Tracie Andrews, the road rage killer who stabbed her fiancé Lee Harvey 42 times in 1996, has been spotted running errands 30 years after the murder that shocked the nation. The 57-year-old, who now lives in a south west coastal town under a new name, was photographed clutching a Waitrose bag for life while out shopping.
Notorious press conference
Andrews remains one of the most notorious killers in recent history, partly because of her televised attempt to cover up the crime. At a press conference at Redditch police station in Worcestershire, she made an emotional appeal for witnesses, weeping as she claimed another car had chased her and Mr Harvey for five miles after the couple left a pub in Bromsgrove. Five days later, police charged her with Lee's murder.
She had told police that a 'road rage' killer had inflicted the injuries she sustained while attacking Lee, including a black eye. She initially claimed Lee had been attacked by a man in a Ford Sierra after a car chase that began when he overtook their vehicle. The former barmaid and budding model hid the murder weapon in her boot and disposed of it in a hospital. She has returned to her blonde look after dyeing her hair brunette before her 2011 prison release.
Reporter recalls the case
Former Mirror journalist Rod Chaytor, 77, now retired, was among the reporters covering the murder in December 1996. He asked the first 'killer question' at the news conference and realised Andrews had changed her account almost immediately.
"I asked a question based on the police timings," he said. "I thought that I had got it wrong and I thought, 'Oh my God' I had made a mistake. But I hadn't, and I glanced up and saw the police officer in charge of the case, Ian Johnson, look across at Tracie. I then realised that she was changing her story. Road rage was still a comparatively new phenomenon back then. She had a black eye and injuries inflicted by Lee as he fought for his life, creating a very stark image on Day Three of the investigation."
Harvey was killed on the way from the Marlbrook pub in Bromsgrove to the home he shared with Andrews in Alvechurch. Two accountants, Scott and Carruthers, were on that road that night. They were going in the other direction and saw Tracie and Lee in his distinctive white Ford RS 2000 Turbo, but they saw no car chasing them. Rod described that evidence as key.
TV drama and family reaction
The case was highlighted in a new Channel 5 drama, 'Under Suspicion: Tracie Andrews - Lover, Liar, Killer', starring Hollyoaks actress Emma Rigby as then 27-year-old Tracie. It was originally set to air at the end of July but was postponed after complaints from Lee's family. Danielle Harvey, his daughter, was five when her father was killed. She said, via TikTok, that she hadn't received any prior warning of the programme.
"To people who watch it, it's just another drama, to us it's real life," she said. "This is our reality. It's our nightmare and our life sentence."
