Murder of Tracie McBride

Jones, born on March 4, 1950, was a native of Shelby County, Tennessee, and grew up in Chicago.

According to testimony presented at his criminal trial, Jones experienced sexual and physical abuse.

He served in the Army for 22 years.

Richard A. Serrano of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "It was in the Army where he excelled."

Jones, a member of the U.S. Army Rangers, participated in the Invasion of Grenada and the Gulf War of 1991.

He was the leader of a platoon in Grenada, and he received a Commendation Medal due to his actions during a ground attack in Iraq.

He became a master sergeant and on his retirement in 1993 was honorably discharged from the Rangers.

At the time of the crime, he worked on base as a bus driver.

Jones was married three times, and he had a daughter, Barbara; he raised her as a single parent.

One of his wives, Sandra Lane, was an Army staff sergeant.

He became estranged from her; she noted changes in his behavior after he returned from Iraq.

Jones had no previous criminal record.

Before the killing, he worked low-paying jobs and received low grades in university courses.

United States Army soldier Tracie Joy McBride was kidnapped, raped, and murdered on February 18, 1995.

Louis Jones, Jr.., a former soldier and Gulf War veteran, was tried and convicted in the U.S. federal court system for kidnapping resulting in death.

The crime was a federal case since it started on a military base, and the rape was the prime aspect to the murder which made it a capital offense.

Jones, who was sentenced to death, argued that he should be spared execution due to the traumatic effects of Gulf War syndrome.

On February 18, 1995, 44-year old Louis Jones drove onto Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas, and kidnapped Private Tracie Joy McBride, a 19-year old from Centerville, Minnesota.

Jones was looking for his ex-wife, but instead decided to kidnap McBride.

McBride was on the telephone with a friend, and in a laundry facility when she was abducted.

Two privates attempted to rescue McBride, but Jones rendered one, Private Michael Peacock, unconscious by hitting him.

Jones took McBride to his house, raped her, and held her in a closet.

He forced McBride to use hydrogen peroxide on herself, washed McBride's clothes, and forced McBride to walk on towels; these efforts were part of an attempt to conceal the crime by hiding any fibers and other possible evidence.

He then drove McBride to a remote area and beat her to death with a tire iron.

McBride died under a bridge, off U.S. Route 277 in Coke County, Texas, about 27 mi north of San Angelo.

McBride had been hit in the head at least nine times.

Dr. Jan Garavaglia, who was at the time of the murder an associate medical examiner in Bexar County, examined McBride's body at a local morgue.

Garavaglia stated that the trauma to her head was "worse than most high-impact car wrecks."

Jones likely forced McBride to walk to the point where she was killed; only mud was found on her boots, and no scuff marks were present.

McBride's body was found clothed in her U.S. Army battle uniform, itself in excellent condition; the clothing had no forensic evidence of rape.

The undergarments were not present.

Jones was arrested on March 1 by the San Angelo Police Department for sexually assaulting his ex-wife, Staff Sergeant Sandra Lane, after she filed a complaint with the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations (OSI).

OSI agents made an inquiry to Jones on whether he was involved in McBride's abduction, and Jones confessed to killing her; he then led authorities to McBride's body.

Initially, Jones stated that he did not rape McBride.

McBride's body was autopsied by Garavaglia at the Bexar County Forensic Science Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Due to the unusually cool weather and the placement of the body under a bridge, the body was well preserved.

Despite Jones' efforts to conceal the rape, Garavaglia was able to determine that Jones had raped McBride, and this fact allowed federal prosecutors to ask for the death penalty.

Jones later confessed to a psychiatrist to raping McBride.

His appeals were unsuccessful and he was executed by lethal injection in 2003.

Mark Miller of Newsweek characterized the Jones case as unusual due to the Gulf War syndrome defense strategy.