James Hataway and Kristi are both at the same party together on August 7, but they didn’t go together. While at the party, others accuse James of rifling through purses and trying to steal steak knives or silverware.

James is asked to leave because of his behavior and a mutual friend then asks 21 year old Kristi to drive James home - she says yes.

After they pull into James’s apartment complex, James invites Kristi inside to smoke some weed. She says no thanks, then she gave James a hug (they are still in the car). But James won't let go and starts squeezing Kristi tighter despite her yelling out in pain. Kristi struggles but is able to break free before James lunges at her again and puts her in a choke hold, and squeezes. Kristi is able to escape the vehicle and she starts running down the street, screaming, “Please help me! This guy is trying to kill me!” Then, Kristi trips. At that moment, James grabs her by the hair and starts slamming her head against the curb, while saying, “Don’t make me kill you.” He then tries to twist Kristi’s neck and break it. Thankfully, neighbors hear Kristi screaming for help and come outside, she is able to break free, and James runs off. Kristi goes into a neighbor’s house and calls 911, but by the time police arrive, James is long gone. Kristi is left with bruises on her neck, scratches and scrapes on her face, back, hands, arms, and knees.

One neighbor, Karen, tells officers that she saw the attack happen and recognizes the perpetrator as being James Hataway. Karen’s live-in boyfriend Michael also saw the attack. He says he didn’t recognize the perpetrator, but says he saw that the man “had a woman suspended in the air with both hands around her neck.” Michael ran out and got Kristi away from James and brought her inside. She tells Michael that the man who attacked her was “Jimmy Hataway”. Over the next few days, police try to find James, but they are unable to locate him. They file paperwork with the State Attorney’s Office. However, James is never charged or arrested.

On February 11, 2009, Chris spent the day with two male friends - one of which was James Hataway, the other was a guy named Tyler. At around 6:00pm, Chris spoke to his girlfriend. But after that, no one knows exactly what happened to him.

Lake Carter in Apopka

After spending the day with James and Tyler, Chris goes missing. On February 12, 2009, officers see James and Tyler leaving the woods near Lake Carter in Apopka. James and Tyler are stopped and questioned. They tell police that they are looking for their friend Chris, who had run off into the woods while on hallucinogens. The men say they haven't found Chris yet. 

Lake Carter in Apopka

Officers search the area where Chris is last seen and find Chris’s car abandoned off Ocoee-Apopka Road (which is right by Lake Carter). It looks like the car had driven off the roadway. James and Tyler are asked for more info and they say that on February 11, they had been driving around in Chris’s car with Chris doing drugs. They pulled over near the lake, and Chris got out of the car and ran into the woods. James and Tyler searched, but couldn’t find Chris, so they left. They were worried they’d get caught with drugs in the car, so they took the car and cleaned it all out. Then they returned the car to the wooded area by the lake. As James and Tyler were leaving the woods, the police saw them. While speaking to police, James’s story changes several times, which make police suspicious. James and Tyler eventually refuse to talk to officers further. Chris is still missing at the time of Tracy's disappearance.

Lake Carter in Apopka

On the night of May 26, 2009, Tracy leaves her parents’ Ocoee home and travels to the Florida Tap Room. Tracy goes there to watch the Orlando Magic play the Cleveland Cavaliers. She plans to meet up with some friends and tells her mom she’ll be back later that night and doesn't plan on spending the night out.

Florida Tap Room

At around 6:30am on what is now May 27th, Liz goes to Tracy’s room to check on her, but she isn't there. Liz sends Tracy a text asking, “Where are you?” She doesn't expect to get a reply right away and figures Tracy maybe had too much to drink and decided to stay with a friend instead of driving home. But when 8:00am rolls around and Tracy hasn't responded yet, Liz starts to worry. She calls Tracy at 8:00 and at 10:00, still receiving no reply. Liz then calls the friend she thinks Tracy could be staying with, but that friend doesn't know where Tracy is either. Liz calls the hospital, the jail, the morgue, etc, trying to find Tracy, but she has no luck. Liz is still hoping to find Tracy, so she doesn't report her missing yet.

Florida Tap Room

At around 7:00pm, the police call the Ocasio home phone asking for Tracy. Liz says no and asks why they were looking for Tracy - Liz explained that she too is looking for Tracy. The police then say Tracy’s yellow Chevy Cobalt car was found abandoned in the front yard of someone’s property on Franklin Street in Ocoee. The car is unlocked and the keys are not in the car (neither are Tracy’s wallet or phone). Officers say they needed someone to move it.

Franklin Street in Ocoee (aprox. location)

Liz reports Tracy missing after finding her car that way. The Orlando Police Department was in charge of the investigation as Tracy’s last known location was the Tap Room in Orlando. Orlando detectives go to the Tap Room and speak to the bartender who say they saw Tracy the night before, but didn’t see anything weird. The bartender says they had surveillance footage, so detectives then review the video. After a few hours of video, they watch Tracy leave the bar at around 1:30am. She is seen leaving with a man they quickly identify as 28 year old James Virgil Hataway.

Florida Tap Room

On May 27, detectives go to James Hataway’s Ocoee home to interview him in regards to Tracy’s disappearance. James says he met Tracy at the bar, and asked her for a ride home - she said yes. James further said that he and Tracy were going to smoke marijuana at James’s house, but when he showed her the weed he had, she didn’t like it, so she left his house at around 2:00am. James says he hadn’t seen or heard from Tracy since she left. Two days later, on May 29, Ocoee detectives bring James back in for more questioning. This time, he is there for 12 hours. He ends up taking a polygraph, which detectives say he fails. James then asks for an attorney and the interview ends. James is not taken into custody.

Franklin Street in Ocoee (aprox. location)

Following James’s 12 hour interview, bloodhounds and cadaver dogs are brought in to try and track Tracy from where her car had been abandoned. They do not pick up her scent, which lead handlers to theorize Tracy hadn’t been in her car at that location. They look in the areas surrounding James’s home as well but don't find anything. Tracy’s car is searched for DNA and they find some in the backseat, and it is sent off for testing. But a match is not found. Ocoee detectives are suspicious of James, but they don't have enough for an arrest.

Franklin Street in Ocoee (aprox. location)

Liz tells investigators that a few days after her disappearance, Tracy receives a letter from the State Attorney’s Office. The letter is informing Tracy that the Office was filing misdemeanor battery charges against a man named Paul. She gives the letter to Ocoee detectives. Detectives soon put all the pieces together and according to Tracy’s friends, prior to her disappearance, Tracy had a “run-in” with Paul’s girlfriend at the Florida Tap Room. After the confrontation, Paul and Tracy have a confrontation outside of the bar. During that confrontation, Paul shoves Tracy to the ground. Tracy then calls the police to press charges, which the State Attorney’s office agrees to do. They sent the letter to inform Tracy of the charges. On May 30, detectives bring Paul in for questioning. He denies any involvement in Tracy’s disappearance and is able to provide a solid alibi for his whereabouts during the time Tracy went missing.

Florida Tap Room

Detectives decide to compare James and Tracy’s phone records. They find that the last call made from Tracy’s phone is at 4:30am on the 27th - it pinged off a tower near James’s home. They also find that Tracy’s phone pinged off a tower near James’s home at around 8:00am on the 27th - the ping happened when Liz called Tracy to see where she was at. The timing of this ping is important because James says Tracy left his house at 2:00am. James became a person of interest after this but isn't named as a suspect

Franklin Street in Ocoee (aprox. location)

On June 1, detectives search James’s home with a warrant hoping to at least find Tracy’s clothes, keys, wallet, and/or phone. However, they do not find anything belonging to Tracy. Detectives find a marijuana bong, so they decide to arrest James on possession of drug paraphernalia. They also seize his computer. Later, when they searched the computer, they found out that James had spent hours on May 30 and 31 searching “how to commit suicide”.

Because James is the only person of interest in Tracy's disappearance, his arrest quickly makes the news. Within five minutes of his image being shown on screen, Ocoee detectives receive a call from Kristi explaining James' attack on her just about a year prior. Seminole County reopens Kristi’s case.

James is extradited to Seminole County, where he is charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery, robbery, and burglary with battery in Kristi's case. He faces life if he is convicted. The drug paraphernalia charges in Ocoee are dropped.

As the media picks up on the story of Tracy’s disappearance and the link to James, another victim comes forward to detail her encounter with James. We’ll call this woman "Hannah." Hannah tells the Orlando Sentinel that she knew James casually from the Seminole County bar scene. In or around June 2008, James asked Hannah for a ride home. Once they were inside Hannah’s car, James pulled his pants down and tried to force Hannah to give him oral sex. She refused and went back inside the bar - she did not call the police.

On June 3, a massive search ensued. K-9 units, horses, four wheelers, dive teams, and more are deployed to search for Tracy. There was no sign of her. On June 10, a mounted team of searchers look through a wooded area where James is known to dump yard debris. The area they searched is a 280 acre property near Ingram and Clarcona-Ocoee roads. It doesn’t seem like anything of note was found. On June 13, around 50 people search nearly 300 acres at Vignetti Park in Ocoee in hopes of finding Tracy. But there is no sign of her. Ground searches for Tracy continue through June 20. They searched around 2,500 acres, but didn’t find Tracy. On August 5, another ground search for Tracy is conducted. This time they focused on a wooded area near Lake Apopka.

Ingram Rd and Clarcona-Ocoee Rd (aprox. location)

On August 10, Tracy’s 28th birthday, Tracy’s parents announce that they are putting up $5,000 for a reward. There was already a $5,000 reward from Crimeline, so this brought the total to $10,000. Just a few days later, a local periodontist agreed to put up an additional $10,000, bringing the total reward to $20,000.

On August 22, the Orange County sheriff’s department is doing routine horseback training exercises when they find a woman’s black boot near State Road 50 and Bluford Avenue. Authorities already searched this area because James is known to frequent the area. The boot is Tracy’s size, so her family and friends are asked to look at the boot. Tracy's father is confident the boot is Tracy’s. One of Tracy’s friends says the boot looks just like one of Tracy’s favorite pairs of boots that she kept in her vehicle - she says she is 99 percent sure it belongs to Tracy. The boot is sent off for testing. A cadaver dog is brought in to search near where the boot is found, but they get no hits. The results from the DNA testing on the boot were inconclusive as there isn't enough DNA to determine if it is Tracy's.

State Road 50 and Bluford Avenue

On May 26, almost exactly one year after Tracy's disappearance, Ocoee detectives announce that James is their only suspect in Tracy’s disappearance and possibly her murder. Sgt. Mike Bryant says, “We believe [Hataway] did it. He is suspected of killing her.” He still did not face any charges.

February 2011 was the two year anniversary of Chris George’s disappearance. That month, James and Tyler were publicly named as persons of interest in Chris’s disappearance.

In February 2011, investigators search Lake Carter for human remains - they are looking for Chris George (and Tracy Ocasio, although she isn't presumed to be there). The area had been searched more than 10 times, but the swampy conditions made it difficult for cadaver dogs. During this search, several human bones are found, so the lake is drained. A skull and other bones are recovered. The skull and bones are sent off for testing. Also found is Chris’s wallet, cell phone, and jewelry. After this find, it is assumed that the skeletal remains found belong to Chris. Later, testing confirms that they are indeed Chris’s.

Lake Carter in Apopka

Jury selection for James’s trial for the attempted murder of Kristi began on March 28, 2011. The prosecution painted James out to be a bad guy with a history of attacking women. They say James would have killed Kristi if the neighbors hadn’t interrupted him.  The defense took the approach of admitting that James had attacked Kristi, however, they say he was drunk and had no intent of killing Kristi. They say he should be punished for what he did, but that punishment should be being found guilty of misdemeanor battery, not attempted murder. James takes the stand in his own defense. He denies intentionally hurting Kristi - he says, “I cared about her. I was not trying to kill her.” He says he was so drunk that he didn’t remember a lot of what happened.

On April 1, after the jury deliberated for less than two and a half hours, James is found guilty of first-degree attempted murder, burglary, robbery, and false imprisonment. James is sentenced to life in prison. The judge made it clear that she was sentencing James to life only for the attack on Kristi - her decision has nothing to do with Tracy’s disappearance. Liz said, “It’s not justice for Tracy, but he can’t do it to anyone else.”