The wife of an Alabama minister who was convicted for the 1999 murder of two teen girls recalls how her “American dream” was unraveled following his arrest five years ago.
Jeanette McCraney, a mother of two, was shaken when she learned that her husband, Coley McCraney, 50, was the key suspect in the cold-blooded executions of 17-year-olds Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley, according to a preview for ABC’s “20/20” Friday night episode.
“My kids are growing up in church,” she recalled about her idyllic life in early 2019.
“They’re seeing their mom and their dad do the right thing.”
The dream, however, turned into a nightmare when DNA evidence linked Coley, of Dothan, to the bodies of the teen girls, who were found shot in the head inside the trunk of Beasley’s car.
Coley, who also worked as a truck driver at the time, would eventually stand trial for raping Beasley and killing both girls.
Jeanette, who has not spoken about the case before, told ABC that on the day of his arrest, she had been trying to get a hold of her husband before police broke the news that he had been linked to the horrifying double murder.
“I start calling him, no answer, a couple of hours go by and my phone rings, and he [the cop] says, is this Mr. McCraney’s wife?” Jeanette recalled in a preview obtained by the Daily Mail.
“I said, ‘Has Coley been in an accident?’ He says, ‘No.’ I was like, ‘OK, is he in trouble or something? I’m confused.’ They said, “Yeah, he’s in big trouble,'” she added.
Jeanette said the arrest brought her quiet, happy life to a screeching halt.
“I feel like we had everything together,” she said.
Beasley and Hawlett went missing on July 31, 1999, as they headed back to Dothan after getting lost on their way to Beasley’s 17th birthday party.
Although Hawlett called her mom that day to say they got directions at a gas stop, the families never heard from the girls again, with the bodies discovered the following day with gunshot wounds to the head.
“That crime scene, that trunk, those two girls is the only homicide that I ever turned around and had to walk off,” Barry Tucker, a now-retired Trooper Captain with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, told ABC.
“When you see the innocence and a life that’s just been snatched away, that’s hard to swallow,” he added.
While the case remained cold for years, Ozark Police Chief Marlos Walker reignited the investigation after he saw news of the DNA testing that was used in 2018 to catch the Golden State Killer.
The new DNA testing led police to the name McCraney, with Walker recognizing the name as his former high school classmate, Coley.
After asking Coley for a DNA sample to help expand the search, Walker was “blown away” to discover that it was Coley’s DNA that matched the samples found on Beasey.
During his trial Coley claimed he met Beasley, who was allegedly using a false name, at a mall in 1999 and that they had consensual sex in the back of his truck.
He claims he did not know that the person he had sex with was one of the victims in the case until after his arrest.
Last year, a jury ultimately found Coley guilty of capital murder and rape.
Coley, however, maintains his innocence to this day as he awaits a decision for his motion for a new trial filed to the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.
“They can call me a cheat, they can call me a dog. They can call me a lot of things at that time, but they cannot call me a killer,” McCraney said in a phone interview with ABC.