POLICE investigating the murder of Lee Harvey in an alleged “road rage” incident arrested his fiancée yesterday.
Tracie Andrews, 27, was held by detectives as she left the Alexandra hospital in Redditch, Hereford and Worcester, after an overdose and was taken to a police station for questioning. Later she was admitted to another hospital on a police doctor's advice after becoming emotionally distressed.
A team of seven police forensic officers searched the maisonette that Andrews shared with Harvey, using a video camera. Curtains in the bedroom used by Carla, Andrews's six-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, were closed but a light inside showed police activity. The couple had intended to marry in June. Andrews suffered a miscarriage early this year.
Harvey, 27, was found dead in a country lane last Sunday after being stabbed 15 times and having his throat cut in an attack near the couple's home in Alvechurch.
On Tuesday Andrews, a bar maid and former model, appeared at a press conference with black eyes, bruising and stitches to give an emotional and graphic account of her fiancé's death. She said the couple had been drinking in the Marlbrook pub near Bromsgrove on Sunday evening. When they drove home in Harvey's white Ford Escort RS 2000 turbo, they overtook a tatty, dark F-registered Ford Sierra.
She said the Sierra gave chase for three miles through country lanes, folowing closely and flashing its lights, and the drivers exchanged insults.
She said Harvey stopped to confront the other driver in Coopers Hill, a dark, narrow lane a mile from their home. The two argued in the road and the Sierra driver then returned to his car.
The incident would have been over, she said, if a front-seat passenger had not left the Sierra to join the fray. She said the man, very overweight and with “stary eyes”, stabbed Harvey repeatedly in the head, neck and chest. The man punched her when she tried to intervene, she said. Harvey, a former bus driver, died in the road.
Police have failed to find the Sierra, its driver and passengers, despite an “excellent response” from the public. No Photofit of the killer has been released.
Last night the police issued a revised appeal for witnesses. Sergeant Roger Thatcher said: “We are appealing for witness es to come forward who may have seen the Ford Escort on the road that night and any other car, whether or not it was connected with the Escort.”
On Wednesday, the day after the press conference, Andrews was admitted to hos pital after apparently taking a cocktail of paracetamol, aspirin and tranquillisers. She left notes saying that she had nothing left to live for and wanted to be with Harvey.
Police kept her illness and hospital admission secret until Friday evening, merely confirming she had been suffering “great stress”.
Andrews's uncle, John Holland, who lives in Alvechurch, was shocked by news of the arrest. “Good Lord,” he said. “We had no doubts about her story. I saw her just after the episode and she was greatly distressed. Her face was damaged from the injuries she had received. She told us that she and Lee had been attacked by these men after a car chase.”
The couple who found Harvey lying dead in the road told police Andrews was standing over his body.
Ray Harvey, father of the murdered man, said after the suicide attempt became known that it was not in Andrews's nature to attempt to take her own life. He said: “She knows in her heart that she has the key to finding the man who murdered Lee and she would not give up that chance to see justice done.”
After the arrest, he added: “Whoever it is, whoever is responsible for my son's death, I just want to see justice.”
Police said last night: “Earlier today a 27-year-old woman was brought into police detention. In accordance with police procedures she was examined by a police surgeon and then further assessed by a medical expert. She is now receiving treatment at a local hospital.
“The woman has not been arrested on suspicion of murder but arrested in connection with the murder inquiry into Lee Harvey's death.”