On July 31, 1999, JB Beasley turned seventeen, and she and her friend Tracie Hawlett set out from Dothan, known as the “peanut capital of the world,” for a night of party-hopping in the Wiregrass region. What began as a search for a field party ended in tragedy, with the young women found murdered in Ozark. More than two decades later, the legal battle surrounding their deaths continues, with the capital murder conviction of Coley McCraney now before the Alabama Supreme Court, following an appeal upheld by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals in September 2024.
Beasley and Hawlett were reportedly searching for a field party with a keg in the Wiregrass when they became lost. They stopped at a closed filling station in Ozark to use a payphone, where someone reportedly gave them directions that did not sound suspicious: “Right out of the lot, left at the McDonald’s.” Surveillance tape from the station shows them leaving in the correct direction. Their car was discovered by the roadside the following morning. By two in the afternoon, the trunk was opened, revealing both young women inside, shot in the head.
The initial investigation into the murders faced significant challenges, as detailed by Birmingham-based journalist Matt Kessler, who spent nine years researching the case for his upcoming book, “The Wiregrass.” Kessler highlights that the bodies remained in the car's trunk for five hours in the Alabama summer heat before an officer from out of town had the idea to open it. He notes that trained officers then searched the car without gloves. A lead investigator reportedly attempted to tow the vehicle back to Dothan, an action Kessler suggests would have destroyed the crime scene. Years later, the car was quietly released and resold, with no paperwork indicating who authorized the action. When Kessler reportedly contacted the Ozark police for the case file, he was told that all records prior to 2000 had been “accidentally” destroyed.
In the years following the murders, a man named Johnny Barrentine confessed to the killings but was subsequently released when his DNA did not match evidence from the scene. The case remained unsolved for nearly two decades. Then, approximately 20 years after the crime, a genetic genealogy search matched semen found at the scene to Coley McCraney. McCraney, described as a married preacher with no prior criminal record, was arrested in connection with the cold case.
Coley McCraney was convicted on four counts of capital murder in 2023 and is currently serving a sentence of life without parole. McCraney admitted to having sex with one of the victims but denied committing the killings. According to the source material, DNA evidence represents the only material evidence in the case, as no weapon was ever found. The Alabama Attorney General issued a statement on McCraney’s sentencing in June 2023.
The conviction has faced challenges through the appeals process. In September 2024, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld McCraney's conviction. During the appeal, the defense had argued that Rena Crumb should have been permitted to testify, claiming that an Ozark officer, not McCraney, was responsible for the girls' deaths. However, Crumb later recanted her statement, and the judge ruled her evidence as hearsay. The case has since advanced and is now before the Alabama Supreme Court. Matt Kessler, the journalist, reportedly believes in McCraney's innocence and suspects police involvement in the murders, though he states he will not name the officer he considers a person of interest until his book is published in October 2026. Kirkus, a book review service, described Kessler's forthcoming book as a meticulous, urgent account of a case it considered officially closed but far from settled.