Fire works are a common show for some popular holidays, like the American Independence and Christmas but this Christmas fire work was not so common and not at all welcoming because it claimed the life of a young mother.
The deliberate act was likely related to her partners addiction to drugs and the money he owed numerous people, people who would do anything in anyway to get their money or send that message that "we're still coming for you." And this unfortunate woman was caught up in the mix.
The Murder Of Tracy Mertens
In 1994, 31-year-old Tracy Mertens moved to Rochdale, England, with her on-off partner, Joey Kavanagh, and their two children, Kelly, aged 11, and Daniel, 12.
Her family said the couple, who first got together when they were 16, had a strained relationship at times - and drug user Joey owed people money.
Two days before Christmas, she had left her new home in Rochdale, where she was from, to pick up her benefits book from her old house in Birmingham. Tracey was supposed to make the trip to her old home in Cattells Grove and back to Rochdale in the same day - but ended up staying overnight nearby with her sister-in-law.
The next morning, Tracey had gone to her old Birmingham home for around 10 minutes, While Tracy was there, there was a surprise knock on the door, and two black men came bursting inside her house demanding to know where Joey was.
When Tracey wouldn't answer, they proceeded to restrain Tracy before blindfolding and abducting her, bundled her into a tatty yellow Ford Escort and driven 70 miles to the village of Eaton in Cheshire.
The two assailants drove to the town of Eaton and left Tracy on the steps of a church. They doused her with gasoline and burned her alive. Around five hours after she was snatched from her old house, a passer-by heard Tracey crying for help on the steps of the church after she had been set on fire.
Despite the bitterly cold night, her clothes were still smouldering, and her burns were so horrific her rescuer said he initially thought she was wearing a costume. When Tracy was found, she had burns on 90 percent of her body but was still breathing.
A petrol canister was later recovered by police nearby.
She was taken to a hospital and lived long enough to describe what happened to her before passing away on Christmas Eve. Tracey fought long enough in hospital to give detectives as much information on her abduction as she could - but she died around 12 hours later.
She described her abductors as two black men around 30-years-old, big and fat in build with Birmingham accents, who also spoke in a foreign language, which police believe was the Jamaican dialect Patois.
The most intriguing part of Tracy’s story was that her two unknown attackers reportedly asked, “Where’s Joey?” after bursting into the home. After Tracy told them her boyfriend wasn’t there, they decided to abduct her and leave the area.
During their time together, Tracy and Joey often had a strained relationship. Joey had frequent issues with heroin addiction and owed people money at the time of Tracy’s death. Joey contended that these issues are unconnected to Tracy’s murder and claimed to have no idea who was responsible. Police have interviewed thousands of people during their investigations and made multiple public appeals - but her killers have never been charged.
Joey Kavanagh has always maintained he was not the cause of her murder.
It is said that one should be careful with whom one rolls with, as with the case of Tracey who met with an untimely death. Decades later and this crime has still not been solved despite the huge reward on any information leading to conviction. The case still hasn't gone cold as the police and the family are still working on it.
That's kind of a sad twist of fate. She could have lived if she made the tripnon the same day though.