Tracy Lea Fortson is a former deputy sheriff who murdered her boyfriend when he left her because of her jealousy and violent temper.
Biography[]
Fortson was a deputy sheriff of Colbert, Georgia. By age 35, she was in a relationship with Doug Benton, a weight-lifting body-builder. She was into motor-bike riding, fishing, hunting and weight lifting. Doug often took tomboy girlfriend for rides on his Harley Davidson motorcycle. They seemed to be a perfect match. But Tracy was jealous but not just of other women, but of Doug's male friends as well. She wanted Doug's full attention. When Doug's friends started to see the other side of Tracy, they stopped visiting.
In February 2000, Tracy quit the police and started working at Doug's welding business. When Tracy didn't get her way, she would retaliate by deleting information on his computer. One day, she actually tried to kick over his motorcycle. Tracy went into her truck for a revolver. But Doug knew she had one, and grabbed his shotgun. Ultimately, she got in the truck and left. What Doug didn't know was Tracy had a history of being violent to her boyfriends. She had hit one of ex-boyfriends repeatedly with a baseball bat.
After eight months of dating and fighting, Doug broke it off.
Shortly after, she bought a cattle trough and sprayed it with camouflage spray paint. She also bought ten 80-pound bags of concrete and a shower curtain.
On the night of June 4, 2000, Tracy came into Doug's house while he was sleeping on the couch. While he slept, she shot him in the back of the head with a .22-caliber shotgun. However, Doug didn't die, but was unable to react. Doug was bleeding profusely and was inhaling blood. Tracy pulled out a knife and stabbed him repeatedly in the buttocks, abdomen and the leg, killing him.
The physically fit Tracy Fortson wrapped his body in the shower curtain and dragged his body into the cattle trough. He poured the cement on his body and sprayed it down with a water hose, then put peat moss on the top and waited for it to dry. She dumped the cattle trough in an area with a lot of trees, thinking it wouldn't be discovered.
To make it appear that Doug disappeared on his own accord, she parked his truck outside one of his friend's house. A note she left in the truck read:
"I'll be out of town for a while,
trust you to look after my truck.
Don't try to contact me. I'll contact
you later. Don't send anything.
nobody.
Doug."
However, two weeks later, a person discovered the cattle trough and called the police. Knowing the police will investigate Doug's house, Tracy tried to set the house on fire with candles. But scotch guard prevented the candles from setting the gasoline soaked couch on fire.
Tracy was sloppy in reducing evidence. She left a fingerprint on the tape used to post the note on the truck and the latex gloves she used was found in her house. The camouflage paint design on the cattle trough also matched her mailbox. Other evidence gathered guaranteed her conviction.
In March 2004, Tracy Fortson was convicted of malice murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Her daughter Elise maintains that Tracy is innocent, sighting Doug's body being too big for Tracy to move on her own.