True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

(Tracie Andrews, now known as ''Jenna Stephens Goldsworthy'' with her new husband. Photo credit: Daily Mail)

Continued from part three...

The police wasted no time and as soon as Tracie was well enough to leave the hospital she was interrogated at the police station. She continued to plead her innocence and when she was released on bail she had organised a press conference to to take place on the 5th of February 1997 with her lawyer, Tim Robinson.

Tim Robinson requested that reporting restrictions were lifted on the case because he wanted the public to hear all of the details of Tracie's supposed innocence and evidence of that night and thought it would help his client's case. She appeared to the cameras with her hair and makeup done and sat straight faced with no emotion.

On Wednesday the 19th of February 1997, Tracie's lawyer presented a photo fit of a man she claimed to be one of the killers. The picture looked surprising like one of the police officers who had attended the scene that night.

Tracie was still sticking to her story and on Monday the 30th of June 1997 she appeared at Birmingham Crown court to plead not guilty to Lee's murder.

On the first day of her trial she pointed at Lee's family who were sat in the gallery and shouted ''I want to be where they are sitting so I can see justice done too.'' Over the next few days she would glare at the family and showed no remorse.

On Tuesday the 15th of July 1997, the police laid out their evidence at Birmingham Crown Court, They claimed that Tracie had stabbed Lee in the back and neck 42 times as he was trying to walk away from her and end the relationship. They claimed that Lee and Tracie had attended a pub that night and Lee was driving her home. They said there was an argument between the pair which was witnessed by a couple who saw the car drive past them. They saw the car come to a halt then turn sharply. No other car was following them. This was not a road rage incident. They also mentioned that they believed that a Swiss army knife that belonged to Lee was the murder weapon. He had brought three of these knives home from a holiday in Spain and gave two to relatives, the third was always kept in his car. Tracie then disposed of this knife in a hospital toilet. In the inside of her boot, Lee's blood was found in the shape of the Swiss army knife. They also mentioned the background of Lee and Tracie's relationship.

On Wednesday the 16th of July 1997, Tracie Andrews took the stand and to the surprise of everyone in the courtroom, she pointed at Lee's mother and screamed ''get her out of here.''. The jury had seen how she had gone from being the quiet victim to exploding out of nowhere in anger with the outburst on the first day of the trial against Lee's family and now at the mother of the supposed love of her life which echoed what witnesses had told the police before about her and her Jekyll and Hyde behaviour.

She was cross examined and didn't have a leg to stand on. Her story was picked apart and all the lies were coming undone.

On Tuesday the 29th of July 1997, Tracie Marguerite Andrews was found guilty. She was jailed for life with a recommendation that she serve a minimum of 14 years in prison before she would be considered for parole.

Two years later she wrote a letter in her prison cell confessing that she had murdered Lee. She said that they'd had an argument as he was driving her home which got physical when she got out of the car. She said that Lee grabbed her and tried to choke her. She claimed the murder was in self defence.

When Maureen heard about this she assumed that Tracie was trying to have her sentence reduced, which she was. Tracie tried to have her sentence reduced but failed.

During her time behind bars she saved a fellow prisoner's life and had various same sex relationships. She befriended Jane Andrews, who murdered her boyfriend Tom Cressman and Maxine Carr who was girlfriend to the Soham murderer Ian Huntley. Maxine was jailed for providing a false alibi for Ian on the day the girls that he murdered were reported missing. She was later released with a new identity.

A former cell mate told a newspaper that Tracie didn't talk much about Lee Harvey but when she did, she said ''It's no good crying over spilt milk.''

She was reported to be a model prisoner and even had day release where she went shopping and drank cappuccinos in little cafes. There was outrage when she had plastic surgery (costing the taxpayer £5000) to reshape her jaw. She also wanted lifetime anonymity like her friend Maxine Carr but was refused this. In prison she changed her name to Tia Carter.

To the anger of Lee's family, Tracie was released from prison after serving 14 years of a life sentence. She changed her name to Jenna Stephens and was moved to an unknown location. She dyed her blonde hair black.

Over the years she has tried to change her look from different hairstyles and shades but seems to have settled on black. No matter what she does with her hair the newspapers always seem to know where she is. She can often be seen in sunglasses but again, people still seem to recognise her.

She is still close with her daughter Karla and has since become a grandmother.

In 2017, Tracie or Jenna as she calls herself these days, did her best to keep her upcoming wedding to a bouncer (nightclub doorman) private but the newspapers soon found out. His ex wife said that he had left her and her three children because he became obsessed with a barmaid that worked at their local pub. His ex wife said that he knew she was Tracie Andrews and it gave him some kind of thrill.

The newspapers dubbed him ''The bravest groom in Britain''. Tracie/Jenna's wedding was splashed all over the newspapers and Lee's family were sickened. Lee's sister said that she should be in prison for life. Lee's daughter Danielle had written a letter to Tracie whilst she was in prison and asked her why she killed her father, she got no reply.

Tracie/Jenna had her hen night on father's day and dressed up as naughty police woman. Danielle saw this picture in a newspaper and couldn't believe her nerve.

Danielle has since tracked down Tracie's daughter Karla on Facebook and they've become friends. Karla had apologised for what her mother had done to Lee and Danielle doesn't blame her for what her mother did. She does hope that Karla will be able to persuade Tracie to talk to her and explain why she did what she did. So far, Tracie is refusing to talk about it.

Friends close to Tracie/Jenna say that she refuses to talk about what happened that night. As far as she's concerned she says that she has done her time and the slate has been wiped clean.

A few years after Tracie's release from prison a man came forward to do a ''kiss and tell'' piece in a newspaper. He claimed that he met Tracie outside of a nightclub where she was waiting to pick up her daughter. Her daughter didn't show up so they got chatting and he ended up back at her house where they had sex. He said that they talked afterwards and he didn't know who she was till he saw her face in the newspapers. He said that she was a nice woman who talked a little bit about her past but not too much. She said that she had made mistakes that she wasn't proud of and that she would go back and change things if she could. He said that she looked sad as she was talking like there was something in her past that she deeply regretted. Was this Tracie Andrews finally showing remorse for Lee's death? who knows.

Karla also said of her mother in a newspaper interview ''If you knew her like I know her, you wouldn't see her as the psycho killer she's been made out to be.''

As I mentioned in part one, some people still feel strongly about this case which took place in 1996. Some people believe that she's served her time and has moved on, others believe that she should be behind bars for the rest of her life. Lee's family have struggled to move on and have never fully come to terms with Lee's death and it angers them to see how well Tracie seems to have done.

Lee's mother wrote a book with the title: Pure Evil - How Tracie Andrews Murdered My Son, Deceived The Nation And Sentenced Me To A Life Of Pain And Misery.

Maureen still lives with her husband and has seven grandchildren now but she still struggles with Lee's death as does his family and friends. She visits his grave regularly and sometimes tells him off for ever getting together with Tracie Andrews. Danielle misses her dad and has had five children of her own.

Do I believe that Tracie Andrews should still be in jail? I would say yes. She took Lee's life and abused him during the relationship. She was a ticking timebomb that seemed to go off out of nowhere and she'd physically assaulted previous partners. The way she acted the night of Lee's death and the lies she continued to tell right up to the moment she was found out, before she murdered Lee by viciously stabbing him 42 times. She had issues and would fly off the handle, that was who she was and if she's totally changed today I'd be very surprised. As for her daughter speaking highly of her, well that's to be expected. A lot of the time you'll find that murderers have a different approach to their own children and family because they see them as an extension of themselves. From Tracie's background I can imagine that she's spun a story for her new husband and friends. I can imagine her telling them that she was in a domestic abuse situation and defended herself to survive.

Lee didn't deserve to be killed but there are questions that still remain about what happened that night which will probably never be answered. What where they fighting about? Where did Tracie get the black eye and injuries from? Why did Lee have a clump of Tracie's hair in his hand. There may have well been a physical fight between the pair of them. Tracie's injuries could be the result of him trying to defend himself? One thing is for sure, she stabbed him in the back and neck 42 times so she really wanted to kill him and waiting for 7 minutes before calling for help was sadistic.

Tracie once told Maureen that if she couldn't have Lee then nobody could. Maureen mentioned a time where Lee and Tracie were sat in her livingroom watching the movie Fatal Attraction (Starring Michael Douglas as a married man who has an affair with a work colleague who tries to get revenge after he dumps her) and Tracie grabbed a cushion and began to hit Lee very hard with it and said ''If you ever do that to me, I will kill you.''

What are your thoughts on this case? Let me know in the comments below or send me a tweet.

Further reading & sources:

Thanks for reading my latest true crime case. See you in the next post x 

(Maureen Harvey and Tracie Andrews hold hands as Tracie makes an appeal for Lee's killers to come forward. Photo credit: Birmingham Mail)

Continued from part two...

As they drove away in the car and onto the quiet, dark roads, Lee told Tracie that he was going to drop her off at her house. It's not clear what was said during the car journey but the pair were arguing and at one point, Tracie demanded that Lee stop the car and let her out. Tracie got out of the car and refused to get back in. Lee got out of the car and told her to stop being stupid and that he couldn't leave her in the middle of nowhere. The arguing continued, Tracie ignored Lee's attempts to get her to come back to the car and carried on walking. Lee gave up and told her he was leaving and walked away. It's not clear on what was said exactly but Lee had his back turned as he walked towards the car. Tracie ran up to him and began stabbing him in the back and neck. She stabbed him 42 times with a Swiss army knife.

As Lee collapsed to the ground, she panicked and hid the knife in her boot. She got down on the ground and held Lee as he was losing consciousness. Investigators believe that she waited 7 minutes till Lee was deceased before she began to scream for help.

Two witnesses at at nearby house came to her aid and she was taken to hospital. Lee was pronounced dead at the scene. Tracie appeared to have a black eye, bruising on her face and needed some stitches above her right eye.

When the police came to the hospital to interview her, they were surprised at how calm and focused she seemed. She claimed that the pair had been attacked by two men in a road rage incident. At the time there was no reason for anyone to doubt her, she had injuries to her face and looked like she'd been beaten up.

Maureen heard a car pull up in her driveway and assumed it was Lee. She was shocked to find the police on her doorstep informing her of what had happened. Lee's father straight away had suspicions about Tracie, he said ''Why would the killers murder Lee and leave her alive as a witness?''

Maureen told her husband that the police told her that Tracie had injuries and they were pretty sure that she had gone through something. Despite her dislike of Tracie, she tried to put that aside and give her the benefit of the doubt. Michelle, who was three months pregnant when she heard about her brother's death said ''She did it. I know she did''.

When Tracie was in the hospital, the nurse who was with her in the room told police officers later that Tracie kept going into the toilet every twenty minutes. [The police believe that this is where Tracie got rid of the murder weapon that she had hidden in her boot. They believe that she flushed it down the toilet.]

The newspapers, TV and radio stations were reporting about the road rage incident in which a young man had been stabbed to death and his fiance was assaulted and in hospital trying to recover from shock and injuries.

The police wanted to hold a press conference and make an appeal for witnesses. They wanted Tracie to make the appeal. She refused to do it at first but finally agreed as long as Maureen and her husband would sit alongside her and hold her hand for support. On Tuesday the 3rd of December 1996, Tracie made an emotional appeal for the killers and witnesses to come forward (later people described this as an Oscar worthy performance). People noted how talkative she seemed to be for someone who had been through such a horrific ordeal and had just lost the love of her life. The police also noticed that some of what she said didn't match up to her original statement. She appeared to the cameras with no makeup on with bruises to her face. The public felt sorry for her and for Lee and his family.

On Wednesday the 4th of December 1996, the day after the appeal, an investigator was going over to Tracie's house to ask her a few more questions. When he got there her mother had mentioned that she was upstairs in her bedroom. He knocked the door and when there was no response he opened it to find Tracie on the bed unconscious, she had taken an overdose. He called for her mother and an ambulance was called. They found a note in her bag which was addressed to her daughter. She said that she was sorry and wanted to be with Lee.

She was rushed to the hospital where she died twice in the ambulance on the way there. Maureen heard about what happened and went to the hospital with her husband to see her. Once Tracie had come round and was able to see visitors, Maureen and her husband sat at the side of her bed. Tracie grabbed Maureen's hand and said ''I'm really really sorry for what I have done.'' When they left the room, Maureen's husband said to her ''That's as close to a confession as you're ever going to get.''

As Tracie recovered in the hospital, the press went wild and everyone was feeling sorry for the young woman who'd been through hell and tried to take her life to be with her beloved fiance. The police got a surprising phonecall from a couple who said that they had seen Tracie and Lee that night.

The couple claimed that they were sat in their car when they noticed a car driving past with what looked like a couple fiercely arguing. The car then came to an abrupt stop and made a sharp turn. The couple said there was no other car following the vehicle. The car they saw matched the description of Lee Harveys'. The description of Lee and Tracie matched and the time that the couple had saw them had matched.

This new piece of crucial evidence threw Tracie's story out of the window. The police had also been informed of Tracie's past volatile relationships with previous men and the incident in the nightclub with Lee. They soon realised that she wasn't the young, vulnerable victim that she was claiming to be and she became their prime suspect.

The police went to the hospital on the 7th of December 1996 and arrested Tracie Andrews. Maureen's husband and daughter Michelle were not surprised but Maureen didn't want to believe it after she held Tracie's hand and tried to support her. She felt at the time that it's what Lee would have wanted. She didn't want to believe that she had been comforting her son's killer all this time.

Continued in part four... 

(Lee Harvey and Tracie Andrews. Photo credit: Mirror)

Continued from part one 

The day of the barbecue arrived and Tracie was so excited to tell everyone about her and Lee's engagement. At the family get together everything was pleasant and they were both having a great time. Tracie was waiting for the right moment to share her good news when suddenly, Lee's sister Michelle asked for everyones attention. She announced that she was getting engaged to her long term partner and everyone cheered, everyone except Tracie Andrews.

Tracie didn't even try to hide the fact that she was angry. Even though she was in front of Lee's family she didn't care who saw or heard what she had to say. She stormed into the house and into Maureen's living room with Lee following behind her. Everyone was stunned and wondered what was going on, they could hear Tracie shouting with Lee trying to calm her down.

Tracie claimed it had been a set up between Michelle and Maureen to ruin her big moment. She said that she should have been the first to announce her engagement and that nobody would care now that his ''cow'' of a sister had beaten her to it. Tracie carried on yelling and badmouthing Lee's family whilst she was stood in his mother's livingroom.

Tracie told Lee that he was banned from his sister's wedding and that if he attended, their relationship would be over. [Lee kept his word to Tracie and on the morning of his sister's wedding some months later, he came to Maureen's house with a gift, kissed his sister on the cheek and told her he loved her but wouldn't be attending. Michelle later said that it tainted her wedding day]

It was no secret that Maureen didn't like Tracie and she already knew about the engagement and didn't agree with it. Was this a bit of a dirty trick pulled between Maureen and Michelle? or was it just a coincidence? Who knows. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

As predicted, Lee came back from Tracie's house after yet another argument and arrived on Maureen's doorstep with bags. This time it was over for good he claimed. A few days later Tracie got in touch with him and said she wanted to talk to him about something important. She told him she was pregnant. Lee felt that he couldn't turn his back on her now and decided to give things one last chance. Maureen wasn't happy about the pregnancy and thought there would be no way of getting rid of Tracie now.

A few weeks went by and things seemed to be quite calm between them. Lee was still staying at his mother's house to create a little bit of space between them. One day he got a call from Tracie to say that she'd had a miscarriage. He was devastated and moved back into her house to look after her. Tracie complained that motherhood had made her breasts sag and Lee agreed to pay for her to have boob implants to help boost her confidence.

A few weeks later, Lee and Tracie visited Maureen and her husband. Tracie was wearing a low cut top which showed off her boobs. Maureen said that Tracie grabbed her husband's hand and said ''here, have a feel of them''. Tracie's confidence did go up and on nights out she would dance provocatively on the dance floor in revealing outfits. She would openly flirt with men and Lee would be furious. Another argument erupted when they got home and the neighbours called the police. It was not the first time that the police had been to the house. Tracie told Lee that she didn't have a miscarriage, she had an abortion. She told him that having a baby would ruin her life and he was devastated and furious. The police arrived and tried to calm the situation down. Lee went to Maureen's house.

Lee was at his mother's house for a few days trying to get over what Tracie had done and his friends encouraged him to go out with them for a few drinks to cheer him up. He finally agreed to go and they all went to a nightclub. Unknown to Lee, Tracie had heard that Lee might be out in the town that night, she decided to spy on him. She went from club to club looking for him and she finally found him in a nightclub. Lee was having a conversation with a girl that he knew when Tracie walked up to him and began screaming at him. Witnesses looked on in shock as Tracie began to punch, kick and bite him. Security men struggled to pull her off of him. Lee was left with a huge bitemark on his neck.

 Maureen and her husband were horrified when they saw the state of Lee's neck. Everyone seemed to have had enough between faking the miscarriage, the abortion, the endless fights and now this. Shockingly, Lee gave her another chance and everyone couldn't believe it. His sister Michelle refused to speak to him and his parents warned him that he was going to end up getting killed at some point.

A few weeks past and it seemed that Lee was beginning to come to his senses once and for all. He told friends and family he wanted to end the relationship for good and this time they believed him. He told Tracie it was over and she begged him to change his mind. Lee was adamant this time and said that he wanted to be friends. Tracie persuaded him to go for a drink and talk about things properly. He agreed and they both went to the Marlbrook pub. 

They arrived at the pub and Lee wasn't in the mood for talking, he just wanted to hear what she had to say and why she had behaved the way that she did. He did everything he could to make her happy and it never seemed to be enough for her. Tracie's charms were no longer working on Lee and she knew that this time he was serious about the breakup. The pair sat there for the majority of the time in silence and witnesses say that there was a negative atmosphere between them, they did not look happy at all. At one point Lee stood up and said it was time to go. Half of his drink was still on the table and he didn't bother finishing it. Tracie looked puzzled and didn't look like she was ready to leave.

Continued in part three...

(Lee Harvey and Tracie Andrews. Photo credit: Daily Mail)

It was a story that shocked the UK back in the mid nineties and is still remembered to this day. A 27 year old woman and her 25 year old fiance were reported to be the victims of a horrific road rage attack by two men in the late hours of the 1st of December 1996 in Alverchurch in Worcester, England.

The woman had narrowly escaped the two men and had suffered from a black eye and bruises to the face. She screamed for help as she held her deceased fiance in her arms as he had suffered multiple stab wounds. Two witnesses heard the commotion and ran to her aid and an ambulance and police were called to the scene.

The young couple, known as Lee Harvey and Tracie Andrews had been having a quiet drink at a pub and as they were driving home, Lee noticed a car behind them. The car was beeping the horn and speeding up close behind them. Lee was annoyed and stopped the car to which the car behind him followed suit. One of the men got out of the car and began to physically fight with Lee. The other man who was described as older, got out of the car and joined in the fight. Tracie was screaming for them to stop and tried to intervene but was punched and pushed to the ground by one of the men.

Suddenly, Lee fell to the floor and the two men jumped back in their car and sped off. Tracie realised that Lee had been stabbed multiple times, she held him in her arms and screamed for help. This was the story that was originally reported to the police by Tracie Andrews and the press also shared these details. What nobody knew at that time was that Tracie had made the whole story up and continued to manipulate and lie until she couldn't lie any more as everyone was soon to find out.

So where did all this begin? It began two years before when Lee Raymond Dean Harvey and Tracie Marguerite Andrews first laid eyes on each other in a nightclub in Worcester. They would describe it as love at first sight though other people may say it was more like lust. They didn't waste anytime and slept together that same night. Lee bragged to his friends and family about how amazing the sex was and that he was falling head over heels for Tracie.

Tracie was a blonde, glamorous single mother who worked as a barmaid and part time model. She dreamt of becoming a glamour model and loved the attention that she got from men as she walked down the street or danced in a nightclub. She loved to turn heads and would wear sexy outfits and heels to make sure that all eyes were on her, if attention wasn't on her at all times she would turn sour. She had a difficult upbringing and never got over her dad walking out on the family when she was very young. As well as the need for attention, she would have mood swings and often explode in temper tantrums which would see her romantic relationships not lasting very long.

She had difficulty maintaining relationships with lovers, friends and relatives due to her up and down behaviour and people who knew her describe how they felt like they were walking on eggshells whenever they were around her and didn't know when she was going to explode next.

Her image as a pretty blonde, girly girl who just loved to have fun and party was hiding a dark, troubled persona underneath. She was very much a Jekyll and Hyde character.

Lee was a good looking popular young man who would go out regularly with his friends for drinks. He was also a single father and adored his daughter Danielle. He was close with his family and was described by those that knew him as very much a family man. He worked hard to provide for his daughter as a bus driver and got on really well with customers and colleagues. He wasn't a complete angel though, like a lot of young men, he liked to be a man of the ladies and often thought with his trousers instead of his head. He claimed that Pamela Anderson was his dream woman and he would often go for women who had an ample bosom. Lee was just a young man who did have his priorities in order with his daughter and job but he did like to be a bit of a party animal and Jack the lad too.

Things moved pretty fast between Tracie and Lee and before anyone knew what was happening, he'd moved into her house. His mother, Maureen was a bit concerned that things were happening too quickly and she didn't feel 100% about Tracie either. According to Maureen, the first time that Lee brought Tracie to meet her and her husband, she practically told them her life story in 30 minutes. Maureen didn't feel comfortable with how Tracie was trashing her relatives and ex boyfriend. Maureen could see that despite Tracie's outspokenness and good looks, she was very insecure.

As is the case with most of these situations, everything seemed to be great for the first few weeks of Tracie and Lee living together. Tracie's daughter Karla got on very well with Danielle and loved pretending to be sisters. Cracks started to appear in the relationship over silly things. Tracie didn't like Lee going out with his friends and would accuse him of looking at other girls. Lee would get angry if her ex boyfriend (who was Karla's dad) would call the house to arrange when to pick Karla up. The fights always seemed to be worst at the weekends.

Maureen lost count of how many times she would see Lee coming up her driveway with bags full of his clothes, scratches on his face and a story about how he and Tracie had an argument. He'd tell Maureen and his dad that he was never going back. The next day he'd make an excuse to go and see her to collect something and they'd end up in bed together. It seemed to go on and on as if Lee and Tracie got a thrill out of arguing just so that they could have sex and things would be ok for a few days then it would start again. It was becoming clear from the scratches on Lee's face that the arguments were getting physical. Tracie also liked to bite Lee during an argument. Nobody knows for sure if the bites were part of a sex act or during a fight between the pair. Tracie never appeared to have a mark on her.

Maureen and her husband tried to convince Lee that this relationship wasn't good for either of them and they were tired of him coming back and forth as well as being worried for his safety. Maureen called Tracie and told her that she wasn't happy with how she was treating her son. For some reason, rather than take his parents advice, Lee thought it would be a good idea to ask Tracie to marry him. He thought that this would calm her down and she'd realise how serious he was about her and stop accusing him of cheating on her with other women. 

He told his parents he was going to ask her to marry him, they were not happy about it but felt that they had to respect Lee's wishes. They were sworn to secrecy and Tracie was over the moon when Lee asked her. She immediately said yes. Lee told her that nobody else knew about the engagement so Tracie wanted to do a big announcement at his Mother's barbecue that was coming up at the weekend. 

Continued in part two...