that night, or were followed by someone that night that had a grudge, or simply had chosen them as a target some time previously. One imagines that if it was someone known to the girls, information would have been attained to bring us closer to the suspect, but that isn't a certainty either. This is a vital bit of knowledge I am afraid we can never know since the two most reliable witnesses are the victims.

-The police, apparently, have not divulged all relevant evidence. One of the things I have tried to do has been to reconstruct that night to the best of my ability, and, really, that has been the bulk of what a lot of us have been doing. But we're trying to paint a picture without all the paints. What do they mean by a grease stain? How useable was the palm print on the hood of the vehicle? What was all the other evidence the killer apparently left behind? It is this last question that stings the most, I believe. This evidence is what we need to get the clearest picture of what happened once the killer met the girls for the last time. Were there traces of a gun on the driver seat indicating the killer got in the back and used a gun to force the girls to their final destination? Were there boot prints? finger prints? Was there a wipe down? All of this stuff is important, even if it can't give us a name. It can give us a glimpse into the killers state of mind. Was he intelligent or just lucky? Was he panicked? Was he cool?

-Has old evidence been analyzed with new technologies? One topic of discussion in this thread has been the development of criminal science technologies, and whether they've been applied here. Not everyone, of course, has their biological data on record, but even as we have taken to comparing this killing to those of other killers with similar M.O.'s there is a potential for what biological evidence was left at the scene to compare to these other potential culprits. Has this been done yet? Is it even possible, or has the evidence been so corrupted that it is no longer useable beyond the information that has been gained from it.

-The scene of the crime. I really want to thank the efforts of DimeDetective and killarney rose who have done a hero's job of giving us an on the ground view of Ozark and those areas we know the girls visited on the night of their murders. From this thread we know there are at least two potential scenes of the crime, but there is not enough information to confirm or exclude either. The fact is, the actual murder scene could be anywhere in that area. Given that the time of death is so vague and it's a quiet area, and the killer had a relatively large time window, the actual murders didn't even need to happen there. The last time the girls were seen was at 11:30pm, and they were discovered the following morning. It is possible that the killer could have driven them an hour or more away, performed the murders, and driven them back. This is unlikely, but not impossible. Without a definite crime scene, we are missing so much important information that could be used to give us a better understanding of what happened that night, as well as a better view of who our killer was as a person.

Which leads me to my final frustration here. This lack of information leaves us with no other choice than to come up with unprovable theories. I can, we all can, entertain all of the theories and try to logically refute them the best we can until we get only the most plausible scenarios, but the trouble is, without key information, this is all conjecture.

I'm reminded of Kevin Costner in JFK when he says, "Fancy physics tells you that an elephant can dangle from a cliff by a dandelion," and goes on to say that common sense tells us that this isn't so. Problem is, the moment you say that this is in fact impossible without honest proof, someone comes along and does it out of spite.

I want to keep working this case, and will check back from time to time, but without new information... I don't know. I think maybe I should put my efforts to another case?

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

Were the ages of Marilyn Merritt and her daughter ever made known? Also was it confirmed that no one else was inside the car with Merritt besides her daughter? Sorry I did not read all 26 pages of the thread so perhaps these questions have already been answered

 

[killarney rose]

Were the ages of Marilyn Merritt and her daughter ever made known? Also was it confirmed that no one else was inside the car with Merritt besides her daughter? Sorry I did not read all 26 pages of the thread so perhaps these questions have already been answered

I believe a poster mentioned that marilyn has passed away,they saw her online obituary and posted a link for us.

 

[LawAbidingCitizen]

I believe a poster mentioned that marilyn has passed away,they saw her online obituary and posted a link for us.

Interesting.Thanks for answering.

 

[Wondergirl]

Were there any prior attempts of abduction or sexual assaults in the, area of the murders?

 

[Sarahlou]

I believe a poster mentioned that marilyn has passed away,they saw her online obituary and posted a link for us.

Maybe the killer has passed away too... hence his DNA not being at other crime scenes since. I can't imagine someone who was capable of this crime would just stop and never offend again. But who knows.

Very interesting thread btw. It's taken me a couple of days to get through!

 

[jenstar]

Were there any prior attempts of abduction or sexual assaults in the, area of the murders?

There's waay too many RSO's that were and are now in the area. There was one particular Sexual Assault that someone pointed out further back in the threads. It was allegedly a Dr that worked at a hospital but he was charged by the time of this case. IIRC MHO

 

[killarney rose]

Were there any prior attempts of abduction or sexual assaults in the, area of the murders?

Not that i know of. Of course, there was Kem Ramer who we have discussed here. Kem was abducted from her home in Opp, AL which is approx 40 miles west of Ozark. But any similar crimes locally? No.

 

[deca]

I also am not 100% sure this was a sexually motivated crime or the work of a serial killer....so it could be that the killer never killed again. Got into trouble-sure-- but killed?
For example: what if it was some guy doped up on meth and thought the girls were going to rat him out? A low level dealer or manufacturer of the drug who thought they were going to report him to LE? Someone who was high on something and paranoid? Maybe someone who had been threatened by someone else and "forced" to do this "job"?

In all of these scenarios, I can see maybe the killer got clean and straight and lived the rest of his life on the down low.

I would love to see stats on how many murderers go on to murder again.

 

[DimeDetective]

We briefly compared and contrasted the murders attributed to the still-unknown I-70 Killer and the Beasley-Hawlett murders. Here is a second case I recently learned about that, while almost certainly unconnected to the Ozark killings, I believe bears mentioning for the sake of discussion. As with the I-70 Killer case, the differences are glaring, but then, so are the similarities. Although we can (almost) safely assume a DNA connection would have been made by now, I still would be interested in finding out if this guy had any connection to Alabama, however tenuous. Especially given the timeline. —DD

Elizabeth Reiser and Brandi Hicks

New Philadelphia, Ohio. The evening of Tuesday, May 23, 2000.

Best friends Elizabeth Reiser, 17, and Brandi Hicks, 18, were at Hollywood Video renting movies. A man named Matthew Vaca, 27, approached the girls and told them he had no way of getting home that night. He asked them for a ride and offered twenty dollars for their trouble.

Elizabeth and Brandi were both churchgoing girls who had been taught to look for every opportunity to come to the aid of those in need. They agreed.

In the car, Vaca gave directions to where he wanted to be dropped off, only to change those directions several times. The girls, sensing trouble behind this game, stopped the car and asked Vaca to get out. Vaca then pulled a gun and ordered Brandi to drive the car to an isolated road.

Once stopped in the remote location, Vaca ordered Brandi to remove her shoelaces, which he then used to tie her to the steering wheel before marching Elizabeth Reiser off into a nearby hayfield at gunpoint.

Vaca then attacked Reiser with a knife, slashing her throat and stabbing her in the neck, back, and head. Elizabeth Reiser died from her wounds.

Brandi Hicks, still tied to the steering wheel, saw Vaca returning to the car alone. He untied Hicks and forced her at gunpoint into the same field, then beyond: they ventured two miles along some railroad tracks, Hicks reportedly forced to carry a six-pack of beer for Vaca, before they finally stopped at an abandoned railroad car. It was here that Vaca raped Hicks.

Vaca then dragged Hicks onto a trestle above the Tuscarawas River, where he choked her with her shoelaces, beat her and attempted to snap her neck. Hicks was then thrown off the bridge into the river, where she played dead as Vaca looked on. The river carried Hicks under the bridge, where she hid for close to an hour before climbing out and going straight to the police station.

Hicks identified Vaca, and he is now serving a 96-year prison sentence. His first parole hearing is scheduled for December 2111.

In 2008, Brandi Hicks appeared on the Biography channel show "I Survived." Though that episode is currently not available online, here is an older video of a young Brandi Hicks returning to the scenes of the crime and telling the story of her ordeal and her amazing acts of courage:

http://www.myspace.com/video/vid/4689894

Elizabeth Reiser's mother is currently writing a book about her daughter's murder. Her blog can be found here:

http://beckireiser.blogspot.com/

Matthew L. Vaca's offender file on the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction website can be found by clicking this link and entering his name in the Offender Search:

http://www.drc.state.oh.us/OffenderSearch/Search.aspx

Of note, in 1996 Vaca was convicted of 15 counts of forgery. His prison sentence was suspended and he was placed on five years' probation, so he would have been free the summer of 1999 when J.B. and Tracie were murdered, less than one year before the Ohio attacks.

Source: http://oh.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20010629_0003199.OH.htm/qx

 

[killarney rose]

Interesting parallels, but IMO too many differences. He tried so many ways to kill his victims, and failed. JB and Tracie were killed with 1 shot each. To me, that difference makes me say it wasn't him. If they had been killed in reverse order, I could think, maybe he did.

 

[DimeDetective]

Interesting parallels, but IMO too many differences. He tried so many ways to kill his victims, and failed. JB and Tracie were killed with 1 shot each. To me, that difference makes me say it wasn't him. If they had been killed in reverse order, I could think, maybe he did.

Purely for the sake of discussion, do you think the fact that Vaca was under the influence of drugs while committing the Ohio crimes could've contributed to their disorganized nature?

Strangely, he had a gun but never fired it. Maybe it was unloaded and he used it for intimidation purposes only.

On the other hand, if the gun was loaded and he had it from the beginning, why the struggle to kill Hicks at the end? Did he lose the gun or leave it behind at some point? While the murder of Reiser was quick and brutal, the time Vaca spent with Hicks after that murder was decidedly meandering, leading to a sort of rambling mess of a rape (some reports say he attempted and failed to rape Hicks, sending him into a fit of rage near the end) and attempted murder. Did Vaca take the drugs at or near the outset, only to become increasingly incapacitated by their effects?

The killer of J.B. and Tracie could have spent as many as eight hours with the girls between the time they were last seen alive and when J.B.'s car was discovered. If the killer was on drugs, perhaps he experienced difficulties in realizing his vision of the crime as well. We know he didn't actually rape either of the girls. Evidence also tells us he led them around through a wet, muddy area (probably at gunpoint). Isn't it possible the killer, like Vaca, tried or meant to kill the girls in other ways outside of the car, only to finally return them to the trunk where he shot them? Hypothetically speaking, isn't it possible that Vaca, under the influence of drugs and unable to kill his victims in the hayfield, could have eventually returned the girls to Hicks' car (where he possibly left the gun) and shot them in the trunk as a last resort? The end result would have been identical to the Ozark crime scene.

Another thought: Let's say it was discovered that Vaca was found to have committed both the Ohio and Alabama murders. Wouldn't it make sense if it was revealed that he was on drugs during the Ohio crimes but not during the Alabama crimes?

I guess the big question I'm driving at is: How much would the influence of drugs alter a killer's M.O.?

KR, I do tend to agree with you, and I only pose these questions for the sake of discussion in an attempt to potentially help us look at the Beasley-Hawlett murders in ways we haven't before. I've always suspected the girls were killed shortly after they were last seen alive. But that eight hour window leaves a lot of possibilities.

 

[DimeDetective]

I have seen Ohio mentioned one other time in connection to the Beasley-Hawlett murders. As with the crimes of Matthew Vaca, drugs are involved.

This is 100% rumor and should be treated as such.

On the Dothan, AL forum on Topix, in a thread entitled "Who Killed J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett?," a poster who calls himself "Person in the know" gives a pretty detailed account of how a couple of drug dealers transported J.B.'s car, bodies in the trunk, from where the girls were killed to where the car was found. According to this poster, Herring Avenue was chosen as the dump site because one of the dealers had a sister who lived right around the corner. Subsequently, says "Person in the know," one of the dealers moved to Ohio to work with his father and while there he threw J.B.'s keys into the Ohio River.

This rumor, posted relatively recently (May 2011), also blends into a longstanding rumor about the case, which is that J.B. was dating a judge's son or grandson, and so was considered a "narc" by area drug dealers, which led to her murder. "Person in the know" does not believe the girls were killed by the same dealers who transported their bodies; he does, however, believe they know the killer's identity.

"Person in the know" claims the drug dealer who moved to Ohio is the same person of interest who was questioned by Alabama LE in Michigan on more than one occasion.

 

[EmKD]

I noticed that some people were asking about the connection between dance studios, but there would be no connection between the girls and Elevations School of Dance. Elevations was not around in 1999. Back then I believe the area shown as the studio on maps was a church. There was at least one other studio here at the time, but I am not sure where it/they were located.

 

[killarney rose]

I have seen Ohio mentioned one other time in connection to the Beasley-Hawlett murders. As with the crimes of Matthew Vaca, drugs are involved.

This is 100% rumor and should be treated as such.

On the Dothan, AL forum on Topix, in a thread entitled "Who Killed J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett?," a poster who calls himself "Person in the know" gives a pretty detailed account of how a couple of drug dealers transported J.B.'s car, bodies in the trunk, from where the girls were killed to where the car was found. According to this poster, Herring Avenue was chosen as the dump site because one of the dealers had a sister who lived right around the corner. Subsequently, says "Person in the know," one of the dealers moved to Ohio to work with his father and while there he threw J.B.'s keys into the Ohio River.

This rumor, posted relatively recently (May 2011), also blends into a longstanding rumor about the case, which is that J.B. was dating a judge's son or grandson, and so was considered a "narc" by area drug dealers, which led to her murder. "Person in the know" does not believe the girls were killed by the same dealers who transported their bodies; he does, however, believe they know the killer's identity.

"Person in the know" claims the drug dealer who moved to Ohio is the same person of interest who was questioned by Alabama LE in Michigan on more than one occasion.

Welcome to Web Sleuths Em!

Okay guys, my typing skills are poor at best, but on the tablet they are worse, so please be patient!

Dime Detective, I somehow missed this post. Just a few thoughts on it.

First, in order to believe this rumor, then we have to believe the girls came to Ozark on purpose,that they were not really lost that night. Anyone that has ever been a teenaged girl knows that could be highly likely.

But if they came to Ozark on purpose, then why did they ask Marilyn for directions at the Big/Little store? There was absolutely no reason for them to do this unless they were really lost.

That alone is reason for me to doubt they came to Ozark on purpose.

But OTOH, the rumors to fit together to make a somewhat plausible story. As most people know, there is usually a grain of truth in the beginning of a rumor, before it grows to unbelievable proportions. I will believe there is a chance the judge's son could have been involved until fact can dispel that rumor.if it is true, it wouldn't be the first time LE has protected a prominent person.and this young man had prominent relatives all the way up to Montgomery. Anyone who has lived in AL for any amount of time knows politics are dirty here, politically its still very much "old boy" and Old South " .