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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 19 March 2019

Truck-driving preacher charged with killing Alabama teens

By KIM CHANDLER Ozark Police Chief Marlos dence to Parabon Nano-
Associated Press Walker said he knew Mc- Labs in Reston, Virginia, for
OZARK, Ala. (AP) — A truck- Craney from living in the DNA analysis, Walker said.
driving preacher charged same city and was sur- CeCe Moore, chief genetic
with killing two Alabama prised when DNA testing genealogist with Parabon
teenagers found shot to linked him to the slayings. NanoLabs, said information
death in a car trunk nearly He credited science, dili- from the crime scene DNA
20 years ago was tied to gence, and divine inter- was uploaded to the ge-
the slayings through a DNA vention with the arrest. nealogy database called
match uncovered with ge- “I’m a spiritual guy, so it GEDmatch, where people
netic genealogy testing, was all God’s work,” Walker voluntarily submit their own
authorities said Monday. said. information while searching
The analysis linked evi- The girls left Dothan the for relatives.
dence that sat for years in night of July 3, 1999, to go Moore said they were able
a police freezer to Coley to a party but never arrived. to identify an extended
McCraney, 45, of Dothan, They were found the next family, meaning at least
Alabama, police said. day in the trunk of Beasley’s one relative of McCraney
McCraney was taken into black Mazda along a road had voluntarily submitted
custody Friday and booked in Ozark, a city of 19,000 DNA.
Saturday on rape and cap- people located about 90 The police chief said the
ital murder charges, ac- miles (145 kilometers) south- genealogy work identified
cording to officials and jail east of Montgomery. Each a family, and then inves-
records. He now faces a had a gunshot wound to tigators “ultimately nar-
potential death penalty in the head. rowed it down to a single
the killings in 1999 of Tracie Sherry Gilland, who lived person.” He said they then
Hawlett and J.B. Beasley, near a convenience obtained a DNA sample
both 17. store where the girls were from McCraney and the
Hawlett’s mother, Carol last seen, said the killings state crime lab matched
Roberts, said she went changed the community. it to that found at the 1999 This Saturday, March 16, 2019 booking photo provided by the
numb when she heard of Afterward, Gilland said, she crime scene. Dale County Sheriff’s Office, shows Coley McCraney. Al.com
McCraney’s arrest. She said was afraid to let her own During the news confer- reported McCraney, of Dothan, was arrested Saturday and
that as the years ticked by, daughter ride her bicycle ence, law enforcement charged with rape and capital murder in the 1999 deaths of
she began to doubt if the or walk too far from home. authorities did not dis- 17-year-olds Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley.
case would ever be solved. “It has been a cloud over close how they obtained Associated Press
“God gave her to me. He the town, but now it’s lift- the DNA sample from Mc- preaching, records show Roberts said the whole fam-
didn’t have the right to do ed,” she said. Craney. he worked as a truck driver ily slept in the same bed for
that. I just want to know A judge had ordered Mc- District Attorney Kirke Ad- for years for several differ- a time after the slayings out
why,” said Roberts, who Craney to submit to DNA ams said he would seek the ent companies. of fear.
wore a button featuring testing less than a month death penalty against Mc- The slayings haunted the Roberts said her daughter,
her daughter’s photo at after the slayings because Craney. The multiple capi- community for years and who wanted to be a doc-
the news conference an- a woman filed suit claim- tal charges against Mc- Harrison said he was con- tor since she was a little girl,
nouncing the arrest. ing he was the father of Craney include one of kill- cerned about his client would have been 37 this
McCraney, who has his her daughter, court docu- ing Beasley during a rape, getting a fair trial. month.
own church and preached ments show. But he failed he said. “It’s going to be difficult She still remembers her
recently, is cooperating to submit a sample and A different suspect was to find a jury that’s not al- last conversation with her
with authorities, said de- was ordered to pay child previously cleared after his ready aware of the facts,” daughter, who called to
fense attorney David Har- support. DNA didn’t match semen he said. “I might have to see if Beasley could spend
rison. Last year’s arrest of “Gold- found on Beasley. ask that it be moved to an- the night with them and at-
“My heart goes out to the en State Killer” suspect Jo- Harrison, the defense law- other venue to get a fair tend church the next day.
victims’ families,” Harri- seph DeAngelo in Califor- yer, said McCraney is trial. A lot of emotions are “Last words out of her lips
son said. “It’s a tragedy. nia — in which genealogy an outstanding commu- flying.” were, ‘Mama, I love you,’”
We don’t need to make it testing helped identify the nity member who is mar- Hawlett had two elemen- said Roberts. “Last words
make three tragedies by suspect — helped prompt ried with children and tary school-age brothers at out of my mouth to her
convicting him.” police to send their evi- grandchildren. Aside from the time of her death and were, ‘I love you.’”q