
About this episode
Tracy Harkness ////// Part 2 of 4
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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True Crime Garage — Tracy Harkness ////// Part 2 of 4. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.
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Jim to Jennifer Vaughan and Queens New York. Next up we have a big cheers to Lena from Alphoretta Georgia and last but certainly not least we have canyam a cloud and Nampa Idaho. Everyone we just mentioned went to truecrime garage dot com and pitched in on this week's beer fund and for that we thank you. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. BWW are you in 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 stitch or 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. Alright everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime. When we left off yesterday captain 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 reenies. But remember in the past few weeks leading up to her death she had rejoined her church in vow to clean up her act and said no more bars no more drinking etc. Detectives were never this is key 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 unlike 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 vanages law enforcement having 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 seem 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 can 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 for detectives that Tracy's car.
It was not in its parking spot at 10 p.m. 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 p.m. make 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 p.m. on the 5th 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 6th.
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 traces vehicle and no blood was detected there were prints lifted and then we can see that there was a car that was in her car. So 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 5th leading into the 6th. So if she found 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 5th. If she left the party and went straight home as she said she would have been there right around 10.40, 10.45 p.m. And again I think leads to this idea that the murderer knew her possibly knew her schedule and possibly waiting there for her not necessarily inside the apartment but could have been waiting. 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 then what they would remember they land on the idea that this was a crime of passion 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 repairman 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 heart.
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 82 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 can 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 not going to be a big deal. I'm not sure it's 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 saying look this isn't a big deal to Tracy but note it's either pure coincidence or it's very weird that this conversation takes place where she's considering changing the person that is the beneficiary of her life insurance policy. I'm not sure if you're looking 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 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 will give me the detective Robinette and sergeant desk and 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 fiancee 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 6. 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 closely talk daily mostly about their daughter as they were juggling taking care of her. He told police that on the 5th Thursday he was in Alam 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 give 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 changed throughout the year there would have been a there's a good amount typically I couldn't find the actual hunting seasons schedule for 1992 but usually in the November months and once November hits and it starts the at cold here on a day. There are a significant number of animals that you are allowed to hunt per the rules and regulations once that 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 son there 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 day off. 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 plan that and when did the week start and when did it and because some people will book in their weekends all give me Wednesday off and then I'll come back the following Wednesday or or was he off Monday through Friday I just like to know that 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 relatively short drive 45 minutes maybe 50 minutes at the most I would be guessing here. Well, but how many get clear on this did he go out Thursday night and then come back home. Yes, 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 and question starts on the fifth on Thursday he's at
Friday morning and it is in the notes that he had that Mike was on a week vacation 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 don't know I wouldn't say that with 100% certainty it just looks like he took off a week from work. What time do they leave on Friday do we know that do they leave at 7 a.m. do they leave at 5 a.m. 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 happened pretty close when she came home possibly and what what evidence do we have of that all while she like to change her clothes was it possible that she came home and she turned on the TV and she's. She turned on the TV and she sat down and she fell asleep and then somebody wakes her up at 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. 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 can't.
So 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 say if you want to sleep with your significant other and that's all they know but you are planning to leave at 5 a.m. 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 want to 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 C lock. 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 the deadly weapon now. This is a little bit of hearsay captain I couldn't find any actual charges against David C lock for and arrest with the deadly you know for assault with the deadly weapon right and unless it took place when he was a youth.
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 C lock made up and would tell other people now he goes on to tell detectives that Tracy told him that she had not slept with David even though they had a some kind of 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 C lock because David C lock kept hanging out with his ex girlfriend Janet now Mike said all 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 and 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 that was where the events that happened that week into back that up we have Mike's partner and on top of that we have a lot of things that we do. 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 some of 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 perpetrators being somebody on the. She 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 she was a very strong man. She said that Tracy was a very strong man 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 party.
Tracy told her that she met David C lock 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 the 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 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 and 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 you would say that she was a very different person. She 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's 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 PO eyes after this quick beer break.
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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 and quote the fact that Tracy wasn't sexually assaulted either seem 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 fiancee sherry all night on the Thursday it looks like this alibi whether or not it's a real case or 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 desk ins 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 with law enforcement does that I think if you're law enforcement you keep it close to the the vest you you anytime they bring up anybody you say we're not ruling 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. As a sibling or or in this case a romantic partner I don't I don't buy those as alibi's right and I am in an 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 is alibi that they're not just taking the word of his fiance well yeah right and what's not in our notes and what we're not privy to or lease 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 the 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 that statement is he 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 to rule out anybody as a suspect that would be my car 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 an 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 X husband or the husband or the boyfriend or the X 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 Steven Hunter. And Steven 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. Steven Hunter 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 to. 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 name 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 O.M. V.I. 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 whole he shouldn't own a car and he's bad at he shouldn't own a vehicle is the right but that doesn't make you a murder correct 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 is married man now you have two enemies you have this married man that you are now causing conflicts for him happy wife 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 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 new 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 you would call it it was they call themselves the fifth street wrecking crew she doesn't offer up any names of who this individual is within the fifth street wrecking crew. But she says that and again this could just be a rumor that she's reporting but as she reports to police she says Tracy was dating a guy from the fifth 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 for Dix. 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 wise men and Heather and Tracy gets very bizarre to me this is I find this to be.
bizarre behavior but I want to I really want to me I really want to point this out I really want to point this yes 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 night 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 first this was between Tracy's two marriages to her ex has been Mike. We don't have an exact timeline on this but if you use 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 this 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 on Decators 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. 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 happen to run into each other and 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 dearest right.
But when normally when there is an affair or something bad happens people try to minimize that so when he says well I was a six month 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 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.
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 feel like a broken record when I say this is a different time period 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 fill that void. Yes and again 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 affair stopped.
The 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 especially she moves in the place that she moved into that's in the same neighborhood as Heather and Mitch is the Grove City apartment that Tracy was later killed him. 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 most of the time too when you sign up and you and you applied to these apartments.
Not always do you get to pick your apartment you're just taking whatever is an occupied 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 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 relationships over because he is a liar and cheat. To his wife so 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 going to have to kill her so we don't have to deal with this anymore.
And then also you can't trust their alibi because it could have been 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 want to know what test I'm running. I want to make sure that that mic 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 and 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 eyewitness if the individual parked even down the street maybe
would be more likely to have eyewitness we have no eyewitness but they could have just walked right the 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 like 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 and 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 C. Lock age 22 he's listed as a dock 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 asshole. That's an impressive list of hobbies. Groves 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 C. Lock
did not show up. Join us back here in the garage we'd like to let the cases dictate I mean 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 your balls and until part three be good be kind and don't let you
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