The brutal murder of 25-year-old father Lee Harvey is to be revisited in a new Channel 5 documentary as the 30th anniversary of his death approaches. Lee was stabbed 42 times by his fiancée, Tracie Andrews, then 27, as the couple travelled home after visiting the Marlbrook pub in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, in December 1996. Andrews initially attempted to convince police that Lee had been killed during a road rage attack involving two men. She later appeared at a highly publicised press conference alongside Lee’s devastated mother, Maureen, where she appealed for the supposed attackers to come forward. But the story Andrews had given investigators began to unravel as detectives identified inconsistencies in her account.
Charged 16 days after public appeal
Just 16 days after the press conference in which she appealed for help finding Lee’s supposed killers, Andrews was charged with his murder on December 19, 1996. Lee was only 25 when he was killed and was the father of a young daughter who was left to grow up without him. Andrews went on trial the following year. After a month-long trial, she was found guilty of murder in July 1997 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 14 years.
Murder case returns to television
The case will now be examined in the hour-long Channel 5 true-crime special Under Suspicion: Tracie Andrews – Lover, Liar, Killer. Actress Emma Rigby portrays Andrews in reconstructions as the programme examines Lee’s murder, Andrews’ fabricated road rage account and the police investigation which eventually exposed the truth. The programme comes as December marks three decades since Lee was murdered. Under Suspicion: Tracie Andrews – Lover, Liar, Killer airs on Wednesday, September 30 at 10pm on Channel 5.
