Nearly three decades have passed, but the hunt continues for the killers who subjected a Birmingham mother to a horrific, fiery death on the steps of a Cheshire church on Christmas Eve.
A Mother's Final, Brave Testimony
On the cold afternoon of 23 December 1994, a walker in the rural parish of Eaton was drawn to Christ Church by agonising screams. There, they discovered Tracey Mertens, a 31-year-old former dinner lady, with her body badly burned and slumped on the church steps. Despite suffering catastrophic 95% burns, Tracey fought for 12 hours before succumbing to her injuries on Christmas Eve.
In those final hours, displaying immense courage, she provided detectives with crucial details about her attackers. She described them as two black men, around 30 years old, "big and fat," with strong Jamaican accents who spoke in patois. She noted they wore leather caps and leather jackets. Detective Inspector Kate Tomlinson later stated Tracey told officers "as much as she could before she died."
A Baffling Abduction and a National Outcry
The investigation revealed a terrifying sequence of events. Tracey, described by family as "lovely, chatty and fun," had travelled from her new home in Rochdale to her former address at 10 Cattells Grove in Birmingham's Nechells district on 22 December to collect benefit books. After deciding to stay overnight, she returned to the flat the next morning.
At around noon on 23 December, she answered the door to her abductors. Police believe she was then forced into a scruffy yellow Mark II Ford Escort, notable for a cuddly toy stuck to its rear window, and driven 60 miles to Eaton. Her attackers reportedly demanded, "where's Joey?"—a reference to her long-term partner, Joe Kavanagh.
An empty petrol canister was found near the church, and a passer-by noted her clothes were still hot to the touch in the freezing cold. The brutality of the crime, where Tracey was doused in petrol and set alight, sickened experienced detectives and sparked a national storm.
Wall of Silence in a Drug-Related Mystery
Despite a massive investigation involving 2,000 interviews and 1,800 statements, the motive remains shrouded in mystery, though Cheshire Police concede the killing was likely drug-related. Joe Kavanagh was a known drug user who admitted owing money at the time, but he consistently maintained he was not the cause of the attack.
The case has been plagued by a wall of silence. A £30,000 reward remains active, and a 2009 Crimewatch reconstruction yielded 100 new lines of enquiry, including reports that the word "Death" was smeared on a window of the Cattells Grove flat weeks before the murder. In 1995, a Birmingham man was charged with conspiracy to murder, but the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
For Tracey's family, the pain is compounded by a lack of closure. An inquest returned an open verdict, a decision her brother Mark protested loudly. Her daughter Kelly, who was just 11 when her mother was killed, told Crimewatch: "She deserves to be at peace. I don't think she ever will until these people are caught."
Police have never closed the file. In a 2021 appeal, DI Kate Tomlinson reiterated: "Tracey met a violent and horrific death at the hands of her killers... I urge anyone with any information to come forward and help us." The killers, whose DNA profile was obtained years after the crime, continue to evade justice, their identities protected by fear and silence.
