Two Teen Girls Vanished in Alabama. Police Found Their Car but Missed Something Horrifying

On July 31, 1999, 17-year-old best friends J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett got lost while driving to a birthday party in Dothan, Alabama. They stopped at a convenience store for directions, and Tracie called her mother to say they were fine and heading home. But the girls never made it back. Hours later, their car was found less than a mile away, abandoned on a quiet road. When police finally opened the trunk, they discovered both girls inside, shot to death.

Investigators recovered crucial evidence, including DNA from J.B. that belonged to an unknown man. But for nearly two decades, that DNA produced no match. Then the rise of genetic genealogy gave investigators a new way to identify the person behind the profile. The trail eventually led them to Coley McCraney, a local truck driver and preacher who had never been on investigators' radar. His DNA matched the evidence from J.B.

McCraney eventually claimed he had consensual sex with J.B. the night she and Tracie disappeared and said the girls were alive when he last saw them. But his explanation came years after he initially told investigators he didn't know J.B. or Tracie. His own wife's testimony also placed him at the same convenience store where the girls were last seen. In April 2023, a jury found McCraney guilty on all four capital murder counts, and he was sentenced to life without parole.

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