Tracy Harkness ////// Part 1 of 4

0:30Welcome 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. 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 the friend. This week we are very excited to be featuring eternal autumn, brewed by the great women and men over at Track 7 Brewing Company. This is a West Coast style India Pale Ale featuring HBC 586 Idaho 7 and Mosaic hops. And it's brewed on the West Coast. ABV 6.8% beautiful beer can are on the tall pint can.

1:35And you are going to want to try this one because here we go, captain. I'm going to do it. Eternal autumn five out of five bottle caps. Boom, get your son. And in the garage, it's always a great autumn because of all of you out there in listener land. So let's give some thanks and praise. Next up at Cheers to Heather and beautiful Puntagorta, Florida. And a big we like your gym to Alex in Norfolk, Virginia. And here's the cheers to Holly in Temecula, California. And last but certainly not least, we have Chase from Olympia, Washington. Everyone we just mentioned went to True Crime Garage.com and contributed to this week's beer fun. And for that, we thank you. Yeah, BWW are you in beer run? If you're not following us on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, then you're missing out on the True Crime conversations. Make sure you follow us there at True Crime Garage. Colonel, that's enough of the business. All right, everybody gather around.

2:36Grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. 30 years of past 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 and one of Columbus, Ohio's

3:39many suburbs. Friday, November 6, 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 Ackison, 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.

4:40Tracy'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 truchrimgarage.com. This is the still unsolved homicide case of Tracy Harkness, 30 years later.

5:45And this is truchrim garage. 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 work, they would retire to their 3 and 4 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 o'clock at night, it turns to a ghost town rather quickly.

6:46Pretty 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 two and a half months before the attack. The apartment complex occupied 3 square city blocks and was made up of several buildings, most of them like Tracy's building, which was a 4 family brick unit. Tracy's unit was a 2 story 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

7:49by 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 6, 1992 at 2.37 pm police officers were dispatched to the Regency Arms apartment complex at 34, 74 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 Laurie Short. They were the ones to sound the alarm. Laurie was Tracy's cousin. She and Steve stayed with Tracy a few weeks earlier.

8:51But they had left behind some keys. On Friday, November 6, they stopped by Tracy's to pick them up. Steve told investigators that Laurie 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 newspaper. Tracy was no exception. And Laurie 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 was surprised that the door was open about 6 to 8 inches.

9:53So he went inside and yelled for Tracy. When he got no response, he looked in the dining area and he saw some socked feet. There, he found Tracy Hartness lying on the floor. He hastily went outside and knocked on doors to get help. He yelled to Laurie 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 911. 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 Stephen Robynette was in the area and responded to the scene.

10:54When he arrived, the detective found the apartment resident identified as Tracy Hartness lying face up in the dining area of the apartment. He was pronounced dead by Metix at 244 pm. Detective Robynette 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. This 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 six to eight inches. So according to detectives' notes, there was no sign of force entry.

11:54And quickly it was learned that there was a duplicate key to the apartment. But that key was missing. Steve and the man who assisted Steve, relayed two 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 Hartness 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 two-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, scoured it for Megan.

12:55Meanwhile, Tracy's 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 Hartness, Tracy's ex. A visit to Mike's home address located his fiancee Sherry, who related that Megan was with her paternal grandmother and Mike was at a 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 and progress to a homicide investigation. But it's strange because we see this in so many cases where the victim's partner or ex partner is out of town that day. I can see how that would lead law enforcement to be suspicious of that individual. Just learn more about Tracy Hartness. Tracy Renee Hartness was born on September 23rd, 1968.

14:01Her 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 Paraprofessional 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 a full plate? Tracy was a longtime member of the Grace Memorial Church on Christ in Christian Union.

15:04She 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 jazz or size classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Tracy's friends and family said she drank socially, but not to excess, 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 they were actually married to each other twice. His name, as we said earlier, Captain is Michael Harkness. The first time around, the marriage was dissolved in April of 1990.

16:08But shortly after the breakup, Tracy discovered that she was pregnant, and she and Mike remarried for the sake of the child. Again was born in January of 1991, and Mike and Tracy divorced 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. And 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 friends, she and her ex-husband got along very well and spoke almost daily this because they shared custody of little Meghan. Well, in a perfect world, all people that shared kids together would have a healthy relationship

17:10for their kids. Steve Robinette, who would be the lead on this case, noted that many people describe Tracy as a very outgoing yet lonely person who always seemed 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 Meghan. 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 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 cleaner. Detectives learned very quickly from talking to Tracy's friends that Tracy recently had

18:12a boyfriend and that they had broken up just two weeks earlier. This boyfriend per her friends was a young man named David Ceelock. Ceelock would quickly become a very interesting person to detectives when it was learned that David Ceelock 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 in to 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 Corners 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

19:13fracture of the left little finger on Tracy Hartness. Tracy, when she was found, she was fully clothed. She was found wearing jeans, a shirt, and a green, black, and white sweater. And 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. Alaceration 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 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

20:13that were 1.1 to 1.2 centimeters 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 leg guy here that we got somebody that's probably has a tacter and then we're seeing rapid fire blows once the attack commences. Normally, when a victim has that many wounds, 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 and each of these wounds was 3 eighths of an inch. It's one of these situations where you look at this and say, okay, what kind of weapon

21:14would have been used to leave these marks on our victim or do we have a situation where Tracy was attacked by two different people on different sides 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 bludgeoned to death. Tracy had what is recorded is 36 different wounds with the majority of the trauma to the back of the head.

22:15Note that she had defensive wounds to both hands and people told detectives, look, Tracy could take care of herself. 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 look at me like I'm a moron. 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 can't really deduce much from this speculation or from the wounds, I believe, because I think what we're seeing here based off of these wounds in the autopsy is that, yes, there is some argument that she could have been attacked by two people, one on each

23:21side 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. 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, because my natural reaction would be to kick them in the nards. And she probably 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

24:27the 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 Hartness. 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. Then 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 the one on one attack.

25:27I wouldn't be so quick to lock myself into it being a one on one attack or a two on one or three on one attack. Yeah, it's this we live in a sad cold world. Evidence collected at the on top, she 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. What I had talked about earlier, their captain goes along with this portion of the autopsy report. Not only do we have the wounds to her hands, the defensive wounds to her hands, but what you're seeing is the items that she was wearing these rings, right, suffered damage as well

26:31because they were probably blocking some of the attack. Detective Robinette 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 that Tracy had been attacked with a hammer. Alright, we are back and we like to jump.

27:41Cheers, Carl. Cheers to you, Captain Tallcans and 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. 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. And on the other hand, rumors and speculation were rampant at the time.

28:46Everyone 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. It also makes it difficult for law enforcement. We have seen over and over with cases the husband did it or the ex-husband. So if I am law enforcement the first thing I am doing is you get this vicious scene, this vicious murder scene. I am looking at the ex to see if he has any wounds on him. I am looking at the current boyfriend. Another thing that makes it difficult for law enforcement is when her friends say look, she was quick to fall in love with people showing up at their work. Now the amount of people of interest gets multiplied. That's exactly right there, Captain.

29:46Ohio B.C.I. 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 footprints left behind?

30:47There 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'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 shoe 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 friends and then the random person that the friend pulled in with him to go into the apartment the second time, the blood had already dried at the scene. So we'll get into her timeline. And I think without 100% certainty, we're not going to be able to narrow down the time of death to

31:53one 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 three inch and one half inch 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 quickly is that this is a was a vicious attack. And there's obvious signs of a struggle here, especially near the the body location.

33:00What's interesting to me though, and I think the listeners will note this as well, when we go through 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. Tracy's purse and car keys were on a large footstool 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.

34:01Flowers 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 used the bathroom afterwards and just didn't flush. And that's how we ended up catching this person into 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, because like you said, one of 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

35:06persons 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 semen, 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 maybe even after the attack. Look, 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 if you did, I'd have to quit the show. I will say this. Like, I don't, my mind does not jump to

36:07a male perpetrator immediately because a toilet seat was left up. It's, 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 insisted 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 texts collected some items that appeared to be of evidentiary value. We had latent prints, blood samples from the spray and smears and unspecified trace evidence. A bed spread from Tracy's bed with muddy shoe prints on it was collected as well as an empty Marbrow 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

37:13smoke on occasion when drinking, but it seems like most people are in a grants that Tracy was not a smoker. She was not a regular smoker. And then we have this Marbrow cigarette pack that is found in the apartment. But there's no other smoking materials found in the home. There's no ash trays or a lighter that is noted as well. So could this have been left by the killer or is this the situation that it was left by somebody else prior to 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

38:16to have been. And you and I know that area fairly well, even 30 years ago, we knew it fairly well. And I would think that the belief is that the attack went down late at night, probably on November 5th, sometime nearing the 11 o'clock 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. And quote, well, like you said, this is a apartment complex. These are apartments that share walls. So you would think in some of the cases

39:23we'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 there 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 maybe I did hear somebody 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

40:25think is interesting in this case, first let me address one thing that you you just brought up. Sharing walls. Exactly right. And 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 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 I'm basing that off of the idea that the apartment next to her was occupied. It may not have been her apartment. The building she was in. If you picture a you, there's three buildings that make this you shape. And in the center of that you of those three apartment buildings, you have a parking lot that is shared by all of the occupants of those

41:29three 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 space where the most eyes are on the comings and goings of everybody be at 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

42:32to their home, simply because of where their vehicle would be located. So one thing that was of note, I want to make sure that I underline this and really echo this and be clear here 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

43:33night 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 a 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 of 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

44:34current boyfriend. Everybody reported this ex boyfriend. And we'll get into him. We talked about him briefly, David C. Lock. That was the ex boyfriend. But I'm guessing he doesn't own that view. No, he does match the description, that very vague description. 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 Harkness's ex husband Michael Harkness said that he was told that David C. Lock had a duplicate key to the apartment, which again makes

45:36sense because David C. Lock's not denying that he ever had the key. He was staying there. We don't know the thing that 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. And so if you said to me, oh, did 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 want to you want to 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,

46:38the door that was used as the main in and out 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 that far of a distance for somebody to park. There's a I'd say within a half of a mile was a large shopping center or a strip mall. And it

47:40wouldn'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 detective's 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 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.

48:41Now let's see if we can fill out a thorough timeline for Tracy as that's going to be key to this case as it always is. So detective 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 Harkman's 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. Detective's interviewed everybody at this party. Tracy's daughter was in daycare on the day of the fifth. 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 good relationship with Sherry because Sherry's helping them raise

49:45their daughter. But she also has a good relationship or reportedly good relationship with her ex-husband. Yeah, I didn't see any reports about the relationship between Sherry and Tracy. But you can make some inferences, right? I mean, Michael Harkness. It's reported by everybody that I could find that they had a good relationship. Michael's words and everybody else's words were 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 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 relationship between Sherry and Tracy was probably a good one. On our timeline here, we should note that Megan was at home with Sherry

50:49and her father, Mike, the rest of the evening. This is according to Michael and Sherry. So this is the evening of Thursday the 5th. Now, remember, we're going to fast forward to after that lingerie sales party. Tracy left that party around 1030. 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 footstool. So her friends reported that Tracy usually changed into sweatpants and a sweatshirt almost as soon as she would get home.

51:53Again, her purse and 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 1030. Everybody at the party is saying that Tracy said that she was going home after the party. And there's indication at her apartment that 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

52:58notes are as follows. They say that either a Tracy let her assailant in the front door or I guess the back door and in here she or they locked the back door and then left through the front door. B, the assailant was already in the house when she walked in. This would make sense if either she left the 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 arrived.

54:13One of the things you guys so much for joining us here in the garage, make sure you tell a friend, make sure you tell your mother to listen to true crime garage. Join us back here in the garage, same back time, same back channel and until then be good, be kind and don't wait.