"How a 'Road Rage' Killer Was Caught in a Web of Deceit After Tearfully Holding Hands with the Mother of Her Stabbing Victim"

WITH bruising around her eye, Tracie Andrews sat down to give a press conference to plead for help finding fiancé’s killer.

Just two days before, she and her husband to be had been found in their car drenched in blood down a rural lane in Worcestershire.

Tracie Andrews stabbed her fiancé more than 40 times with a pen knife Credit: Reuters Andrews and her boyfriend Lee Harvey frequently argued and fought with each other Credit: PA:Press Association

Bus driver Lee Harvey, 25, had been , eventually dying from a wound to a critical artery in the neck.

Andrews, then 29, told police and witnesses they were victims of road rage. She explained that their car had been chased by another motorist who went on to attack them.

Appearing before cameras at press a couple of days after the murder in 1996, Andrews appeared bruised, tearful and distraught.

She held the hand of Lee’s mother spinning a web of lies that would eventually expose her as the killer.

The horrifying true story is now being retold in a .

Emma, known for playing Hannah Ashworth in Hollyoaks, wants to go face to face with the real Tracie Andrews.

She said: “I would love to make a documentary following a sit down between the two of us. I have so many questions for her.

“She has never told the truth on camera, it would be interesting to see what story she would tell now.”

Emma Rigby plays Andrews in a new drama about the case Credit: ©5 Broadcasting Limited / Orchard Studios..Press Enquiries: press@channel5.com NOTE: Para A tearful Andrews gripped the hand of Lee’s mother in a press conference Credit: Peter Lea

Despite pleading self-defence, Andrews was found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life behind bars.

She spent 14 years in prison and was released in 2012, changing her name and undergoing surgery, and .

Aspiring model Andrews worked in Worcestershire as a barmaid, and already had a young daughter when she met Lee in a nightclub and started a relationship.

Three months after meeting the pair moved in together and quickly got engaged.

But Andrews was a jealous partner and would often burst into a rage if she didn’t feel she was getting the treatment she deserved from her partner.

Their arguments began to escalate, frequently turning violent, including incidents where Andrews hit Lee with a bottle.

After a fierce day of fighting on Sunday 1 December, the pair headed to a local pub to smooth things out then got into his white Ford Escort to head home.

The next that anyone saw of the couple was when a local resident, hearing a commotion, went outside to the country lane where their car was parked and found Lee brutally murdered.

With a bruising and stitches, it was clear that Andrews had been attacked Credit: PA:Press Association Andrews was sentenced to life in 1997 and finally confessed two years after later Credit: Reuters

He had been stabbed 42 times in total, with a Swiss Army penknife. With injuries to his neck, back and chest, there was barely a part of him that had avoided attack.

From the start, Andrews began to spread the lie that they had been the victims of a mystery road rage attack.

She claimed they had overtaken another car earlier who then chased them until the driver caught up and launched an attack – killing Lee.

“They overtook us and pulled in and Lee got out of the car,” Tracy said at the time.

“There was some sort of argument going on.

“The passenger called me a slut and punched me in the face.

“Afterwards I went to Lee, I don’t know whether he was alive.

“I held him, I cradled his head and was just thinking of anything I could do for him.”

A bloody knife-shaped stain was found in her boot Credit: Times Newspapers Ltd Andrews dyed her hair and got plastic surgery to try and hide her identity after being released Credit: Andy Bush – The Sun

Just days after the murder she appeared at a police press conference to claim that a “fat man with staring eyes” was the killer.

Few people had reason to disbelieve Andrews, who, with her black eye, had indeed suffered from some kind of beating.

Yet already she had started to give a different version of the story, contradicting what she had said earlier to police.

That included the timing of events, and saying that it was actually the passenger not the driver, who attacked her.

Such was the concern that police at the press conference had to stop her answering questions from journalists.

For now, however, she was still a free woman – but that would be about to change.

For someone supposedly in shock, who had allegedly just witnessed her partner’s brutal murder, she had a lot to say, police noted.

Then there were the contradictions in her story.

They searched for weeks for the car she had claimed had led to the road rage – but no matter how hard the police looked, there was no sign of a second vehicle.

A witness – a child living in a nearby cottage – then gave a crucial piece of evidence, having heard a woman and a man caught up in a loud argument shortly after their car pulled up.

And if the press conference had not backfired enough, two more witnesses came forward to say they had seen her car go past – but again that there was no sign of a second car, let alone a chase.

The road rage explanation was finally shown to be false.

In reality, Andrews had waited a whole seven minutes before calling for help after Lee passed away.

In the meantime, she had stuffed the penknife into her shoe – something which was discovered when a bloody knife-shape stain was found on the inside.

Then a day after the press conference, Andrews was found unconscious in her bed at home after overdosing on pills.

With the road rage story falling apart and the police beginning to learn about her abusive nature, Andrews was arrested.

In July 1997, she was found guilty and handed a life sentence at Birmingham crown court.

Sentencing her Mr Justice Buckley said: “The jury has found you guilty on very strong evidence of murder.

“Only you know precisely what went on that night but we have all seen the awful consequences.

“Certainly it has been a tragedy for all concerned and I feel deeply for the families on both sides.”

It would be two years before Andrews wrote a letter from her cell confessing to the murder.

She claimed an argument had turned physical, and she had stabbed Lee in self-defence as he was choking her. This was despite the majority of his stab wounds being in his back.

Andrews would later go on to change her name to Jenna and spent £5,000 of taxpayers’ money on surgery to change the shape of her jaw, before being released after serving 14 years.

Lee’s family would face further anguish when, in 2017, she married bouncer Paul Goldsworthy – who allegedly had left his wife and kids to be with her.

Under Suspicion: Tracie Andrews – Lover, Liar, Killer, airs on Channel 5, Monday 13 July, 9pm