Genetic Tests Link Negroid to Rape and Murder of Two White Teenagers

Coley McCraney.

Janetic tests be white man magic, dat why dey always be blaming da bruthas.

RAYCISS science be framing dey black man fo’ crimes fo’ hundreds of years.

Dothan Eagle:

A new crime solving technique may have led to a break in one of the most high-profile unsolved murder cases in the Wiregrass in recent history.

Coley McCraney, 45, of Dothan and formerly of Ozark, faces multiple counts of capital murder and one count of first degree rape in connection with the 1999 slaying of teens J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett.

McCraney was booked into the Dale County Jail at 6:34 p.m. Saturday.

Information gathered indicates DNA collected at the crime scene was uploaded to a database where anyone can share their data from consumer DNA testing companies such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com to search for relatives who have submitted their DNA. The DNA data revealed matches equivalent to relatives of the crime scene DNA. Other information allowed law enforcement to close in on a single person.

A dispatcher at the Ozark Police Department said Chief Marlos Walker would not be available for comment until Monday. A representative of the Dale County Sheriff’s Office told the Dothan Eagle Ozark Police would need to make any public comment.

Beasley and Hawlett were both 17 in 1999 when they planned to attend a field a party in Headland on the night of July 31. The girls were found in the trunk of Beasley’s abandoned vehicle on Herring Avenue in Ozark on the morning of Aug. 1. Each year, family members of the two girls have held a vigil on the side of the road where the girls were found.

Tracie Hawlett, left, and J.B. Beasley.