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'I can't let go until I know who killed my mum'

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Tracey Mertens' murder remains unsolved 30 years on

The daughter of a woman brutally murdered 30 years ago when she was set on fire in a churchyard has said she will never truly rest until the killers are found.

Kelly Hill was 11 when her mum Tracey Mertens walked out the door on 23 December 1994 to pick up some documents from their former home in Birmingham. She never saw her again.

Tracey was bundled into a car by two men and driven to Eaton, near Congleton in Cheshire, where she was doused in petrol. She died the following day.

"I can't let go until I know why and what's happened - and someone gets in court for it," Mrs Hill said.

"It's just like she's forgotten about, but I can't forget."

Ms Hill, now 41, said she remembered hearing the door of their new house in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, close as her mum left.

"I woke up and I ran over to the window and she was just getting in the car," she said.

"I knocked on the window and I waved to her and she waved back. That was the last time I saw her."

The family, including her brother Daniel, who was 10 at the time, and father Joey, had moved up north that winter.

Tracey had gone to pick up the benefits book she had left at her former home in Nechells, Birmingham, when two men turned up at the door.

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Tracey doted on her two children, Kelly and Daniel

The following details are known because despite the extensive injuries Tracey had suffered, she was able to tell police what happened in the last hours of her life.

The men asked "where's Joey?" before bundling her into a yellow Ford Escort.

She was driven 60 miles to isolated Christ Church, where she was set on fire in the grounds.

Tracey described her attackers as two black men with Birmingham accents, but who also spoke Jamaican Patois.

Tracey died the following day, on Christmas Eve.

Image shows a church with a stone tower and arched windows with a black and gold clock with reads 12:35. The sky is grey and cloudy.
Christ Church, in Eaton, Cheshire, was the scene of the attack on Tracey

Christmas used to be a happy time for Kelly and her family.

"I remember her on Christmas morning - my mum would always go downstairs first and would make me and Daniel wait at the top of the stairs," she said.

"[She'd say] 'I've got to check if he's been' and we'd wait there patiently."

That has changed now.

"Every Christmas it just breaks me again and again and I don't know how to stop it," said Kelly, who lives in Lancashire.

"I don't know how to stop feeling like this. I just wish it was a dream.

"I just wish I could wake up again 30 years ago so I could tell her not to go."

A woman looks directly into the camera. She is wearing a long sleeved grey top and has long blonde hair, parted in the middle. She is not smiling and her blue eyes look sad. She has a nose ring and small hoop earrings.
Kelly, now 41, has spent most of her life not knowing why her mum was killed

Mark Edwardson, a former BBC journalist, reported on the case at the time.

Thirty years on, it is one case he cannot forget.

"There are times when the job really questions your strength of character actually -and this case of Tracey Mertens' was for me one of those moments," he said.

Mark followed the story over the years and interviewed Tracey's sister, Sharon Howarth, 20 years after her murder.

"I just remember that day sitting in that lounge with her and she was just in tears at times and sobbing and finding it difficult to speak because she was so emotional."

He said he found it astonishing anyone with information would not to go the police.

A man with brown hair and a slight smile is stood outside on what appears to be a bridge with scenery behind him - a hill on the right and fields on the left. He is wearing a grey thick jacket with a Helly Hanson logo on it. He wears a white shirt, a blue jumper over it and his glasses are hanging on the collar of his jumper.
Mark Edwardson has covered the case throughout his career

"If anybody had seen that and knew what had happened and kept their mouth shut - I think that's disgraceful to watch the level of emotion, trauma on display from a close member of Tracey's family, to then watch it and think 'no I'm not going to say anything'."

Police have received hundreds of pieces of information on the case over the years, including DNA evidence, but none has led to a conviction.

Listen on BBC Sounds to the Murder in the Churchyard episode of Secret Staffordshire

Det Insp Nigel Reid, of Cheshire Police, said the 30th anniversary was "a time that is understandably still very difficult for her family".

"Tracey met a violent and horrific death at the hands of her killers," he added.

"She was so brave and told detectives as much as she could before she died.

"Although extensive enquiries have been completed, including arrests, forensic reviews and CPS advice, to date no-one has been convicted in relation to the death of Tracey, and the file remains open."

Kelly is left with nothing but memories.

"I'd rather not talk about it all, but if I don't, who else is going to?" she said.

"I don't want to die without knowing what happened to my mum."

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