Tracy Thompson 

   In March 1999, Tracey Thompson, 33 years old was murdered in Seville, Ga. Someone beat Tracey to death with a baseball bat and left her on a tiny abandoned dirt road. The case still baffles Georgia cops, and some even think it was probably a hate crime. 

   When Tracey was discovered, she was still alive and actually named her attacker so that's why some still wonder why this case remains open and cold. It was just before dawn on March 30, 1999 when she found a tiny house out in Seville, Ga. She was bleeding from her head in a few different places when the residents of this home heard her banging on the door. They immediately called 911, and got her a bottle of water and a warm blanket. About 10 hours after she was admitted to the hospital Tracey was dead. 

      

   Because Tracey was transgender, this case attracted national news. It was on just about every news show out there. And even though authorities do admit she identified her attacker before she died, 24 years later her case still remains cold. One of the authorities first theories of course was the fact she was killed because of her gender identity, only known in 1999 as "cross dressing". She could have had a date with someone who thought she was a biological woman, and then he got extremely mad when he saw she was in fact biologically a man. Also, there were a lot of rumors that Ms Thompson's murder was a hate crime. That would not surprise me at all. I grew up in Georgia, and I've heard stories my entire life about Wilcox and  surrounding counties and how it can be there. According to The AJC, authorities have not found any evidence of this being a hate crime of any kind.

   You see Tracey was born Billy Joe Turner, and in 1999 that wasn't accepted much in the south, especially in Georgia. Tracey was originally from Dalton, Georgia. She had been a drifter for years. A lot of her days were spent hitchhiking Georgia's interstates and her nights at Georgia's truck stops. She did have a criminal record, but it was mostly petty crimes, like drunk driving and trespassing. She did serve time, before she was identified as a female, for grand theft. 

   According to the GBI, it is unlikely Tracey would have hitchhiked as far as she was when she was found dead, some 75-80 miles south of Macon, Ga. Her murder was the 5th transgender murder in 1999 and it was only March. It did spark a protest by transgender activists in California to declare a State Of Emergency and a National Crisis.

   On a dirt road, about a mile from the farmhouse where Tracy sought help that morning, police later found blood and a broken baseball bat, after as much testing as they could do in 1999, it never led them to a killer. On the dirt road where Tracey found the little farm house that she sought help at, authorities found blood and a shattered baseball bat, but it did not lead them to the killer. Authorities have tested everything from that spot and the spot she found someone who helped her, but we still haven't come up with any suspect yet. On her death bed just minutes before she passed away, Tracey told authorities she had been struck over and over in the face and on her head with a baseball bat by her ex-boyfriend. He was ruled out after agents tracked him down and confirmed his slibi of being out of town.

   There were other "persons of interest", including a man Tracey was in prison with before she began identifying as a woman. This man denied knowing him and being in prison with him and to this day, he's never been ruled out as a suspect. 

      Her death sparked a nationwide protest that started in Oakland, California.

           IT HAS BEEN OVER 3 YEARS

IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION 

  PLEASE CALL GBI OFFICE IN AGENT WEATHERSBY 478-987-4545