CASE SUMMARY

Two days before Christmas in 1994, the unassuming village of Eaton in Cheshire was thrust into the national spotlight, when a local resident came across a woman on the steps of the village church that had been doused in petrol and set alight.

Tracy Mertens spent the final 12 agonising hours alive describing her ordeal before sadly passing away having sustained severe burns to over 90% of her body.

She had been abducted over 60 miles away, bundled in to a car by two men and then blindfolded before being set on fire.

One crucial detail the victim managed to give investigators was that her killers stated they were looking for her long term partner, Joey Kavanagh – a known drug addict whose financial debt is said to have prompted the family’s recent move to Rochdale.