Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley were both 17 when they were killed in Alabama while driving home in 1999. Credit: Patti SimpsonJeanette McCraney said she once was "living an American dream," happily in Dothan, Alabama.
A new “20/20” episode airing May 10 at 9 p.m. ET and streaming the next day on Hulu, explores the investigation, including interviews with law enforcement, family members of the victims, as well as Jeanette and Coley McCraney. She quickly alerted the authorities. Within a couple of hours on August 1, 1999, law enforcement spotted Beasley’s Black Mazda sedan on the side of a road less than a mile from the gas station where they made their last phone call. Inside the car, everything looked intact. The girls’ belongings, including purses and wallets with money, and Tracie’s keys, were still there.
Almost 20 years later, in 2018, Ozark Police Chief Marlos Walker saw news that forensic genetic genealogy had been used to catch the Golden State Killer in California. In hopes of getting closer to an exact DNA match, Walker then contacted his former classmate, Coley McCraney, and asked if he would voluntarily give a DNA sample. Coley McCraney agreed to help with the investigation by providing a DNA sample at the Ozark Police Department.
Investigators said they have never found a murder weapon and haven’t found any witnesses who saw Coley McCraney with the girls that night. The sentencing finally brought some closure needed for the families of Beasley and Hawlett, who waited more than two decades for justice.
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