AL AL - J.B. Beasley, 17, & Tracie Hawlett, 17, Ozark, 31 July 1999 #3

[killarney rose]

It may be, but I am not certain. I have never heard either LE or any of the victim's family members say his name. For some reason, neither of them want to disclose it. One of the two (either Coots or Warren) left the state right after the murders.

For those reading here that are not familiar with the "Michigan Man", he according to Chief Spivey, made "suspicious statements" about the murders not long after the girls were killed and took off for Michigan very soon thereafter. Reportedly, he was riding with a couple of friends the week following the murders and made a statement something to the effect "Would you be surprised if I told you I killed the girls?" Even though they were his friends, they were shocked by what he said and reported it to authorities. LE went to Michigan 3 times to interview him. I can't help but believe they had more than a passing interest in him. It is unknown if either of the girls knew either Coots or Warren and FWIW, his DNA did not match that found on Beasley's body and clothes.

Thank you for clarifying this. I had never seen it explained.

 

[Bulldog23]

I have a question that I think my fellow sleuths may be able answer: What is a "person of interest", and how is that different than a suspect? Veritas once identified himself as a POI in this case and said he had been questioned several times. This was when he was posting anonymously under Veritas on the Wiregrass site. (I think it was around 2008 if memory serves me.) Just wondering what the distinction between POI and suspect is? Anyone with LE background?

 

[folieadeuxnola]

Excellent question ...... Bulldog 23

TedMac thank you for the clarification on the keys being thrown, my memory does not serve me well at times.

 

[TedMac]

I have a question that I think my fellow sleuths may be able answer: What is a "person of interest", and how is that different than a suspect? Veritas once identified himself as a POI in this case and said he had been questioned several times. This was when he was posting anonymously under Veritas on the Wiregrass site. (I think it was around 2008 if memory serves me.) Just wondering what the distinction between POI and suspect is? Anyone with LE background?

I have always been told that a suspect is someone LE feels they have probable cause to believe may have committed the crime they are investigating. A person of interest is someone who has pertinent information about the crime, but is not necessarily a suspect.

MOO, but sometimes it appears LE uses the two terms interchangeably.

 

[Tinala]

Found some other discussions here...
Who Killed J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett?

Have also seen the name David Pitts mentioned on other forums and he also had a brother. He was arrested on another murder in 2014. Anyone ever heard anything about him being connected to the murders?....

Any thoughts on this?....OMG THE HENRY COUNTY REPORT IS BACK!!!

I grew up in ozark and graduated in 1993 and moved away. Broad st. Was known for the mansions but the closer you got to the train tracks near the high school those homes on that end were in bad shape. There was one house at 725 broad st. That was known as THE place to go for whatever. I looked it up in google maps and it is the house I remember, of course it has been renovated now so you can’t tell what a crack house it literally was back then. Although I don’t have the greatest memory from those days I spent a lot of time on that house in a drug haze. There was a young couple that were the renters there, I can picture them but can’t remember names. What bothers me is that in another forum I saw a guy post that I hung out with back then and he posted that he knew who would ave done it and if he knew then I knew that person too. Like I said my memory isn’t the greatest and even if I saw a picture it still might not jog a recognition. It does haunt me tho that area. Back in those times there were a lot, a lot, a lot of drugs in the Ozark/Wiregrass area. The cops turned their heads and I even remember them showing up at field parties in headland and even when we used to,party down in Columbia at the Dam. I remember them staying and goofing around with everyone and even having a drink or two. We were KIDS! All of us around 16 and 17, mixed with young 20 somethings and even some younger than us. How the hell do you just allow this much less,join in? There is also no freaking way that the cops were not aware of that house on Broad. If was always filled during the day with those skipping school and night parties.
Now I knew all this 6 years before those girls were killed but who’s to say the same things and locations were still happening then also. Who knows. I do know for a damn fact that those girls in no way got lost after leaving that gas station. No way. It is seriously not that hard to find 231 from there. I don’t buy that. It was so mentally exhausting and upsetting going back in my head to those days and trying to remember details about the area. Way too much *advertiser censored* went down around there and none of it was good back then.

 

[CoolJ]

Found some other discussions here...
Who Killed J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett?

Have also seen the name David Pitts mentioned on other forums and he also had a brother. He was arrested on another murder in 2014. Anyone ever heard anything about him being connected to the murders?....

Any thoughts on this?....OMG THE HENRY COUNTY REPORT IS BACK!!!

I grew up in ozark and graduated in 1993 and moved away. Broad st. Was known for the mansions but the closer you got to the train tracks near the high school those homes on that end were in bad shape. There was one house at 725 broad st. That was known as THE place to go for whatever. I looked it up in google maps and it is the house I remember, of course it has been renovated now so you can’t tell what a crack house it literally was back then. Although I don’t have the greatest memory from those days I spent a lot of time on that house in a drug haze. There was a young couple that were the renters there, I can picture them but can’t remember names. What bothers me is that in another forum I saw a guy post that I hung out with back then and he posted that he knew who would ave done it and if he knew then I knew that person too. Like I said my memory isn’t the greatest and even if I saw a picture it still might not jog a recognition. It does haunt me tho that area. Back in those times there were a lot, a lot, a lot of drugs in the Ozark/Wiregrass area. The cops turned their heads and I even remember them showing up at field parties in headland and even when we used to,party down in Columbia at the Dam. I remember them staying and goofing around with everyone and even having a drink or two. We were KIDS! All of us around 16 and 17, mixed with young 20 somethings and even some younger than us. How the hell do you just allow this much less,join in? There is also no freaking way that the cops were not aware of that house on Broad. If was always filled during the day with those skipping school and night parties.
Now I knew all this 6 years before those girls were killed but who’s to say the same things and locations were still happening then also. Who knows. I do know for a damn fact that those girls in no way got lost after leaving that gas station. No way. It is seriously not that hard to find 231 from there. I don’t buy that. It was so mentally exhausting and upsetting going back in my head to those days and trying to remember details about the area. Way too much **** went down around there and none of it was good back then.

Thanks for joining us Tinala. You could add an interesting perspective to our discussions here, without a doubt.
I am interested in hearing more about the cops joining in on the teenage parties and whatnot. I have long suspected activities like this back in the day in Ozark and Wiregrass area in general.

 

[cherrymeg]

Found some other discussions here...
Who Killed J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett?

Have also seen the name David Pitts mentioned on other forums and he also had a brother. He was arrested on another murder in 2014. Anyone ever heard anything about him being connected to the murders?....

Any thoughts on this?....OMG THE HENRY COUNTY REPORT IS BACK!!!

I grew up in ozark and graduated in 1993 and moved away. Broad st. Was known for the mansions but the closer you got to the train tracks near the high school those homes on that end were in bad shape. There was one house at 725 broad st. That was known as THE place to go for whatever. I looked it up in google maps and it is the house I remember, of course it has been renovated now so you can’t tell what a crack house it literally was back then. Although I don’t have the greatest memory from those days I spent a lot of time on that house in a drug haze. There was a young couple that were the renters there, I can picture them but can’t remember names. What bothers me is that in another forum I saw a guy post that I hung out with back then and he posted that he knew who would ave done it and if he knew then I knew that person too. Like I said my memory isn’t the greatest and even if I saw a picture it still might not jog a recognition. It does haunt me tho that area. Back in those times there were a lot, a lot, a lot of drugs in the Ozark/Wiregrass area. The cops turned their heads and I even remember them showing up at field parties in headland and even when we used to,party down in Columbia at the Dam. I remember them staying and goofing around with everyone and even having a drink or two. We were KIDS! All of us around 16 and 17, mixed with young 20 somethings and even some younger than us. How the hell do you just allow this much less,join in? There is also no freaking way that the cops were not aware of that house on Broad. If was always filled during the day with those skipping school and night parties.
Now I knew all this 6 years before those girls were killed but who’s to say the same things and locations were still happening then also. Who knows. I do know for a damn fact that those girls in no way got lost after leaving that gas station. No way. It is seriously not that hard to find 231 from there. I don’t buy that. It was so mentally exhausting and upsetting going back in my head to those days and trying to remember details about the area. Way too much **** went down around there and none of it was good back then.

Thank you so much for this!

 

[cherrymeg]

Tinala , do you think Beasley and Hawlett saw something that they shouldn't have? I don't think they found drugs or alcohol in their systems. That doesn't mean they didn't have friends that partied or sold drugs. What you described about field parties and the drug use going on around that time gives a clearer picture of what the town was like. The stuff about the cops not just, "letting kids be kids" but participating also makes you think. Those murders were basically executions.

 

[Tinala]

Really hard to say. I mean back then everyone knew basically and no one really thought how weird it was that they were involved or turned a blind eye at a lot of stuff happening. The house on Broad st. Everyone who was skipping for the day would park their cars in the high school parking lot and either hitch a ride with someone else or simply walk there. School was over, all back. No one the wiser although the school caught us a few times. That house was always full of kids doing just about everything you could imagine. Not a chance in hell the cops didn’t know exactly what it was. As far as field parties. You have to understand that just like any small rural town there just wasn’t much to do at all, so trouble was always there to get into. Some field parties were on a property of a kid throwing it but a lot of times the were just someone’s field that was isolated. I mean sometimes an owner would call and get it shut down but most of the time everyone just ignored what was going on. Figuring kids will be kids right? I always felt very lucky to have gotten out of that town. I lived freshman year in Headland, sophomore year in Daleville and junior and senior year in Ozark. We all ran those roads constantly between all those towns and Dothan. Yes there were a lot of places you could get lost but not if they ere trying to get in 231 from the Big/Little store. I just don’t see it.
My theory is that they gave up going to the field party in Headland because it was getting too late and too close to curfew. If they were trying to get to 231 then it makes sense that they were indeed maybe trying to go to Midland City to meet the two boys we have heard about in other discussions. I think they were stopping somewhere in ozark first and that’s why they went the wrong way maybe. I am sure the police looked into who they may have known in the Ozark area. It’s just a case with so many holes and any one of the theories could be real. So frustrating and I definitely think the police department did a botch of everything or this case would have been solved quickly. Is law enforcement involved? Who knows really but I would cross it off the list I can be sure of that.

 

[Falcon500]

I have always been told that a suspect is someone LE feels they have probable cause to believe may have committed the crime they are investigating. A person of interest is someone who has pertinent information about the crime, but is not necessarily a suspect.

MOO, but sometimes it appears LE uses the two terms interchangeably.

The term “person of interest” came into the dialog about 25 years ago. Back in the day every person that the police interrogated were called “a suspect”. Then when the right person was arrested the defense brought up the name(s) of everyone who had been called a “suspect” and confronted the detectives with the names to cast doubt in the minds of the jury.

Then someone thought up “person of interest” when they really meant “suspect”

 

[Tinala]

Thanks for joining us Tinala. You could add an interesting perspective to our discussions here, without a doubt.
I am interested in hearing more about the cops joining in on the teenage parties and whatnot. I have long suspected activities like this back in the day in Ozark and Wiregrass area in general.

Absolutely it went on. One of the biggest places to party was the Damn in Columbia, Al. About 15 minutes from Dothan. I remember going there when I was 15 year old freshmen in Daleville. It was a big swimming area also so everyone would meet up there on the weekends. It was isolated and in the middle of nowhere. We got left one time as a prank and had to walk all the way back to town. After walking for 3 hours barefoot we were picked up by a cop from Columbia one of the guys with us knew and he took us all to the guys grandmas house and we slept there. Now you are a cop and come upon 5 kids, half dressed, barefoot, drunk and high as all get out and you take them all to one kids house and that’s it? God I think back now and wonder how the hell I didn’t end up dead back then also. So many,of the people I knew back then didn’t ever leave that town and it is sad to see where they all wound up.

 

[cherrymeg]

Really hard to say. I mean back then everyone knew basically and no one really thought how weird it was that they were involved or turned a blind eye at a lot of stuff happening. The house on Broad st. Everyone who was skipping for the day would park their cars in the high school parking lot and either hitch a ride with someone else or simply walk there. School was over, all back. No one the wiser although the school caught us a few times. That house was always full of kids doing just about everything you could imagine. Not a chance in hell the cops didn’t know exactly what it was. As far as field parties. You have to understand that just like any small rural town there just wasn’t much to do at all, so trouble was always there to get into. Some field parties were on a property of a kid throwing it but a lot of times the were just someone’s field that was isolated. I mean sometimes an owner would call and get it shut down but most of the time everyone just ignored what was going on. Figuring kids will be kids right? I always felt very lucky to have gotten out of that town. I lived freshman year in Headland, sophomore year in Daleville and junior and senior year in Ozark. We all ran those roads constantly between all those towns and Dothan. Yes there were a lot of places you could get lost but not if they ere trying to get in 231 from the Big/Little store. I just don’t see it.
My theory is that they gave up going to the field party in Headland because it was getting too late and too close to curfew. If they were trying to get to 231 then it makes sense that they were indeed maybe trying to go to Midland City to meet the two boys we have heard about in other discussions. I think they were stopping somewhere in ozark first and that’s why they went the wrong way maybe. I am sure the police looked into who they may have known in the Ozark area. It’s just a case with so many holes and any one of the theories could be real. So frustrating and I definitely think the police department did a botch of everything or this case would have been solved quickly. Is law enforcement involved? Who knows really but I would cross it off the list I can be sure of that.

Thank you! It sounded like they were supposed to meet up with boys that night and asked Tracy's mom while on the phone. Teenagers don't always tell the truth to parents maybe they went to meet up with different boys then they said. Or there was a house party and something happened. A kid I went to high school with shot his girlfriend in the head with his roommates gun. He was drunk maybe high and he was supposedly playing with a gun. If they weren't murdered in the trunk (I heard one girl might have been shot elsewhere) maybe something happened and the other girl was killed to prevent her from calling the police. There are so many theories that could be right or totally wrong. I really hope someone comes forward.

 

[cherrymeg]

Absolutely it went on. One of the biggest places to party was the Damn in Columbia, Al. About 15 minutes from Dothan. I remember going there when I was 15 year old freshmen in Daleville. It was a big swimming area also so everyone would meet up there on the weekends. It was isolated and in the middle of nowhere. We got left one time as a prank and had to walk all the way back to town. After walking for 3 hours barefoot we were picked up by a cop from Columbia one of the guys with us knew and he took us all to the guys grandmas house and we slept there. Now you are a cop and come upon 5 kids, half dressed, barefoot, drunk and high as all get out and you take them all to one kids house and that’s it? God I think back now and wonder how the hell I didn’t end up dead back then also. So many,of the people I knew back then didn’t ever leave that town and it is sad to see where they all wound up.

Cops did that stuff to keep kids out of trouble. If it's a small town and you aren't doing anything like vandalism they don't want to put your family through a court thing. Or risk kids losing scholarships, licenses, w/e else. Cops used to find us in this motel that everyone partied at when we were underage. They would give you the option of staying there all night or they would give you a ride home. They dropped my friend and me off at my parents house. He dropped us off out front. We had someone else pick us up and go back for the car. I actually wasn't drunk but the cop didn't know that. If something had happened to you at that person's house I wonder if the cop would have come forward and admitted to dropping you off there.

 

[cherrymeg]

Tinala would kids have been walking or driving home from field parties? I wonder if people were out and could have witnessed something that night.

 

[Tinala]

Tinala would kids have been walking or driving home from field parties? I wonder if people were out and could have witnessed something that night.

Definitely driving. Most of these were literally miles from town and no way anyone would be walking to or from one. Mostly driving I would imagine. The fact that their car was found so very close to the gas station where they had stopped originally I am more inclined to think that whoever is responsible was at that gas station originally when they were there and either followed them and somehow got them to stop or waited for them to stop again, or they knew them. So many variables. Just has to be more than coincidence with the vicinity to the gas station tho.

 

[TedMac]

Found some other discussions here...
Who Killed J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett?

Have also seen the name David Pitts mentioned on other forums and he also had a brother. He was arrested on another murder in 2014. Anyone ever heard anything about him being connected to the murders?....

Any thoughts on this?....OMG THE HENRY COUNTY REPORT IS BACK!!!


Thank you Tinala for joining the conversation. Please feel welcome to comment on any of the posts

 

[TedMac]

Thank you! It sounded like they were supposed to meet up with boys that night and asked Tracy's mom while on the phone. Teenagers don't always tell the truth to parents maybe they went to meet up with different boys then they said. Or there was a house party and something happened. A kid I went to high school with shot his girlfriend in the head with his roommates gun. He was drunk maybe high and he was supposedly playing with a gun. If they weren't murdered in the trunk (I heard one girl might have been shot elsewhere) maybe something happened and the other girl was killed to prevent her from calling the police. There are so many theories that could be right or totally wrong. I really hope someone comes forward.

BBM...That has been debated a great deal. I am not certain, but I believe that story arose when it was stated by the coroner, that one of the girls may have died at least an hour before the other. Tracie was shot in the head and died instantly. JB was shot in the face-in the area of her cheek and may have "bled out" in the trunk putting her time of death later than that of Tracie. Due to the amount of blood inthe trunk, it was felt that JB may have survived for at least an hour after being shot. Anyone else feel free to chime in here if you have heard this or even something to the contrary.

 

[cherrymeg]

BBM...That has been debated a great deal. I am not certain, but I believe that story arose when it was stated by the coroner, that one of the girls may have died at least an hour before the other. Tracie was shot in the head and died instantly. JB was shot in the face-in the area of her cheek and may have "bled out" in the trunk putting her time of death later than that of Tracie. Due to the amount of blood inthe trunk, it was felt that JB may have survived for at least an hour after being shot. Anyone else feel free to chime in here if you have heard this or even something to the contrary.

I thought the blood in the trunk could have meant one girl was shot in the trunk and the other could have been shot at a different location. Blood wasn't found on the outside of the car was it?

 

[TedMac]

I thought the blood in the trunk could have meant one girl was shot in the trunk and the other could have been shot at a different location. Blood wasn't found on the outside of the car was it?

Not aware of any blood found on the outside of the car. There was blood in the trunk and on the undercarriage indicating the car had been driven with the girls in the trunk after they had been shot.

 

[somequestions]

F.Y.I. From what I remember from the interview J.B. Beasley's sister gave to some news source, she said that when one of the girls was shot(I think Tracie Hawlett), the bullet went through the trunk. Tracie Hawlett, according to reports, was first into the trunk and first to be shot. J.B. Beasley was shot in the cheek. I suspect this is because she turned her head realizing what was about to happen. Supposedly according to J.B.'s sister, she saw a picture or was told about a picture that showed J.B. Beasley was lying in the trunk in an angellike position like she had fallen asleep. This again makes sense to me since being shot in the cheek, while a very serious injury, might not have taken her life immediately. I suspect being seriously injured J.B. Beasley fell asleep while bleeding out. The majority of the blood in the trunk may be hers for this reason since she would still be able to bleed. A doctor told me this is because while dead bodies can ooze blood from gravity or leaking, only living people can actually "bleed"(because their heart is still pumping blood was my interpretation). This is just what I think about the blood in the trunk. I have not read anything confirming this as fact.

The other misconception that J.B.'s sister talked about was the bullet casing on Tracie Hawlett's pants leg as depicted in the Haunting Evidence episode. That was wrong. The bullet casing was actually found on J.B. Beasley's clothing.

Please accept my apology in advance if I am wrong about any of this information. I am writing this from what I remember. This only goes to show you why you cannot trust the psychic information on a show like Haunting Evidence or some of the "facts" that are presented on t.v. shows like it.