While reading back through the
Chronology of Events today, I started clicking around and discovered that this old Ozark, AL news archive can be viewed as full weekly posts from 5/2/99 through 10/30/05
here, a perusal of which yields a week-by-week account of the investigation as it unfolded,
I read through all these a few months ago when this was posted and jotted down some but not all mentions of the investigation, thought I might as well post them before I deleted them. not much here we didn't already know but oh well. The first one is a readers comment that was posted.
Sunday October 10, 1999
A Readers Comments
There is one fact that I have not seen reported from the preliminary hearing that I think would mean a lot to Tracie's family. There was so much speculation about the girls going to a party that night. This made the girls look like they were "looking for trouble". It was revealed at the hearing that there were no traces of alcohol or drugs found in either girl. I think the Dothan Eagle should have run that since they focused so much on the party aspect but maybe at least you will consider it.
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Sunday October 17, 1999
WTVY has reported that fingerprints found on J.B. Beasley's vehicle don't match those of John Barrentine. Police Chief Tony Spivey refused to comment and referred questions to District Attorney David Emery. Emery also didn't have any comment on the report.
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Sunday October 31, 1999
After initial reports from authorities that no evidence of sexual assault took place against the two Dothan teens found murdered in Ozark, the crime lab has found evidence of semen on the clothing of one of the victims. The reports are coming from unnamed sources close to the investigation, with a couple of different versions being reported by local media.
One version reports that the semen was found on J.B. Beasley's dress while some of the other reports say that the semen was found on Beasley's bra and panties.
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Sunday January 16, 2000
New Information Received
Ozark Police Chief Tony Spivey said that investigators had received new information in the murders of two Dothan teens, and they were hopeful that it is valuable in solving the case.
Spivey wouldn't say what the information was but he did say that the state forensics lab had sent some evidence back which has been forwarded to the FBI for further analysis.
Chief of Police Tony Spivey said it was a case of being at the mercy of the department of forensics in Alabama and Washington, D.C. Evidence items that haven't been processed with results returned are:
particles from inside J.B. Beasley's Mazda car
tire impressions from the scene where the bodies were found
soil found on the clothing of the girls
fingerprints found on the car
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Sunday February 27, 2000
Police Release Details of Evidence
A list of six possible suspects were interviewed and had their blood DNA tested. The results were negative for a match with the victims DNA.
Four handguns were tested by a ballistics laboratory. None of the guns matched the murder weapon.
One possible suspect had bloody clothing which was tested for DNA. The results were negative for a match with the victims DNA.
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Sunday March 12, 2000
Police began searching an area off Hwy 123 inside the city limits of Ozark last week, believing that it may have been the location where Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley were murdered. Investigators related that they believed the location on Herring Ave. where the car and bodies of the Hawlett and Beasley were found wasn't the location where the shooting actually took place. The location off Hwy 123 developed from a new lead that came about last week.
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Sunday March 19, 2000
Investigators are reported to feel pretty confident that they have found the site that the murders took place on Hwy 123, south of Ozark. Evidence has been collected from the scene including a 9mm bullet found a the location. Another item of evidence collected at the scene has been sent to the lab for processing.
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Sunday March 26, 2000
Spivey still feels like more than one person was involved in the murders and that just because someone's DNA doesn't match the semen found on the clothing of one of the teens, doesn't necessarily rule that person out as a suspect in the case.
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Sunday January 07, 2001
WTVY television news reported this week that investigators had new information that involves the white truck but that police chief Tony Spivey said it was too preliminary to go into anymore detail about the evidence.
Workers at the Big-Little Store on East Broad St. told a reporter for WTVY, that investigators were there this past week with a white truck and were parking it at the pumps and taking pictures of it.
Investigators have always said that the driver was being sought as a possible witness to something that may have occurred and not as a suspect in the case.
Spivey didn't say when or if the new information would be made public.
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Sunday April 25, 2004
Murder Investigation Continues
The murder of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, two Dothan teens who were found murdered in the summer of 1999, continues to this day. Ozark Police Chief Tony Spivey had some cold-case experts look at the case last week while attending a conference in Montgomery.
Members of the Vidocq Society, renowned forensic specialists, were conference instructors and they were meeting law enforcement officials throughout Alabama who had cold cases.
Investigators from the Ozark Police Department along with the FBI and ABI have chased hundreds of leads and rumors. Chief Spivey has his investigators looking into the case everyday rechecking leads and interviews, just in case something was missed.
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Sunday July 18, 2004
New Details in Murder Case Released
Ozark Police Chief Tony Spivey Spivey said that evidence reveals that the killer of J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, likely suffers from a sexual dysfunction which leaves him unable to perform normally. Some of the evidence mentioned was that neither of the two Dothan teens was raped although semen was found on Beasley's bra and other clothing.
At lest 100 people have been ruled out as possible suspects when the DNA hasn't matched. Investigators are still waiting for results on evidence collected at the scene, such as soils samples on the clothing from the girls.
The driver of the white truck shown on the security camera at the Big/Little store has been identified and cleared of any involvement.