Tracie Andrews
Tracie Andrews (born 9 April 1969) is an English woman who murdered her fiancé, Lee Raymond Dean Harvey (born 20 September 1971), on 1 December 1996. She was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of murder at her trial in July 1997 and served 14 years before being released from prison.[1]
Murder
Andrews stabbed Harvey over 42 times with a pen knife after they had stopped in his car following an argument on the way to their flat in The Becks, Alvechurch, Worcestershire, during the early hours of 1 December 1996.
At a press conference on 3 December 1996, she claimed that Harvey was killed in a road rage attack, saying that a "fat man with staring eyes" had stabbed him over 30 times after getting out of a Ford Sierra in which he was a passenger.[1][2]
Over the next two weeks, police carried out investigations to track down the murderer of Lee Harvey. On 5 December, Tracie Andrews was admitted to hospital after taking an overdose, and was still in hospital two days later when police first questioned her about the murder.[3] After being discharged from hospital, she was charged with the murder of Lee Harvey on 19 December 1996 and released on bail.[4]
Andrews appeared at Birmingham Crown Court charged with murder on 1 July 1997, and was found guilty on 29 July 1997. She was sentenced to life imprisonment,[1] with a recommendation that she serve at least 14 years. Andrews appealed the sentence, claiming that she was the victim of a miscarriage of justice because of damaging publicity surrounding her case. In October 1998, the appeal was denied.[1] In April 1999, Andrews admitted that she did stab Harvey to death, whilst still maintaining she acted in self-defence.
Release
Andrews was released in July 2011. She was banned from travelling within 25 miles of her victim's family without supervision. Andrews has a daughter, who was born in the early 1990s.[5]
Media based on the case
The 1996 Catatonia song "Road Rage" was partially inspired by the murder.[6][7]
Maureen Harvey, Lee's mother, has written a book called Pure Evil: How Tracie Andrews Murdered My Son, Deceived the Nation and Sentenced Me to a Life of Pain and Misery.[8]
CBS Reality aired a documentary on the killing in 2018, entitled Evidence of Evil: The Road Rage Killer.[9][10]
References
- "Andrews loses appeal". BBC News. 14 October 1998. Retrieved 15 October 2009.
- Summers, Chris (25 June 2008). "Killers who cry crocodile tears". BBC News. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
- "Police guard 'road rage' victim's fiancee". The Independent. 9 December 1996.
- "Road killing fiance 'stabbed in row over hat'". The Independent. 21 December 1996.
- "Tracie Andrews 'unrepentant' as she is freed from jail". The Daily Telegraph.
- "Catatonia: Road Rage". freepages.rootsweb.com.
- "Crime & Trial: Rage On The Road" – via soundcloud.com.
- Harvey, Maureen (May 2008). Pure Evil. London: John Blake Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84454-573-5.
- "Infamous 'road rage killer' to feature in new TV documentary". Redditch Advertiser.
- "Infamous 'road rage killer' to feature in new TV documentary". Bromsgrove Advertiser.