In a “20/20” episode that aired May 10 convicted killer Coley McCraney claims he is innocent.

On March 15, 2019, police arrested McCraney. The police matched his DNA to the murders of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett.  The two 17-year-olds were found in the trunk of Beasley’s car in 1999.

The murders took place in the heart of Alabama, amidst the quaint towns and rolling fields. And the community was changed forever.

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1999 Murders

On July 31, 1999, the girls were celebrating Beasley’s 17th birthday.

They were driving in Beasley’s car, to a field party in Headlands, Alabama. But they got lost and stopped in Ozark, Alabama at a gas station where they got directions back to Dothan.

Hawlett called her mother, Carol Roberts, from a payphone to tell her they were headed home. They never made it.

The next morning Carol called the local police, and a search began.

Early on August 1 law enforcement spotted the Black Mazda on the side of a road. It had traveled less than a mile from the gas station where their phone call was made.

The girls’ purses were intact. No one had taken their cash.  Tracie’s keys were still in the car.

When the trunk was opened the girls were found dead, each with gunshot wounds to the head.

DNA 

The wheels of justice turned slowly. For years, every lead was investigated. But then the case went cold.

In 2018, Ozark Police Chief Marlos Walker heard about the breakthroughs in forensic genetic genealogy.

Forensic genetic genealogy is a cutting-edge technique that uses an unidentified person’s DNA to trace their identity by exploring a network of relatives.

Ozark police sent a DNA sample found on Beasley to  Parabon NanoLabs in Virginia. Five months later, in 2019, Walker received results and noticed a familiar name on the list of possible matches.

Walker recalled that “I was looking at the list again, and when I saw the name McCraney that stood out because I knew of a McCraney in high school.”

He contacted his former classmate, Coley McCraney, who drove trucks for years and eventually became a minister. He asked if he would give a DNA sample to help locate a distant relative. 

McCraney provided a DNA sample willingly to the Ozark Police Department.

The Chief was “blown away” when he learned from the lab that McCraney’s DNA was a direct match to the DNA found on Beasley.

He was arrested on March 15,2019 and charged with capital murder and rape.

Coley McCraney

His trial was in April 2023.

The murder weapon was never found. There are no witnesses that place McCraney and the girls together on the night of the murder. The only physical evidence is the DNA.

In the first interrogation McCraney denied even knowing the girls. During the trial he claimed he met J.B. Beasley at a mall, but only knew her as Julia. 

He said he gave her his phone number. On the night the girls were killed McCraney said he saw them at the service station and had sex with Beasley in his truck.

A jury found him guilty of capital murder and rape. He was handed down a life sentence.

McCraney’s attorneys claim that the DNA evidence only proves McCraney and Beasley had a sexual encounter. They filed with Alabama’s Court of Criminal Appeals, for a new trial. That motion is expected sometime in 2024.