Tracy Harkness /// Part 4 /// 631 | Forensic Files

thank you [Music] [Music] foreign foreign garage wherever you are whatever you're
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business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
[Music] well Captain we have something here that we don't see with a lot of these local
small town types of cases here and we talked about the police and the detectives doing their due diligence in
this case they this was a very thorough investigation whether you agree with all
aspects of it or not but there was certainly a lot of work and effort put into this investigation not just in 1992
in November of 1992 when it happened but the following year in the years after that there's been a lot of ears a lot of
eyes a lot of boots on the ground working this case trying to figure out what happened to Tracy Harkness who is
responsible and how can we get Justice for her and her family and one of the things that we don't see in a lot of
these cases is the detectives went so far to bring in some experts so January 12 1994
the FBI sent a team from Quantico Virginia in response to a VI cap report on Tracy's case
so they reviewed the evidence they reviewed all the information with detectives and
it looks to me Captain the detectives came to the theory based off of everything that they found in
their investigation that yes we have a list of Persons of Interest the priority person the person
likely at the top of that list would be David celock right they believed this was a crime of passion that whoever
killed Tracy Harkness was somebody known to her and that that person either let themselves into her apartment or
she let them into her apartment on that night that she was killed interesting to me it appears
that the FBI agreed with the findings of the local police's investigation now they put together a profile on the
Killer and the events of the crime I love when local law enforcement does this bring in the big guns you don't
have to be the smartest guy in the room you just have to get this correct now police would not give us
the entire profile as created by the FBI but they gave us a little little pieces and parts
a little taste a little taste that we can share with you here today so according to the FBI it is their opinion
that the suspect the killer arrived already angry at Tracy's apartment that night late that night
they say that the suspect is a Caucasian male likely in his mid-20s sounds familiar the suspect would have a
history of anger issues check the suspect was a local check who knew Tracy check the suspect likely changed his
behavior after the murder yeah and this person would have problems maintaining long-term relationships yeah
or head-butting walls now I think it's safe to say I'm not going to sound like Sherlock
Holmes here when I point out the obvious that this small the profile that we received
certainly fits who might be at the top of the list of Persons of Interest David celock it also
certainly fits several other people that are on that list as well yeah there's so
many difficult things about this case for me one David has a temper and if it's true that he was abusive with his
not just his girlfriend but on top of that she was the mother of his children showed zero respect toward towards her
if he was physically abusive towards her but also when you're getting an argument
it shows such a lack of maturity to then run your head into a wall to the point where it it leaves bruises and marks and
cuts on your face but then some of the other people on the list you have to look at because of the proximity when
you live the access we have two people that wanted Tracy out of their lives that lived Within
football field I mean that is access that is that is opportunity everybody knows that one of Mick Jagger's favorite
moves on stage is finger pointing finger point and finger pointing and in this case I feel like when you review the
information that was collected by the detectives and the police there's a lot of reasons to point a finger at person a
or person B and in some situations we might have a person in particular where there should be a lot of fingers
pointing at that individual yeah or a giant big stinky finger and police as you were saying yes go on what we don't
have here is the eliminating of these persons who did they actually eliminate did they actually eliminate anyone the
only statement that we have on record was well if I was going to go out on a limb and eliminate someone it would be
Michael Harkness that's the only statement in any type of relative relationship we have to the possible
eliminating of a person of interest or a suspect so we have a lot of good suspects here a lot of good interesting
Persons of Interest I will say my opinion of the case is this Captain it appears to me to be still a very
solvable case all of these years later yeah absolutely they have a lot of physical evidence and we're really
sitting here sifting through all this information 30 years later but still left with some really key questions
right in this case like one where the hell is the murder weapon very good question what was the murder weapon
where did it come from you you have to wonder Crime of Passion we talked a lot about you do not have to have the intent
to murder to murder someone was there was this something that somebody grabbed in in a fit of anger
from Tracy's Apartment A belonging of Tracy's that that was an item from inside of her home
Brian took it with him when you're moving into an apartment she's only been there for a few months I mean who knows
what she was doing maybe at some point it takes you a while to get settled and then eventually you want to put things
on the wall and so you have a hammer out and is it possible that that's the murder weapon and then that person took
them with the murderer took the murder weapon with them the other thing though is that we have this claw hammer that
was found and one of the Persons of Interest car has no human blood on the hammer
right but that doesn't mean that it wasn't cleaned and put back into the vehicle
or I mean think about this even if the even if it had nothing if that claw hammer has nothing to do with Janet it
is possible that police are coming around and they're interviewing me David and they're interviewing my ex-girlfriend my
baby mama and I take that murder weapon and I put it in her car even though it's clean
now it's going to raise a lot more questions and point a lot more fingers towards her
but again what I said I think in episode two of this case the problem with David is
going to be that we know that he lived at that residency for a time period so his DNA is going to be in that house
his fingerprints are going to be in that house possible hair samples could be in that
house the issue for David or anyone else that had stayed at that apartment at any
time is that we have nobody saying that they were at the apartment that day there's no reason
for someone else's DNA to be on our victim and so that's where I think as far as
technology goes that we might be able to have a break in this case but again back
to the questions the other question I have is this house key the duplicate house key or key to the apartment
there's been people that say that it was in possession of David C lock David is not trying to hide the fact from police
that yes at one time he did have a key to the apartment he says he gave it back to Tracy that key Still Remains a big
part of this mystery that key could also unlock this mystery because that could be
the item that the perpetrator of this crime used to gain access to this apartment
look I know we shouldn't assume but when you have this murder come up and law enforcement goes did you have a key yes
I did have a key did you return that key yes I did but the only person that can dispute
that they're not alive and come on come on give me a break all of her possessions all of Tracy's possessions
are in that apartment so why aren't the keys there I know we shouldn't assume but I'm just assuming
that David never gave them back and he just lied about it the other big question I think here and I think this
is a a rightful question that this it's quite it's correct to ponder this because when
we have people giving different and conflicting stories it really makes you wonder who's covering for who and how
many people were involved or at least how many people knew what actually happened so a big question that I have
here is was this crime perpetrated by one person a duo or a group of people well that's
really difficult because one let's say we take the top six people of Interest they're all connected to somebody all of
them have a significant other that is also on the list of pois or people that you should have on your list of pois
and sorry if you're listening this to this and you're going I I shouldn't be looked at well why wouldn't you you you
have a reason to not want her in your life and then you your Alibis the Alibis of all these individuals
the The Alibi is coming by somebody that could be involved in the crime with them
I wish we had uh more information as far as the evidence because to me it seems like there was one weapon used and
so unless both attackers are using the same weapon to me that maybe it points more towards one individual and also the
time frame it hasn't been solved for so many years most of the time it's hard for for if there's a Duo one person is
normally a better person though than the other person eventually tells somebody and then the other question would be
would the person or persons responsible who attacked Tracy would they have any idea about
the little one Megan not being home that night right so while we are left with all of
these questions here Captain the interesting thing to me about this profile while it doesn't
really point a direct finger at anyone it doesn't really eliminate anybody either other than the fact that the
profile states that they believe that the killer was a male so that would eliminate some of the female suspects or
Persons of Interest here but again when reviewing this crime it's difficult to say that there wasn't more than one
person that is responsible and even using something like a profile that should never be used to directly
implicate somebody's guilt or to eliminate anybody from contention it's certainly a tool that that is used
regularly and was used in this investigation now what we can say for certain as far as the police go is their
statements that they gave to the public and this was in the form of interviews that they did with news outlets local
news outlets but also the Crime Stoppers release information that they've released over the years because they've
continually asked the public for help and in fact Tracy harkness's family asked the public for help early on in
this investigation by offering a reward for information of their own money from the family and then in the Crime
Stoppers release information we have the statements from police that the killer likely was someone Tracy Harkness knew
and that police have ruled out burglary in sexual assault as possible motives in
this case what's sad too because when we started diving in and doing our own investigation into this case
there's little to no information about this case online and it's sad when you see that but that's one of the
reasons we do this podcast to try to shine some light and get people talking about cases
they don't get enough of the spotlight and it would be nice if the True Crime Community would kind of spread it out
because there are so many cases that are docu-series or about books or about online forums are all about and
these cases just need want a little bit of pressure from the public and that's something that we can
do as we can discuss these cases we can share this information there is probably
somebody out there that knows something yes this this happened early 90s but that means that there's somebody
that's sitting on information but think about it cases like Delphi and JonBenet Ramsey and
West Memphis Three a lot of those people have come forward after a couple years because there is
public pressure because they saw a documentary about it on TV they heard about heard about the case on a podcast
so they decide hey people actually still care about this I I should maybe share the information
and law enforcement might be one piece away from solving the puzzle now my question to you which I don't
know but do they have what they think is DNA from the Killer at the crime scene well what I can say is that one
Ray of Hope here is that yes police do have a bunch of physical evidence in this case they have
items that new technology may now or soon be able to offer the final solution to the murder of
Tracy Renee Harkness and we know that they conducted DNA testing in 1993 again in 1994 and in
2009. the most significant pieces of evidence in this case per the files we reviewed
include but are not limited to the following personal items of Tracy's found in the apartment and on her person
a jacket that was worn by one of the Persons of Interest that was collected fingernail scrapings
the toilet seat being up in Tracy's apartment and it seems like most if not all of
these items are definitely eligible for renewed modern testing and maybe this case being covered
by anybody in the media will give that push to law enforcement to go hey maybe it's time to revisit this case
and take a look at some of these pieces of evidence and get these tested we have
a lot of Ohio listeners and we say this often but it's even more important when we're covering an Ohio case because the
abundance of Ohio listeners that we are so lucky to have if you have any information or
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 that tip in at
614-645-t-i-p-s that's tips or you can email our show by going to our website True Crime garage.com
thank you [Music] promise [Music] I want to thank everybody for joining us here in the garage and like always this
is an important case so if you can share it on social media somebody knows something out there somebody needs to
come forward and get some closure for this family yes thank you all for listening we will be off next week to
celebrate the holiday with our families but that does not mean that you have to take a break from True Crime garage if
you are looking for something to listen to please check out our other show off the Record it's available on Stitcher
premium we released an episode this week and we have another great episode coming
out on Monday as well that's true crime garage off the record check out the entire catalog on Stitcher premium have
a great safe and wonderful Thanksgiving Happy turkey day be good be kind and don't litter
[Applause] thank you [Music]

Tracy Harkness /// Part 4 /// 631

Part 4 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

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved murder of Tracy Harkness and profiles potential suspects, emphasizing the importance of public awareness in cold cases.

Key points

A Thorough Investigation. The police and detectives put significant effort into investigating Tracy Harkness's case.
Profile of the Killer. The FBI created a profile of the likely suspect based on evidence gathered.
Call for Public Help. The family of Tracy Harkness urges the public to come forward with any information.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Thank you so much for trying to make a difference in this world.

Expressing gratitude for listeners' contributions to the cause.

2:03WatchNov 16, 2022

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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