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welcome to True Crime garage Wherever You Are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me
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as always is a man with a reminder that true crime garage is both sugar free and
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everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music]
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when we left off yesterday Captain we were trying to decipher and narrow down the time of death for Tracy Harkness
00:03:58
that is always key in any timeline and the timeline is always one of the most important parts of any investigation
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especially a homicide investigation now in this investigation the detectives did
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a lot of digging to try to figure out whether Tracy had gone straight home from that party or if she had maybe
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stopped off somewhere maybe a bar as we mentioned yesterday she was known to do this in the past and was a regular at
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several bars in the area like the VIP and rainies but remember in the past few weeks leading up to her death she had
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rejoined her church and vowed to clean up her act and said no more bars no more drinking Etc detectives were never this
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is key too to this timeline detectives tried very hard to find out if she stopped anywhere on her way home and
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they were never never able to find any bar that Tracy was seen at on the night in question which is Thursday November
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5th 1992 well and like we said this is a typical Midwestern suburb not a lot of bars so
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it wasn't like law enforcement this is one of the advantages law enforcement have in this case is to go and question
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people at these bars or to question the owners they would have known all these people and if she went out of the area
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to visit people that she knew let's Circle back on the idea that of something we pointed out yesterday
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everybody in her Social Circles seemed to know each other it was rather just one big Social Circle rather than these
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different Social Circles they all kind of knew each other and they all kind of like to talk about everybody else's
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business so had she been spotted anywhere I believe this would have been easy for detectives to discover in their
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investigation obviously Tracy worked a normal day on that Thursday November 5th but did not show up on Friday the 6th to
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her job her supervisor tried calling Tracy's apartment several times during the day but never received an answer
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neighbors confirmed for detectives that Tracy's car was not in its parking spot at 10 p.m on Thursday the 5th but it was
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there at 300 a.m. and then was spotted by another neighbor at 5:45 a.m. on the 6th so the party ends at 10:30 she
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leaves the party roughly at 10:30 detectives have every indication no reason to think
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otherwise that she likely drove home straight home from the party as she told several other people in attendance at
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that party that she was going home afterwards right now we have neighbors confirming a couple things and narrowing
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down the window of that time of death her car car was not in her parking spot at 10 p.m. makes sense we have people at
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the party saying she didn't leave till 10:30 couldn't have been home any earlier than 10:40 if she did leave at
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10:30 so this all this information is backing itself up here it's the checks and balances so the neighbors say no car
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at 10 p.m. on the 5th but it was there at 3:00 a.m. on the 6th and again at 5:45 a. on the 6 and remember her body
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was found on the afternoon of the 6th so really we've already narrowed it down to
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roughly 10:40 p.m. on the 5th to 3:00 a.m. on the 6th and I don't think that anything happened in her car or along
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the way home because we have detectives who process Tracy's vehicle and no blood was
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detected there were prints lifted and submitted for processing it looks to me like they all came back to people that
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they would have expected to have been in the car at some point that were people known to Tracy now detectives would go
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on to say that they believed Tracy Harkness was killed overnight on the fifth leading into the sixth let's
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compound that by the idea of Tracy's friends who said that she would always change her clothes upon arriving home to
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wind down for the night so if her friends are correct the attack would have went down
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very shortly after she arrived home that night on the 5th if she left the party and went straight home as she said she
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would have been there right around 10:40 10:45 p.m. which again I think leads to
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this idea that the murderer knew her possibly knew her schedule and was possibly waiting there for her not
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necessarily inside the apartment but could have been waiting and and like I said once you once you see movement once
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you see lights turning on in that apartment then that's when you make your attack and they did a lot of digging in
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this case so investigators subpoena Tracy's phone records they checked her answering machine you remember those
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things they pressed redial on her phone at the apartment and spoke to the person
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that answered they collected her address book and contacted listed parties in her
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address book and they even read her diary they also looked at the possibility that this may have they
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didn't just rule out random attack right away or maybe targeted for other reasons
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than what they would remember they land on the idea that this was a crime of passion that somebody was angry with
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Tracy they had some kind of Confrontation and this was the result they didn't rule that out right away
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they did their due diligence here they even looked at any potential repairmen or maintenance people that would have
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had affiliation with the Regency Arms Apartments and they did note that in October there was a repair or
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maintenance man in her apartment that man his name was Jim Brady and so they checked in on him as well and those all
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of those items don't seem to go anywhere they're kind of stuck in the mud the detectives are of this idea of look this
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was somebody that knew her this was somebody on her inner Social Circle and that's where we're going to find the
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killer of Tracy Harin so eyebrows will be raised when it's learned that Tracy had a life insurance policy that was
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going to be paid out to her ex-husband Mike yes Captain Mike Harkness was the beneficiary of a
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$882,000 life insurance policy on Tracy Harkness now what's interesting here in this investigation is obviously Mike is
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not going to try to sweep this under the rug or hide this fact from investigators
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in fact he admitted that Tracy actually called him this is really bizarre called
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him the Wednesday before her death so if she's attacked on a late Thursday night
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or early Friday morning in the in the small hours of Friday morning we're talking about this conversation took
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place probably within 36 hours of her murder and he says that hey she called me on this
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Wednesday and asked who the beneficiary of his policy was so he has a life and life insurance policy on himself right
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and she has a life insurance policy very responsible to do when you have a child
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they have this conversation because she tells him hey I'm cons you are the beneficiary of my life insurance policy
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I'm calling to see who's the beneficiary of yours because I'm considering changing it changing the person that is
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listed as the beneficiary and so Mike tells the police look she got upset when I told Tracy that she's not the
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beneficiary of my life insurance policy it's my mom and she says well why would you pick
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your mother and he says I know you know no slight against Tracy but he says I know that my mom will use the money to
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take care of our daughter Megan so he he's saying look this isn't a big deal to Tracy but no it it's either pure
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coincidence or it's very weird that this conversation takes place where she's considering changing up the
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beneficiary within 36 hours or so of her murder yeah this is one of the those things in the case where you go how
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bizar how bizar because that gives you motive right there and the other thing that I don't you look
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statistically the husband did it or the ex-husband right statistically that's that's what happens in these cases the
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other thing that I don't like about Mike's story in general is that he went hunting on that Friday I would like to
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know when was that trip planned well that's that's exactly right that's interesting that you say that so from we
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have some details about that information well give me the details so detective robinet and Sergeant deskins went to
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Mike's residence on that Friday this is November 6th they're there at 6 p.m this
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is when they speak to his fiance Sherry Mike is not home he's still away for the
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day hunting and remember remember we have Megan the daughter who is with Mike's mother being babysat that night
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detectives verified that Megan was with Mike's mother they left a business card for Mike to contact them when he
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returned from hunting so he actually returns a short time thereafter and calls the police as he
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you know as they instructed he quickly sits down for an interview with them this is on the night of the 6th so we
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don't have a whole lot of time that expires her she's found roughly around 300 p.m. that afternoon they go to his
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house around 6 PM he's not there but he returns shortly afterwards and still that same evening he's sitting down with
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the detectives and they are interviewing him now he tells them that he and Tracy
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were close had always been close they stayed close they talked daily mostly about their daughter as they were
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juggling taking care of her he told police that on the 5th Thursday he was in Alum Creek Hunting for the day with
00:15:03
his buddy John Ford okay so this this hunting trip wasn't just on that Friday it was
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on that Thursday as well and this was just a daytime hunting trip for he and his friend so let me get this correct
00:15:19
they go out on Thursday they go hunting they come back home on Friday they go back out hunting yes and remember this
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is early nov November and hunting seasons change throughout the year there would have been a there's a good amount
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typically I couldn't find the actual hunting season schedule for 1992 but usually in the November months
00:15:44
and once November hits and it starts to get cold here in Ohio there are a significant number of animals that you
00:15:52
are allowed to hunt per the rules and regulations once that that time frame hits so so for people that don't live in
00:16:00
in Ohio or don't live in areas where hunting is a more common hobby it's not uncommon I I can count I have to go to
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my second hand to count the number of people that I know that take a week off from work as soon as that sun their
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their favorite hunting season opens up during that year and I don't know when his first day off was or when his last
00:16:26
day off was to be scheduled but from the information that we have Mike was on a week's
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vacation and that that week's vacation was primarily based around the idea of hunting with his friends so it sounds to
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me I don't have I can't put a definitive date on when all of this stuff was planned but usually when you have to
00:16:50
take off time from work you're doing that well in advance of the days that you are seeking to uh be away from work
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right if I'm law enforcement I want to know when he planned that and when did the week start and when did it end
00:17:05
because some people will book in their weekends oh give me Wednesday off and then I'll come back the following
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Wednesday or or was he off Monday through Friday I'd just like to know that I'm law enforcement the other thing
00:17:19
I want to know is when he goes out with his buddy Mr Ford H how long is he with that individual and if you're correct
00:17:29
and they went out Thursday and then they came back home and then went out again Friday that would still put him within
00:17:35
the area of those apartments and of the murder scene yeah so the area where he's
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hunting is roughly a 30 minute or 45 minute drive at best from Tracy's apartment so we're not talking we're not
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talking like he's states away he's he's with a a relatively short drive 45 minutes maybe 50 minutes at the most I
00:18:00
would be guessing here well but help me get clear on this did he go out Thursday
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night and then come back home yes so we and we have that information so what we have here is that on let's go to that
00:18:14
Thursday because that's when the time in question starts on the 5th on Thursday he's at Alam Creek Hunting for the day
00:18:21
with his good friend John Ford on that same day Sherry picked Megan up from daycare around 5:30
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and then Mike is home at 7:30 he and Megan and Sherry were all home that night Sherry backs this up and
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then to further back that up we have John Ford that verifies that yes we came home at 7:30 on Thursday and then Mike
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and I left to go back out hunting again on Friday morning and it is in the notes
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that he had that Mike was on a week vacation a vacation the notes say that he was on vacation that week which makes
00:19:02
me believe that it was Monday through Friday that that very week but I I don't know I wouldn't say that with 100%
00:19:08
certainty it just looks like he took off a week from work but again what time do
00:19:13
they leave on Friday do we know that did they leave at 7 a.m. did they leave at 5:00 a.m. I don't have that in my notes
00:19:21
the only reason why I'd like to know that is because we see no movement in our car we have this time period like
00:19:28
you said did the attack happen pretty close when she came home possibly and what what evidence do we have of that oh
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while she liked to change her clothes was it possible that she came home and she turned on the TV and she sat down
00:19:42
and she fell asleep and then somebody wakes her up at 1:00 a.m. or 2 a.m. or 3:00 a.m. you see what
00:19:52
I'm saying and then that person goes back home they take their shower they clean up and they they go hunting for
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the day it's not out of the realm of possibility it's not but I think the problem with that theory is the
00:20:08
statements by the others that are backing up hey I came home at 7:30 and then I left the next morning to go
00:20:13
hunting no I agree and I disagree because if you go to if you went to sleep with your significant other and
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that's all they know but you were planning to leave at 5 a.m. for a hunting trip but you decided to wake up
00:20:29
at 2:30 and go commit this crime and then come back there's a good chance that your significant other wouldn't
00:20:36
have any clue of what time you left the bed that night that's all I'm saying in the conversation with the detectives
00:20:43
Mike Harkness does tell them that he had met this other individual that we will get further into as we go and that is
00:20:51
David seock remember David is the most recent boyfriend of Tracy and the two broke up
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shortly before she was killed Mike said that he met David once and Tracy told him that David had a record for assault
00:21:07
with a deadly weapon now this is a little bit of hearsay Captain I couldn't find any actual charges against David
00:21:16
seock for an arrest with a deadly you know for assault with a deadly weapon right I mean unless it took place when
00:21:25
he was a youth I I think that this might just be rumor and I think as we see as we go it
00:21:32
might be understandable why this was a rumor or maybe this is something that David seock made up and would tell other
00:21:38
people now he goes on to tell the detectives that Tracy told him that she had not slept with David even though
00:21:46
they had a some kind of a relationship for a brief period of time and that she was back going to church at this time of
00:21:55
her life and Mike also told Detectives that Tracy told him that she had to break up with David seock because David
00:22:03
seock kept hanging out with his ex girlfriend Janet now Mike said old Janet Mike said after hunting all day when he
00:22:11
got home that night Sherry told him about Tracy's death and that's when he called the detectives later Mike told
00:22:18
police that he paid Tracy's burial expenses detectives notes indicate that they found no inconsistencies in Mike
00:22:28
story well like I said statistically you're going to want to look at the boyfriend or the partner and I don't
00:22:37
like it when it seems like that individual is establishing an alibi but I don't think in this case Mike is
00:22:44
establishing an alibi I think those were the events that happened that week and to back that up we have Mike's partner
00:22:55
and on top of that we have this hunting friend friend that went with him two days in a row so I don't I feel like
00:23:02
those events are truthful and he's not establishing an alibi now we need to introduce someone named Christina
00:23:09
Dempsey who went by the name Tina to most of her friends she had known Tracy for six years I believe they met while
00:23:18
they were in high school she was the bridesmaid at Tracy and Mike's wedding she says that she last saw or tells
00:23:25
police that she last Saw Tracy about a week before the murder and she saw her at church at the grace Memorial Church
00:23:33
she says that she talked to Tracy multiple times a week again police are still trying to gather up information on
00:23:39
who their victim is and that will likely lead them to who the perpetrator is especially when you have this type of
00:23:45
crime where you believe you're talking about a crime of passion with the likely perpetrator or perpetrators being
00:23:52
somebody on the inner Social Circles of your victim Tina says that Tracy was a a
00:23:58
typical redhead she was opinionated had a temper Tina says their church was religiously conservative but Tracy
00:24:06
strayed a number of times from the church saying that Tracy went to bars and partied on occasion in the last
00:24:14
month of Tracy's life we have Tina who is confirming that Tracy made a promise at the altar to straighten out her life
00:24:23
and to stop going out to bars and to stop drinking and she's regularly attending church again Tracy called her
00:24:31
that Thursday afternoon the Thursday in question this was to ask Tina again if she would go to the lingerie party so it
00:24:40
sounds to me like Tina was invited to this party prior but she already had plans with her boyfriend that evening so
00:24:49
she would not be attending that same party Tina said Tracy told her that she met David seock when he was on the
00:24:57
rebound out she said he treated her really nice and they had a lot to talk about saying that Tracy liked him but
00:25:05
didn't but didn't sleep with him according to what Tracy told Tina the information that Tina provides to police
00:25:12
is that David had just broken up with his girlfriend Janet and they had two kids together and after they broke up he
00:25:20
and Tracy start this relationship and he's crashing at Tracy's apartment but it wasn't like this big romance as far
00:25:29
as Tina was concerned and eventually David seock goes back to or attempts to go back to his girlfriend Janet this
00:25:38
after Tracy and he broke up whether how official or unofficial the relationship was it was ended just seems like a lot
00:25:49
of wasted time and a lot of drama oh this part is really interesting here Captain because Tina and this this will
00:25:56
be be become even more interesting once we get into some of these Persons of Interest because when you start going
00:26:03
through these Persons of Interest in some of the relationships that that Tracy had in her life and the people in
00:26:10
her Social Circles you can see the potential for enemies now Tina tells police that she knew of no enemies male
00:26:20
or female of Tracy's but goes on to tell detectives that look Tracy and I lived somewhat different Lifestyles and
00:26:29
because of that Tracy would keep secrets from Tina because Tina was very religious and also openly admitted to
00:26:38
detectives that she was rather judgmental of her friends and so Tracy would keep secrets or maybe just not
00:26:46
tell Tina every single thing that's going on in her life yeah we all have friends like that there's times that
00:26:53
maybe I go to a party with friends or go to a bar with friends and I I had a little bit too much to drink there's
00:27:00
some people that I will tell that story to and there's other people that I keep that to myself a lot more to uncover in
00:27:07
this case let's get to some pois after this quick beer [Music] break if you're spending time with loved
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Garay to get 10% off your first month that's betterhelp hp.com / garage is it possible to predict the
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unpredictable can 3D printed life-size organ models help to map out complex surgeries ahead of time is it possible
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it already is right here Mayo Clinic you know where to [Music] go prise all right we are back to the windows to
00:30:36
the walls cheers everybody and make sure you subscribe to the podcast if you're not subscribed already cheers to you
00:30:45
cheers to you Captain let's get into some Persons of Interest at least as far as the police were concerned in this
00:30:52
case and from what was reported in the news at the time and since then rather this tidbit comes from the Grove
00:31:02
City news from November of 1992 and it's a quote from one of the officers it says
00:31:09
quote for now at least the notion of a random killer has been ruled out police theorize the killer knew the victim this
00:31:17
is coming from Sergeant deskins who went on to explain quote at this point we don't think we have a random stalker to
00:31:25
deal with we also feel that robbery wasn't the motive in this case end quote the fact that Tracy wasn't sexually
00:31:33
assaulted either seemed to remove that as a motive as well it pointed to someone being angry with her and killing
00:31:41
her in a rage now we got a list of people that we need to go through here captain and
00:31:46
let's start with the ex-husband Michael harkes as we pointed out it seems on the surface at least that he
00:31:56
had an Alibi for the time in question he had returned from hunting with his buddy
00:32:01
John Ford and hung out at home with Megan and his fiance Sherry all night on the Thursday it looks like this Alibi
00:32:12
whether us or The Listener or whomever wants to believe it or not it appears based off of a lot of information that
00:32:22
this Alibi had enough backing it up that the police felt pretty firm about this Alibi
00:32:30
because we have Sergeant deskins on record saying quote if I had to go out on a limb and rule out anybody as a
00:32:37
suspect it would be him and quote talking about Michael Harkness well look I don't like when law enforcement does
00:32:45
that I think if you're law enforcement you keep it close to the the vest you you anytime they bring up
00:32:54
anybody you say we're not ruling anybody out and yes you have a alibi but you know where I stand on that
00:33:03
if the person is in a relationship with you whether that is your parents uh a sibling or or in this case
00:33:14
a romantic partner I don't I I don't buy those as aliis right and I am in in agreeance
00:33:21
with you my suspicions here Captain would be for someone like Sergeant deskins to say
00:33:30
that openly in the newspaper indicates to me that they have a lot backing up Michael harness's Alibi that they're not
00:33:40
just taking the word of his fiance well yeah right and what's not in our notes and and what we're not privy to or at
00:33:48
least what I'm not privy to is was his Vehicles parked outside and did did Neighbors of of Mike see his Vehicles
00:33:58
there all night long so his Alibi might not just be established by a romantic partner it could be established in
00:34:07
another way that we're just not and the reason why I'm putting a lot of weight on this statement by sergeant
00:34:13
deskins again he says quote if I had to go out on a limb and rule out anybody as
00:34:20
a suspect it would be him meaning Michael harkes the reason why I put a lot of weight to that and give a lot of
00:34:28
credit to to that statement is he's saying if I had to rule out anybody and what we will see is there's
00:34:37
other people in this story that they never officially rule out they don't officially rule out anybody we just have
00:34:44
that statement by sergeant deskins that if he had rule out anybody as a suspect that would be Mike Michael Harkness so
00:34:51
to me I feel like there's probably a lot pointing that he didn't do it again we don't no we are reviewing the case as
00:34:59
the detectives saw at the time based off of the evidence that they found and evidence that was presented to them now
00:35:06
let's continue on with our list of individuals so remember another person high percentage we talk about you want
00:35:14
to look at the ex-husband or the husband or the boyfriend or the ex-boyfriend high percentage of the likelihood of
00:35:22
finding the perpetrator nearest to our victim the other person you always have to consider is someone who finds the
00:35:29
body well that was Steven hutter and Steven hutter interestingly enough did have a record for felonius
00:35:37
assault he was interviewed at length he and Lori helped Tracy move into her place remember he and Lori were together
00:35:48
when her body was found based off of the information we have Steven hutter and his girlfriend Lor helped Tracy move
00:35:58
into her apartment they actually stayed there for one night after helping her move in but he has a verified Alibi he
00:36:07
was with Lori and at work on the night of the murder per police and then the thing about him too he is one of the few
00:36:17
people on this list that you can look at and go well I don't see a motive here several of these other individuals you
00:36:25
can you don't have to use your imagination too much to see a potential motive with which is a perfect segue to
00:36:33
our next individual named Mitchell wisman this was a former boyfriend of Tracy's but we got to go back a a lot of
00:36:41
years for this relationship he was Tracy's High School boyfriend they dated for about a year
00:36:48
when they were 16 now Mitch has an extensive criminal record a lot of the his criminal record is after 1992 after
00:37:01
Tracy was killed I do want to clarify though that most of his the charges against him it's pretty minor stuff it's
00:37:10
a lot of traffic violations a lot of being negligent with with his his vehicle with his license and some omv
00:37:21
stuff so I want to be clear that there's not a lot of violence in his criminal record right yeah so he's he's a he
00:37:31
shouldn't own a car and he's bad at he shouldn't own a vehicle is it right but that doesn't make you a murder correct
00:37:38
correct his wife Heather was interviewed at length as well now Heather tells police that Tracy our victim was
00:37:47
actually stalking her husband Mitch and says that she would catch Tracy sitting in her car outside of their house and
00:37:56
calling the house and hanging up if Heather answered the phone this is interesting because this
00:38:02
isn't the only person that we hear this type of behavior from remember we had other people that reported that if Tracy
00:38:11
was really into somebody she might show up at their place of work unexpectedly or if that man was already in a
00:38:19
relationship she might show up at their home unexpectedly that's very dangerous Behavior because in this scenario if
00:38:28
it's true that that Tracy was stalking this man this married man now you have two enemies you have this married man
00:38:38
that you are now causing conflicts for him happy wife half happy life not a happy wife so that would give him motive
00:38:48
to maybe confront her and then maybe the confrontation gets out of hand because like we also heard that that Tracy could
00:38:56
be physic physical so is there a possibility that this man tries to confront her to get her to stop whatever
00:39:05
she's doing and then then a confrontation breaks out or the other enemy becomes the
00:39:14
wife because and again it could be another situation where the wife decides to confront the individual and and it gets
00:39:24
out of hand and and murders the end result well and it gets a little more messy when we really hone in and zoom in
00:39:36
on this situation so Heather knew Tracy from not just this situation but but she knew Tracy fairly well because
00:39:47
they went to the same church and they ran in the same Social Circles when police are like hey can you bring us up
00:39:54
to speed on what's going on in Tracy's life at the time of the murder Heather reports to police that she had heard
00:40:03
that Tracy was dating a guy from it's it's somewhat of a gang I guess you would call it that was they
00:40:11
they call themselves The Fifth Street Wrecking Crew she doesn't offer up any names of who this individual is within
00:40:17
the Fifth Street Wrecking Crew but she says that and again this could just be a rumor that she's reporting but right as
00:40:24
she reports it to police she says Tracy was dating a guy from The Fifth Street Wrecking Crew it was known to her or
00:40:31
believed by Heather that Tracy was scared of this man whoever he was yeah guy sounds like a canoe full of dicks
00:40:38
she goes on to tell police that the rumor around the bars and such and in their Social Circles is that that is the
00:40:48
guy that killed Tracy now what that rumor is based off of who knows but that's what she's reporting to police
00:40:56
now this is where this whole situation with Mitch or Mitchell wisman and Heather and Tracy gets very bizarre to
00:41:06
me this is I I find this to be bizarre behavior but I want to I really want to I really want to point this out I really
00:41:13
want to point this out give it to us we're ready we have Heather reporting this information to the police right at
00:41:22
the time that she's reporting this information this is after Tracy has been killed so we don't have Tracy to answer
00:41:31
and present her side of this story we should be very clear on that we're only getting one side of this
00:41:40
story so Mitchell is interviewed on the 9th he admits to police that he and Tracy had a 6mon long Affair when Mitch
00:41:51
was married to his wife Heather and Heather was pregnant what a fart this was between Tracy's two marriages to her
00:41:59
ex-husband Mike we don't have an exact timeline on this but if you use the information that we've already delivered
00:42:06
you can put a little bit of a timeline to this we know that Tracy's marriage second marriage to Mike was over even as
00:42:14
far as the courts are concerned by April of 1992 right and according to this information this six-month long Affair
00:42:23
between Mitch and Tracy went down between the two marriages and remember we have Michael on record Mike Harkness
00:42:32
on record saying look we were really only actually together for about a month between August and September of
00:42:40
1991 So based off of all of that information I'm going to say that this affair whenever it took place was
00:42:48
probably over and done with before August of 1991 and I think it's important to point
00:42:54
all of that out because if there is beef or anything going on in this situation between Tracy Mitch and
00:43:02
Heather well all of the information we have all indicators say that that relationship would have been over with
00:43:09
14 15 months roughly before Tracy was killed so it's a bit while it's a big story it may be a nothing story but
00:43:18
still let's get into these details because this is really bizarre behavior so they have the six-month long fair
00:43:26
this takes place when Mitch's wife is pregnant right right how bizar how bizarre Mitch ends up breaking it off
00:43:33
with Tracy Tracy gets angry according to Heather and then went and told Mitch's wife Heather all about this affair yeah
00:43:42
her hope is if I tell your wife then that's going to cause a conflict she's going to leave you and then you're left
00:43:48
with me right and so this of course is going to cause all kinds of problems between Mitch and Heather but obviously
00:43:55
we know they were able to work it out work through it because they're still together uh in November of
00:44:01
1992 because of this situation Mitch says that he you know he had already broke it off with Tracy but would
00:44:09
distance himself from her and in fact very quickly lost touch with Tracy but this was until they happened to run into
00:44:17
each other at a New Year's Eve party and they may have started seeing each other again depending on who you
00:44:25
ask well let me just let me just throw out this this flag by the way because we don't have Tracy here to give us the
00:44:36
Deeds right correct correct but when normally when there is an affair or something bad happens people try to
00:44:49
minimize that so when he says well it was a six month month Affair it could have been longer
00:44:56
but it also shows the state of mind that if you're not above having a relationship with a
00:45:07
married man then you're probably not above having a relationship when you're in a
00:45:14
relationship if that makes any sense agreed I don't want to get into a victim blaming or shaming situation here I want
00:45:23
to really underline the fact that are talking about a whole bunch of people that are in their early 20s and I tell
00:45:31
you what this will surprise no one I was no angel myself in my early 20s so we we
00:45:39
all have a lot of growing up to do at that time and many of us I'm a firm believer in this many of us are not very
00:45:47
much fully developed not very much adults at that time even though our driver's license may say that we are
00:45:53
well and also she you know Tracy was in a tough situation again and I feel like a broken record when I say this is a
00:46:02
different time period the early 9s she has a child you know Society had expectations of women that are and they
00:46:15
still have expectations of women to this day that are just not fair or don't make
00:46:21
any sense so you have this young single mother and she seemed to become somewhat
00:46:30
desperate to fill that to fill that void yes and again I I think one thing I want
00:46:38
to point out is that the information we have is that when they had this affair this was before the second
00:46:49
marriage to Mike and there's other indicators in the reports that the the affair stopped that Tracy and he stopped
00:46:59
Tracy and Mitch stopped seeing each other before Megan was born and we reported that she was roughly about 18
00:47:06
months old at the time of Tracy's murder but here's the really weird thing Captain even after this affair is over
00:47:15
with likely over with for months and months and months Tracy moved in the reports say
00:47:22
across the street and it's not actually across the street but she moves into the
00:47:27
same neighborhood as Heather and Mitch yeah that's suspicious she moves in the place that she moved into that's in the
00:47:34
same neighborhood as Heather and Mitch is the Grove City Apartment that Tracy was later killed in if you look at this
00:47:40
thing again a lot of the times when it's reported it says moved in across the street it's not really across the street
00:47:47
it's not really the same street this was a a large apartment complex however Tracy is within and and you most of the
00:47:57
time too when you sign up and you and you apply to to these apartments not always do you get to pick your apartment
00:48:03
you're just taking whatever is unoccupied at the time right you're applying to be in the apartment complex
00:48:11
you're normally not applying for a certain a certain location and normally if they approve you they might give you
00:48:20
a few options but what makes this all weird so she's roughly a little more than a
00:48:27
football field away from from apartment to apartment Tracy's apartment to Mitch and Heather's apartment and the thing
00:48:34
that makes it weird is that Heather tells police that Tracy knew exactly where they lived so this didn't just
00:48:43
happen you know Heather doesn't seem to believe that it just happened well and the thing here is it doesn't we can't
00:48:50
just believe Mitch because he says the relationship's over because he is a liar and cheat to his wife so why are we
00:49:00
going to believe him and we have no proof that Mitch didn't say hey why don't you come move in close by me the
00:49:06
other weird thing here though again this is again this is according to Heather we
00:49:10
don't have Tracy here to confirm or deny this she's saying that she believed that
00:49:16
Tracy would follow them around and sit in her car and watch them now Heather is so upset about
00:49:26
Tracy living in such close proximity to them she says that they tried to get out
00:49:31
of their lease so that they could move but the apartment complex the only thing that they could offer them was well you
00:49:38
could switch apartments but you need to stay with us because you signed this lease there's so many things about this
00:49:45
because like I said it gives motive to both of them it gives motive to Mitch to get Tracy out of his life it gives
00:49:55
motive to the wife to try to get Tracy out of their life we can't move well heck I'm just going to have to kill her
00:50:04
so we don't have to deal with this anymore and then also you can't trust their Alibi because they could have been
00:50:12
in you know this could have been a plan they made and tell me if I'm crazy for having this thought but if I'm
00:50:23
law enforcement you you want to know what test I'm running I want to make sure that that Mike is the biological father
00:50:34
so let's get into a potential Alibi for these two individuals right because you can see a lot of reasons why they would
00:50:42
find themselves on a short list of Persons of Interest in this case Mitch tells police and this is later confirmed
00:50:50
by police that on that Thursday night his brother-in-law and sister came over to their apartment this to help him
00:50:58
install a ceiling fan they left and then at some point he and Heather go to bed they say that they're in bed around 11
00:51:07
the other thing we need to point out there's nothing wrong with your theory there or or maybe not your actual Theory
00:51:14
but a potential theory in this case the only thing about that though is I would really kind of circle in on the idea
00:51:22
that yes this could have been planned but there's a lot of indicators that this may not have been a planned attack
00:51:29
that that somehow things went bad there's a confrontation but it leads to this attack well right and that's what I'm
00:51:37
saying is what if Mitch and his wife go over just to have a confrontation maybe they they saw
00:51:46
her in the neighborhood and went oh she's following us again we got we got to go say something my other issue with
00:51:53
them is we don't have eyewitnesses and you think that again if somebody drove to the apartment and parked in the
00:52:02
apartment space then maybe you'd be more likely to have a eyewitness if the individual parked even
00:52:11
down the street maybe would be more likely to have a eyewitness we have no eyewitness but they could have just
00:52:19
walked right a football field that's the difference between these two Persons of
00:52:24
Interest and everybody else on this short list is that these two one or both of them were the only ones that had
00:52:34
the the ability to just simply walk to where the murder took place well Mitch and Heather again there's so many red
00:52:43
flags that are just going off but sometimes in these cases those are nothing Burgers let's get into a suspect
00:52:52
that might be even more in interesting in throwing up more red flags yes and this is an individual that we've
00:53:00
mentioned several times and this is straight from the reports here captain and it looks like police learned
00:53:08
very quickly from Tracy's family that remember she had recently broken up with a guy who some have said should be the
00:53:16
prime suspect in this murder case and I'm sure those who say that arrived at that conclusion for a multitude of
00:53:24
reasons this is David seock age 22 He's listed as a dock worker and former landscaper and a member of The
00:53:37
Fifth Street wrecking crew and from what I gather his Hobbies were hunting and fishing playing pool playing video games
00:53:46
drinking not working and being an [ __ ] well that's an impressive list of hobbies Grove City PD Sergeant Dennis
00:53:54
deskins said quote they didn't know if or where David went to school and his employment history is sketchy now the
00:54:03
detectives attended Tracy's well-attended funeral to see who would show up Tracy's most recently rumored to
00:54:12
be boyfriend or ex of approximately two weeks David seock did not show [Music] up
00:54:32
join us back here in the garage we like to let the cases dictate how many episodes we need to cover them and this
00:54:38
one's going to need more so you're in luck you get more True Crime garage this week for your
00:54:44
earballs and until part three be good be kind and don't let [Music] her [Music] [Applause]
00:55:13
[Music] is it possible to predict the unpredictable can 3D printed life-size organ models help to map out complex
00:55:33
surgeries ahead of time is it possible it already is right here Mayo Clinic you know where to go