00:00:00
thank you [Music] [Music] foreign foreign garage wherever you are whatever you are
00:00:43
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that
00:00:47
knows that four out of five doctors recommend True Crime garage here is the captain and the fifth doctor is locked
00:00:55
in our basement it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
00:01:02
[Music] this week we are very excited to be featuring Eternal Autumn brewed by the great women
00:01:12
and men over at track 7 Brewing Company this is a West Coast style India Pale Ale featuring HBC 586 Idaho 7 and mosaic
00:01:25
hops and it's brewed on the west coast ABV 6.8 percent beautiful beer can art on the Tall Pine can and you are going
00:01:36
to want to try this one because here we go Captain I'm going to do it Eternal Autumn five out of five bottle caps boom
00:01:44
get you some and in the garage it's always a great Autumn because of all of you out there in listener land so let's
00:01:51
give some thanks and praise first up it cheers to Heather and beautiful Punta Gorda Florida and a big we like your jib
00:01:59
to Alex in Norfolk Virginia and here's the cheers to Holly in Temecula California and last but certainly not
00:02:06
least we have Chase from Olympia Washington everyone we just mentioned went to True Crime garage.com and
00:02:13
contributed to this week's beer fun and for that we thank you yeah bwr-u-n beer run if you're not following
00:02:21
us on social media Facebook Twitter Instagram then you're missing out on the True Crime conversations make sure you
00:02:30
follow us there at True Crime garage Colonel that's enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a
00:02:37
chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime foreign [Music] 30 years have passed since the murder of
00:03:17
24 year old Tracy Renee Harkness Tracy was found having been attacked and beaten to death inside her apartment
00:03:25
that she shared with her 18 month old daughter Tracy and her ex-husband shared custody
00:03:31
of the little girl the apartment was located in an otherwise safe neighborhood and one of
00:03:38
Columbus Ohio's many suburbs Friday November 6 1992 was a horrifying day that forever changed the lives of
00:03:48
everyone who knew and loved Tracy there were no signs of forced entry into the apartment and police ruled out
00:03:58
burglary as a motive investigators said the attack on Tracy was a crime of passion detective Cindy Atkinson with
00:04:07
Grove City police is quoted as saying it was a very brutal crime a very personal
00:04:12
crime she had over 36 wounds over half of those were fatal wounds Tammy bowling Tracy's mother said I
00:04:23
remember just lying on the couch and saying to God I have no reason to live anymore
00:04:33
the bowling family wants the killer to be caught for the sake of Tracy's now grown daughter
00:04:39
Tracy's family and the Grove City Police Department are hoping that new technology and DNA testing will lead to
00:04:48
an arrest in the meantime Tracy's family has something to say to the Killer if you did this
00:04:57
get it off your conscience and go tell Tracy's family once this killer brought to Justice
00:05:04
if you know who killed Tracy Renee Harkness call The Grove City police department at
00:05:14
614-277-1710 or to submit a tip and remain anonymous you can call it in at 614-645-tips that's
00:05:28
614-645-8477 or you can email our show by going to our website truecrime garage.com
00:05:37
this is the still unsolved homicide case of Tracy Harkness 30 years later and this is true crime garage
00:05:47
[Music] Grove City Ohio today the population is about 42 000 people 30 years ago when
00:06:09
this case took place it was about half of that 20 000 people Grove City is a suburb of Columbus Ohio and back then it
00:06:18
was very much your standard blue and white collar area a lot of hard-working folks many who worked in the Greater
00:06:25
Columbus area and after work they would retire to their three and four bedroom homes in the not quite what you would
00:06:32
call a sleepy town as Grove City was kind of hustle and bustle especially during the daylight hours but after the
00:06:39
sun goes down if we are talking about 9 or 10 o'clock at night it turns to a ghost town rather quickly pretty
00:06:46
standard Midwestern Town late at night you're going to get a few people out really hardly any cars out on the street
00:06:54
and as you said Captain Grove City was very much your typical middle class suburb with some of its citizens living
00:07:01
on the fringes of both ends of that middle class Spectrum now as we said in the trailer
00:07:07
our victim Tracy Harkness was found deceased in her apartment she lived in the Regency Arms apartment complex Tracy
00:07:16
had only lived in the apartment that she was killed in for about two and a half months before the attack the apartment
00:07:22
complex occupied Three Square city blocks and was made up of several buildings most of them like Tracy's
00:07:30
building which was a four family brick unit Tracy's unit was a two-story unit the apartments were moderately priced
00:07:39
and occupied by a wide range of tenants her two-bedroom place had a front door and a back door with parking for her
00:07:48
vehicle by the rear entrance to the apartment Tracy still had unpacked boxes of various personal items around the place
00:07:57
when she was killed one of the things that made these apartments unique was they had a main floor you had your
00:08:04
bedrooms on the second floor and you also had a basement neighbors told the media that Tracy was quiet friendly and
00:08:12
respectable she kept to herself and didn't make any waves on November 6 1992 at 2 37 PM police officers were
00:08:23
dispatched to the Regency Arms apartment complex at 3474 Richard Avenue in Grove
00:08:29
City on an unknown emergency call some people called 9-1-1 and reported that a woman was badly injured we have
00:08:38
Steve hutter and Lori short they were the ones to sound the alarm Lori was Tracy's cousin
00:08:46
she and Steve stayed with Tracy a few weeks earlier but they had left behind some keys
00:08:54
on Friday November 6 they stopped by Tracy's to pick them up Steve told investigators that Laurie
00:09:01
knocked on the back door of the apartment but got no answer they went to the back door because that was the door
00:09:07
Tracy and pretty much everyone else used this portion of the apartment complex was built in a u-shape around a rear
00:09:15
parking lot where the residents had spaces to park their cars as a result most residents didn't use their front
00:09:23
doors other than to get their mail or the newspaper Tracy was no exception and Lori and Steve noted that her car
00:09:33
was indeed in the parking lot right behind her unit when they pulled up Tracy was known to keep the back door
00:09:41
unlocked when she was at home when they got no answer at the rear door Steve walked around to the front door
00:09:47
and noted with surprise that the door was open about six to eight inches so he went inside and yelled for Tracy
00:09:56
when he got no response he looked in the dining area and he saw some socked feet
00:10:02
there he found Tracy Harkness lying on the floor he hastily went outside and knocked on
00:10:09
doors to get help he yelled to Laurie telling her to get back in the car and stay there
00:10:16
no one answered his knocks so when he saw a pickup truck pulling up across the street he ran across the street and told
00:10:25
the occupants to call 9-1-1 the driver called police and the other guy went with Steve back
00:10:32
into the residence to check the victim Unfortunately they were unable to find any vital signs the Regency Arms
00:10:41
Apartments located in Grove City are probably less than five miles from the police department Grove City police
00:10:48
detective Stephen Robinette was in the area and responded to the scene when he arrived the detective found the
00:10:55
apartment resident identified as Tracy Harkness lying face up in the dining area of the apartment she was pronounced
00:11:04
dead by Medics at 2 44 pm detective Robinette secured the scene and commenced what would then become a
00:11:13
three decades-long investigation neighbors started to gather outside the Regency Arms apartment
00:11:20
additional detectives arrived on scene and started interviewing some of the witnesses
00:11:26
detectives quickly noted the following Tracy's car was found parked in her usual spot located near the rear
00:11:34
entrance to the apartment the rear door deadbolt was locked but the front door deadbolt was unlocked and
00:11:41
remember when Steve Tracy's friend saw the front door it was already open about six to eight inches so according to
00:11:50
detective's notes there was no sign of force entry and quickly it was learned that there was a duplicate key to the
00:11:57
apartment but that key was missing Steve and the man who assisted Steve were laid to detectives that he noticed
00:12:07
that Tracy suffered severe head wounds and cuts to her forehead and cheeks Steve said she was hard to the touch
00:12:15
they both said she was blue detectives already knew this The woman Inside the apartment was quickly identified as
00:12:22
Tracy Harkness and had clearly been dead for quite some time there was no emergency as far as the
00:12:29
victim was concerned she was beyond help unfortunately at this point but there was an emergency when detectives learned
00:12:36
that the victim had an almost two-year-old daughter Megan who lived with her in the apartment other than
00:12:43
clothing and some kid related toys and items in the residence there was no sign of little Megan so detectives fanned out
00:12:52
through the neighborhood scoured it for Megan meanwhile Tracy's mother Tammy bowling arrived on the scene and was
00:13:00
quickly taken to Police Headquarters to be interviewed she was able to tell detectives that Megan was likely with
00:13:07
her father Mike Harkness Tracy's ex a visit to Mike's home address located his fiancee Sherry who related that Megan
00:13:17
was with her paternal grandmother and Mike was out of town for the day on a hunting trip
00:13:23
a phone call to Megan's grandmother confirmed that the little girl was there safe and sound the investigation shifted
00:13:31
from a potential kidnapping in progress to a homicide investigation but it's strange because we see this in so many
00:13:38
cases where the victim's partner or ex-partner is out of town that day I could see how
00:13:47
that would lead law enforcement to be suspicious of that individual let's learn more about Tracy Harkness Tracy
00:13:55
Renee Harkness was born on September 23rd 1968. her mother was Tammy bowling who
00:14:03
used to be married to Tracy's father Rick both were now remarried Tracy had two brothers she graduated from Heritage
00:14:11
Christian in Columbus in 1987. she attended the Columbus para professional Institute from 1987 to 1988.
00:14:20
in November of 1992 Tracy was a 24 year old single mother it's fair to say that Tracy's life was in flux at this time
00:14:31
she had been having a hard time holding down a job and maintaining a residence as of late her recent employer said she
00:14:39
was friendly and easy to work with but she spent a lot of time on the phone on personal calls
00:14:44
when she died she was working at a new job as a secretary she also had a part-time job a few nights a week
00:14:53
helping out at a friend's jewelry business so she definitely had a full plate Tracy was a long time member of
00:14:59
the grace Memorial Church on Christ and Christian union she attended church sporadically she
00:15:06
tended to go to church for a while when things weren't going so well in her life
00:15:11
or she was feeling guilty but that would last short term she had been attending church at the time of her death and had
00:15:20
recently spent an hour at the altar vowing to stay out of bars spend more time with Megan and be a better mother
00:15:28
her pastor told police that he thought that Tracy seemed unhappy Tracy also attended Jazzercise classes on Tuesdays
00:15:37
and Thursdays Tracy's friends and family said she drank socially but not to excess and she wasn't known to do drugs
00:15:45
well like we said before Tracy's ex-partner or ex-husband was on a hunting trip that day what's fascinating
00:15:54
about their relationship was they were actually married to each other twice his name as we said earlier Captain is
00:16:01
Michael Harkness the first time around the marriage was dissolved in April of 1990 but shortly after the breakup Tracy
00:16:10
discovered that she was pregnant and she and Mike remarried for the sake of the child Megan was born in January of 1991
00:16:18
and Mike and Tracy divorce again in April of 1992. Mike would later say that they were really only married for one
00:16:27
month the second time around from August to September in 1991. so the divorce the
00:16:34
second time around ended in April of 1992 but we all know that paperwork and things like that take place so
00:16:43
and can take some time he's just stating look we were really only together and trying to be together for a much shorter
00:16:51
period of time than what it looks like on paper according to Tracy's friends she and her
00:16:57
ex-husband got along very well and spoke almost daily this because they shared custody of little Megan well in a
00:17:05
perfect world all people that shared kids together would have a healthy relationship for their kids detective
00:17:12
Robinette who would be the lead on this case noted that many people describe Tracy as a very outgoing yet lonely
00:17:19
person who always seemed to be searching for happiness well there's probably many
00:17:24
of us out there that can relate to Tracy detectives noted that Tracy went to local bars in the evening when she was
00:17:32
not at home with her child when she didn't have to watch or care for Megan a few people said that she would sometimes
00:17:39
pick up men and she tended to fall for men much faster than they were comfortable with and sometimes she had
00:17:47
become confrontational there was at least one report that she would show up at the place of these guys employment or
00:17:56
at their home unexpectedly now in more than one case a man she was seeing was already in a relationship yeah that's
00:18:05
what we had defined as a stage five Clinger detectives learned very quickly from talking to Tracy's friends that
00:18:11
Tracy recently had a boyfriend and that they had broken up just two weeks earlier this boyfriend per her friends
00:18:19
was a young man named David celock cielock would quickly become a very interesting person to detectives when it
00:18:27
was learned that David celock may have been in possession of the missing duplicate key to Tracy's apartment
00:18:34
remember we have no signs of forced entry into the home now that doesn't mean that a key was used to gain access
00:18:41
to the apartment we could have a situation where Tracy let her killer or killers in to the apartment yeah or just
00:18:51
didn't lock the door behind her when she entered her apartment let's get into this investigation a little bit further
00:18:57
here Captain the Franklin County coroner's office sent forensic pathologist Keith Norton out to the
00:19:04
crime scene he took note of multiple lacerations of the scalp an abrasion on the left chest and a compound fracture
00:19:14
of the left little finger on Tracy Harkness Tracy when she was found she was fully
00:19:21
clothed she was found wearing jeans a shirt and a green black and white sweater and autopsy was performed the
00:19:29
following day after she was found Tracy had defensive wounds on both hands and her little finger was fractured
00:19:37
abrasions were noted on the right side of her neck the left chest and back a laceration was on her right forehead
00:19:47
a linear cut was seen on her right cheek examination of the victim's head led to
00:19:54
the discovery of 30 plus 3-0 plus injuries to the scalp and numerous skull fractures that's a vicious attack some
00:20:03
injuries were completely through the skull and into the brain on the left side and back of the head
00:20:09
the wounds tended to be long linear single wounds that were 1.1 to 1.2 centimeters long and half a centimeter
00:20:19
wide this is a lot of injuries this is a pretty severe attack where it looks to me Captain the the lay guy here that we
00:20:31
got somebody that's probably has attacked her and then we're seeing rapid fire blows once the attack
00:20:40
commences and normally when a victim has that many wounds it's it's more likely that they knew
00:20:47
the killer the lacerations to the right side of the scalp and the top of the head tended to be Too Short wounds side
00:20:54
by side that's per the documentation here two short wounds side by side the distance between the twin marks and each
00:21:03
of these wounds was 3 8 of an inch so it's one of these situations where you look at this and and say okay what
00:21:14
kind of weapon would have been used to leave these marks right on our victim or do we have a situation where
00:21:25
Tracy was attacked by two different people on different sides of of her right that would make some sense a lot
00:21:34
of wounds to the victim is there any evidence that she put up a fight that maybe she left wounds on her attacker
00:21:43
it's hard to say if she would have left any wounds on her attacker but she definitely put up a fight there was
00:21:50
significant defensive wounds and even some other indications that she put up a fight beyond the defensive wounds that
00:21:58
were found so the autopsy concluded that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the Head basically
00:22:06
she was bludgeoned to death Tracy had what is recorded as 36 different wounds with the majority of
00:22:12
the trauma to the back of the head note that she had defensive wounds to both hands
00:22:19
and people told detectives look Tracy could take care of herself if if she was attacked she would have
00:22:28
fought like a banshee and everything in the autopsy indicates that that was exactly the situation I'm going to ask
00:22:35
you a question and don't don't look at me like I'm a [ __ ] so she has a bunch of defensive wounds to her hands that
00:22:43
would make me think that the attacker was in front of her but like you just stated most of her
00:22:50
head injuries seem like it was coming from behind her that's correct so my speculation would
00:22:58
be one of two possibilities and both seem likely unfortunately so we we can't really deduce much from from this
00:23:06
speculation or from the wounds I believe because I think I I think what we're seeing here based off of these wounds in
00:23:13
the autopsy is that yes there is some argument that she could have been attacked by two people one on each side
00:23:21
of her however think about how it would play out if it was just a one-on-one attack and her
00:23:29
defensive wounds being to her hands both of her hands right if somebody were to raise a weapon and come at you
00:23:36
your natural reaction is going to be to put up your hands to defend your face or
00:23:42
your body well that's where you're wrong Colonel because my natural reaction would be to kick him in the nards and
00:23:48
she Pro she likely did this and at some point started to lose the fight and if she Struck from the front
00:23:58
and Falls forward now we could have a situation where she is on all fours or she's on the floor attempting to get up
00:24:08
to continue to defend herself and now the attacker is striking what is right in front of him or her which would be
00:24:15
the back of her head what's difficult for us to sit here and try to decipher is without being able to see the wounds
00:24:28
or or a diagram of the wounds themselves just reading the report as it is on paper
00:24:35
does not give us any indication of what direction this weapon would have been coming from now we have to compound that
00:24:44
problem with we don't know 100 percent what weapon was used to attack Tracy Harkness right and also just to be clear
00:24:52
she was found face up which could mean that after the attack that she actually moved herself into that position to
00:25:01
possibly get help correct she could have been moved by the attacker she could have moved herself she could have
00:25:07
actually successfully got up at some point during this attack it's we're not saying this is how it went down exactly
00:25:15
we're just saying when you try to play this thing out the scenario out based off of the information that is available
00:25:21
you could see it kind of working out that way if it was in fact the one-on-one attack I wouldn't be so quick
00:25:29
to lock myself into it being a one-on-one attack or a two on one or three on one attack yeah it's just we
00:25:37
live in a sad cold world evidence collected at the autopsy included but was not limited to the following
00:25:44
fingernail clippings and scrapings finger and palm prints blood samples Tracy's clothing was collected and
00:25:52
examined for trace evidence no sexual assault occurred during the attack a ring missing a stone was removed from
00:26:00
her left finger a mark on her right finger indicated that a ring was typically worn there and it was the
00:26:07
approximate size of a ring found on the floor near her foot so what I had talked about earlier there
00:26:15
Captain goes along with this portion of the autopsy report right not only do we have the wounds to her hands the
00:26:23
defensive wounds to her hands but what you're seeing is the items that she was wearing these Rings right
00:26:29
suffer damage as well because they were probably blocking some of the attack detective Robinette wrote in his report
00:26:38
that the weapon used to commit the murder had not been recovered but it was believed to be some type of clawed
00:26:45
instrument as most of the wounds were in pairs and spaced the same distance apart
00:26:51
the weapon is believed to be some type of small possible flat pry tool blunt instrument marks were found on the
00:26:59
surface of the north wall in the dining area and then rumors flew around town the Tracy had been attacked with a
00:27:06
hammer [Music] when you look at bags of dog food you see pictures of bright carrots and juicy
00:27:29
steaks but when you open the bag all you get are stale smelly pellets dog food needs some fresh thinking the farmer's
00:27:37
dog is real fresh healthy food with whole meat and veggies gently cooked in human grade kitchens to preserve their
00:27:46
nutritional value the farmer's dog delivers a personalized vet-developed meal plan for as little as three dollars
00:27:53
a day meals arrive pre-portioned ready to serve packs and because they're delivered on your schedule you'll never
00:28:00
run out dog people everywhere have ordered more than 200 million meals from the farmer's dog it's never been easier
00:28:08
to invest in your dog's health with fresh food let me tell you my dog Frankie Frank the Tank loves
00:28:17
fresh food he loves the farmer's dog he absolutely loves the food no more stale smelly pellets for Frank and as a dog
00:28:27
owner you want to make sure that you're feeding your dog healthy nutritious meals make the switch to the farmer's
00:28:36
dog like I did get 50 off your first box of fresh healthy food at the farmersdog.com garage plus you get free
00:28:45
shipping just go to thefarmersdog.com garage to get 50 off your first box that's the farmersdog.com garage make
00:28:55
the switch like I did check out thefarmersdog.com garage today [Music] all right we are back
00:29:19
like you did cheers cheers to you Captain tall cans in the air now before we get too far
00:29:27
into the weeds of this investigation I want to point out something that I noticed time and time again in this
00:29:34
investigation and you The Listener will notice this throughout as well this whole investigation was incredibly
00:29:42
Complicated by the fact that most of the people in Tracy's Social Circles they all seem to know each other and a
00:29:50
lot of them seem to have been in some type of relationship with each other at one time or to be related to each other
00:29:59
this can help an investigation this also can hinder an investigation and the interview process for detectives must
00:30:07
have been a major headache because on one hand some of these people that we are going to discuss did not tell the
00:30:15
whole truth to police some of them were covering for each other then on the other hand rumors and
00:30:23
speculation were rampant at the time everyone knew everyone else's business in this case or at least they thought
00:30:30
they did this is because a lot of the people that we will discuss were in their early to mid 20s and they were in
00:30:37
bars a lot together and there was a lot of gum flapping and chewing the fat going on at these bars in these Social
00:30:45
Circles well it also makes it difficult for law enforcement you have we've seen over and over with cases the husband did
00:30:53
it or the ex-husband so if I'm law enforcement the first thing I'm doing is you get this vicious scene this vicious
00:31:01
murder scene I'm looking at the X to see if he has any wounds on him I'm looking
00:31:07
at the current boyfriend another thing that makes it difficult for law enforcement is when her friends say look
00:31:14
she's she was quick to fall in love with people showing up at their work now the
00:31:19
amount of people of Interest it gets multiplied that's exactly right their Captain Ohio BCI along with Grove City
00:31:29
police were assigned to the crime scene the scene was photographed and videotaped now here are a few things of
00:31:36
note as the captain pointed out Tracy was found lying on her back on the carpet with a pool of blood under her head her
00:31:45
legs were straight her left arm bent and her hand on her chest her right arm was
00:31:51
extended out Tracy was fully clothed with the exception of shoes there was a lot of dried blood stains near the body
00:31:59
location there was dried blood found on a rug the plastic baby gate leaning on the wall the kitchen floor
00:32:08
various items like stuffed animals and shoes lying near the body and on the countertop
00:32:15
south of the body so a lot of blood in this dining room area is found near our body well when you have these pools of
00:32:24
blood were there any Footprints left behind there was one partial footprint found at the scene that was determined
00:32:34
not to belong to Tracy I believe it was determined not to belong to Tracy because
00:32:41
it's not stated as fact in the reports that it was not Tracy's footprint but keep in mind
00:32:49
it this was a shoe print a partial shoe print that was found every indication that we have is that once the attack
00:32:56
took place our victims not wearing any shoes at that time well then on top of that you
00:33:02
have to rule out her friends that found her or anybody else that was at that scene yeah by the time that she was
00:33:09
found by these you know these friends and then the random person that the friend pulled
00:33:16
in with him to to go into the apartment the second time the blood had already dried at the scene
00:33:23
so we'll we'll get into her timeline and I think without 100 certainty we're not
00:33:30
going to be able to narrow down the time of death to one hour but it looks like investigators strongly believe that they
00:33:39
know about what time she was killed and we can base that off of a lot of other evidence that we will get into also
00:33:48
found at the scene Captain we and near the body we had a dish towel and pieces of paper towel that were left near her
00:33:56
feet type notes say that a three inch and one half inch patch of blood was smeared on the Walls by the towels a
00:34:05
kitchen chair was on its side and blood spatter was nearby indicating perhaps that Tracy was initially struck closer
00:34:12
to the table the remaining three chairs and dining table were not Disturbed clumps and cut
00:34:19
sections of hair were noted in various places on the dining room floor what you can gather very quickly is that this is
00:34:27
a was a vicious attack and there's obvious signs of a struggle here especially near the the body location
00:34:40
what's interesting to me though and and I think the listeners will note this as well when we go through our our brief
00:34:48
description of what else is found in the apartment or the state of the apartment
00:34:52
it looks to me like this attack started and ended in this dining room area it also makes sense too because let's say
00:35:00
the attacker attacks her from behind so then you'd have these wounds on the back
00:35:05
of her head she turns around to defend herself and then that's how she gets the other defensive wounds detective
00:35:13
Robinette said that nothing obvious was missing from the apartment and Tracy's purse and jewelry were in
00:35:22
plain sight so a robbery seemed unlikely here Tracy's purse and car keys were on a
00:35:29
large footstool in the living room area a pair of women's black shoes were on the floor next to the stool
00:35:37
the TV in the apartment in the living room area was on flowers on the TV stand appear to be a few days old a toilet
00:35:46
seat was up and urine samples were taken from the bowl some moving boxes as we said were still
00:35:54
packed up and still found by detectives in the apartment detectives notes indicate that the attack was believed to
00:36:01
have solely gone down in that dining area can you imagine though if it was that simple that Tracy was attacked the
00:36:11
person used the bathroom beforehand or they use the bathroom afterwards and just didn't flush
00:36:17
and that's how we end up catching this person and to rewind back to what the friends were saying about how easily she
00:36:23
was to fall in love with somebody this opens up so many more possibilities because like you said one of the the
00:36:30
guys that she was seeing for a time period was married so now you got this larger poll of people that you have to
00:36:36
pull from not just a partner or ex-partner but possibly a partner of a partner right and what we will see once
00:36:44
we get into these Persons of Interest is that unfortunately you could easily see
00:36:53
a motive for a handful of people here in this case and as we pointed out earlier some of these Persons of
00:37:01
Interest are in a relationship with another person of interest well on top of that there was no sexual assault so
00:37:09
if there was sexual assault at least we would know if there was semen then at least one of the attackers
00:37:17
would have been male the toilet seat being up we've seen this in multiple cases and the first suspicion then goes
00:37:24
to Well there must have been a man in that apartment or in that home shortly before the attack or or maybe even after
00:37:32
the attack right look I I don't I'm not going to sit here and pretend to know everybody's bathroom habits and don't
00:37:37
really want to know them either but if you did I'd have to quit the show I will say this like I don't my mind does not
00:37:46
jump to a male perpetrator immediately because the toilet seat was left up it's I've I
00:37:52
in my lifetime I believe that for every one woman that insisted that the toilet seat be down or the the lid be down
00:38:01
constantly there's been another woman that insists that it'd be up all the time so I've never really looked at that
00:38:07
and said oh that 100 locks me in on a male perpetrator very fascinating set of circumstances so far in this case CSI
00:38:16
techs collected some items that appeared to be of evidentiary value we had latent
00:38:22
prints blood samples from the spray and smears and unspecified trace evidence a bed spread from Tracy's bed with Muddy
00:38:32
shoe prints on it was collected as well as an empty Marlboro cigarette pack yeah
00:38:37
it seems like somebody pulled a f your couch Rick James move on her bed the thing that's interesting about the
00:38:43
cigarette pack is note that we had said earlier that Tracy was known to drink socially I've
00:38:50
seen it reported that she would she may smoke on occasion when drinking but it seems like most people are in agreeance
00:38:58
that Tracy was not a smoker she was not a regular smoker and then we had this Marlboro cigarette pack that is found in
00:39:07
the apartment but there's no other smoking materials found in the home there's no ashtrays or a lighter that is
00:39:16
noted as well so could this have been left by the killer or is this the situation that it was left by somebody
00:39:24
else prior to the attack and for whatever reason had just not been discarded of yet law enforcement is
00:39:30
going to do a neighborhood canvas of the area went until November 8th that would
00:39:36
have been that Sunday and no eyewitness claims to have seen anything yeah no one
00:39:42
seemed to see anything unusual or hear anything of Interest or of added value to our investigation here this is really
00:39:52
interesting to me based off of how violent the attack appears to have been and you and I know that area fairly well
00:40:00
even right 30 years ago we knew it fairly well and I would think that the belief is that that the attack went down
00:40:08
late at night probably on November 5th sometime nearing the 11 o'clock hour on a Thursday
00:40:17
late at night in that area 30 years ago for an attack to be this violent it would be I think it's strange that
00:40:27
nobody heard anything now it's not impossible but I find that it that it to be strange and backing up that idea is
00:40:35
detective deskins who went on record and said based on the overturned furniture and the scattered items near the body it
00:40:45
appeared there was a struggle adding quote it's difficult to believe based on the struggle that no one heard anything
00:40:52
end quote well like you said this is a apartment complex these are apartments that share walls so you would think in
00:41:02
some of the cases we've covered when somebody is attacked in a single family home we have maybe not eyewitnesses but
00:41:09
ear Witnesses so it's very very strange to me that we have nobody that thinks they heard anything
00:41:17
but also I wonder because they didn't initially have a great idea of when the attack happened
00:41:25
that maybe when they were questioning these people if you're questioning somebody
00:41:30
on Sunday about something that happened Thursday might just not remember a little bang
00:41:38
against the wall or oh maybe I did hear a somebody scream or a muffled screen right and there's plenty of evidence to
00:41:47
suggest that Tracy was killed late on Thursday evening and now we know that the body's not found
00:41:56
until Friday afternoon so you already have some delay there I want to paint a little bit of a better picture though
00:42:04
because one thing that I think is interesting in this case first let me address one thing that you you just
00:42:10
brought up sharing walls exactly right and these apartments I'm always fascinated when we have these types of
00:42:18
attacks and struggles when somebody hears something or didn't hear anything because you are sharing walls with your
00:42:25
neighbors now in Tracy's case that four family unit building that she lived in I
00:42:33
mapped it out it looks to me like she was on the end so she would have only shared a wall with one neighbor
00:42:41
again we're I'm basing that off of the idea that the apartment next to her was occupied
00:42:48
uh it may not have been her apartment the building she was in if you picture a u there's three
00:42:57
buildings that make this you shape and in the center of that U of those three apartment buildings you have a parking
00:43:06
lot that is shared by all of the occupants of those three buildings so what's interesting to me here is you
00:43:14
have a situation where my car is in in the line with your car your car is in the same area as our
00:43:24
other neighbor's cars so as far as the parking lot goes I think that that's where you're going to have the the space
00:43:31
where the most eyes are on the comings and goings of everybody be it the occupants or visitors of the of your
00:43:40
neighbors in that parking lot so I think people are going to have a good idea of
00:43:45
the activity there just because you're frequently in and out of your car and you have the rear entrance to your home
00:43:53
your apartment as said almost all of the people in that apartment the that apartment area or at least this space of
00:44:01
Regency arms because it's not laid out the exact same everywhere throughout Regency arms but in this space these
00:44:08
people are using their back door as their main in and out to their home simply because of where their vehicle
00:44:15
would be located so one thing that was of note I I want to make sure that I underline this and and really Echo this
00:44:23
and and be clear here on on not to read too much into this but one thing of note
00:44:28
is that neighbors did point out when asked if they saw anything strange or unusual or if there's anything of note
00:44:35
that should be reported to detectives about who may be coming and going from Tracy's apartment the neighbors told
00:44:42
several neighbors told the police about a white man with a white vehicle that had a large Dragon decal
00:44:51
on the vehicle who had been seen at the apartment several times but that is key to hone in on but we should also point
00:45:01
out the fact that they followed that up with had not been seen in a couple of weeks so it could be connected to our
00:45:09
murder but it doesn't have to be because we have a knight in question that we really need to focus in on now you might
00:45:18
not know this answer I'm sure law enforcement does but like you said she has an ex husband and she had a current
00:45:24
boyfriend at the time that boyfriend had the extra set of keys she was only in that apartment for a few months when was
00:45:33
he gifted those set of keys well I actually I think we need to kind of clean that up a little bit because
00:45:40
there's a couple things going on it's that she has an ex-husband she has an ex-boyfriend and the
00:45:48
ex-boyfriend from my understanding only stayed there for between about 10 days to possibly two weeks that relationship
00:45:57
was over with before she was killed so no current boyfriend there's no current boyfriend that we have listed here and
00:46:06
it sounds like she was pretty vocal in talking with a lot of family and friends about her life so nobody reported a
00:46:14
current boyfriend everybody reported this ex-boyfriend and we'll get into him we talked about him briefly uh David
00:46:20
celock that was the ex-boyfriend but I'm guessing he doesn't own that vehicle no
00:46:25
he does match the description that very vague description he's he's a Caucasian male he owns a white car with a large
00:46:33
Dragon decal on the vehicle now it makes sense though that you would see his vehicle right at that apartment several
00:46:42
times a few weeks ago a couple of weeks ago as stated by neighbors because he was staying there briefly now as far as
00:46:50
the duplicate key goes he tells police he gave the key back they don't find it at the scene but that
00:46:58
doesn't mean that he didn't give it back he claims that he gave the key back Tracy harkness's ex-husband Michael
00:47:06
Harkness said that he was told that David celock had a duplicate key to the apartment which again makes sense
00:47:16
because David celock's not denying that he ever had the key he was staying there we don't know the
00:47:23
the thing that we we really want to find out is one why didn't they find the duplicate key and since they did not
00:47:31
find the duplicate key who the hell had it well and what makes this case even more difficult for law enforcement is
00:47:38
you have eyewitnesses that saw this ex-boyfriend at the apartment at some point but because
00:47:46
everybody's using their back entrance because that's where the parking lot is well the parking lot is not small
00:47:53
it's and so if you said to me oh did have you seen this white vehicle that had this Dragon
00:48:01
decal on it yeah when's the last time you saw it I don't know I wouldn't you wouldn't be
00:48:07
it'd be very hard for eyewitnesses to pinpoint the last time they saw that vehicle at that apartment well and the
00:48:15
other thing that's difficult too is remember the back door the the door that was used as the main in and out for
00:48:22
Tracy and her friends and visitors was found locked it was the front door that nobody used regularly that was found
00:48:31
unlocked and open when her body was discovered right the other thing that makes this
00:48:37
difficult and like you said we know this area is not only are there several parking
00:48:46
Lots around those apartment complexes but there are side roads that are not that far from the apartment
00:48:54
so if this was premeditated it wouldn't be that hard to park down the street it's also not
00:49:04
it's also not that far of a distance for somebody to park there's a I'd say within a half of a
00:49:14
mile was a large Shopping Center or a strip mall and it wouldn't be that hard to park in that parking lot and then
00:49:23
walk over to the apartment complex yeah no again this is a rather safe area and police went out of their way to
00:49:34
inform the public that the they believed the attack on Tracy was personal this is based off of the fact given the
00:49:42
low rate of violent crime in the area that fact is going to further bolster that idea
00:49:51
and what eventually would be the detective's theory is that this was a crime of passion now
00:49:58
before Tracy was killed there were had been no homicides in Grove City in the year of 1992. Tracy was killed in early
00:50:06
November so that tells you that points out just how low the rate of violent crime would be in that area
00:50:15
she's not murdered until November and she's the first murder victim of that year
00:50:21
now let's see if we can fill out a thorough timeline for Tracy as that's going to be key to this case as it
00:50:29
always is so detectives spoke with a lot of people during the first days of the investigation and then we pieced
00:50:37
together a timeline for Tracy based off of these interviews and notes made by the actual investigators
00:50:45
so Tracy Harkness was last seen alive at a lingerie sales party in the Stone Ridge Subdivision this around 10 30 p.m
00:50:54
on November 5th this was at the home of a woman who Tracy was friends with detectives interviewed everybody at this
00:51:02
party Tracy's daughter was in daycare on the day of the fifth and then was picked up by Sherry
00:51:11
remember Sherry is Tracy's ex-husband Mike Harkness that's Mike's fiance I'm assuming that Tracy had a a good
00:51:21
relationship with Sherry because Sherry's helping them raise their daughter but she also has a good
00:51:27
relationship or reportedly good relationship with her accent yeah I I didn't see any reports about the
00:51:34
relationship between Sherry and Tracy but you can make some inferences right I mean
00:51:39
Michael Harkness it's reported by everybody that that I could find that they had a good relationship Michael's
00:51:47
words and everybody else's words were that he and Tracy spoke almost daily and it wasn't just about hey
00:51:55
can you pick up Megan in 10 minutes or hey can you can you cover for me this day they they spoke about what was going
00:52:02
on in their lives too and so it sounds to me like they remain friendly and then based off of the fact
00:52:09
that we know that Sherry is picking up Megan from daycare and that there's a good relationship between Mike and Tracy
00:52:16
I think the inference that we can make here is that yes the the relationship between Sherry and Tracy was probably a
00:52:23
good one on our timeline here we should note that Megan was at home with Sherry and her father Mike the rest
00:52:32
of the evening this is according to Michael and Sherry so this is the evening of Thursday the 5th
00:52:41
now remember we're going to fast forward to after that lingerie sales party Tracy
00:52:48
left that party around 10 30. it would be a 10 minute drive for her to get from The Party location
00:52:56
to her apartment when she was found when Tracy was found remember she was wearing clothing she
00:53:04
was fully clothed she was wearing the same clothes that she wore to the party but she's not wearing shoes when she's
00:53:12
found and remember that we found shoes her purse and her keys in the living room
00:53:21
near that footstool so her friends reported that Tracy usually changed into sweatpants and a
00:53:29
sweatshirt almost as soon as she would get home again her person keys and shoes were
00:53:35
found on the stool or near the stool and the TV was on so to me Captain I'm looking at this
00:53:42
situation I'm going okay she leaves at 10 30. everybody at the party is saying that Tracy said that she
00:53:49
was going home after the party and there's indication at her apartment that she probably came home kicked off
00:53:56
her shoes sit down her purse and keys flipped on the TV and before she could change into these
00:54:04
sweatpants as reported by all of her friends that she would usually change into sweats as soon as she got home
00:54:10
either somebody knocks on the door she invites somebody in or whatever happens and then she's attacked
00:54:18
well this makes it difficult too for law enforcement because did somebody follow
00:54:22
her home from the party or did somebody lay in wait and once you see movement and you see lights turn on
00:54:33
that that's when you make your move and you go knocking on that front door so the detective notes are as follows
00:54:39
they say that either a Tracy let her assailant in the front door or I guess the back door and and he or
00:54:49
she or they locked the back door and then left through the front door B the assailant was already in the house
00:54:55
when she walked in this would make sense if either she left the door unlocked somebody had a key or somebody had
00:55:02
access or gained access in some form or fashion to the apartment or C her and her attacker or attackers
00:55:11
came in together when Tracy arrived back at her home that night the other thing too that's interesting to me here
00:55:19
Captain is that the note of friends saying that Tracy sometimes would leave the back
00:55:25
door unlocked when she was home could it be possible like you pointed out that she arrives home goes through
00:55:32
the back door and just didn't lock it behind her when she arrived [Music] I want to thank you guys so much for
00:55:55
joining us here in the garage make sure you tell a friend make sure you tell your mother to Listen to True Crime
00:56:02
garage join us back here in the garage same Back Time same back Channel and until then be good be kind and don't
00:56:09
listen foreign [Music]