2024-04-18 17:04:29
Now, 30 years later, the murdered woman’s daughter has decided to speak publicly about her loss for the first time, hoping to find the killers who took her mother’s life.
Kelly Hill, 40, has revealed new details about the fateful December 23, 1994, when her mother was abducted, set on fire and left to die in a churchyard. Doctors found that even 94 percent the woman’s body was burned, and after 12 hours her life was extinguished. But before she died, she managed to tell the authorities about her killers.
In the last hours of her life, T. Mertens, who worked at the cafeteria, told the police that she was attacked by two large black men in their 30s with what the victim said was a “Jamaican accent.” She also recalled that the two spoke in a foreign language she did not know before they attacked her.
However, despite enormous efforts to track down the woman’s killers, the perpetrators of this crime were not found and punished. Now T.Mertens’ daughter, K.Hill, has dared to speak publicly, hoping to get justice. She still does not lose hope that the criminals will be imprisoned.
“I can’t even imagine what my mother must have felt when she was burned alive. I hope to get justice in my lifetime, – assured K. Hill. – Yes, there is a beautiful monument on her grave, but 30 years later, we still don’t know who did it. Sometimes it seems that she is simply forgotten.”
Mertens, her boyfriend Joey Kavanagh and the couple’s children Kelly and Daniel, now 41, moved to Rochdale in 1994. December. K. Hill remembers that her mother loved her and her older brother very much. According to her daughter, T. Mertens was quiet and did not like to jump out. In addition, she hardly spent time with her friends.
Hill testified that her mother gave her a chilling warning the day before the attack. “On the eve of her death, she told me, ‘If anything happens to me, go straight to Grandma or Aunt Sharon,'” the daughter testified. – I didn’t mean it then. But now I often wonder if she could have sensed what was in store for her.”
On the morning of December 21, T. Mertens went to Birmingham to pick up documents from the family’s previous home. Although they had been living in Rochdale for several weeks, the woman still had the key to the old house and regularly collected mail at the address.
“She left home around 8am that morning. We were still sleeping, K. Hill remembers. – I only remember the slamming of the closing door. I ran to the window and watched her go. She saw me, turned and waved. That was the last time I saw her.”
Mertens is believed to have planned to return the same day, but in the end she decided to stay with her sister Tina, now 56. On December 23, she returned to her old home. While there, two men knocked on her door. They demanded to know where Joey was.
They then blindfolded the woman, put her in a Ford Escort and drove her around 100km to Cheshire. “They stopped in Congleton and they had petrol cans in the car,” explained the daughter. “They took her to the church and set her on fire sometime in the afternoon.”
Although a passer-by spotted the woman and called an ambulance, her life could not be saved, and she died at around 4pm on Christmas Day. Hill said her father, Mr Kavanagh, told her and her brother that their mother had been injured in a car accident.
She said: “Two days after my mum left, someone knocked on our door. It was late, maybe around 10pm. Dad opened the door. Daniel and I were in the living room and my dad was called into the police car. There he found out what happened. He came back into the room and said, “Your mother has had an accident.”
Hill admitted that the moment her childhood ended when she was just 11 years old: “I had to grow up in an instant. I didn’t know what I needed to do to change my mother. We didn’t have any Christmas presents. I remember washing mine and Daniel’s school uniforms with a toothbrush because we didn’t have a washing machine. No one told me about periods.”
Two years later, Hill and her brother ran away from their father’s house and moved in with other relatives. The woman revealed: “I didn’t have a permanent place, I couldn’t come to terms with our upbringing and finally when I was 15 I got pregnant.” Mr Kavanagh died in 2020. June 6 due to a blood clot in the heart.
Now Hill is trying to regain control of her life and get justice. “When I turned 40, I realized that I could have done many things differently,” the woman regretted. – I’m doing well now. I’m married, I’m studying hairdressing.”
“I wanted to be with my mum so much – it put me in hospital eight or nine times. I still want these people to be punished. But we will do this only if we continue to talk about it and do not let her name be forgotten”, said K. Hill.
She added: “If you have any information, please share it so that my mum gets justice.” The 30-year-old police investigation, which has been used in a documentary, a Crimewatch crime scene reconstruction, and has been the subject of numerous appeals higher authorities, was last updated in 2019.
Cheshire Police detective Kate Tomlinson said on the 25th anniversary of Mertens’ death: “Tracy was brutally and mercilessly murdered. She was incredibly brave and told the police about her attackers just before her death. This information was particularly useful for the researchers.”
The officer continued: “Over the years, we’ve kept updating this investigation, people have come forward with information – I want to thank them for their help. However, despite an extensive investigation, no one has been charged with Tracy’s murder.”
Powered by mirror.co.uk
2024-04-18 17:04:29