A cold case murder that has haunted the Wiregrass region for nearly 20 years may finally be solved, according to Dothan area TV reports.

Ozark police are reportedly interrogating a suspect on the 1999 deaths of two 17-year-old teenagers who were then-seniors at Northview High School in Dothan.

Police have taken a suspect, later identified by TV news reports as Ozark resident Coley McCraney, into custody. The arrest was made after a DNA match was found through a family DNA website, according to WDHN news in Dothan. The site is similar to a genealogy and DNA database that led investigators last year to apprehend the California man believes to be the Golden State killer during the 1970s and 80s.

Ozark police have not publicly confirmed the development, and no specifics about an arrest have been made. Efforts to reach Ozark Police Chief Marlos Walker, and other Ozark police officials on Saturday, were unsuccessful.

A news conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday at the Ozark Municipal Complex inside the City Council chambers, at which time authorities will release “some developments” made during the investigation into the deaths of Tracie Hawlett and J.B. Beasley.

A report from WTVY in Dothan, citing unnamed sources, links the DNA evidence to the the deaths of Hawlett and Beasley, whose bodies were found in the trunk of a car in Ozark. McCraney had previously not been suspected of committing the crime, TV reports suggest.

The girls, both 17, disappeared on July 31, 1999. According to Tracie’s mother, Carole Roberts, the girls had been lost and could not understand the directions they were given before stopping at a convenience store in Ozark. They had been on their way home from a party in Headland.

The girls were found the next day inside the trunk of J.B.’s black Mazda 929, on the side of Herring Avenue about one block away from the Dale County hospital. Both girls had each been shot once to the head, but there were no other signs of foul play.

The killings so outraged folks throughout the Wiregrass region that they pooled cash and posted a reward. Within weeks, they had raised more than $15,000, and then-Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman kicked in another $10,000 in state funds.

In the years immediately after the killing, investigators conducted more than 500 interviews, overworked forensics experts and tested the DNA of more than 70 potential suspects, according to past published reports.

Police arrested Johnny William Barrentine, who they said implicated himself by putting himself at the crime scene during an interview with authorities. Barrentine later said he told police his fake stories to get the reward money that was promised at the time.

He was later cleared when semen found on Beasley’s clothing and skin did not match his DNA.

The case has long remained in the minds of everyone involved, including family and former Ozark Police Chief Tony Spivey.

Spivey, according to WDHN-TV, was seen leaving the Ozark Police Department Friday with Walker and Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson.

“We will gain closure in this case and we won’t rest until that happens,” Spivey told The Dothan Eagle in 2004.

This story was updated at 6:11 p.m. on Saturday, March 16, 2019, to include additional details about the investigation and to include a notice of a news conference that will be held Monday in Ozark, Ala.