The Story
On March 15, 1989, the lifeless body of a seventeen year old girl named Tracey Kirkpatrick was found lying in a pool of blood at her job. To this day, her brutal murder remains unsolved. No arrests were ever made. No motive was ever determined. She was only minutes away from going home on a slow Wednesday night in the quiet town of Frederick, MD.
Bizarre circumstances have swirled around Tracey’s murder for decades. Rumors of a botched crime scene soon spread. The security guard who found Tracey’s body that night was the son of a former sheriff. A confession was made to a hotline in Las Vegas. A psychic located in Massachusetts was contacted with case information by a mysterious man. On more than one occasion, Tracey made cryptic comments about her own death. One detective is convinced he solved the case in 1994. Another detective disagreed. In the vacuum of answers throughout the years, the court of public opinion has tried to fill in the gaps.
Tracey was an advocate for those in need since childhood. She was known as a kind and quiet girl who loved helping people and animals. She was strong-willed and insisted on putting herself through college. She worked multiple jobs and was focused on reaching her dream of becoming a lawyer for those who couldn’t afford one. She was only months away from graduating high school and setting out on her bright future. But she walked into the back room of aileen’s Ladies Sportswear in Frederick and didn’t come out alive.
Her horrific murder shocked the entire Frederick community. Nothing like this had ever happened there. As time went on, the small town grew into one of the largest cities in Maryland, and the memory of Tracey has faded. But her family has never stopped looking for justice. They want an answer to the question that has haunted them since 1989… “Why?”