Casualty Or Calculated?: The Case Of Tracie Andrews

Today’s case takes us to the small village of elf church in northeast worcestershire england in december 1996 the media was dominated by the story of a disturbing road rage incident with the ferocity of the attack leaving many people in shock but before we begin i would like to hand over to my sister who’s going to tell us a bit more about today’s sponsor hi everyone this is the lesser-known voice of the truly criminal team here to talk to you about our sponsor for today’s video nordpass nordpass is brought to you by the same cybersecurity

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com truly criminal or by using the code truly criminal at the checkout plus you get an additional four months completely for free thank you so much nordpass for sponsoring this video now over to the other half of truly criminal to tell you about today’s case it’s just the way he looked in his eyes had stereois um just didn’t seem normal i saw the man hitler i don’t know what with i didn’t see anything fell to the floor i can’t remember if i was um knocked out for a bit of water twenty-five-year-old lee harvey worked

as a bus driver and his mom maureen said all he wanted in life was to be a husband and a good father his parents described him as cheeky and funny always bringing so much good energy to everything lee had a young daughter danielle whom he doted on and maureen said they were like two peas in a pod he was separated from danielle’s mother but the pair remained friendly and supportive of each other in raising their daughter together twenty-seven-year-old tracy andrews had dreams of becoming a model and was working as a bartender when she

met lee in a club in 1994. tracy also had a daughter one year apart in age from lee’s she gave birth to her baby girl carla when she was 21 but the relationship with her then partner was tumultuous and less than a year later the relationship ended as soon as she and lee met the couple’s connection was instant they had a passionate and fast-moving relationship and friends and family said they were inseparable from the get-go it was said that tracy was always incredibly possessive over her partners and the relationships were always

volatile lee was also a jealous person and fights would often break out between the pair over the attention the other might get ex-partners said that tracy had a vicious temper often getting violent with them arguments between her and lee would escalate and get out of control quickly and violent outbursts would often ensue despite this lee moved into tracy’s flat after just three months but he would often return to his parents house as tracy would frequently kick him out throwing his belongings into bin bags despite everyone around the pair seeing

how toxic the relationship was lee would always move back in and the pair would try and work things out lee’s mum maureen said that everyone felt the relationship was bad news from the beginning she said she could tell straight away that tracy was controlling paranoid and extremely insecure tracy revealed to maureen that she had had a difficult childhood and had never recovered from her dad walking out of the family home when she was six years old the more time that passed the more the relationship continued to grow toxic

dangerously unhealthy and codependent maureen said the arguments became the only predictable thing about the pair neighbours would often hear the couple shouting at each other for hours at a time and police were called on numerous occasions to the flats to break up the fights maureen was starting to notice some changes in her son that she didn’t like after finding out that tracy had bitten lee on the neck during a vicious fight she called tracy telling her the relationship couldn’t continue and that it was unhealthy for the pair to carry

on seeing each other but hers and everyone else’s words fell on deaf ears and the couple carried on tracy soon fell pregnant and although a shock everyone hoped this might help the couple stop fighting and focus on what was now the most important thing lee was over the moon at the prospect of becoming a father for a second time but just a short time later tracy announced that she had suffered a miscarriage when she fell down some steps as she was out shopping after six months and much to everyone’s concern lee proposed to tracy and the

pair set about planning their wedding [Music] after another day of explosive rouse tracy and lee went to the mall brook pub in an attempt to calm things down and patch things up they left late into the evening and began the short drive back to the flat they shared in the beck’s elf church in worcestershire a car pulled up outside the harvey house aslee would often return to his parents home during fights with tracy maureen didn’t think too much of it listening out for him to walk through the door and explain what had happened this time

but lee wasn’t there and his parents instead opened the curtains to see police officers walking up the driveway the police explained that lee and tracy had been involved in a serious road rage attack as they were driving home from the pub and tragically lee hadn’t survived he had been stabbed over 40 times and a pathologist later described the attack as frenzied lee’s fiance tracy had survived and she was at the royal alexandra hospital being treated for her injuries a man staying in one of the cottages alongside the road the attack happened

on had come out of the house that night and found tracy standing by lee’s car while lee lay motionless in the road covered in blood the neighbours helped tracy phone the police and officers quickly arrived on scene but by the time the police got there lee was already dead tracy told police that she and lee had left the pub in lee’s car just before 10 pm shortly into the journey lee overtook a dark-coloured ford sierra this had started what tracy called a cat and mouse chase the car began tailgating them flashing

the lights and both cars began driving at high speeds down the narrow lane tracy said that she had shouted at lee to slow down and ignore the car but he didn’t listen the ford sierra eventually overtook them and lee got out before an altercation took place between the driver and lee the passenger in the other car also exited the vehicle and a physical fight broke out lee and tracy were both hit and tracy was knocked to the floor when she got up she realised lee had been stabbed during the fight the people in the other car fled the scene and

tracy cradled lee with him dying in her arms lee’s parents maureen and ray straight away had some questions why on earth would someone stab their son to death believe his fiancee alive seemingly unharmed and now a key witness in the case why didn’t she phone us rey asked maureen and ray were distraught but they needed tracy to talk to them about what had happened that night they both continuously tried and failed to get hold of tracy after she was discharged from hospital they finally got through to tracy’s stepfather who

said she hadn’t rung them from the hospital as she’d forgotten their number something that rey and maureen found impossible to believe given the amount of time she had called their home looking for lee after a fight tracy’s avoidance of lee’s family was concerning and her story and reaction to the event after the fact was raising even more questions than answers maureen said despite the strange and seemingly far-fetched reason behind her not talking to them after lee was killed she was still determined to believe in

tracy’s story and support her she said the police had told us she’d been attacked as well so how could she have been involved she might have been the last woman in the world i’d wanted lee to end up with but for all her faults i was convinced she loved him with uncertainty and doubt about what had happened that night and with rumors still swirling on december 3rd tracy took part in a press appeal and the police asked the public for something anything that might help them catch the two men in question [Music] as she held maureen’s hand she recounted

her version of events giving descriptions of the men and talking about the same cat and mouse story that had led to the attack both me and the other person with like playing cat and mouse with each other for a while um when they overtook us i was shouting at later it’s just the way he looked his eyes was stereois um just didn’t seem normal i saw the man hitler i don’t know what with i didn’t see anything i felt as much as i

could tracy then said that she urged the driver of the car to come forward saying he was not in trouble and had done nothing wrong the uh driver uh walked off it’s nothing to do with the driver and whoever this person is that was with you you obviously know him but he’s ruined my life please just tell us who he is because you won’t get in any trouble at all it was not your fault the media had already been given one version of events by the police but tracy suddenly gave a totally different set of times what time did you leave

um well we left about 10 to 10 something like that i’d say yeah i didn’t really look at the watch i don’t really know what time below about 10 to 10. at this point detectives stepped in to stop tracy from talking and the press conference was abruptly brought to an end we’re perhaps getting into a bit too much detail that we don’t actually want it going too quite at the moment tracy’s appeal raised eyebrows with the media and people wondered why she was not holding the driver responsible when the driver had according to tracy being

the one to initiate the fight police were shocked as this was not anything they had agreed upon they were definitely looking for the driver as he was an accessory to murder possibly even a co-conspirator in the case as the room started to empty chatter amongst the reporters began tracy’s imitation of what she called the stereoid attacker was enough to convince many people that she was capable of that kind of rage and anger she described the attackers as having one reporter in particular made a bold claim and outright said he believed they

had all just in fact interviewed the real killer although it was a devastating thought lee’s family were questioning tracy even more her story just didn’t make any sense and more holes were starting to appear in it fortunately the press conference did generate something for the police two witnesses came forward and said they had seen lee’s white ford escort that night and he was driving past them on a junction about to turn onto the lane he was killed on but out of nowhere lee’s car suddenly braked and stopped in the road

the witnesses said no other cars were following them and there seemed to be no reason for the car breaking and with this they carried on driving a day after the press appeal tracy attempted suicide by taking an overdose of around 200 pills she left notes saying she couldn’t carry on without lee she was taken to hospital where her stomach was pumped and she spent the following two days recovering maureen and ray visited tracy in hospital and while they were there tracy grabbed maureen’s hand and said i’m sorry i’m so

sorry for what i’ve done after this she went quiet and turned her head away and maureen and ray left ray said to his wife that’s the closest thing we’re gonna get to a confession tracy’s story just wasn’t adding up and the police could find no evidence that a road rage incident had taken place at all investigators had thoroughly checked over the road the car chase in the attack allegedly happened on it was a narrow single country lane and if two cars had been speeding and overtaking each other there would likely

be tire marks or something that pointed towards a high-speed chase but the road and grass along the side were completely clear the location of the blood in the road in relation to where tracy had said the attack had happened also didn’t match up and despite tracy saying the attack had happened outside the vehicle lee’s blood was found in the back seat of his car no witnesses could attest to seeing the same dark car tracy spoke about and there was a substantial amount of time after lee had been stabbed before tracy

raised the alarm nobody living near or driving along the road at the same time saw or heard anything apart from one person a child living in one of the cottages near the lane the nine-year-old said she had heard an argument that night but only remembered hearing two voices not four and it sounded like the car was stationary and parked examination of lee’s body found almost 100 strands of tracy’s hair in his hand which pathologists later determined had to have been taken from tracy’s head with considerable force possibly during

a physical fight as well as wounds from a blade some marks on lee’s body indicated that scissors may have been used this pointed towards a swiss army knife being the murder weapon blood on her clothing showed a splash pattern rather than a transfer of blood from holding lee as he lay dying as tracy had claimed testing was done on all of tracy’s clothing that she had been wearing that night which confirmed there was a blood stain on the inside of her boot forensic experts found the outline of the shape of a pen knife imprinted on

the inside of her boot during her stay at the hospital she visited the bathroom six times in three hours and it was later revealed that she must have disposed of the knife somewhere in the toilets of the hospital afternoon detectives investigating the murder of a man in last week’s so-called road rage attack have arrested a 27 year old woman lee harvey was stabbed to death in a country lane his fiancee was with him when he died an evening in the pub with her boyfriend ended in death according to 27 year old tracy andrews she left the pub with lee

harvey in his ford escort she told police they overtook another car which gave chase at a press conference she described what happened to them tracy andrews said lee harvey was stabbed to death by a passenger in the second car an hour ago west mercier police said they had arrested a 27-year-old woman jackie rowley bbc news the same day tracy was discharged following her overdose police arrested her in connection with the murder of lee and on december 19th she was formally charged she vehemently denied any involvement

and adamantly stuck to her story to everyone’s surprise including the police the judge made a decision that no one was expecting tracy was granted bail while she was awaiting trial and moved in with her mother and stepfather it was another blow for lee’s family and it was a highly unusual and controversial decision bail on a murder charge is not granted unless the court is absolutely satisfied that there is no significant risk that the person would commit an offence that would likely cause physical or mental injury to another person

in february 1997 lee was finally laid to rest with hundreds turning out to pay their respects and show their love and support for the harvey family in july that year seven months after lee’s murder tracy’s trial began at birmingham crown court while on the stand tracy’s defence team asked her about her relationship with lee as well as her version of events tracy stuck to her story and maintained that although the couple fought a lot she would never go as far as to kill him she said they broke up all the time but

they truly loved each other and always came back together stronger than before but a particular revelation tracy used to highlight an example of this left lee’s family shocked tracy revealed that the miscarriage she had told everyone she’d had was actually an abortion that she had got after another fight with lee maureen was devastated and called tracy a lying [ __ ] to which tracy angrily responded by shouting pointing and demanding maureen be removed from the courtroom the judge let maureen stay but this outburst gave the prosecution the

perfect lead into their cross-examination of tracy after a few short weeks on trial tracy andrews was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 14 years to serve [Music] [Music] the judge said only you know precisely what went on that night but we have all seen the awful consequences a year into her sentence she filed an appeal claiming she was the victim of a miscarriage of justice because of damaging publicity surrounding her case this appeal was denied a year after this in 1999 tracy wrote a

letter to her lawyer finally admitting she did stab lee to death but maintained that it was self-defense she said it happened in slow motion after a fight between the pair had escalated and lee pulled a knife on her they struggled for a while and she said she had lost control and stabbed him she claimed she felt sick and ashamed and hated herself for doing that to lee and his family the self-defense claim was disputed by many as most of the stab wounds were to lee’s back and people suspected this came when he was trying to retreat and

escape to his car to get away from the attack a woman that tracey had had a relationship with while in prison said that tracy had attacked and strangled her for talking to an ex-girlfriend she said she was opposed to tracy ever being released and believed she would kill again if she was let out tracy andrew served the recommended time of 14 years before being released from prison in 2011 she was ordered not to go within 25 miles of lee’s family tracy has since married had reconstructive surgery to alter her appearance and changed her name multiple

times felice family and friends the pain of knowing that tracy is out of prison weighs heavily on them maureen wrote a book about the case and hers and her family’s experiences she said whenever she looks over old newspaper articles or letters from the case it feels as if she is looking at someone else’s family lee harvey was charming and funny honest and caring and his parents often expect him to come walking through the door to see them his family cherish the good memories and will always remember lee for the great

son and father he was if you’ve been affected by any of the issues raised in today’s episode surrounding issues of domestic abuse i’ve left links to further resources in the description box below [Music] [Music] you