Tracy Harkness /// Part 1 /// 628 | Forensic Files

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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and
with me as always is a man that knows that four out of five doctors recommend True Crime garage here is the captain
and the fifth doctor is locked in our basement it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks
for telling a [Music] friend this week we are very excited to be featuring Eternal Autumn brewed by
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everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true [Music] [Music]
crime [Music] I 30 years have passed since the murder of 24-year-old Tracy Renee Harkness
Tracy was found having been attacked and beaten to death inside her apartment that she shared with her 18 month old
daughter Tracy and her ex-husband shared custody of the little girl the apartment
was located in an otherwise safe neighborhood in one of Columbus Ohio's many suburbs Friday November 6th
1992 was a horrifying day that forever changed the lives of everyone who knew and loved
Tracy there were no signs of forced entry into the apartment and police ruled out burglary as a motive
investigators said the attack on Tracy was a crime of passion detective Cindy aason with Grove City police is quoted
as saying it was a very brutal crime a very personal crime she had over 36 wounds over half of those were fatal
wounds Tammy bowling Tracy's mother said I remember just lying on the couch and saying to God
I have no reason to live anymore the bowling family wants the killer to be caught for the sake of
Tracy's now grown daughter Tracy's family and the Grove City Police Department are hoping that new
technology and DNA testing will lead to an arrest in the meantime Tracy's family
has something to say to the killer if you did this get it off your conscience and go tell Tracy's family wants this
killer brought to Justice if you know who killed Tracy Renee Harkness call The Grove City police department at 614
277 1710 or to submit a tip and remain anonymous you can call it in at 614 645 tips that's 614 645
8477 or you can email our show by going to our website True Crime garage.com this is the still unsolved
homicide case of Tracy Harkness 30 years later and this is true crime [Music] garage I
prise Grove City Ohio today the population is about 42,000 people 30 years ago when 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
was very much your standard blue and white collar area a lot of hardworking folks many who worked in the Greater
Columbus area and after after work they would retire to their three and four bedroom homes in the not quite what you
would call a sleepy town as Grove City was kind of hustle and bustle especially during the daylight hours but after the
sun goes down if we are talking about 9 or 10:00 at night it turns to a ghost town rather quickly pretty standard
Midwestern Town late at night you're going to get a few people out really hardly any cars out on the street and as
you said Captain Grove City was very much your typical middle class suburb with some of its citizens living on the
fringes of both ends of that middle class Spectrum now as we said in the trailer our victim Tracy Harkness was
found deceased in her apartment she lived in the Regency Arms apartment complex Tracy had only lived in the
apartment that she was killed in for about 2 and a half months before the attack the apartment complex occupied
Three Square city blocks and was made up of several buildings most of them like Tracy's building which was a four family
brick unit Tracy's unit was a twostory unit the apartments were moderately priced and occupied by a wide range of
tenants her two-bedroom place had a front door and a back door with parking for her vehicle by the rear entrance to
the apartment Tracy still had unpacked boxes of various personal items around the place when she was killed one of the
things that made these apartments unique was they had a main floor you had your bedrooms on the second floor and you
also had a basement neighbors told the media that Tracy was quiet friendly and respectable she kept to herself and
didn't make any waves on November 6th 1992 at 237 p.m. police officers were dispatched to the Regency Arms apartment
complex at 30 474 Richard Avenue in Grove City on an unknown emergency call some people called 911 and reported that
a woman was badly injured we have Steve hutter and Lori short they were the ones
to sound the alarm Lori was Tracy's cousin she and Steve stayed with Tracy a few weeks earlier but they had left
behind some keys on Friday November 6th they stopped by Tracy's to pick them up Steve told investigators that Lori
knocked on the back door of the apartment but got no answer they went to the back door because that was the door
Tracy and pretty much everyone else used this portion of the apartment complex was built in a u shape around a rear
parking lot where the residents had spaces to park their cars as a result most residents didn't use their front
doors other than to get their mail or the newsp paper Tracy was no exception and Lori and Steve noted that her car
was indeed in the parking lot right behind her unit when they pulled up Tracy was known to keep the back door
unlocked when she was at home when they got no answer at the rear door Steve walked around to the front door and
noted with surprise that the door was open about 6 to 8 in so he went inside and yelled for Tracy when he got got no
response he looked in the dining area and he saw some socked feet there he found Tracy harness lying on the
floor he hastily went outside and knocked on doors to get help he yelled to Lori telling her to get back in the
car and stay there no one answered his knocks so when he saw a pickup truck pulling up across the street he ran
across the street and told the occupants to call 9 11 the driver called police and the other guy went with Steve back
into the residence to check the victim Unfortunately they were unable to find any vital signs the Regency Arms
Apartments located in Grove City are probably less than five miles from the police department Grove City police
detective Steven robinet was in the area and responded to the scene when he arrived the detective found the
apartment resident identified as Tracy Harkness lying face up in the dining area of the apartment
she was pronounced dead by Medics at 2:44 p.m. detective Robinette secured the scene and commenced what would then
become a three decades long investigation neighbors started to gather outside the Regency Arms
apartment additional detectives arrived on scene and started interviewing some of the
witnesses detectives quickly noted the following Tracy's car was found parked in her usual spot located near the rear
entrance to the apartment the rear door deadbolt was locked but the front door deadbolt was unlocked and remember when
Steve Tracy's friend saw the front door it was already open about 6 to 8 Ines so
according to detectives notes there was no sign of force entry and quickly it was learned that there was a duplic at
key to the apartment but that key was missing Steve and the man who assisted Steve relay to detectives that he
noticed that Tracy suffered severe head wounds and cuts to her forehead and cheeks Steve said she was hard to the
touch they both said she was blue detectives already knew this The woman Inside the apartment was quickly
identified as Tracy Harkness and had clearly been dead for quite some time there was no emergency as far as the
victim was concerned she was beyond help unfortunately at this point but there was an emergency when detectives learned
that the victim had an almost 2-year-old daughter Megan who lived with her in the
apartment other than clothing and some kid related toys and items in the residence there was no sign of little
Megan so detectives fanned out through the neighborhood and scoured it for Megan meanwhile Tracy's mother mother
Tammy bowling arrived on the scene and was quickly taken to Police Headquarters to be interviewed she was able to tell
detectives that Megan was likely with her father Mike harkes Tracy's ex a visit to Mike's home address located his
fiance Sherry who related that Megan was with her paternal grandmother and Mike was out of town for the day on a hunting
trip a phone call to Megan's grandmother confirmed that the little girl was there
safe and sound the investigation shifted from a potential kidnapping in progress
to a homicide investigation but it's strange cuz we see this in so many cases where the victim's partner or ex partner
is out of town that day I could see how that would lead law enforcement to be suspicious of that individual let's
learn more about Tracy Harkness Tracy Renee Harkness was born on September 23rd 1968 her mother was Tammy bowling who
used to be married to Tracy's father Rick both were now remarried Tracy had two brothers she graduated from Heritage
Christian in Columbus in 1987 she attended the Columbus par professional Institute from 1987 to
1988 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 she had been having a hard time holding down a job and maintaining a residence as of late her recent
employer said she was friendly and easy to work with but she spent a lot of time
on the phone on personal calls 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 helping out at a friend's jewelry business so she definitely had the full plate Tracy was
a longtime member of the grace Memorial Church on Christ and Christian union she
attended church sporadically she tended to go to church for a while when things weren't going so well in her life or she
was feeling guilty but that would last short term she had been attending church at the time of her death and had
recently spent an hour at the altar vowing to stay out of bars spend more time with Megan and be a better mother
her pastor told police that he thought that Tracy seemed unhappy Tracy also attended jazzer siiz classes on Tuesdays
and Thursdays Tracy's friends and family said she drank socially but not to access and she wasn't known to do drugs
well like we said before Tracy's ex partner or ex-husband was on a hunting trip that day what's fascinating about
their relationship was there were actually married to each other twice his name as we said earlier Captain is
Michael harkes the first time around the marriage was dissolved in April of 1990 but shortly after the breakup Tracy
discovered that she was pregnant and she and Mike remarried for the sake of the child Megan was born in January of
1991 and Mike and Tracy divorc again in April of 1992 Mike would later say that they were
really only married for one month the second time around from August to September in
1991 so the divorce the second time around ended in April of 1992 but we all know that paperwork and things like that
take place so it can take some time he's just stating look we were really only together and trying to be together for a
much shorter period of time than what it looks like on paper according to Tracy's
friend she and her ex-husband got along very well and spoke almost daily this because they shared custody of little
Megan well in a perfect world all people that shared kids together would have a healthy relationship for their kids
detective Robinette who would be the lead on this case noted that many people describe Tracy as a very outgoing yet
lonely person who always seem to be searching for happiness well there's probably many of us out there that can
relate to Tracy detectives noted that Tracy went to local bars in the evening when she was not at home with her child
when she didn't have to watch her care for Megan a few people said that she would sometimes pick up men and she
tended to fall for men much faster than they were comfortable with and sometimes
she had become confrontational there was at least one report that she would show up at the
place of these guys employment or were at their home unexpectedly now in more than one case a
man she was seeing was already in a relationship yeah that's what we Define as a stage five Clinger detectives
learned very quickly from talking to Tracy's friends that Tracy recently had a boyfriend and that they had broken up
just two weeks earlier this boyfriend per her friends was a young man named David seock seock would quickly become a
very interesting person to detectives when it was learned that David seock may have been in possession of the missing
duplicate key to Tracy's apartment remember we have no signs of forced entry into the home now that doesn't
mean that a key was used to gain access to the apartment we could have a situation where Tracy let her killer or
Killers into the apartment yeah or just didn't lock the door behind her when she
entered her apartment let's get into this investigation a little bit further here Captain the Franklin County
coroner's office sent forensic pathologist Keith Norton out to the crime scene he took note of multiple
lacerations of the scalp an abrasion on the left chest and a compound fracture of the left little finger on Tracy
Harkness Tracy when she was found she was fully clothed she was found wearing jeans a shirt and a green black and
white sweater an autopsy was performed the following day after she was found Tracy had defensive wounds on both hands
and her little finger was fractured abrasions were noted on the right side of her neck the left chest and back a
laceration was on her right forehead a linear cut was seen on her right cheek examination of the victim's head led to
the discovery of third 30 plus 30 plus injuries to the scalp and numerous skull fractures that's a vicious attack some
injuries were completely through the skull and into the brain on the left side and back of the
head the wounds tended to be long linear single wounds that were 1.1 to 1.2 cm long and half a centimeter wide this is
a lot of injuries this is a pretty severe attack where it looks to me Captain the the le guy here that we got
somebody that's probably has attacked her and then we're seeing rapid fire blows once the attack commences and
normally when a victim has that many wounds it's it's more likely that they knew the killer the lacerations to the
right side of the scalp and the top of the head tended to be two short wounds side by side that's per the
documentation here two short wounds side by side the distance between the twin marks in each of these wounds was 38 of
an inch so it's one of these situations where you look at this is and and say okay what kind of weapon would have been
used to leave these marks right on our victim or do we have a situation where Cy was attacked by two different people
on different sides of of her right that would make some sense a lot of wounds to
the victim is there any evidence that she put up a fight that maybe she left wounds on her attacker it's hard to say
if she would have left any wounds on her attacker but she definitely put up a fight there was significant defensive
wounds and even some other indications that she put up a fight beyond the defensive wounds that were found so the
autopsy concluded that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the Head Right
basically she was bludgeon to death Tracy had what is recorded as 36 different wounds with the majority of
the trauma to the back of the head note that she had defensive wounds to both hands and people told detectives
look Tracy could take care of herself if if she was attacked she would have fought like a banshee and everything in
the autopsy indicates that that was exactly the situation I'm going to ask 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 would make me think that the attacker
was in front of her but like you just stated most of her head injuries seem like it was coming from behind her
that's correct so my speculation would be one of two possibilities and both seem likely unfortunately so we we can't
really deduce much from from this speculation or from the wounds I believe because I think I I think what we're
seeing here based off of these wounds and the autopsy is that yes there is some argument that she could have been
attacked by two people one on each side of her however think about how it would play
out if it was just a one-on-one attack and her defensive wounds being to her hands both of her hands right if
somebody were to raise a weapon and come at you your natural reaction is going to
be to put up your hands to defend your face or your body well that's where you're wrong Colonel cuz my natural
reaction would be to kick him in the nards and she Pro she likely did this and at some point started to lose the
fight and if she Struck from the front 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 to continue to defend herself and now the
attacker is striking what is right in front of him or her which would be 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 or or a diagram of the wounds
themselves just reading the report as it is on paper does not give us any indication of what direction this weapon
would have been coming from now we have to compound that problem with we don't know 100% what weapon was used to attack
Tracy Harkness right and also just to be clear she was found face up which could
mean that after the attack that she actually moved herself into that position to possibly
get help correct she could have been moved by the attacker she could have moved herself she could have actually
successfully got up at some point during this attack it's we're not saying this is how it went down exactly we're just
saying when you try to play this thing out the scenario out based off of the information that is available you could
see it kind of working out that way if it was in fact a one-on-one attack I wouldn't be so quick to lock myself into
it being a one-on-one attack or a two onone or three-on-one attack yeah it's just we live in a sad cold world
evidence collected at the autopsy included but was not limited to the following fingernail clippings and
scrapings finger and palm prints blood samples Tracy's clothing was collected and examined for trace evidence no
sexual assault occurred during the attack a ring missing a stone was removed from her left finger a mark on
her right finger indicated that a ring was typically worn there and it was the approximate size of a ring found on the
floor near her foot so what I had talked about earlier there Captain goes along with this portion of the autopsy report
right not only do we have the wounds to her hands the defensive wounds to her hands but what you're is the items that
she was wearing these Rings right suffered damage as well because they were probably blocking some of the
attack detective robinet wrote in his report that the weapon used to commit the murder had not been recovered but it
was believed to be some type of clawed instrument as most of the wounds were in pairs and spaced the same distance apart
the weapon is believed to be some type of small possible flat pry tool blunt instrument marks were found on the
surface of the north wall in the dining area and then rumors flew around town the Tracy had been attacked with a
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[Music] garage all right we are back and we like your jib cheers cheers to you Captain tall
cans in the air now before we get too far into the weeds of this investigation I want to point out something that I
noticed time and time again in this investigation and you The Listener will notice this throughout as well this
whole investigation was incredibly Complicated by the fact that most of the people in Tracy's Social Circles they
all seem to know each other and a 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 this can help an investigation this also can hinder an investigation and the
interview process for detectives must have been a major headache because on one hand some of these people that we
are going to discuss did not tell the whole truth to police some of them were covering for each other then on the
other hand rumors and speculation were rampant at the time everyone knew everyone else's business in this case or
at least they thought 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 bars a lot together and there was a lot of gum flapping and chewing the fat going on at these bars
in these Social Circles well it also makes it difficult for law enforcement you have we've seen over and over with
cases the husband did it or the ex-husband so if I'm law enforc the first thing I'm doing is you get this
vicious scene this vicious murder scene I'm looking at the ex to see if he has any wounds on him I'm looking at the
current boyfriend another thing that makes it difficult for law enforcement is when her friends say look she's she
was quick to fall in love with people showing up at their work now the amount of people of Interest it gets multiplied
that's exactly right there Captain oh Ohio BCI along with Grove City police were assigned to the crime scene the
scene was photographed and videotaped now here are a few things of 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 legs were straight her left arm
bent and her hand on her chest her right arm was extended out Tracy was fully clothed with the exception of shoes
there was a lot of dried blood stains near the body location there was dried blood found on a rug the plastic baby
gate leaning on the wall the kitchen floor various items like stuffed animals and shoes lying near the body and on the
countertop south of the body so a lot of blood in this dining room area is found
near our body but when you have these pools of blood were there any foot prints left behind there was one partial
footprint found at the scene that was determined not to belong to Tracy I believe it was determined not to belong
to Tracy because it it's not stated as fact in the reports that it was not Tracy's footprint but keep in
mind this was a shoe print a partial Sho print that was found every indication that we have is that once the attack
took place our victims not wearing any shoes at that time well then on top of that
you have to rule out her friends that found her or anybody else that was at that scene yeah by the time that she was
found by these you know these friends and then the random person that the friend pulled in with him to to go into
the apartment the second time the blood had already dried at the scene so we we'll get into her timeline and and I
think without 100% certainty we're not going to be able to narrow down the time of death to 1 hour but it looks like
investigators strongly believe that they 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 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 feet type notes say that a 3 in and 1/2
in patch of blood was smeared on the Walls by the towels a kitchen chair was on its side and blood spatter was nearby
indicating perhaps that Tracy was initially struck closer to the table the remaining three chairs and dining table
were not Disturbed clumps and cut sections of hair were noted in various places on the dining room floor what you
can gather very quick is that this is a was a vicious attack and there's obvious signs of a struggle here
especially near the the body location what's interesting to me though and and I think the listeners will note this as
well when we go through our our brief description of what else is found in the apartment or the state of the apartment
it looks to me like this attack started and ended in this dining room area it also makes sense too because let's say
the attacker attacks her from behind so then you'd have these wounds on the back
of her head she turns around to defend herself and then that's how she gets the other defensive wounds detective Robin
net said that nothing obvious was missing from the apartment and Tracy's purse and jewelry were in plain sight so
a robbery seemed unlikely here here Tracy's purse and car keys were on a large foot stol in the living room area
a pair of women's black shoes were on the floor next to the stool the TV in the apartment in the living room area
was on flowers on the TV stand appeared to be a few days old a toilet seat was up and urine samples were taken from the
bowl some moving boxes as we said were still packed up and still found by detectives in the apartment detectives
notes indicate that the attack was believed to have solely gone down in that dining area could you imagine
though if it was that simple that Tracy was attacked the person used the bathroom beforehand or they use the
bathroom afterwards and just didn't flush and that's how we end up catching this person and to rewind back to what
the friends were saying about how easily she was to fall in love with somebody this opens up so many more possibilities
cuz like you said one of the the guys that she was seeing for a time period was married so now you got this larger
pole of people that you have to pull from not just a partner or ex partner but possibly a partner of a partner
right and what we will see once we get into these Persons of Interest is that unfortunately you could easily see a
motive for a handful of people here in this case and as we pointed out earlier some of these Persons of
Interest are in a relationship with another person of interest well on top of that there was no sexual assault so
if there was sexual assault at least we would know if there was Seaman then at least one of the
attackers would have been male the toilet seat being up we've seen this in multiple cases and the first suspicion
then goes to Well there must have been a man in that apartment or in that home shortly before the attack or or maybe
even after 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 really want to know them either but well if you did I'd have to quit the show I will say this like I
don't my mind does not jump to a male perpetrator immediately because a toilet seat was left up it's I've I in my
lifetime I believe that for every one woman that insisted that the toilet seat be down or the the lid be down
constantly there's been another woman that insist that it be up all the time so I've never really looked at that and
said oh that 100% locks me in on a male perpetrator very fascinating set of circumstances so far in this case CSI
Tex collected some items that appeared to be of evidentiary value we had latent prints blood samples from the spray and
SM and unspecified trace evidence a bed spread from Tracy's bed with Muddy shoe prints on it was collected as well as an
empty Marboro cigarette pack yeah it seems like somebody pulled a f your couch Rick James move on her bed the
thing that's interesting about the cigarette pack is note that we had said earlier that Tracy was known to drink
socially I've seen it reported that she would she may smoke on occasion when drinking but it seems like most people
are in agreeance that Tracy was not a smoker she was not a regular smoker and then we have this maror cigarette pack
that is found in the apartment but there's no other smoking materials found in the home there's no ashtrays or a
lighter that is noted as well so could this have been left by the killer or is this a situation that it was left by
somebody else prior to the the attack and for whatever reason had just not been discarded of yet law enforcement is
going to do a neighborhood canvas of the area went till November 8th that would have been that Sunday and no eyewitness
claims to have seen anything yeah no one seemed to see anything unusual or hear anything of Interest or of added value
to our investigation here this is really interesting to me based off of how violent the attack appears to have been
and you and I know that area fairly well even right 30 years ago we knew it fairly well and I would think that the
belief is that that the attack went down late at night probably on November 5th sometime nearing the 11:00 hour on a
Thursday 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 nobody heard anything now it's not impossible but I find that it that it to be strange and
backing up that idea is detective deskins who went on record and said based on the overturned furniture and
the scattered items near the body it appeared there was a struggle adding quote it's difficult to believe based on
the struggle that no one heard anything end quote well like you said this is a a
part complex these are apartments that share walls so you would think in some of the cases we've covered when somebody
is attacked in a single family home we have maybe not eyewitnesses but ear Witnesses so it's very very strange to
me that we have nobody that thinks they heard anything but also I wonder because
they didn't initially have a great idea of when the attack happened that maybe when they were questioning these people
if you're questioning somebody on Sunday about something that happened Thursday they might just not remember a
little bang against the wall or oh maybe I did hear a somebody's scream or a muffled scream right and there's plenty
of evidence to suggest that Tracy was killed late on Thursday evening and now we know that the body's not found until
Friday afternoon so you already have some delay there I want to paint a little bit of a better picture though
because one thing that I think is interesting in this case first let me address one thing that you you just
brought up sharing walls exactly right in these apartments I'm always fascinated when we have these types of
attacks and struggles when somebody hears something or didn't hear anything because you are sharing walls with your
your neighbors now in Tracy's case that four family unit building that she lived
in I mapped it out it looks to me like she was on the end so she would have only shared a wall with one
neighbor again we're we're I'm basing that off of the idea that the apartment next to her was occupied uh it may not
have been her apartment the building she was in if you picture a U there's three
buildings that make this U shape and in the center of that U of those three apartment buildings you have a parking
lot that is shared by all of the occupants of those three buildings so what's interesting to me here is you
have a situation where my car is in in the line with your car your car is in the same area as our other neighbors
cars so as far as the parking lot goes I think that that's where you're going to
have the the space where the most eyes are on the comings and goings of everybody be it the occupants or
visitors of the of your neighbors in that parking lot so I think people are going to have a good idea of the
activity there just because you're frequently in and out of your car and you have the rear entrance to your home
your apartment as said almost all of the people in that apartment the that apartment area or at least this space of
Regency arms because it's not laid out the exact same everywhere throughout Regency arms but in this space these
people are using their back door as their main in and out to their home simply because of where their vehicle
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
and and be clear here on on not to read too much into this but one thing of note
is that neighbors did point out when asked if they saw anything strange or unusual or if there's anything of note
that should be reported to detectives about who may be coming and going from Tracy's apartment the neighbors told
several neighbors told the police about a white man with a white vehicle that had a large Dragon decal 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 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 murder but it
doesn't have to be because we have a night in question that we really need to focus in on now you might not know this
answer I'm sure law enforcement does but like you said she has an ex husband and
she had a current boyfriend at the time that boyfriend had the extra set of keys
she was only in that apartment for a few months when was he gifted those set of keys well I actually I think we need to
kind of clean that up a little bit because there's a couple things going on it's she has an
ex-husband she has an ex-boyfriend and the ex-boyfriend from my understanding only stayed there for
between about 10 days to possibly two weeks that relationship was over with before she was killed so no current
boyfriend there's no current boyfriend that we have listed here and it sounds like she was pretty vocal and talking
with a lot of family and friends about her life so nobody reported a current boyfriend everybody reported this
ex-boyfriend and we'll get into him we talked about him briefly uh David seelo that was the ex-boyfriend but I'm
guessing he doesn't own that no he does match the description that very vague description he's he's Caucasian male he
owns a white car with a large Dragon decal on the vehicle now it makes sense though that
you would see his vehicle right at that apartment several times a few weeks ago a couple of weeks ago as stated by
neighbors because he was staying there briefly now as far as the duplicate key goes he tells police he gave the key
back they don't find it at the scene but that doesn't mean that he didn't give it back
he claims that he gave the key back Tracy harness's ex-husband Michael harkes said that he was
told that David seock had a duplicate key to the apartment which again makes sense because David seo's not denying
that he ever had the key he wasay there we don't know the 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 find the duplicate key who the hell had
it well and what makes this case even more difficult for law enforcement is you have eyewitnesses that saw this
ex-boyfriend at the apartment at some point but because everybody's using their back
entrance because that's where the parking lot is well the parking lot is not small it's and so if you said to me oh D
have you seen this white vehicle that had this Dragon decal on it yeah when's the last time you saw it I don't know I
wouldn't you wouldn't be it'd be very hard for eyewitnesses to pinpoint the last time they saw that vehicle at that
apartment well and the other thing that's difficult too is remember the back door the the door that was used as
the main in andout for Tracy and her friends and visitors was found locked it was the front door that nobody used
regularly that was found unlocked and open when her body was discovered right the other thing that makes this
difficult and like you said we know this area is not only are there several parking lots around those apartment
complexes but there are side roads that are not that far from the apartment so if this was premeditated it wouldn't be
that hard to park down the street it's also not it's also not that far of a distance for somebody to park um there's
a I'd say within a half of a 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 walk over to the apartment complex yeah no again this is a rather safe
area and police went out of their way to inform the public that the they believe
the attack on Tracy was personal this is based off of the fact given the low rate of violent crime in
the area that fact is going to further bolster that idea and what eventually would be the
detectives Theory is that this was a crime of passion now before Tracy was killed there were had
been no homicides in Grove City in the year of 1992 Tracy was killed in early November
so that tells you that points out just how low the rate of violent crime would be in that
area she's not murdered until November and she's the first murder victim of that year now let's see if we can fill
out a thorough timeline for for Tracy as that's going to be key to this case as it always is so detectives spoke with a
lot of people during the first days of the investigation and then we pieced together a timeline for Tracy based off
of these interviews and notes made by the actual investigators so Tracy harkus was last seen alive at a lingerie sales
party in the Stone Ridge Subdivision this around 10:30 p.m. on November 5th this was at the home of a woman who
Tracy was friends with detectives interviewed everybody at this party Tracy's daughter was in daycare on
the day of the 5th and then was picked up by Sherry remember Sherry is Tracy's ex-husband
Mike Harkness that's Mike's fiance I'm assuming that Tracy had a a good relationship with Sherry because
Sherry's helping them raised their daughter but she also has a good relationship or reportedly good
relationship with her ex-husband yeah I I didn't see any reports about the relationship between Sher and Tracy but
you can make some inferences right I mean Michael Harkness it's reported by everybody that that I could find that
they had a good relationship Michael's words and everybody else's words where that he and Tracy spoke almost
daily and it wasn't just about hey 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 on in their lives too and so it sounds to me like they remained friendly and then
based off of the fact that we know that Sherry is picking up Megan from daycare and that there's a good relationship
between Mike and Tracy I think the inference that we can make here is that yes the the relationship between Sherry
and Tracy was probably a good one on our timeline here we should note that Megan
was at home with Sherry and her father Mike the rest of the evening this is according
to Michael and Sher so this is the evening of Thursday the 5ifth now remember we're going to fast forward to
after that lingerie sales party Tracy left that party around 10:30 it would be a 10-minute
drive for her to get from The Party location to her apartment when she was found when Tracy was found remember she
was wearing clothing she was fully clothed she was wearing the same clothes that she wore to the
party but she's not wearing shoes when she's found and remember that we found shoes her purse
and her keys in the living room near that foot stol so her friends reported that Tracy
usually changed into sweatpants and a sweatshirt almost as soon as she would get home again her purse keys and shoes
were found on the stool or near the stool and the TV was on so to me Captain I'm looking at this situation I'm going
okay she leaves at 10:30 everybody at the party is saying that Tracy said that she was going home after the party and
there's indication at her apartment she probably came home kicked off her shoes sit down her purse and keys flipped on
the TV and before she could change into the sweatpants as reported by all of her
friends that she would usually change into sweats as soon as she got home either somebody knocks on the door she
invites somebody in or whatever happens and then she's attacked well this makes it difficult
too for law enforcement because did somebody follow her home from the party or did somebody lay and wait and once
you see movement and you see lights turn on that that's when you make your move and you go knocking on that front door
so the detective notes are as follows they say that either a Tracy let her as salent in the front door or I guess the
back door and and he or she or they locked the back door and then left through the front door B the as salent
was already in the house when she walked in this would make sense if either she left a door unlocked somebody had a key
or somebody had access or gained access in some form or fashion to the apartment or see her and her attacker or
attackers came in together when Tracy arrived back at her home that night the other thing too that's interesting to me
here Captain is that the note of friends saying that Tracy sometimes would leave
the back door unlocked when she was home could it be possible like you pointed out that she arrives home goes through
the back door and just didn't lock it behind her when she [Music] arrived want to thank you guys guys so
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Tracy Harkness /// Part 1 /// 628

Part 1 of 4

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Friday, November 6, 1992 was a horrifying day that forever changed the lives of everyone who knew and loved 24 year old Tracy Renee Harkness. Tracy was found beaten to death in her apartment that she shared with her 18 month old daughter. There were no signs of forced entry and police ruled out burglary as a motive. Investigators said the attack on Tracy was a crime a passion. Thirty years have passed since the murder and now Tracy’s family and the Grove City Police Department are hoping that new technology and DNA testing will lead to an arrest. If you know who killed Tracy Renee Harkness call the Grove City Police department at 614.277.1710 OR to submit a tip and remain anonymous call 614.645-TIPS OR you can Email our show by going to our website www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.truecrimegarage.com/)

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Brief Summary

Tracy Harkness was murdered in 1992; the case remains unsolved with multiple suspects and emotional impacts on her family.

Key points

A Crime of Passion. Detectives believe Tracy's murder was personal, with over 36 wounds inflicted.
The Murder of Tracy Harkness. 30 years later, the unsolved case of Tracy Harkness still haunts her family.
The Complicated Investigation. Tracy's social circles complicate the investigation, with many connections among potential suspects.
The Scene of the Crime. Tracy was found in a pool of blood, indicating a violent struggle.
Unusual Evidence Found. A cigarette pack found at the scene raises questions about its origin.
The Mystery of the Duplicate Key. David Seock claims he gave the duplicate key back, but it was never found.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I have no reason to live anymore.

Tammy Bowling, Tracy's mother, reflecting on her loss.

5:30WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

70/ 100High tension

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