Tracy Harkness /// Part 2 /// 629 | Forensic Files

thank you [Music] [Music] foreign foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man with
a reminder that true crime garage is both sugar-free and good for you here is the captain it's all lies I tell you
it's all lies it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
[Music] today we are still sipping on some delicious Eternal Autumn brewed by the
great Folks at track 7 Brewing Company this West Coast style IPA is a Dandy the Eternal Series from track 7 Brewing is
back with eternal Autumn this tropical IPA features notes of pineapple mango and papaya with Citrus undertones its
malt character is Rich with a slightly nutty undertone garage grade five out of five bottle caps cheers to all of you
wherever you are listening to Today's Show and cheers and thanks and praise to our Beer Run contributors starting with
Adam from Surfers Paradise Queensland and a big we like your jib to Jennifer Vaughn in Queens New York next up we
have a big cheers to Lena from Alpharetta Georgia and last but certainly not least we have Kania McLeod
and Nampa Idaho everyone we just mentioned went to True Crime garage com and pitched in on this week's beer fund
and for that we thank you yeah bwr you win Beer Run can you really call yourself a true crime garage fan if
you're not listening to off the Record you need to go to Stitcher premium and sign up it's well worth the money you'll
thank me later over 170 episodes check it out my peeps and that's enough of the business all right
everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime foreign
[Music] we were trying to decipher and narrow down the time of death for Tracy Harkness that is always key in any
timeline and the timeline is always one of the most important parts of any investigation especially a homicide
investigation now in this investigation the detectives did a lot of digging to try to figure out whether Tracy had gone
straight home from that party or if she had maybe stopped off somewhere maybe a bar as we mentioned yesterday she was
known to do this in the past and was a regular at several bars in the area like the VIP and rainies but remember in the
past few weeks leading up to her death she had rejoined her church and vowed to clean up her act and said no more bars
no more drinking Etc detectives were never this is key to to this timeline detectives tried very hard to find out
if she stopped anywhere on her way home and they were never never able to find any bar that Tracy was seen at on the
night in question which is Thursday November 5th 1992. well and like we said this is a typical
Midwestern suburb not a lot of bars so it wasn't like law enforcement this is one of the advantages law enforcement
have in this case is to go and question people at these bars or to question the owners they would have known all these
people and if she went out of the area to visit people that she knew let's Circle back on the idea that of
something we pointed out yesterday everybody in her Social Circles seemed to know each other it was rather just
one big Social Circle rather than these different Social Circles they all kind of knew each other and they all kind of
like to talk about everybody else's business so had she been spotted anywhere I believe this would have been easy for
detectives to discover in their investigation obviously Tracy worked a normal day on
that Thursday November 5th but did not show up on Friday the 6th to her job her supervisor tried calling Tracy's
apartment several times during the day but never received an answer neighbors confirmed four detectives at
Tracy's car was not in its parking spot at 10 pm on Thursday the 5th but it was there at 3
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 leaves the party roughly at 10 30. detectives have every indication
no reason to think otherwise that she likely drove home straight home from the party as she told
several other people in attendance at that party that she was going home afterwards right now we have neighbors
confirming a couple things and narrowing down the window of that time of death her car was not in her parking spot at
10 pm makes sense we have people at 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 10 30. so this all this information is backing itself up here it's the checks and
balances so the neighbors say no car at 10 pm on the fifth but it was there at 3 A.M
on the 6th and again at 5 45 a.m on the 6th and remember her body was found on the afternoon of the sixth so really
we've already narrowed it down to roughly 10 40 p.m on the 5th to 3 A.M on the 6th and I don't think that anything
happened in her car or along the way home because we have detectives who process
Tracy's vehicle and no blood was detected there were prints lifted and submitted for processing
it looks to me like they all came back to people that they would have expected to have been in the car at some point
that were people known to Tracy now detectives would go on to say that they believed Tracy Harkness was killed
overnight on the fifth leading into the sixth let's compound that by the idea of
Tracy's friends who said that she would always change her clothes upon arriving home to wind down for the night so if
her friends are correct the attack would have went down very shortly after she arrived home that
night on the fifth if she left the party and went straight home as she said she would have been there right around 10 40
10 45 PM which again I think leads to this idea that the murderer knew her possibly knew her schedule and was
possibly waiting there for her not necessarily inside the apartment but could have been waiting and and like I
said once you see movement once you see lights turning on in that apartment then
that's when you make your attack and they did a lot of digging in this case so investigators subpoenaed Tracy's
phone records they checked her answering machine you remember those things they pressed redial on her phone at the
apartment and spoke to the person that answered they collected her address book and contacted listed parties in her
address book and they even read her diary they also looked at the possibility that this may have they
didn't just rule out random attack right away or maybe targeted for other reasons
than what they would remember they land on the idea that this was a crime of passion that somebody was angry with
Tracy they had some kind of Confrontation and this was the result they didn't rule that out right away
they did their due diligence here they even looked at any potential repairmen or maintenance people that would have
had affiliation with the Regency Arms Apartments and they did note that in October
there was a repair or maintenance man in her apartment that man his name was Jim
Brady and so they checked in on him as well and those all 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 was somebody that knew her this was somebody on her inner
Social Circle and that's where we're going to find the killer of Tracy Harkness so eyebrows will be raised when
it's learned that Tracy had a life insurance policy that was going to be paid out to her ex-husband Mike yes
Captain Mike Harkness was the beneficiary of a eighty two thousand dollar life insurance
policy on Tracy Harkness now what's interesting here in this investigation is obviously Mike is not
going to try to sweep this under the rug or hide this fact from investigators in
fact he admitted that Tracy actually called him this is really bizarre called him the Wednesday before her
death so if she's attacked on a late Thursday night or early Friday morning in the in
the small hours of Friday morning we're talking about this conversation took place probably within 36 hours of her
murder and he says that hey she called me on this Wednesday and asked who the beneficiary of his
policy was so he has a life and life insurance policy on himself right and she has a life insurance policy very
responsible to do when you have a child they have this conversation because she tells him hey I'm con you are the
beneficiary of my life insurance policy I'm calling to see who's the beneficiary
of yours because I'm considering changing it changing the person that is listed as the beneficiary and so Mike
tells the police look she got upset when I told Tracy that she's not the beneficiary of my
life insurance policy it's my mom and she says well why would you pick 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 take care of our daughter Megan so he
he's saying look this isn't a big deal to Tracy but no it's either pure coincidence or it's very weird that this
conversation takes place where she's considering changing up the beneficiary within 36 hours or so of her murder yeah
this is one of those things in the case where you go how bizarre how bizarre because
that gives you motive right there and the other thing that I don't you look statistically
the husband did it or the ex-husband right statistically that's that's what happens
in these cases the 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 know when was that trip planned well that's
that's exactly right that's interesting that you say that so from we have some details about
that information well give me the deal so detective Robinette and Sergeant deskins went to Mike's residence on that
Friday this is November 6th they're there at 6 p.m this is when they speak to his fiance Sherry Mike is not home
he's still away for the day hunting and remember we have Megan the daughter who is with Mike's mother being babysat
that night detectives verified that Megan was with Mike's mother they left a business card
for Mike to contact them when he returned from hunting so he actually returns a short time thereafter
and calls the police as he you know as they instructed he quickly sits down for an interview with them this is on the
night of the sixth so we don't have a whole lot of time that expires her she's found roughly around 3 P.M that
afternoon they go to his house around 6 p.m he's not there but he returns shortly afterwards and still that same
evening he's sitting down with detectives and they are interviewing him now he tells them that he and Tracy were
close had always been close they stayed close they talked daily mostly about their daughter as they were juggling
taking care of her he told police that on the fifth Thursday he was in Alum Creek Hunting for the day with his buddy
John Ford okay so this this hunting trip wasn't just on that Friday it was on that Thursday as well
and this was just a daytime hunting trip for he and his friend so let me get this
correct they go out on Thursday they go hunting they come back home on Friday they go back out hunting yes
and remember this is early November and hunting seasons change throughout the year there would have been a there's a
good amount typically I couldn't find the actual hunting season's schedule for 1992 but usually in the November months
and once November hits and it starts to get cold here in Ohio there are a significant number of animals that you
are allowed to hunt per the rules and regulations once that time frame hits so for people that don't live in 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
my second hand to count the number of people that I know that take a week off from work
as soon as that their their favorite hunting season opens up during that year and I don't know when
his first day off was or when his last day off was to be scheduled but from the information that we have Mike was on a
week's vacation and that that week's vacation was primarily based around the idea of
hunting with his friends so it sounds to 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 take off time from work you're doing
that well in advance of the days that you are seeking to be away from work 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 because some people
will book in their weekends oh give me Wednesday off and then I'll come back the following Wednesday
or or was he off Monday through Friday I'd just like to know that if I'm law enforcement the other thing I want to
know is when he goes out with his buddy Mr Ford how long is he with that individual and
if you're correct and they went out Thursday and then they came back home and then went out again Friday that
would still put him within the area of those apartments and of the murder scene yeah so the area where he's hunting is
roughly a 30 minute or 45 minute drive at best from Tracy's apartment so we're not talking we're not talking
like he states away he's he's with a a relatively short drive 45 minutes maybe 50 minutes at the most I would be
guessing here well but help me get clear on this did he go out Thursday night and then
come back home yeah so we and we have that information so what we have here is that on let's go to that Thursday
because that's when the time in question starts on the fifth on Thursday he's at
Alum Creek Hunting for the day with his good friend John Ford on that same day Sherry picked Megan up
from daycare around 5 30 and then Mike is home at 7 30. he and Megan and Sherry were all home that night Sherry backs
this up and 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 and I left to go back out hunting again on Friday morning
and it is in the notes that he had that Mike was on a week vacation a vacation the notes say that he was on vacation
that week which makes 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 certainty it just looks like he took off a week from work but
again what time do they leave on Friday do we know that do they leave at 7 00 a.m do they leave at 5am
I don't have that in my notes 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 you said to the attack happen pretty close when she came home
possibly and what what evidence do we have of that oh well she liked to change her clothes was it possible that she
came home and she turned on the TV and she sat down and she fell asleep and then somebody wakes her up at 1am
or 2 A.M or 3 AM you see what I'm saying and then that person goes back home they take their
shower they clean up and they they go hunting for the day it's not out of the realm of possibility
it's not but I think the problem with that theory is the statements by the others that are
backing up hey I came home at 7 30 and then I left the next morning to go hunting no I agree and I disagree
because if you go to if you went to sleep with your significant other and that's all they know
but you were planning to leave at 5 00 am for a hunting trip but you decided to wake up at 2 30 and go commit this crime
and then come back there's a good chance that your significant other wouldn't have any clue of what time you left the
bed that night that's all I'm saying in the conversation with the detectives Mike
Harkness does tell them that he had met this other individual that we will get further into as we go and that is David
celock remember David is the most recent boyfriend of Tracy and the two broke up shortly before she
was killed Mike said that he met David once and Tracy told him that David had a record for assault with a deadly weapon
now this is a little bit of hearsay Captain I couldn't find any actual charges against David C lock for an
arrest with a deadly you know for an assault with a deadly weapon right I mean unless it took place when he was a
youth I I think that this might just be rumor and I think as we see as we go it might be understandable why this was a
rumor or maybe this is something that David celock made up and would tell other people
now he goes on to tell the detectives that Tracy told him that she had not slept with David even though 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 her life
and Mike also told detectives that Tracy told him that she had to break up with David celock because David celock kept
hanging out with his ex-girlfriend Janet now Mike said oh Janet Mike said after hunting all day when he got home that
night Sherry told him about Tracy's death and that's when he called The Detectives
later Mike told police that he paid Tracy's burial expenses detectives notes indicate that they
found no inconsistencies in Mike's story well like I said statistically you're going to want to
look at the boyfriend or the partner and I don't like it when it seems like that
individual is establishing an alibi but I don't think in this case Mike is establishing an alibi I think those were
the events that happened that week and to back that up we have Mike's partner and on top of that we
have this hunting friend that went with him two days in a row so I don't I feel like those events are truthful and he's
not establishing an alibi now we need to introduce someone named Christina Dempsey who went by the name Tina to
most of her friends she had known Tracy for six years I believe they met while they were in high school she was the
bridesmaid at Tracy and Mike's wedding she says that she last saw or tells police that she last Saw Tracy about a
week before the murder and she saw her at church at the grace Memorial Church she says that she talked to Tracy
multiple times a week again police are still trying to gather up information on who their victim is and that will likely
lead them to who the perpetrator is especially when you have this type of crime where you believe you're talking
about a crime of passion with the likely perpetrator or perpetrators being somebody on the inner Social Circles of
your victim Tina says that Tracy was a typical redhead she was opinionated had a temper
Tina says their church was religiously conservative but Tracy strayed a number of times from the church
saying that Tracy went to bars and partied on occasion in the last month of Tracy's life we have Tina who is
confirming that Tracy made a promise at the altar to straighten out her life and
to stop going out to bars and to stop drinking and she's regularly attending church again
Tracy called her that Thursday afternoon the Thursday in question this was to ask Tina again if she would
go to the lingerie party so it sounds to me like Tina was invited to this party prior but she already had plans with her
boyfriend that evening so she would not be attending that same part Tina said Tracy told her that she met David celock
when he was on the rebound she said he treated her really nice and they had a lot to talk about saying that Tracy
liked him but didn't but didn't sleep with him according to what Tracy told Tina the information that Tina provides
to police is that David had just broken up with his girlfriend Janet and they had two kids together and after they
broke up he and Tracy start this relationship and he's crashing at Tracy's apartment but it wasn't like
this big romance as far as Tina was concerned and eventually David C lock goes back to or attempts to go back to
his girlfriend Janet this after Tracy and he broke up whether how official or unofficial the relationship was it was
ended just seems like a lot of wasted time and a lot of drama well this part is really interesting
here Captain because Tina and this this will be become even more interesting once we get into some
of these Persons of Interest because when you start going through these Persons of Interest in some of the
relationships that that Tracy had in her life and the people in her Social Circles you can
see the potential for enemies now Tina tells police that she knew of no enemies male or female of Tracy's but goes on to
tell detectives that look Tracy and I lived somewhat different Lifestyles and because of that Tracy
would keep secrets from Tina because Tina was very religious and also openly admitted to detectives that she was
rather judgmental of her friends and so Tracy would keep secrets or maybe just not tell Tina every single thing that's
going on in her life yeah we all have friends like that there's times that maybe I go to a party with friends or go
to a bar with friends and I had a little bit too much to drink there are 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 this case let's get to some pois after
this quick beer break foreign [Music] if you're spending time with loved ones for the holidays chances are you're
going to hear a lot of Stories the ones you love to hear and the ones you've heard too many times but have you ever
wanted to help your loved ones document their stories story worth makes it fun and easy to basically write a book of
life memories every week story worth will email your loved one a life-related question that you pick from their
collection like what's the bravest thing you've ever done all they have to do is
reply with a story then after a Year's story worth compiles everything into a beautiful hardcover book the whole
process is so simple get started with your loved one for the holidays and before you know it you'll both be
cherishing those Timeless stories for generations to come I got story worth for my father because he said to me one
day I want my grandkids to know who I am and I thought what a great way for him to just take take a little moment every
week to answer the questions that story Wars sends him and we're going to learn so much heck these questions are
probably going to make your loved one remember things that they've never even told you help your family share their
story this holiday season with story worth go to storyworth.com TCG today and save ten dollars off your first purchase
that's [Music] s-t-o-r-y-w-o-r-t-h.com slash TCG to save ten dollars off your first purchase
check out storyworth.com TCG today [Music] I promise all right we are back to the windows to
the walls cheers everybody and make sure you subscribe to the podcast if you're not subscribed already
cheers to you cheers to you Captain let's get into some Persons of Interest at least as far as the police were
concerned in this case and from what was reported in the news at the time and since then rather
this tidbit comes from the Grove City news from November of 1992 and it's a quote
from one of the officers it says quote for now at least the notion of a random killer has been ruled out police
theorize the killer knew the victim this is coming from Sergeant deskins who went
on to explain quote at this point we don't think we have a random stalker to deal with we also feel that robbery
wasn't the motive in this case end quote the fact that Tracy wasn't sexually assaulted either seemed to
remove that as a motive as well it pointed to someone being angry with her and killing her in a rage
now we got a list of people that we need to go through here captain and let's start with the ex-husband Michael
Harkness as we pointed out it seems on the surface at least that he had an alibi for the time in question he had
returned from hunting with his buddy John Ford and hung out at home with Megan and his fiance Sherry all night on
the Thursday it looks like this Alibi whether us or The Listener or whomever wants to
believe it or not it appears based off of a lot of information that this Alibi had enough backing it up that
the police felt pretty firm about this alibi because we have Sergeant deskins on
record saying quote if I had to go out on a limb and rule out anybody as a suspect it would be him and quote
talking about Michael Harkness well look I don't like when law enforcement does that I think if you're law enforcement
you keep it close to the the vest you anytime they bring up anybody you say we're not rolling anybody out
and yes you have a alibi but you know where I stand on that if the person is in a relationship with you
whether that is your parents a sibling or or in this case a romantic partner I don't I don't I don't buy those as
Alibis right and I'm in in agreeance with you my suspicions here Captain would be for
someone like Sergeant deskins to say that openly in the newspaper indicates to me that they have a lot backing up
Michael harkness's Alibi that they're not just taking the word of his fiancee well yeah right and what's not in our
notes and and what we're not privy to or at least what I'm not privy to is was his Vehicles parked outside and did
neighbors of Mike see his Vehicles there all night long so his Alibi might not just be established by a romantic
partner it could be established in another way that we're just not and the reason why I'm putting a lot of weight
on this statement by sergeant deskins again he says quote if I had to go out on a limb and rule out anybody as a
suspect it would be him meaning Michael Harkness the reason why I put a lot of weight to that
and give a lot of credit to to that statement is he's saying if I had to rule out anybody
and what we will see is there's other people in this story that they never officially rule out they don't
officially rule out anybody we just have that statement by sergeant deskins that
if he had a rule out anybody as a suspect it would be Mike Michael Harkness so to me I feel like there's
probably a lot pointing that he didn't do it again we don't know we are reviewing the case as the detectives saw
at the time based off of the evidence that they found and evidence that was presented to them now let's continue on
with our list of individuals so remember another person high percentage we talk about you want to look at the ex-husband
or the husband or the boyfriend or the ex-boyfriend the high percentage of the likelihood of finding the perpetrator
nearest to our victim the other person you always have to consider is someone who finds the body well that was Stephen
hutter and Stephen Hunter interestingly enough did have a record for felonious assault
he was interviewed at length he and Lori helped Tracy move into her place remember he and Lori were
together when her body was found based off of the information we have Stephen hutter and his girlfriend Lori
helped Tracy move into her apartment they actually stayed there for one night after helping her move in
but he has a verified Alibi he 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 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 can you don't have to use your imagination
too much to see a potential motive with which is a perfect segue to our next individual named Mitchell Wiseman this
was a former boyfriend of Tracy's but we got to go back a lot of years for this relationship
he was Tracy's High School boyfriend they dated for about a year when they were 16. now Mitch has an extensive
criminal record a lot of the his criminal record is after 1992. after Tracy was killed I do want to clarify
though that most of his the charges against him it's pretty minor stuff it's a lot of traffic violations a lot of
being negligent with with his his vehicle with his license and some omvi 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 shouldn't
own a car and he's bad at he shouldn't own a vehicle right but that doesn't make you a murder correct that's correct
his wife Heather was interviewed at length as well now Heather tells police that Tracy our victim was actually
stalking her husband Mitch and says that she would catch Tracy sitting in her car outside of their
house and calling the house and hanging up if Heather answered the phone this is interesting because this isn't
the only person that we hear this type of behavior from remember we had other people that
reported that if Tracy was really into somebody she might show up at their place of work unexpectedly or
if that man was already in a relationship she might show up at their home unexpected that's very dangerous
Behavior because in this scenario if it's true that that Tracy was stalking this man this married man now you have
two enemies you have this married man that you are now causing conflicts for him happy wife half happy life not a
happy wife so that would give him motive to maybe confront her and then maybe the confrontation gets out of hand
because like we also heard that that Tracy could be physical so is there a possibility that this man
tries to confront her to get her to stop whatever she's doing and there then a confrontation breaks
out or the other enemy becomes the wife because and again it could be another situation
where the wife decides to confront the individual and and it gets 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
on this situation so Heather knew Tracy from not just this situation but but she
knew Tracy fairly well because they went to the same church and they ran in the same Social Circles when police are like
hey can you bring us up 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 that Tracy was dating a guy from it's it's somewhat of a gang I guess she
would call it it was they they call themselves The Fifth Street Wrecking Crew she doesn't offer up any names of
who this individual is within the 5th Street Wrecking Crew but she says that and again this could just be a rumor
that she's reporting but right as she reports it to police she says Tracy was dating a guy from the 5th Street
Wrecking Crew it was known to her or believed by Heather that Tracy was scared of this man whoever he was yeah
guys sounds like a canoe full of dicks she goes on to tell police that the rumor around the bars and such and in
their Social Circles is that that is the guy that killed Tracy now what that rumor is based off of who knows but
that's what she's reporting to police now this is where this whole situation with Mitch or Mitchell Wiseman and
Heather and Tracy gets very bizarre to me this is I I find this to be bizarre behavior but I want to I really wanted
it to me I really want to point this out I really want to point this out give it to us we're ready we have
Heather reporting this information to the police right at the time that she's reporting this
information this is after Tracy has been killed so we don't have Tracy to answer
and present her side of this story we should be very clear on that we're only getting one side of this story
so Mitchell is interviewed on the ninth he admits to police that he and Tracy had a six month long affair
when Mitch was married to his wife Heather and Heather was pregnant what a fart this was between Tracy's two
marriages to her ex-husband Mike we don't have an exact timeline on this but if he used the information that we've
already delivered 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 far as the courts are concerned by April of 1992. right and according to this information
the six-month-long affair between Mitch and Tracy went down between the two marriages and remember we have Michael
on record Mike Harkness on record saying look we were really only actually together for about a month between
August and September of 1991. So based off of all of that information I'm going to say that this affair
whenever it took place was probably over and done with before August of 1991. and I think it's important to point all
of that out because if there is beef or anything going on in this situation between Tracy Mitch and Heather
well all of the information we have all indicators say that that relationship would have been over with 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 still let's get into these details because this is really bizarre behavior so they have the six
month long Affair this takes place when Mitch's wife is pregnant right how bizarre how bizarre Mitch ends up
breaking it off with Tracy Tracy gets angry according to Heather and then went and told
Mitch's wife Heather all about this affair yeah 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 with me right and so this of course is going to
cause all kinds of problems between Mitch and Heather but obviously we know they were able to work it out work
through it because they are still together uh in November of 1992. because of this situation Mitch says that he you
know he'd already broke it off with Tracy but would distance himself from her and in fact very quickly lost touch
with Tracy but this was until they happened to run into each other at a New Year's Eve party
and they may have started seeing each other again depending on who you 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 difference right correct
but when normally when there is an affair or something bad happens people try to
minimize that so when he says well it was a six month Affair it could have been longer but it
also shows the state of mind that if you're not above having a relationship with a married man
then you're probably not above having a relationship when you're in a relationship
if that makes any sense agreed I don't want to get into a victim blaming or shaming
situation here I want to really underline the fact that we are talking about a whole bunch of people that are
in their early 20s and I'll tell you what this will surprise no one I was no angel
myself in my early 20s so we we 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 much fully developed not very much adults at that time even though our
driver's license may say that we are one also she you know Tracy was in a tough situation again
and I felt like a broken record when I say this is a different time period the early 90s
she has a child you know Society had expectations of women that are and they still have
expectations of women to this day that are just not fair or don't make any sense so you have this
young single mother and she seemed to become somewhat desperate to feel that to fill that void yes and again I I
think one thing I want to point out is that the information we have is that when they had this affair
this was before the second marriage to Mike and there's other indicators in the reports that the the Affairs stopped
that Tracy and he stopped Tracy and Mitch stop seeing each other before Megan was born and we reported that she
was roughly about 18 months old at the time of Tracy's murder but here's the really weird thing
captain even after this affair is over with likely over with for months and months
and months Tracy moved in the reports say across the street and it's not actually across
the street but she moves into the same neighborhood as Heather and Mitch yeah that's suspicious she moves in the place
that she moved into that's in the same neighborhood as Heather Mitch is the Grove City Apartment that Tracy was
later killed in if you look at this 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 it's not really the same street this was
a large apartment complex however Tracy is within and and most of the time too when you sign up and you and you apply
to to these apartments not always do you get to pick your apartment you're just taking whatever is unoccupied at the
time right you're applying to be in the apartment complex you're normally not applying for a certain a certain
location and normally if they approve you they they might give you a few options
but what makes this all weird so she's roughly a little more than a football field away from
from apartment to apartment Tracy's apartment to Mitch and Heather's apartment and the thing that makes it
weird is that Heather tells police that Tracy knew exactly where they lived so this didn't just 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 just believe Mitch because he says the relationship's over because he is a liar and cheat to his wife so how
why are we 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 other weird thing here though again this is again this is according to Heather we don't have Tracy here to
confirm or deny this she's saying that she believed that Tracy would follow them around and sit
in her car and watch them now Heather is so upset about Tracy living in such close proximity to
them she says that they tried to get out of their lease so that they could move but the apartment complex the only thing
that they could offer them was well you could switch apartments but you need to stay with us because you signed this
lease there's so many things about this because like I said it gives motive to both of them
he gives motive to Mitch to get Tracy out of his life it gives motive to the wife to try to
get Tracy out of their life we can't move well heck I'm just gonna have to kill her so
we don't have to deal with this anymore and then also you can't trust their Alibi because they could have been 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 law
enforcement you'll you'll want to know what test I'm running I want to make sure that that Mike
is the biological father so let's get into potential Alibi for these two individuals right because you can see a
lot of reasons why they would find themselves on a short list of Persons of Interest in this case
Mitch tells police and this is later confirmed by police that on that Thursday night his brother-in-law and
sister came over to their apartment this to help him 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. the other thing we need to point out there's nothing wrong
with your theory there or or maybe not your actual Theory but a potential theory in this case the only thing about
that though is I would really kind of Circle in on the idea that yes this could have been planned but there's a
lot of indicators that this may not have been a planned attack that somehow things went bad there's a confrontation
but it leads to this attack well right and that's what I'm saying is what if Mitch and his wife go over just to
have a confrontation maybe they they saw her in the neighborhood and went oh she's
following us again we got we got to go say something my other issue with them is we don't have eyewitnesses and you
think that again if somebody drove to the apartment and parked in the apartment space
that maybe you'd be more likely to have an eyewitness if the individual parked even down the
street maybe would be more likely to have an eyewitness we have no eyewitness but
they could have just walked right a football field that's the difference between these two Persons of Interest
and everybody else on this short list is that these two one or both of them were
the only ones that had the the ability to just simply walk to where the murder took place well
Mitch and Heather again there's so many red flags that are just going off but sometimes in these cases those are
nothing burgers let's get into a suspect that might be even more interesting in throwing up
more red flags yes and this is an individual that we've mentioned several times and
this is straight from the reports here captain and it looks like police learned very
quickly from Tracy's family that remember she had recently broken up with a guy who some have said should be the
prime suspect in this murder case and I'm sure those who say that arrived at that conclusion for a multitude of
reasons this is David celock age 22. He's listed as a doc worker and former landscaper and a member of The Fifth
Street Wrecking Crew and from what I gather his Hobbies were hunting and fishing playing pool playing video games
drinking not working and being an [ __ ] well that's an impressive list of hobbies Grove City PD Sergeant Dennis
deskins said quote they didn't know if or where David went to school and his employment history is sketchy now the
detectives attended Tracy's well-attended funeral to see who would show up Tracy's most
recently rumored to be boyfriend or ex of approximately two weeks David celock did not show up foreign
[Music] us back here in the garage we like to let the cases dictate how many episodes
we need to cover them and this one's going to need more so you're in luck you get more True Crime garage this week for
your ear balls and until part three be good be kind and don't let her [Music] thank you
foreign

Tracy Harkness /// Part 2 /// 629

Part 2 of 4

www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

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

Beer of the Week - Eternal Autumn by Track Seven Brewing Company

Garage Grade - 5 out of 5 bottle caps

Our show - True Crime Garage “Off the Record” is available only on Stitcher Premium. For a FREE month of listening go to http://stitcherpremium.com/truecrimegarage and use promo code GARAGE

Brief Summary

The episode investigates the murder of Tracy Harkness, focusing on her timeline, suspects, and the complexities of her relationships.

Key points

The Importance of Timeline. Understanding the timeline is crucial in homicide investigations, especially for Tracy Harkness.
Mysterious Life Insurance Policy. Tracy had a life insurance policy that raised eyebrows about her ex-husband's potential motive.
Tina's Insights on Relationships. Tina shares her perspective on Tracy's relationships and potential enemies.
Police Rule Out Random Killer. Authorities believe the killer knew the victim, ruling out random violence.
Mitch's Alibi. Mitch Harkness has an alibi for the time of the murder, but is he truly innocent?
Tracy's Stalking Behavior. Heather claims Tracy was stalking her husband, adding tension to the narrative.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's all lies, I tell you.

The captain's humorous take on the show.

0:52WatchNov 16, 2022

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

More from True Crime Garage TV

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.