48 Hours - The 30-Year Secret – The Tracey Harris Murder

Episode Date: January 24, 2021

A little girl grows up wondering who murdered her mother. Decades later, prosecutors learn a secret that answers the question. "48 Hours" correspondent Maureen Maher reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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ConstantContact.ca I've thought about a thousand times the what ifs, and that's kind of nauseating that we were that close. In my time as district attorney, we have had some odd cases. This one was a complete rollercoaster ride towards the end. As far as an emotional situation this was by far the toughest one. the toughest one. Tracey Harris was a hard-working young mother that disappeared March 7th, 1990. She was a very sweet friend, a very shy person, and people really liked her and respected her. Her daughter was a toddler, a four-year-old named Carolyn, who she had with Carl Harris. She had been married for several years. They had recently divorced, but had never really split.

They still lived in the same home. They slept in the same bed. I did hear that Tracy was missing and was very concerned something had happened to her. Carl came by our house. She'd been missing for a couple days. He was genuinely concerned, and he said, you know, I can see her leaving me, but she would never leave this baby.

Her body was discovered about 150 yards further downstream about seven days before she went missing. Based on the autopsy, the manner of death was homicide. Tracy was a kind and loving person who did not deserve what happened to her. Most people did think that Carl Harris had murdered Tracy. Prior to her going missing, there had been a confrontation or two concerning a girlfriend that Carl had. Carl Harris did have a reputation for being very violent,

in particular towards Tracy Harris. There were several instances where the witnesses would say it didn't take anything for him to just go off on her. He was incredibly abusive to her. I never put my hands on Tracy, never. So all those people were lying? Yes, ma'am. I love Tracy. She was the love of my life. I think from the very get-go, there was only one suspect in this case, Carl Harris. Everybody thought I killed her. Everywhere I turned, you know, you hear them whispering in the background, there's the man that killed Tracy. A lot of people were waiting for

him to be arrested and then surprised when he never was. Ozark Police Department had created a cold case unit. And in 2016, they picked up the Tracy Harris, Carl Harris case. They told me they were looking at me as a suspect again after 27 years. The evidence was circumstantially strong. The domestic violence, the circumstance with the girlfriend, and comments he made that she wouldn't be back. Who else would want this sweet innocent young lady murdered?

Jordan and her team had spent a lot of time building a case that I was about to torpedo. I kept the secret for 30 years. Редактор субтитров А.Семкин Tracy was alive when she came to this location and traveled down this access road to the Beachy area. 22-year-old Tracy Harris disappeared on March 7, 1990. A week later, her body was found in the Chattahatchee River, a few miles from her home in Ozark, Alabama. The area around the river was a place Tracy and her friends

would get together. It was certainly one of the first places that investigators were looking for Tracy. Dale County District Attorney Kirk Adams. Her body had come to rest upon a log after the water started to recede a bit. The autopsy revealed that Tracy had drowned, but also noted marks around her neck,

likely indicating strangulation. The missing person case became a homicide, and Ozark police started interviewing those close to Tracy and her ex-husband Carl, with whom she still lived. Carl had let the police in his house a couple of times for them to look around. Carl was believed to have been the last person to see Tracey, picking her up the night she disappeared

from the restaurant where she worked as a waitress. He then dropped Tracey off at their house and headed out to his job at a supermarket. There were not any clues at home. It didn't appear that anybody had taken her by force. Police thought that location by the river might provide more clues. They learned that while Tracey might have enjoyed spending

time by the river, she would never have gone in the river. Every witness we spoke with, she could not swim. She was terrified of water. She was so scared of the water. When she was baptized and she went under, she was hysterical. Selena Donson and Tracy were about 11 years old when baptized. They were childhood friends spending a lot of time together at church. It was there she first saw Tracy with Carl. Tracy and Carl started dating when we were probably 16, 17 years old. And I was happy for her that she, you know, had a boyfriend and somebody that she really liked. In her senior year of high school, Tracy became pregnant.

And she and Carl, who was three years older, married. When she had Carolyn, she was adorable. Everybody just loved her, and she was like Tracy. She looked like her, and she had a personality like her. Tracy's mother was taking care of Carolyn. You know, young parents, you could tell that her and Carl, you know, struggled some. Tell me about your family as a young family, you and Tracy and Carolyn. We was all happy and everything.

We didn't have a problem with each other, nothing like that. The picture Carl painted of a happy home, though, was not what police found when they started questioning friends and family. Assistant Dale County District Attorney Jordan Davis. There was about 14 different people that had come forward that witnessed some type of domestic violence between Tracy and Carl. One of those people was Dawn Beasley. She and her soon-to-be husband Jeff, who worked construction with Carl,

lived with the Harris's for about a month. Tracy and I were a lot alike. Dawn, who was pregnant at the time, and Tracy, a young mother, quickly became friends. I think that she appreciated having someone, you know, Carl was real controlling and, you know, he didn't want her to have a lot of friends. What did you see going on between Carl and Tracy? So one time we were sitting at the table, and she told Carl, hey, listen, I'm going to need some money for the water bill. And he flew into a rage. He's got her bent over backwards with his hands around her

throat. Did he verbally threaten her? He threatened to kill her in front of me. I intervened. I'm telling him, let her go. Did she talk to you about it at all? Yes. She just wanted to be a family. She felt like if she could just get through the rough stuff, you know, that it would be okay. the rough stuff, you know, that it would be okay. Dawn told police about those altercations she said she saw and her feelings about Carl. Well, they asked me, so what do you know about Carl Harris? And I said, well, I know he's a rat bastard. He was not good to Tracy. He asked me about fights I'd seen. And I made a statement, and I signed it, and every word of my statement was true. There are quite a few people who said that they saw you being abusive to Tracy. Were you abusive to Tracy? No, ma'am, I was not. We all saw it. Everyone in town was

talking about it. I did my grocery shopping, and I'm in the milk section, and there's a couple standing there talking about it. The husband says, well, looks like that boy done finally killed that girl. Despite all the talk in town, Tracy never filed police reports about the alleged abuse. Back then, the domestic violence law was much different. If the police arrived and nobody wanted to make a report, there was just no reports done. It wasn't just stories about abuse that made law enforcement take a hard look at Carl. There was that young girlfriend. He did have a 17-year-old girlfriend at the time who several people said he had had conversations

with about marrying her, but that he couldn't leave Tracy because he'd have to pay child support. He also made comments prior to her going missing and after, including come back whenever Tracy won't be home. Carl admits to having a girlfriend. Honestly, it wasn't their business. And talking to her about Tracy, but says any comments he made were misunderstood. You didn't tell anybody that she wasn't coming back? No, ma'am. I never said that. It was just so many things, most of all which were circumstantial, but they all pointed at Carl Harris. But no arrest was made, and the case went cold.

No arrest was made, and the case went cold. Carl claims that through the years, he occasionally called authorities to ask about the investigation. But they say otherwise. Has there ever been a time that Carl Harris said, I want you to find out who killed Tracy? Never. Does that strike you as odd? Strikes me as very odd. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert to a remote base near

Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military, and when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free, starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland

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Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. A lot of people, you know, just assumed Carl would be arrested, assumed that he did it, and were waiting for him to be arrested. For years, Selina Dodson wondered if there would ever be justice for her friend Tracy Harris, who in 1990 was found murdered in Alabama's Chattahatchee River. was found murdered in Alabama's Chattahatchee River. Selena's thoughts would often wander to Tracy and Carl's daughter. So I would wonder, you know, I wonder what happened to Carolyn.

I wonder what she looks like. I wonder what she's doing. I was four years old when my mom was murdered. When I was four or five, I would cry nonstop if I would get in trouble and say, I want my mom, I want my mom. Carolyn was immediately adopted by Tracy's mother. They soon left Ozark, hoping to start over and move to Texas. I do not have any memories of her.

Family would always bring up stories about her, how sweet she was, how shy she was. We had pictures throughout the house. What did you grow up thinking happened to your mom? I knew my mom was murdered. Then as the years went on, I found out that it had to do with my dad. What did people tell you about him? I've always heard that he was very abusive towards my mom, that he was just a bad individual. Carolyn had no interest in a relationship with her father, whom she did not see while growing up. Her grandmother provided a loving home, and Carolyn says that was more than enough. She was like the best. Like, she did everything for me.

When Carolyn was about 21, she says Carl did reach out, and they met, but did not talk about Tracy. Did you want to ask him about her? Yeah. I've always wanted to ask questions, but the way that everybody portrays him to be, I didn't think that he would tell me the truth. Still, Carolyn wondered about her mother, wanting to know what really happened. I have tried to piece it together. That's what I do. I try to piece everything together and make it all make sense. This was definitely something Carolyn was passionate about. She wanted some type of justice for her mom.

When her grandmother died in 2015, Carolyn returned to Ozark to bury her, next to her mother. She started asking people in town what they knew about Tracy and the investigation. And there was one lady, she said that her son happened to be best friends with the sheriff. Carolyn spoke with the sheriff, who put her in touch with the Ozark Police Department. At the same time, the cold case unit was starting to reopen the investigation. As it turned out, their number one suspect had not changed. There was nobody whose name had ever come up that had any reason to kill Tracy Harris. And I think when they reopened the case, they were just trying to prove Carl did it, not look for anybody else.

And so they went back through all the witnesses that had given statements in 1990, all the ones that they could find, they got back in touch with. Most of them remembered their statements and told investigators almost exactly what they did in 1990. Among those who police went back and interviewed? An acquaintance of Tracy and Carl's. He said the police are so dumb I can kill somebody and get away with it. Tracy's aunt. Because it kind of shocked me because I mean he was saying that it was like he was smart or at least you know. I was a young naive teenager. Investigators also tracked down

that girlfriend of Carl's who was 17 when Tracy was murdered. Did Carl at any time tell you that you didn't have to worry about Tracy showing up again to the house? He could have. And when do you think he said that? I don't know. Although she recalled little about her time with Carl, she did remember learning Tracy was dead. I just couldn't believe that she was dead. And her realization that perhaps her boyfriend was a murderer. I just remember thinking that, you know, people were talking and it even took me being questioned to even think that maybe he could have done it. But after it all happened, we just stopped seeing each other. And there was also several people that they found since then

that he had made statements to that were incriminating. While police were reinvestigating the case, Carl was trying to get on with his life. Several years after Tracy's murder, he had left Ozark, feeling like the cloud of suspicion had destroyed his life. I had to go out of town to get jobs when people don't know me. He worked as a bouncer, in construction, had a girlfriend and another daughter. in construction, had a girlfriend and another daughter. By 2016, he had moved to South Carolina, where investigators gave him a call.

I thought it was good news. I thought they found somebody they was looking at. And when they told me they was looking at me as a suspect again, they come up two weeks later arresting me. More than 26 years after Tracy Harris' body was found, Carl Harris was arrested on September 13, 2016, for her murder. There's absolutely no evidence at all that it connects Carl Harris to this murder. None whatsoever. David Harrison is Carl's defense attorney. He says Carl's arrest was motivated by

politics and nothing more. In 2016, in this area, there were unsolved murders. They had a lot of political pressure to charge somebody. The environment of Ozark, Alabama was, we need to do something. Were you worried that there was some new piece of evidence that they had? No, I was never worried. Never. Because I was innocent. While Carl may not have been worried, there was someone who for years was. Dawn Beasley, that friend of Tracy's who, with her then-fiancé, briefly lived with the Harris's. Every time I would have a police officer get behind me, I would wonder, is this where we're all of a sudden they know what's happening? This is the moment. I've always wondered what happened to my mom since I can remember. For decades, Carolyn wanted to know more about the 1990 murder of her mother, Tracy Harris.

Carolyn wanted to know more about the 1990 murder of her mother, Tracy Harris. And in 2016, with the arrest of her estranged father, Carl, Carolyn thought, finally, she would get some answers. How do you react when the thing you want is justice for your mom, but it's your dad who's been charged with her murder? It's a relief that we found somebody, but then in the back of my mind, I'm like, was it really him? Could he have really done this? Why? Motive was also a question prosecutors Kirk Adams and Jordan Davis thought about as they prepared their case against Carl. I don't think there was one particular motive.

I think that the domestic violence was definitely in the back of our heads, but also this 17-year-old girlfriend that he had. Based mostly on statements from the interviews originally done back in 1990, an investigator from the Ozark Police put together this scenario of what he thought happened the night Tracy went missing. Quote, her. Carl Harris then placed her seemingly dead body into his vehicle and subsequently drove her to the Chukta Hatchee River and placed her body into the water. Police say Carl then picked up a friend, reportedly at 9 30. Making all those stops, Carl would have traveled about 20 miles.

You can take all the statements of anybody you want to put together in this investigation here. There is no evidence whatsoever that is true. When you put the timeline to this case, Maureen, unless he was on a Learjet, that was impossible. Defense attorney David Harrison says the entire investigation is not just flawed, but that the police narrative is fabricated. but that the police narrative is fabricated. This officer made this up to make this arrest. The defense also offered up an alternate suspect, that friend police say Carl picked up the night Tracy disappeared, named Bobby Herring.

Bobby Herring was convicted of raping a woman in a sister county. But prosecutors say Herring had an alibi for the time Tracy was murdered, and they remained confident that Carl was their man. What's different in 2016 that wasn't there or obvious in 1990? I think the major thing was getting these witnesses together, which is what we did for the grand jury presentation. thing was getting these witnesses together, which is what we did for the grand jury presentation. And once you heard those people, it was very clear that Carl was violent. He had threatened Tracy. He had said, one of these days I'm going to kill you. Those things just add up. As they prepared for trial, Kirk and Jordan sifted through statements,

looking for more potential witnesses to testify. I was actually three when this happened, so from 1990, and we're trying to track down witnesses. We were dealing with people that had moved all over the country. Several had passed away. There was a lot to go through, so we just kind of started with a long list, and we just started trying to narrow it down. The prosecutors also visited the area around the river where Tracy's body was found.

Part of our job is to paint that picture for a jury, and I just think it's always important to try to get a feel for the area. They spent time on the bridge, where police believed Carl threw Tracy into the river. This location is approximately seven miles from where Carl and Tracy Harris lived. It's very quiet and very rural.

They also went to the area under the bridge where people would sometimes gather. There's a lot of graffiti under this bridge, a lot of names as well. Putting the case together was an arduous process, one filled with continuances and delays. Carl was out on bail, having spent two and a half weeks in jail after his arrest. As confident as the prosecution was, so was the defense. I've tried 140 criminal jury trials. I know a bad one from a good one. They never had a shot with this case. But they maintain that the case was specifically built on the statements of all the people who said that they saw Carl being abusive to his wife, his strange behavior afterwards.

Was that a concern for you as you were preparing a defense? Never. Never. Because the credibility of the people that were going to testify, they had no credibility, none whatsoever. But Carolyn, who traveled to Ozark for every single hearing, was convinced of her father's guilt. I was ready to put him behind bars, ready to see it happen. Finally, more than three years after Carl's arrest, the trial was scheduled for January 13, 2020. The week before trial, Jordan continued to scour over old witness reports, deciding who should testify.

That's when one statement from 1990, not followed up on, caught her attention. The one in particular that we found that they hadn't talked to in 2016 was this Dawn Halbert, now Beasley, and she had witnessed domestic violence while living in their home. What we thought was interesting was that she had witnessed it in the same manner as how Tracy was actually killed.

It took Jordan several calls to wrong phone numbers to find Dawn Beasley. And she says, my name is Jordan Davis. I'm with Dale County DA. This is about Carl and Tracy Harris. Dawn, who had moved away from Ozark and was now divorced, says she didn't even know there was an arrest for the murder of her friend Tracy until that call. They asked me, we need you to testify. And I said, no, I can't possibly do that. My job is very stressful. I texted her the next morning and said, we really would like for you to come. She texted me back and said that she was going to decline our invitation, that she couldn't help us. So, Jordan, for you, this wasn't an invitation.

This is a murder trial. I was aggravated. I simply got a subpoena ready, and we gave it to our investigators the next day. She made a scene and was very dramatic. I was very unhappy. I said, you're ruining my life, and you don't understand why you guys don't want me to testify.

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Dawn refused to come, saying she was too busy. Then, after being subpoenaed, she called Prosecutor Jordan Davis again. I told Jordan, I have given you completely honest reasons why I don't want to testify. But the most important reason I can't testify is because you have an innocent man on trial. I thought, wow, she's coming up with crazy story as to why she can't get here. And she said, well how do you know he's innocent? I know he's innocent because the man that did commit the crime confessed it to me the night he did it.

That's my ex-husband, Jeff Beasley. Dawn told Jordan about the night of March 7, 1990, when Tracy went missing. Dawn, about to celebrate her 21st birthday the next day, was pregnant with her first child. Her fiancé Jeff came home, waking her in the middle of the night. He said, I accidentally hurt her, and now she's dead. Who? Tracy?

What happened? I went over to Carl's to talk to Carl. Carl wasn't there. I talked to Tracy. I tried to talk her into leaving him. She got mad at me. We had a fight. We tussled and I accidentally hurt her and now she's dead. He said he took her down to the river because he didn't want them to come home and find her body. Dawn says she told Jeff they needed to go to the police, but he insisted they keep quiet. I had an impossible choice to make

and I really struggled. Tracy deserves justice but the cost was going to be so high. What was the cost going to be if you went to the police? I was going to have to throw my entire life away. I'm about to get married. I'm pregnant. This baby deserves a chance at a life with a loving family and a mom and a dad. And so Dawn made her decision. She would stay quiet, she says, out of her desire to keep her life intact and also out of fear that

police might not believe her. They're gonna ask him some questions. He's going to deny it. Then what happens to me? Dawn says she was honest when police questioned her after Tracy's body was found and described the abuse, seeing Carl grab Tracy by the throat and threatened to kill her. In every word of my statement was true. They just never asked me, who do you think did it? I walked out and I do remember the sense of relief because I hadn't actually had to lie. Did it feel like you were lying, though, by not telling them?

Sure. I've gone back, Maureen, and questioned that decision over and over and over and over and over again. Did you feel badly at all that he was under such scrutiny and suspicion? I would like to say that I did, but I didn't. Carl made Tracy miserable. While Ozark police questioned Dawn, they never got a statement from Jeff, even though they both spent time together living with the Harris's. They had a statement from Dawn and that was things that they had witnessed while living in the home together. I'm sure they thought that Jeff's statement would be very similar to Dawn's. But Jeff Beasley should have

raised some red flags for police. He had a criminal record. Don met Jeff shortly after he was released from prison, having served four years for burglary and escape attempts. But Don was willing to overlook his criminal past and the information about killing Tracey. They married and started their own family, keeping the secret to themselves.

I never talked about it ever to another living soul, not even Jeff. You and Jeff never talked about it ever again? Never. Never once. You just pulled the dark curtain over and that was it, it was done? We just pretended it never happened. Were you ever concerned that you might get into trouble having not gone to the police right from the beginning? Sure. Yeah, of course. Dawn says she worried, yet life proceeded mostly as if nothing had happened.

Dawn and Jeff would have another child. Her growing family eventually made her think of Tracy's daughter, Carolyn. I should have been sorry for Carolyn, and I was sorry for me. Even after Jeff was arrested again in 1991 for burglary and spent five years in prison, Dawn kept the secret, wanting her family life to be normal when he got out. Jeff comes home from prison, but very quickly I realized that this is not going to be what I anticipated it was going to be. Dawn claims Jeff became abusive. After 13 years of marriage and four children, she and Jeff divorced. As time went on, she did think about ways to tell authorities what she knew. Maybe I do it on my deathbed. Maybe I make an anonymous phone call. Maybe I write a

letter. But, she says, the fear of upending her own children's lives always stopped her. That, however, changed with Jordan's insistence that she testify at Carl's murder trial. She dreaded what she now had to do. Tell her adult children that their father killed someone and that she kept it quiet for 30 years. The only thing I was ever afraid of was how they were going to respond. And they responded with support and love and understanding. Meanwhile, the prosecutors on the Friday before the start of the trial were also processing what Dawn had just told them.

I knew we couldn't have a trial Monday because we had to figure out what's going on here. Jeff Beasley's name until they spoke to Dawn was unfamiliar, but they did remember something from that trip to the river where Tracy's body was found. While we were here, we were looking under the bridge and in big, huge spray paint letters was the last name Beasley. And in big, huge spray-painted letters was the last name Beasley. But it doesn't mean anything at that time because on the statement, Don's name was Don Holbert. It didn't even say Beasley. Prosecutors do not know why or who spray-painted the name Beasley under the bridge.

Carl Harris' trial was put on hold. Police tracked down his old friend, Jeff Beasley, who was living in Ozark working as a trucker, and brought him in for questioning. I'm being accused of murder, of taking someone's life. I couldn't. I wouldn't. Can we really do this? Can we really solve this for Carolyn? Can we really give her peace? all of this for Carolyn?

Can we really give her peace? Prosecutors Kirk Adams and Jordan Davis spent more than three delayed filled years putting together their case seeking justice for Tracy Harris. Now with Dawn Beasley's revelation that her ex-husband Jeff told her that he killed Tracy. I appreciate you coming in. They hope to learn the truth.

Did you hurt Tracy in any way? No. Jeff Beasley not only agreed to talk to investigators, You just have a seat for me? but also to take a lie detector test. Are you the person that caused the death of Tracy Harris that night? He maintained his innocence. Even after being told… You did not pass.

…he failed the polygraph. I didn't do this. I didn't do this. This was not me. For more than four hours, Beasley insisted he had nothing to do with Tracy's death. It seems like you guys are wanting me to say I did something when I didn't. I'm not going to put a word in your mouth. Only you know. And that's what I need. I don't know.

And then I want it done. He confessed. We went down to the river. Claiming he and Tracy were having an affair. She said she was leaving a call. I didn't want to be leaving all alone. I didn't want to say she was telling me all that.

Jeff said he and Tracy had been waiting in the river. And we got into the water. And been waiting in the river. And we got into the water. And we were in the river. She went down and didn't come back up. But some things in Beasley's story were not adding up. Dawn said Jeff had told her that Tracy and he fought at the Harris' home, and those who knew Tracy did not believe she was having an affair. Not one witness we had ever mentioned that she was possibly seeing someone else because

it was clear from the witnesses that Carl wouldn't allow that. I cannot imagine that she was cheating with Jeff or anyone else. He told me it was an accident, you know. Now, sitting here, I think that maybe he hit on her. Maybe she rebuffed his advances. Maybe she said, I'm going to tell her. maybe she said I'm gonna tell her and maybe he freaked out and made sure she wasn't gonna ruin his family and there was the issue of why Tracy known to be terrified of water would voluntarily go in the river everybody in the case of

new traces that she was scared what we went to the river a Everybody in the case of new Tracy said she was scared of water. We went to the river a couple times. They also wanted Jeff to explain those bruises the autopsy noted on Tracy's neck. Mark's authorities felt were consistent with strangulation. One of the pathologist's reports said that she was possibly strangled. I didn't strangle her. I remember taking her, pushing her underwater. The autopsy says it, I guess. Was it an accident? Yeah, I would hope, yeah.

But police and prosecutors did not believe it was an accident. And Jeff Easley was charged with the murder of Tracy Harris. He confessed in a way that matches the evidence. I don't know how many times that happens when you get a confession from the real killer, technically 17, 18 hours before trial. The DAs broke the news to Carolyn. Jordan called me to come to the police station that they had to tell me something, and I broke. We finally did it. Like, we finally found out who killed my mom. You could just see so many emotions going through her.

She'd been told all her life, your dad did this. But to find out he didn't do it, you could tell not only was she relieved, but you could tell she was so grateful that somebody had solved this case. On January 13, 2020, the day prosecutors had planned to be in court starting Carl Harris's trial, instead they held a press conference. I have dismissed the murder case against Carl Harris. An arrest has been made of 54-year-old Jeff Beasley of Ozark with the murder of Tracy Harris. They hurt our pride that we had the wrong person. You've got to, you know, check your ego at the door because what's important is the right person

got charged. Carl Harris heard the news that he was a free man from his attorney. It just blew my mind. I was happy that I was standing my ground and I was telling the truth the whole time, and they finally caught the boy that did it. Beasley pleaded guilty and received a 30-year sentence. Did you ever consider filing charges against Dawn?

No. There are a lot of people who are going to say maybe she should be charged with something. I think it was extremely difficult for her to come forward. But the fact is she could have kept that secret for forever. She could have come up here. She could have lied on the stand. The goal was to find the truth and to seek justice for Tracy Harris. And ultimately, Dawn did that.

Was there any relief for you after all this time? It was extraordinary relief. For Carl Harris, his relief is mixed with anger. Along with his attorney, David Harrison, they held their own press conference. I think it's negligent. I think it's incompetence. We're talking about an innocent man. Alleging that police fabricated information, like that investigator's report describing how Carl killed Tracy, Carl filed notice that he plans to sue the city of Ozark for $6 million for damages, including false imprisonment and pain and suffering. We wanted to ask Ozark police about the investigation, but they declined, citing the pending claim.

We're mortified that we were that close to putting the wrong man on trial, and we were very confident that we would be able to get a conviction in this case. I do think about that all the time, and that's kind of nauseating, to be honest, that we were that close. And I think we definitely learned a lesson with this case. Tracy Harris' murder 30 years ago has left many wondering what might have been, especially Carolyn. She still has no

relationship with Carl. Carl has not come forward and actually been truthful to me about the abuse. And I can't forgive him if he can't be man enough to look at me and tell me what he did and that he's sorry for it. Carolyn's focus remains on the mother she never had a chance to get to know. Everybody I've talked to said that she was so quiet. She was so modest. She was the sweetest person that they've ever met. Do you wonder what your mom would be like today?

Every day. Every day. Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Christy Wilson left the casino with this man. And then she was never seen again. He was convicted of murder. Guilty. But she was never found.

Where is she? Now, dramatic news. We're going to find her and bring her home to the family. 48 Hours, Saturday at 10, 9 Central on CBS. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.