A 49-year-old Alabama was convicted Wednesday of capital murder in the brutal 1999 murders of two high school seniors in the Wiregrass.
A jury convicted Coley McCraney – who lived his life crime-free and built a family in the 20 years following the murders – of four counts of capital murder in the shooting deaths of Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley.
The murders of the girls’ haunted the Wiregrass region for decades and been given national exposure on television networks throughout the years. The friends, both 17, were on their way home from Beasley’s birthday party when they got lost in Ozark on July 31, 1999. Within a week, police announced a nationwide, 24-hour hotline to received tips and a reward fund quickly grew to $15,000 in donations from area residents. Then-Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman announce another $10,000 in state funds.
through use of a genealogy and DNA database sparked the chain of events that led to the break in the Alabama cold case. The department reached out to Parabon NanoLabs in Virginia, which specializes in DNA engineering. A 45-year-old Dothan man - Coley McCraney - has been charged with five counts of capital murder and one count of rape int he 1999 murders of 17-year-old friends Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley, whose bodies were found in the trunk of Beasley's car. Both had been shot in the head. Their deaths have haunted the Wiregrass region for decades.
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