On the eve of a new drama about the case, Ian Johnston explains how he proved Andrews had murdered her fiance Lee Harvey, 25, after she told the media he had been killed by a man with ‘staring eyes’
Tracie Andrews and her victim Lee Harvey
A former detective has revealed how he exposed road rage murderer Tracie Andrews’ lies on the eve of a new drama about a case that gripped the nation.
Ian Johnston was called to the scene shortly after Andrews, then 29, was found covered in blood next to the body of her fiancé Lee Harvey, 25, on a dark country lane in December 1996. Lee had been stabbed more than 30 times in a frenzied attack which she blamed on “a fat man with staring eyes” who had chased their car.
Andrews even appeared on television with bruises around her eyes and clutching the hand of Lee’s mother, Maureen, as she made an emotional appeal for help to catch the killer. In fact, the mystery man never existed and Mr Johnston discovered lying Andrews had killed her fiancé with a Swiss Army-type penknife following an argument.
Speaking ahead of a new Channel 5 drama Suspect: The Road Rage Killer, starring Emma Rigby, Mr Johnston, an ex-Det Supt with West Mercia Police, said he had his suspicions about Andrews from the start.
“Whatever she was, she was presenting as a witness. You can’t not consider that she could be a suspect so you have to look at both eventualities. The first thing I asked myself was is the story feasible, could this have happened? And I had to say it could have happened, it doesn’t matter what you think personally.
“Where is the evidence to say it didn’t happen? There wasn’t any at that time and it would take some work to check. You have to go into an investigation with a mind open to everything. You give everything the chance of a good hearing and then you can say that can’t be so because of this, not that can’t be so because we didn’t want it to be.”
Mr Johnston said his suspicions grew on the morning after the murder when Andrews gave the press conference. He said: “I was prepared for her to speak and I thought people would want to hear directly from her but I was not prepared for some of the things she said.”
Andrews had previously told officers that on the night of the murder the couple had gone for a drink at the Marlbrook pub in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. There had been no “awkwardness” or bad atmosphere between them, she claimed.
During the two mile journey home an altercation took place with a car that had begun chasing Lee’s Ford Escort XR3i turbo. She said that it was on Coopers Hill, a quiet country lane that led to her house, that the two vehicles came to a stop.
First the driver got out and confronted Lee, before the passenger followed and struck him a few times near the front of the Escort. But that was not what she told the press. “She said she was appealing for the driver to come forward because he didn’t do anything,” said Mr Johnson. “It was totally unscripted and it wasn’t true because she had said the driver was equally involved as the man who struck Lee with the knife.”
Further doubts emerged when the pathologist’s report revealed Lee had 42 separate injuries, including stab wounds to his back, head and neck. His jugular vein and carotid artery had been severed, meaning he collapsed quickly after suffering catastrophic blood loss.
Mr Johnston said: “We realised that the fight part of her story was a little bit soft. This guy would have to have been really going at him because of the injuries to Lee, his throat was almost taken out.
“A forensic scientist had been down to the scene and the other thing to emerge was the bloodstaining was in the wrong place. She had claimed the attack had happened by the driver’s door but the initial blood wasn’t there, it was towards the rear of the car as was Lee. So the blood was in the wrong place and he was in the wrong place.”
The pattern of blood on her clothing also suggested she had been close to Lee when he was attacked when she had claimed to have been sitting in the car.
But the piece of evidence that clinched it for Mr Johnston came from a motoring enthusiast who had seen Lee’s distinctive car shortly before the murder. Chartered accountant Simon Baker gave a detailed description of the Escort and was certain it was not being followed.
Mr Johnston said: “He was so sure of the car. That then swung it around, we couldn’t talk to her as a witness, she was now a suspect.”
It was four days after the murder and just 24 hours after Andrews had taken an overdose of pills.
“I believe she intended to take her life. Whether it was out of remorse or because she couldn’t face life without Lee, I am unable to say,” the ex-cop said.
It also began to emerge that Andrews had a history of violence and had previously attacked Lee. Mr Johnston continued: “I always put it as two young people who couldn’t live with each other but couldn’t live without each other. It was that sort of relationship, I think there were genuinely very strong feelings between them but they were both emotional people.
“He was a good looking lad and I don’t know whether she trusted him. I often wondered afterwards why did she have such a total loss of control. She stabbed and stabbed. Something had gone.”
Mr Johnston suspects Andrews prepared to attack Lee before she got in the car and may have been planning the murder for weeks. The prosecution used forensic evidence to prove that she had used an imitation Swiss Army knife before hiding it in her stiletto boot and then disposing of it.
Strands of her hair were found in Lee’s hands and a knife-shaped bloodstain matching his DNA profile was discovered in Andrews’ boot. A nine-year-old girl, who heard shouting outside her window near the murder scene, told the trial there were only two voices, and one of them was soft, like a woman’s.
After being found guilty and jailed for life at Birmingham Crown Court, Andrews finally confessed to killing Lee, but insisted she had acted in self-defence. She dyed her blonde hair black after leaving jail after serving 14 years and calling herself Jenna Stephens, married bouncer and dad-of-two Phil Goldsworthy in 2017.
Mr Johnston does not believe that anything the killer says now would give Lee’s parents, Ray and Maureen, any solace.
He said: “I think she’s totally moved on and I don’t think they would believe anything anyway. They are people I have the utmost respect for.
“If you had to sit in a courtroom as a parent and listen to the details of what happened it would sadden your heart forever and they did it with such dignity. But I don’t think Maureen would believe anything that Tracey said ever again.”
