Tracey Kirkpatrick

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1:59Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

2:31Today, I'm discussing the case of Tracy Kirkpatrick. Tracy was a 17-year-old with the world at her fingertips. She had a solid plan to get her bachelor's degree, then attend law school, and was working two jobs to make it happen. But one night while working in a women's clothing store, that was all stripped away from her when she was brutally murdered. The week this episode airs marks 35 years since that night, and her case continues to baffle investigators. This is the case of Tracy Kirkpatrick. On the night of Wednesday, March 15, 1989, 17-year-old Tracy Kirkpatrick is very tired working the closing shift at the Eileen's Lady Sportswear store in Frederick, Maryland.

3:17She's had this job for about a month and also works part-time at Barrett's Shoes right next door. She worked at Barrett's earlier that day from 1 to 4. The job was a part of a work-study program at her school. As a part of the program, she got to leave school early to work job 1 at the shoe store and job 2 at Eileen's. Tracy was all set to graduate from Brunswick High School in a few weeks and had a solid plan in place for her future. She'd applied at Mount St. Mary's University, where she wanted to get her accounting degree. After that, she'd work as a certified public accountant until she could save up enough money to go to law school and pursue her dream of becoming a lawyer.

3:55She'd saved up enough money to buy her own car, a 10-year-old Pontiac Grand Prix, and was counting her pennies to save for tuition. So this is why Tracy works two jobs at the Westview Shopping Center, and finds herself closing a loan on a random school night. Now, Tracy's family sees how hard she's working, and her mom Diane decides to bring her McDonald's for dinner sometime between 6pm and 7.30pm. Unfortunately, we have a lot of conflicting reports about the exact time this happened. Either way, by the time Diane gets there, the store is totally empty, and she finds Tracy just reading a book.

4:31Tracy mentions that she is exhausted, and plans to go right to bed when she gets home. They chat for a few minutes, and then Diane heads back home. Eileen's closed at 9pm that night, and Diane and Tracy's dad Bill could usually expect Tracy home around 9.30 or 10pm. They only lived about 15 minutes away in Point of Rocks, Maryland, so when Tracy isn't back by 10.30pm, Diane and Bill get nervous that something may have happened. But obviously they weren't feeling that it was something extremely nefarious right away. The night before, Bill actually had to go down to the shopping center to give Tracy's car a jump after the battery died.

5:10He found Tracy talking to her ex-boyfriend, 19-year-old John German. That night, through her battery dying, whatever else happened, they decided to get back together. Now, the timeline on this next statement is unclear. But at some point, Tracy had also told her father that if she didn't make it home by 11pm from work on any given night, that something was probably wrong and to come get her. Some have taken this statement as nefarious and possibly in relation to John German. But I wasn't able to find anything that linked this statement to John. Some believe that this was mostly related to her pretty beat-up car.

5:46We just don't know. Either way, when Tracy isn't back home by 1045, her parents hop in the car to do exactly that. They go look to see what's going on. But when they get to Eileen's, there are police everywhere. Now, this wasn't outdoor shopping center. So they quickly realize that the police aren't just at the shopping center, they are in front of Eileen's. Bill and Diane are obviously terrified. They assume the store must have been robbed. They run to police and explain that their daughter was working in the store. Diane is saying she wants to see her daughter, she's begging to know if she's okay.

6:24And the officer just hangs his head and shakes it no. Diane says she doesn't remember what happened next, and she was hospitalized later that night for shock. It wasn't car trouble, it wasn't a robbery. Tracy had been killed. After Diane brought Tracy dinner, Tracy's boss checked on her too around 8pm. Just like Diane, they say everything was fine. There were no customers in the store. With just an hour until closed, the manager left thinking that Tracy was all set for the night. She just had to clean up, tally up her receipts, count out her drawer, and lock up the store. We don't know if any customers came into the store after this, but there were no transactions after 8pm, so it seems like a pretty slow night.

7:08At around 9.15pm, security officer Don Barnes Jr. is taking a walk around the center, just doing his rounds. He notices that the lights in Eileen's were still on, but it's only 15 minutes after close, so he assumed the employees were still finishing up, and he goes on to the other stores. Then between 10.30 and 10.45pm, he makes his way past Eileen's again, and notices that the lights are still on. So Don tugs on the door, and to his surprise, it's unlocked. He walks inside, calls out, and gets no response. Then he makes his way through the store to the stock room, where he finds Tracy on the ground covered in blood.

7:50When investigators get to the scene, this is what they find. The cash drawer from the register was on the counter alongside a pile of receipts from the day's sales. No money was taken. There was a blood smear found on the store's back door, and blood drops in a rear hallway that led to the loading docks and dumpsters, making them believe that this is how the killer exited the store. There were also some latent prints found at the scene. Tracy's personal keys and store keys were missing alongside her wallet. which had a small amount of money in it. Her car was still in the parking lot. Tracy had been stabbed at least 22 times across her body, including on her head, neck, arms, back, and chest.

8:32It was absolutely gruesome. It's worth noting that the medical examiner didn't find any defensive wounds. So, a few things at the scene stuck out to investigators. First, there was no sign of a struggle. It didn't appear that whoever did this broke into the store. and they didn't take the money from the register either, despite it being in plain sight on the counter. Tracy also didn't show any signs of sexual assault. To them, it seemed like this may have been a crime of passion committed by someone she knew. So, they got to work trying to figure out who may have done this. The problem was, there wasn't much to work with.

9:10Tracy was popular and well-liked with no known enemies. There also didn't appear to be any witnesses. There was one man who was in the parking lot that night. He says he was waiting for his partner and didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Other than that, apparently no one saw or heard anything. Frederick Police Department Corporal Barry Horner says that he didn't sleep for the first 72 hours. Everyone was just trying to gather up any pieces of this puzzle to figure out why someone would do something like this. This episode of Voices for Justice is brought to you by Quince. I love giving gifts, and Quince really does make that so easy.

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12:10Tracy was laid to rest on March 20th in Pennsylvania, where she spent most of her childhood. Not long after, her older siblings, Deonda, age 19 and Jack, age 21, moved back into the family home to support their parents, and their youngest sister, Angie, who was only 16. Like we see in so many cases, this of course just changed everything about their lives. They would call to check in on each other more frequently, and now if Bill couldn't get a hold of one of his kids or they weren't where they were supposed to be, he went straight to his car to go find them. They were terrified and devastated, and so was the community.

12:49Eileen stayed closed on the day after the murder out of respect for Tracy. The other shop that she worked at, Barrett Shoes, enacted a policy to have two employees on every shift. Brunswick High School acknowledged Tracy's passing over the intercom, and held a moment of silence across the campus in her honor. The Frederick Police even held a student assembly in search of answers about Tracy's murder, but like I said, they just didn't have much. They interviewed everyone close to Tracy, including past and current romantic interests. They interviewed the security guard and her manager. And while they would later say that they were developing some strong persons of interest early on, there just wasn't much movement in the case.

13:31Then about three months after Tracy's murder, police get a tip that changes everything when a man calls into a Las Vegas hotline and confesses to killing Tracy. The way that this hotline worked was that anybody could call in and pay by the minute to leave an anonymous confession about any type of misdeed. Others could also pay by the minute to listen to these confessions. And for some reason, someone calls in to confess to killing Tracy. Luckily, the operator of the hotline turns this audio over to police. Here's what the caller said. Quote, Hello. My name is Dawn, and I'm calling from Frederick, Maryland.

14:12I know this is going to sound surprising, but three months ago I stabbed a girl to death. And you might think that in making this tape, I'm setting myself up to be caught, but there are a lot of guys named Don in Frederick. The girl I killed was working in a lady's sportswear store. I often came by and talked to her when she was working alone, and one night when she was in the storeroom and we were talking, our conversation turned into an argument, and so I took out a knife that I have with me at all times and I killed her. And a few days later, I realized that I had created a lot of sadness, and I thought about turning myself into the police.

14:47But whatever they do to me, that won't bring Tracy back. So I've decided that I better keep free, because we have the death penalty in Maryland. Thanks for listening. I'm sorry for what I did, but nothing can change it. Bye. End quote. Obviously, this is huge, and police pursue the lead. They trace the call to a payphone in a Safeway grocery store in Walkersville. This is about 7 miles northeast of Frederick. But since it was a public payphone that a ton of people touch, there's really no evidence to be collected. And since we're in the year 1989, there are no cameras in the store to help identify the caller either.

15:27They're basically back at square one. By early October, they are desperate to figure out who this caller is. So the Frederick Police Department issue a public letter to the caller in the Frederick News Post. They address the caller's concerns about the death penalty and assure them that if they come forward, they will not be put to death for Tracy's murder. And in this letter, they really appeal to the killer's presumed guilt over killing Tracy. It reads in part, quote, I have learned through my investigation much of what occurred on March 15th, but only you know all of what happened that night.

16:01I know from that June telephone call you made to Las Vegas that the events of that night still haunt you, and probably will until you share them with me. I pray that you will now come forward to relieve the hurt which Tracy's family and friends have suffered, as well as the pain which has consumed your life since that night. You and I both know we need to talk about Tracy's death, so you once again will have peace of mind. Call me soon." Unfortunately, the letter does not compel Tracy's killer to come forward, But by the end of the month, they get a call from a Massachusetts psychic who says they think they might know who killed Tracy.

16:40She says she's been working with a man named Sean who came to her for help in identifying Tracy's killer. So this man mails her a bunch of newspaper clippings so she can become familiar with the case. She says as soon as she got these clippings, she immediately felt weird about the situation. So she called the police to report it. They end up playing her the audio of the confession and ask if this was the man she was speaking with about Tracy, and this woman says her heart just dropped when she heard this man's voice. She knew this was the guy. So police tell her just to keep talking with him while they look into his possible involvement.

17:16They end up tracing the letters back to Walkersville, Maryland, where the call also took place. But the man living there isn't named Don or Sean. And this part is a little weird and unclear, because when police discuss this aspect of the case, they don't name names. But it seems like they know this man made the call, but don't feel like he killed Tracy. After a few months, the Frederick police come up with a plan. They ask four local radio stations to play the audio from the call at the same time on the one-year anniversary of Tracy's murder. So at 9.15 on March 15, 1990, this call is blasted across the radio.

17:54They get some tips, and two hours later, the caller is positively identified. As I said, I know that it's frustrating, but we just don't know if this is the same man who worked with a psychic or someone new. But here's what we know. This man was already considered a suspect in the case, though not a strong one. Investigators approached him on that same day, on the 15th, and he refused to answer questions. So, at 1am on March 16th, 1990, they come back with a warrant to search his home, his car, and collect hair and DNA from his person. In the home, they find newspaper clippings discussing Tracy, but nothing else that linked him to Tracy in real life.

18:34Still, investigators were hopeful that this could be their guy. I mean, it really seemed like it could be. In reporting by Paul Duggan for the Washington Post, Frederick Police Chief Richard Ashton said, quote, Realistically, even if he did make that call, it doesn't mean he killed Tracy Kirkpatrick. It's important to keep that in perspective, end quote. But then he also says, quote, We hope everything we see is tightens a knot around his neck, end quote. So take that for what you will. Unfortunately, just like the names of suspects or persons of interest, information about testing evidence is also pretty unclear in this case.

19:14We know items were taken, but it seems that most everything collected at the scene could only be connected back to Tracy, and not her killer. So Tracy's case just sits. It was featured on Unsolved Mysteries and A Current Affair, but it remained stagnant despite the Frederick police being pretty adamant that they've narrowed down the suspect pool to two men. In 1994, they actually took Tracy's case to a grand jury for an indictment, but were turned down. Essentially, there was no evidence to believe that these two men worked together to kill Tracy, and indicting either one separately would result in the other being accused in court and likely the case being thrown out.

19:54Bill Kirkpatrick later explained this to reporter Jeremy Arias of the Frederick News Post, saying, quote, She told us I can't get indictments on both of them. With the information we have, I can get an indictment on each one of them, but it would end for each of them the same way. If it went to trial, a defense attorney would say, well, the other guy is there, and you can't prove he did it. End quote. That same year, the Frederick police told the media that they have a prime suspect, with Corporal Robert A. Cervasic saying he had no doubt in his mind that they have Tracy's killer. But they weren't talking.

20:29So who was it or who were they? We don't know. But what we do know is that as Tracy's case got passed down to new detectives over the years, it's clear that they weren't all on the same page about who did this. One detective would say that the call into the hotline was a complete hoax. Others would say that they knew that that was their guy. So getting a pulse on what the police really think is pretty hard in this case. And really, all we can do is speculate. But the public at the time, and even people who hear this case today, just can't get past something. That call. The man named Don. Because there was a man named Don at the scene that night.

21:10The security guard. Apparently one of two men at the scene, according to the Frederick Police Department. Now, we don't know who the other man is, and it's possible that Don maybe wasn't even included in that count of the two men. But again, we can only work with what we know, so let's talk about Don. The thing is, Don wasn't just a security guard. He also worked for the Frederick County Sheriff's Department as a deputy. Like a lot of folks in law enforcement, he was moonlighting as a security guard for extra cash. But Don wasn't just any sheriff's deputy. He was the son of former Sheriff Don Barnes Sr., also known as the Singing Sheriff.

22:14by step guidance so you can master new apps, games, and skills faster. Try now at windows.com slash copilot. Don Barnes Sr. has quite the reputation in Frederick, Maryland. Elected in 1974, he was the youngest sheriff in Maryland history at age 32. He served two terms from 1974 to 1982, but he was also known around town because he was the lead singer of a popular local country and western band called the Countrymen. When Don got elected, he actually joked that he had no aspiration to be the next Johnny Cash, but said he'd consider having his band play at the local prison. Hence the nickname, the Singing Sheriff.

22:54Now, as far as I could find, there was nothing really nefarious in Don Sr.'s background. He was in a few lawsuits over the years, but nothing crazy. In 1978, he was named Sheriff of the Year by the Maryland State Sheriff's Association. It seemed like he was quite respected and well-loved. But people couldn't help but connect Don Jr. to the call made to that hotline. He was the man who found Tracy dead. It's only natural to look further into him. Some also speculate that whoever made the call was either trying to frame Don as the killer, or shine a light on him as the actual killer of Tracy. Some thought maybe he just got away with it because of his connections in the community.

23:34But either way, in the end, absolutely nothing happens with Don. And the case just sits. Obviously, Tracy's family is frustrated. And really, everyone's frustrated. Over the years, they and the police have been very frank about possible missed opportunities. Tracy's family says the police missed evidence, compromised the crime scene, and overall just that they could have done more in those early days of the investigation. And like I said, some officers agree with them. The second detective assigned to the case, Bob Cervasic, says that one of his biggest regrets was them not taking the back doors to the store into the crime lab for testing.

24:14He says that this area was completely dim, and basically only investigated with flashlights. And the first detective on the case, Corporal Barry Horner, agrees. He says that at that time, Tracy was one of 35 cases they were working on. He admits that in those first few days, they were just too busy to give the case the attention it needed. By the time they went to subpoena the phone records from the store, they were gone. Now, no investigation is perfect, but I'm sure this still has to sting for the Kirkpatricks. All of the what-ifs are hard to put out of your mind in a situation like this, but there really is no other option than to just move forward.

24:55Over the years, items from the crime scene were periodically sent off to different labs for testing. but a match has never been made. In 1999, on the 10-year anniversary of Tracy's murder, her family holds a vigil at Brunswick High School, and of course, there's a lot of media to talk about how a decade has gone by with no resolution. Here, the Frederick police again reiterate that it's down to two suspects, both from Frederick and one that they're familiar with. Again, they do not elaborate, so take this for what you will. Tracy's family also again reiterates that they'd be willing to ask for the death penalty to be taken off the table if someone came forward to confess to killing Tracy.

25:37But no one does. By 2003, Tracy is featured on the Frederick PD's website as one of 10 unsolved homicides within the department. That same year, more samples from the crime scene are submitted, and again, nothing comes back. In March 2009, Tracy's family puts together a vigil at the West Ridge Shopping Center for the 20th anniversary. Diane says she hasn't set foot in the parking lot since that night, and while 20 years have passed, for her it feels like just yesterday. Here, the Frederick PD again state that they have two suspects in mind for the crime. More DNA is submitted, and Tracy's case is given to cold case panels for review.