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E138: Dana Bradley
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Birthdays are special. They’re a time to celebrate a year of achievements and to look forward to the year to come. Birthdays are a time for family, so when little Dana Bradley was late for her mom’s birthday celebration, her family knew something wasn’t right. And they were correct.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
We are excited to announce that this episode is being sponsored by Zencaster, our very own recording platform. Make sure you listen for more information in the middle of the episode and take a look at our show notes to know exactly why we love Zencaster so much and how you yourself can get a discount.
Childhood Birthday Memories
00:00:18
Speaker
If you have been a long time listener to the show, you know that I am extremely close to my family. We still have huge family get-togethers at every holiday. Sundays are for church and family dinner at my aunt's kitchen table, but birthdays for us are extra special. Having buried two cousins before 8th grade and my brother when I was a junior in high school.
00:00:38
Speaker
We all recognize how important birthdays truly are. What a blessing it is to turn another year older. I've noticed gray hairs starting to pop up in my hairline. Do I despise them? Certainly I do. But do I realize how fortunate I am to be old enough to be turning gray-headed? Yeah, I do. I vividly remember birthdays from my childhood were spent one of two ways.
00:01:00
Speaker
My parents and I would either go to McDonald's Play Place when it was still cool and I would get a Happy Meal and my parents would watch me as I played in the ball pit, went down the various slides, climbed up as far as I could on the net wall, which I'm sure gave my mother a heart attack. The second way we spent birthdays and probably the best way was going to the park.
00:01:19
Speaker
My parents would take me and my brother to Jenkins, Kentucky. We would stop at this old-timey market that sold the most delicious deli food. We would get a rotisserie chicken, a thing of smoked ribs, and the birthday person got to pick out a pie for dessert. I always got chocolate. My mom always got butterscotch. My brother would rotate between butterscotch or pistachio, and my dad got chocolate. And the meringue on these pies were bigger than my head.
00:01:46
Speaker
We would go to the park and have a picnic, just the four of us. My mom would pack mixed pickles that we ate straight from the jar. We'd feed the ducks, we'd swing, and sometimes if we were really lucky, either mom or dad would tell us a story before we would pack up and wait for the adventure on the next birthday.
Dana Bradley's Disappearance
00:02:03
Speaker
Birthdays are special. There are time to celebrate a year of achievements and to look forward to the year to come.
00:02:08
Speaker
Birthdays are a time for family. So when little Dana Bradley was late for her mom's birthday celebration, her family knew something wasn't right and they were correct. This is the story of Dana Bradley.
00:02:55
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold.
00:03:01
Speaker
My name is Allison Williams and my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:03:15
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping to keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:03:32
Speaker
Okay Allison, before we begin, I wanted to take just a second for our favorite part of the week, which is shout out time obviously. Yes, it is absolutely our favorite. So thank you all so much.
00:03:48
Speaker
for the new reviews that we've gotten and a special shout out to our newest Patreon member, Amanda Simmons. Thank you so much for joining our Partners in Crime family, Amanda. And Sleuthhounds, if you are interested in what that means to be a partner in crime with us, please check out our Patreon, all of our current Patreons
00:04:13
Speaker
patrons, I mean. Plus, any new ones who join by July 6th will be entered into a drawing where Allison and I will choose seven lucky partners in crime to receive a card from us, which in and of itself is a victory. I love cards. I love cards. Yes. And a limited edition coffee and cases key chain. And those seven winners will be announced on July 7th. So seven, seven. Mm hmm.
00:04:40
Speaker
So if you want to get plugged into some bonus content, you've already listened to all of our episodes and you're like, hey, I need more. You can just go to patreon.com forward slash coffee and cases. You will have access to some episodes to get to know Maggie and me. Most of our posts there are funny, but we do have some solved cases, some paranormal cases,
00:05:05
Speaker
So whatever floats your boat, we probably have it and for only $5 a month. So go to Patreon today. So patreon.com forward slash coffee and cases. All right, Allison. So with the Patreon spillover, let's go ahead and jump into Dana Bradley's case.
The Investigation Begins
00:05:27
Speaker
Okay, that intro was intense, but I loved your description of birthdays.
00:05:31
Speaker
Thank you. I love birthdays. I know most people don't, but I do. I would tie. Oh, me too. Oh, my God. The place is closed now.
00:05:42
Speaker
Yeah, this place is closed now and their pies were so so good Takes me back But Allison I think that you would agree that when we're trying to decide on a case it can be really hard to pick just one to cover because there are so many deserving cases and I often find myself feeling guilty that I can't research and I just talk about all of them all at one time and
00:06:07
Speaker
Right. And that was me this week. I went back and forth on probably three or four cases and they've been added to the list of ones I eventually want to get to. But for this week, I really felt drawn to Dana's case. And so I felt that she deserved some coverage today. She doesn't have a whole lot out there.
00:06:31
Speaker
Right. And these are the cases, like we said, and especially coming off of probably one of the larger cases that we've covered on the show. We're getting back now, even though we had, you know, exclusive content for that bigger case, it is these smaller cases that I'm with you, Maggie. I really feel like they need our coverage of it and I think would benefit the most.
00:07:00
Speaker
Yeah. Dana Bradley was born on July 24th in 1967. At the time of this case, she was 14 years old and living in St. John's, Newfoundland. Yeah. And I don't think we have ever been to Newfoundland here on Coffee and Cases. No. And so I did a little research of her area. I think this is probably going to show maybe just how
00:07:30
Speaker
much of my education I've forgotten, but I actually had forgotten that Newfoundland was a province of Canada. Don't let our Canadian listeners hear you say that Maggie. I know. But for some reason I pictured it like its own. I knew that it was near like
00:07:48
Speaker
in that area, but for some reason I pictured it at its own little place. I didn't remember from ninth grade geography that Newfoundland is the eastern most province of Canada. I picture it near like Iceland or Greenland. Greenland? Yeah, it is. It's near Greenland. Yeah. Oh, okay.
00:08:10
Speaker
Which isn't really green, so... Right, it's ice. That's why I said Iceland at first, yeah. I always have to remind myself that Greenland is ice and Iceland is green. Right, the opposite of what the name states.
00:08:22
Speaker
But St. John's is the capital and largest city of this Canadian province, which is actually Newfoundland and Labrador, which I wonder if that's where the dogs come from. So now I need to know somebody tell me. The city spans 172-ish square miles and is the easternmost city in North America, excluding things that would be in Greenland, which I thought was neat.
00:08:47
Speaker
It has been on a map I read as early as 1519. Oh, wow. Yeah, and that makes it one of the oldest cities in North America. It was officially incorporated as a city in 1888. The population of St. John's is a little over 200,000 people. It is the 20th largest metropolitan area in Atlantic Canada.
00:09:14
Speaker
And it has a really rich history. It's played a pretty significant role in the seven years war. They played a role in the American revolutionary war, which I thought was neat. And in the war of 1812. And this is a pretty large city then over 200,000 people. Yeah. And that was, I can't remember. Oh, as of February, 2022. So that is a recent number there.
00:09:40
Speaker
So Dana grew up in this town with her family and she was a really great student. She worked really hard to maintain good grades. She wanted to do the best that she could at school. She was really passionate about art, which is definitely not my strong suit, so good for her.
00:09:59
Speaker
As any normal teen though, and I think I identify with this, so I'm sure that you will too. Dana was trying really hard to find a balance with Tom with her family and Tom spent with her friends. And we all remember that can be a very hard thing to do. Tis a struggle, even now with work and family. Yeah.
00:10:22
Speaker
I mean, yeah, even now as a 30 year old, I find myself, or 31 years old, I find myself struggling with that. And at 14, you know, you want to be cool and be with your friends, but they're still a part of you that.
00:10:33
Speaker
wants to be with your family. Right. But on December 14th, 1991, Dana had come up with what she thought was the perfect plan. She had come up with the most brilliant way to split her time between that pool to spend time with her friends and the need to spend time with her family. She left school that day at around 250 and she immediately went to meet up with her friends at a local convenience store.
00:10:57
Speaker
She then with her friends made plans to go to another friend named Penny's house. So after school ends, she's going with her friends to Penny's house. Okay. Dana knew that she could only stay for a few hours with her friends because it was her mom's birthday, as I said, in the intro and her family had plans to celebrate her mom's birthday.
00:11:22
Speaker
So Dana, being the responsible person she was, called her mom around five to tell her that she was going to walk to the bus stop to catch the bus to come home and that she would be home around 5.30. So she spent a pretty good amount of time with her friends, like three-ish hours or so. Mm-hmm. But still like, you know, would be getting home early enough to spend plenty of time with her family too.
00:11:45
Speaker
Oh yeah, getting home at 5.30 gave her plenty of time to get home before the birthday celebrations really started. But sadly Allison, that phone call was the last time anyone that we know of would speak with Dana.
00:12:01
Speaker
So Dana walked away from her friend's house looking forward to the celebration that lay ahead for her mom's birthday because I'm sure there was cake and who doesn't look forward to cake? And ice cream, yeah. Allison, are you a edges piece of cake or do you want a middle piece of cake?
00:12:23
Speaker
I used to be an edges piece of cake, but the older I get, the less I like all the icing. I want as little icing as possible, especially on a store-bought cake. If it's a homemade cake, give me all the icing. I'm the same way. I'm much more of a cake person than an icing person.
00:12:45
Speaker
From everything that I read, she, like so many times before, waited at the bus stop on Topsail Road. And she hadn't, from what I can gather, timed the arrival for the bus just right. So she was waiting for a little bit before it was expected to arrive. And I feel like that's pretty normal for people who typically ride the bus because the schedules aren't exact.
00:13:09
Speaker
Yeah, like my little sleuthound when she would ride the bus to school, she would have to go outside and sometimes she'd be waiting five minutes. Sometimes she'd be waiting about 15 minutes because you would never know when it was going to get there.
Discovery of Dana's Body
00:13:24
Speaker
Yeah, I always hated riding the bus. I was not meant for that life. It was not for me.
00:13:34
Speaker
As she waited, though, two brothers, Harry and John, I actually read because, you know, this is around Christmas. They were other owners were working at a Christmas tree farm type place, selling live Christmas trees. Yeah. Which isn't, I mean, I don't know, but I feel like that's not a huge thing in the United States. I feel like we all have
00:13:58
Speaker
fake trees, plastic trees, which I have to have one because I start decorating for Christmas the day after Halloween. So if I had a real tree, it would be dead before Christmas. Yeah. Yeah. But they're on break at this particular little Christmas tree place and they noticed Dana at the bus stop.
00:14:16
Speaker
We can only assume that Dana grew tired of waiting. I also have zero patience, so I feel like I would as well. Because the brothers, both of them, reported seeing Dana stick her thumb out to hitchhike. Oh no, Dana. No. And I feel like that's such a common thing during this time, but I think we have covered so many cases where people have met their end through hitchhiking. Yeah.
00:14:47
Speaker
But she does stick her thumb out to hitchhike. Harry, one of those brothers, reported to a newspaper called the Telegram that Dana appeared to be waiting on the bus but stuck her thumb out to hitchhike. And according to him, Dana didn't wait long before a car stopped to give her a ride. So if you're hitchhiking, do you like permanently keep your thumb out or you only take your thumb out when a car is passing by?
00:15:09
Speaker
I would say only when a car is passing by, otherwise your arm would get tired. So there you go. She doesn't wait long. A car stops to give her a ride. The two brothers noted that it was a light colored car. They said it was either a 1973 to 1976 Dodge Dart or a Plymouth Valiant. And it pulled up beside her. They did note that the driver was male and that the car had a broken driver side door.
00:15:40
Speaker
So very easily. Identifiable. Yeah, identifiable. They said that it was very, very rusty. But because hitchhiking was such a common thing, they didn't think to get the license plate number. They watched Dana hop in and the car drive off. And that would be the last confirmed sighting we had of Dana.
00:16:04
Speaker
and let me also just say that I hope if anything ever happened to me and I had to hitch a ride with somebody and then I wasn't seen again that whoever saw me get in would be like these brothers and be a car aficionado and know exactly what kind of car I was getting into because I would be like uh it was like gray-ish silver-ish
00:16:27
Speaker
mid-sized. That's how I always am. People's like, what color is your car? And I'm like, a grayish blue. I don't know. I know. Yeah. But I do think they make cars now really weird colors. That's not like a tan car or a red car. They're like all of these kind of in-between colors. That is true. But yeah, it shocks me every time. We'll be driving down the road and Rodney will be like,
00:16:52
Speaker
I'll say, Oh, who did you just wave at? And he's like, Oh, didn't you recognize that was so and so, or he'll hear a noise. And he's like, Oh, so and so is coming because he knows what their vehicle sounds like. I am not like that.
00:17:07
Speaker
not calling Rodney this but that's like our dogs they recognize because you know now because now it's summer and I'm home more so our dogs recognize when Anthony's car pulls into the driveway they go to the door. Yeah so let's hope if we ever disappear that whoever sees it knows cars.
00:17:26
Speaker
Right. Dana's parents, though, weren't too concerned when Dana was late for the birthday party celebration. So much like the case that we spent the last couple of weeks talking about Allison, she'd probably been late before. And so they were like, she'll be here in a couple of minutes. Right. Because, you know, she was with her friends, so she probably just lost track of time.
00:17:48
Speaker
But despite all of these realizations they tried to make, her parents would end up going out to look for her. And when the search turned up empty handed and Dana wasn't home waiting for the family when they returned because they leave to go look and they're like, if we don't find her, she will probably be at the house when we get back and be like, where the heck were you guys? Did you start the party without me? Right, right.
00:18:13
Speaker
But when they get there and they, or they've looked and they return home, she isn't there. And so the family filed a missing persons report with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, which is a word, let me tell you. So it's at this point that the search for Dana really started because, you know, at first it's just the family and they're looking at their share. She'll turn up somewhere.
00:18:44
Speaker
But now we are adding in this missing persons report. So things get more serious flyers depicting her little face are put up all over town. Her picture was put into the local newspaper. Thankfully, those two brothers were
00:19:00
Speaker
So observant that they were able to give a really great description of what she was wearing. They were even able to give a description and a composite sketch was made of the man that picked Dana up from the bus stop. Wow.
00:19:17
Speaker
Yeah, so we have a lot early on to go on. Ground searches took place, but time and time again, search teams returned with no news on Dana. And I feel like sadly, even though the descriptions were so detailed, like about the car, about this guy,
00:19:36
Speaker
I mean, I don't know what the population was back then, but my guess is this city didn't like boom overnight. It was probably a larger city back then, which makes it even harder, like a needle in a haystack. Yeah. And we'll talk about that a few times with this case, because there's just a lot of details that could be a lot of people or a lot of things.
00:20:02
Speaker
And I think that really hurt the search for who's responsible for what happened to her because there's so many possibilities of who it.
00:20:13
Speaker
could have been, I guess. Gotcha. But finally, on December 18th, there was a breakthrough in Dana's case.
Theories and Speculations
00:20:20
Speaker
A man named Dale Smith and his family had decided that it was time to get their Christmas tree and they didn't want to get one that was pre-cut. They wanted to, what is that movie where he like plants his own, oh, it's Christmas vacation, right? Yeah. Yeah, they go. It has like his own Christmas tree farm. Yeah.
00:20:41
Speaker
So they wanted to be like that, and they wanted to go out into the woods and find a Christmas tree farm, or just not even a farm, but just wanted to go out into the woods and find the perfect Christmas tree. And so they go to this really remote area called Maddox Cave, and it was a small community just south of Dana's hometown, St. John's, to find the perfect
00:21:06
Speaker
Griswold Christmas tree. Sadly, though, and all of my research, it seemed like this area, while remotely wooded, was also a place where people would just dump their trash. Oh, that's sad. Like refrigerators, bags of trash, just whatever. And so this is where they are in their search for this Christmas tree.
00:21:38
Speaker
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00:21:59
Speaker
She clicks it and that's it. We're ready to hit the record button and start. So even when you have guests who aren't tech savvy, all they have to do is click the link to join the recording. Zencaster is an all-in-one podcast production suite that gives you studio quality audio and video without needing to have any technological background knowledge. Once you're finished recording, the magic of Zencaster continues.
00:22:23
Speaker
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00:22:40
Speaker
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00:23:13
Speaker
Okay, so we're picking out a Christmas tree with the Smith family. Yeah, somewhat trashy wooded area. And so the dad Dale is wandering along looking for the tree when he notices footprints in the snow. And he's like, huh?
00:23:35
Speaker
This is weird. It's kind of a remote area. It's cold out. Right. You know, unless someone's like us and they're looking for a tree in the middle of the woods, why would there be footprints in the snow? So he looks further and these footprints in the snow are leading to what he thought was a mannequin. Oh no. Right, because people dumped their trash. So maybe someone dumped a mannequin in this area. All these people out there thinking that so many people have mannequins to dump.
00:24:03
Speaker
Nobody has mannequins to dump. And like, yes, who, unless you're a seamstress or you own a department store, what normal person is going to have a mannequin? That's it. Right. Your occupation is seamstress or department store owner. That's it. Exactly. But he thinks it's a mannequin. Once he gets closer to it, he realizes it is actually not a mannequin at all. Sadly, it was the body of Dana.
00:24:32
Speaker
and not wanting his kids to see the body. He is like, all right, I'm not finding anything good here. Let's try somewhere else. And he takes his family back to the car. They drive away, and he goes straight away to notify the police. Yes, that is good that he protected his kids from seeing that. I know, because that would be very haunting. Yeah.
00:24:55
Speaker
Like so many of the cases that we have recently talked about, Dana's body was found in a very peculiar position. So many people described her as being in a burial position. Which what do you think of when you think of that? I would think of somebody laying in a casket like I'm like I would think my arms like in an X over my chest.
00:25:25
Speaker
That's what I think too, like you're on your back, your hands are maybe down by your side or over your chest. So that's what I'm assuming they mean by burial position. What is strange though. Okay. So that's weird in and of itself, which to me says, right. She didn't naturally fall that way or whatever. What is even more strange though, is the fact that her school books were tucked under her arms. Like she was carrying them.
00:25:54
Speaker
Okay, that's weird. And her face appeared to have been cleaned. It wasn't dirty like her hands or anything like that. So it appears to have been cleaned. Okay, this is telling me things about the mentality of the person who committed the crime then.
00:26:14
Speaker
Yeah, and since we have talked about kind of odd positioning of bodies, I was curious if this type of thing is common because we've talked about it so much. Like staging? Yeah, like staging the body or the crime scene. What is the difference between staging and posing?
00:26:32
Speaker
So from what I read, I believe that posing is just the body. Like you would pose somebody for a picture. And staging involves the crime scene as well as the body. Okay. So making things try to appear to be different than what they actually were. Okay.
00:26:55
Speaker
And so since we have talked about this idea of staging and posing so much, I was curious how common this is. So I found an article called the rarity of unusual dispositions of victim's body staging and posing, so promising title.
00:27:12
Speaker
And I read that the act of leaving a victim's body in an unusual position is a conscious criminal act by the offender for several reasons. They either want to mess with the investigation, shock the person that's finding the body, or like the investigators of the crime scene, or they have some type of weird perverted pleasure in changing the position of this body.
00:27:40
Speaker
I will say in, and I want to hear more about this article, but I will say in the articles that we've covered previously, I think of the Bill and Peggy Stevenson case with the thwarting the investigation because they moved things from like almost every room. I think of the shock of the finder and the investigator when I think of
00:28:07
Speaker
the Karen Swift case in Tennessee when her body was found in the graveyard in like a sexual position. But in this case, for some reason, it makes me think of the last one of the perverted pleasure, because there's something weird. It wouldn't be shocking or thwart. It might thwart the investigation to clean something, but it's not necessarily shocking to have her look like she's carrying books.
00:28:36
Speaker
Right. We'll talk about it, but I feel it almost seems more personal, like almost an act of remorse that you're cleaning your face and trying to make her appear like she could just wake up and go to school the next day. Right. Exactly.
00:28:56
Speaker
But that article said, quote, the unusual position concepts opposing and staging a murder victim have been documented thoroughly and have been accepted by the courts as a definable phenomenon, end quote. It goes on to say that there were from like 1981 to 2000, a little over 5,000 cases that were documented and only 1.3% of victims were left in an unusual position.
00:29:25
Speaker
Only point three of those were posed and only point one percent of those the. Scene and everything had been staged so even though we talk about it a lot it really isn't something that happened a lot.
00:29:46
Speaker
The article said that almost all the victims and the offenders in the staged murders were white with victims being mainly female and that the female body stand out as victims who were posed, staged, or left in unusual positions.
00:30:06
Speaker
So this article, just like we talked about, said that staging or posing the body is very much like stabbing someone to death because it reveals a lot about how personal the crime was to the murderer. Right. Right.
00:30:28
Speaker
And so for me, that's why I think her crime points to one that is maybe like she knows them or it's like a crime of passion or something like that. So they did find Dana's body and they did an autopsy. It revealed that Dana died from a skull fracture as a result of repeated blows to the head with a blunt instrument. That instrument from all that I've read has never been found.
00:30:59
Speaker
Her time of death is thought to be consistent with the day she disappeared. So they think she died the same day she was picked up in that car. Which makes me think if it was this person who picked her up because of the like arranging her body like that, I wouldn't think that it would necessarily be personal. That's what's weird, which I guess if you have some sort of like
00:31:27
Speaker
perverted pleasure, then it doesn't necessarily have to be somebody you know. Or I'm wondering if maybe even this was their first crime that they committed and they felt really guilty. And so they kind of staged it to make it look like she was just sleeping or something. Right, right. Like the Dardine family murders where he put them all into bed. Yeah, that was really
00:31:55
Speaker
Yeah, that was dark. That case was really sad. Yeah. All right. So did they, did he do, I said he, I don't know if it's a male or female. I just said he cause the driver of the car, but was there any sign of like sexual assault or anything like that?
00:32:16
Speaker
So the RCMP did not reveal, they still haven't, if Dana was sexually assaulted, but many people believe that she was, but there's nothing official that says that she was. Okay. So the RCMP conducted what was at the time the most expensive and exhaustive murder investigation in Canadian history with Dana Bradley's case. Oh, wow.
00:32:42
Speaker
I read that hundreds of people were interviewed. Thousands of tips were received and followed up on. The resources used on Dana's case were unprecedented for the time. And I read because the last that we know of Dana being alive, she's getting into this random person's car. Right.
00:33:10
Speaker
And so that was really a jumping off point for the investigators. They thought, and which I would agree, that if they can find this car, then they can find who killed Dana potentially. Oh yeah, I would definitely agree with that. And I read that some article said 800, some article said over a thousand vehicles were actually searched for clues
00:33:38
Speaker
in regards to Dana's case, but again, nothing turned up. Wow. But you know, kind of like the curtains in the Amy Mahalovic case, I think a car where you have to open the driver's side door differently because the door's broken would be a very memorable vehicle.
00:34:02
Speaker
Right. I would think people would say, oh yeah, that's Sally's car. I remember it because she has to roll the window down and open it from the outside or whatever to be able to get out. Yeah, you would think.
00:34:16
Speaker
It was just like, this reminds me so much of the Angela Hammond case. Remember where she was, she was on the phone with her boyfriend on the payphone. And there was a guy who was like looking around his truck and she was nervous enough that she described the truck to her boyfriend. And then he hear being kidnapped. So he rushes to the scene and he sees this like identifiable truck that had like the fishing mural.
00:34:45
Speaker
on the back of it. And then they can't ever find it. It reminds me of that. Like something so different that you would have to remember it, but they looked through thousands of vehicles. They question up to, I think it was close to like 300 potential people were brought in and questioned, but they received no leads on Dana's case.
00:35:15
Speaker
frustrating. It wasn't until 1986 when the chief investigator received a really odd note that we have a sort of breakthrough or at least renewed interest in Dana's case. Okay. Weird notes. I'm all about those. Yes. We love the weird notes. In 86 the chief investigator got a note that said
00:35:44
Speaker
that the man who killed Dana was named David Simerton and he was an ex-convict. So they're like, oh, we might know who killed her. When David was confronted, he actually admitted to killing Dana. So the investigators are like,
00:36:02
Speaker
Okay, great. That was easy. All right. Yeah, that was easy. We finally have a confession. The family finally can get some much needed rest and answers. So let's do this. We've got somebody that's admitted to the crime. Right. But
00:36:17
Speaker
He said later that he was coerced into confessing because he was held in the questioning room for 18 hours. And basically, just like in the cases from last week, just said whatever that the police wanted him to say so he could get out. We've talked about police coercion a lot lately or the potential of it.
00:36:44
Speaker
Right. And I don't know if this is something the United States does, but he was actually sentenced to two years in prison for public mischief in regards to that false confession. Do we do that here? No, I didn't know. I've never heard of anything like that. So I need somebody to tell me, is this a common thing in other places? So that's left with us wondering who killed Dana Bradley.
00:37:13
Speaker
Yeah. If he didn't, then who? Right. And we, even though we don't have a lot to go on, we have a lot of possible theories as to who is responsible for the death of Dana. And unlike the last couple of cases, we are allowed to talk about, um, what we think happened, um, because it's not as, I guess, controversial.
00:37:42
Speaker
Yeah, as what the last case was. Okay. Okay. So theory number one is a man named Thomas Carey. In 2014, we had a man named Robert come forward saying that he had actually witnessed Dana's death at the hands of this man, Thomas. Okay. Robert said that he and his four year old brother were actually with Thomas
00:38:11
Speaker
on the day that Dana was last seen hitchhocking across from the Christmas tree plant or farm or whatever and 1981. Okay. He said that they stopped and picked Dana up and Dana notices the boys in the back. So she immediately, you know, they could tell felt a little more comfortable because there was kids in the car. Right. I wouldn't. And so she's, yeah, me too.
00:38:37
Speaker
for sure because I'm like, okay, well, this guy can't be too crazy if he has kids in a score. So she makes conversation with him and Thomas asks for her address and she gives it to him. But instead of pulling over at her house, he just kept dropping and dropping and dropping and dropping and dropping until he got to a wooded area. And then he pulled over.
00:39:05
Speaker
So Robert told police that Thomas made some advances toward Dana and she shot all those down. He got angry because she rejected those advances and attacked her. She fought back, but he did end up killing Dana.
00:39:28
Speaker
Okay. Well, can we prove that this Thomas guy had a vehicle that matches the one that the brother saw? So there's actually a lot of stipulation around this idea of Thomas's vehicle. There's a Facebook page that many in Dana's family say started with good intentions, but has really just
00:39:57
Speaker
become a place of rumor and pure say, but there has been a lot of, a lot surrounding the vehicle. And one article that I read called the murder of Dana Bradley, Robert said that Thomas hit Dana several times over the head with a tire iron. And I'm not really sure what that is. Is that like, I think it's like what you would, um, use to like, take their lug nuts. Okay. Yeah.
00:40:27
Speaker
Okay, so there's and if that's the case, there's the object for the blunt force trauma. He said that Thomas actually put Dana into the trunk of the car and they drove her body to Maddox Cove.
00:40:41
Speaker
Robert was the one who put Dana Schoolbooks in her arms. And he said that he did that hoping that she would just wake up and be able to go to school the next day. Oh my gosh. How old is this Robert? Do we know? Um, I never read anywhere where his actual age at the time was ever stated, but I'm going to seem relatively young. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I think that it's very heartbreaking to me. Right.
00:41:12
Speaker
Robert said that after he places the books around Dana's body or in her arms, I mean, that Thomas took the car to the property that was owned by a family friend at Whitless Bay and just left the car there.
00:41:33
Speaker
So we've had a lot of interest, as you can imagine, in searching this area to try to find this car. Right. And it wasn't until 2016. So. Wow. When they're looking for it was in 2000. Yes. That a search for the car. Yeah. So this happened in what 81? Is that what I said? Yes. And we don't search for the car until 2016. Okay. Well, that's a little, little bit of time there.
00:42:04
Speaker
He's a little late. So the investigation isn't for nothing. They do find a few vehicles in the area. Sadly though, too much time had passed and no usable evidence was found because the cars were too deteriorated.
00:42:24
Speaker
because, well, yes. Right. This kind of like shocked me that Robert said he came forward in 2011, but the RCMP didn't believe his case against
00:42:42
Speaker
Thomas. Why? And to this day, well, he said that a lot of the information he has differs from the evidence that the RCMP was able to collect. So they didn't believe him in 2011. And to this day, they still don't believe him. Oh.
00:43:04
Speaker
I did read briefly in one article that there was DNA that was taken from the scene. And that DNA was tested against Thomas, but it didn't match. Hmm.
00:43:19
Speaker
So even though we don't have like a positive DNA match, many still believe that it was Thomas. Actually, through this Facebook page, people have fought tirelessly to have the vehicle further tested. In 2016, the admin of the page actually hired a forensic team to
00:43:45
Speaker
dive into these vehicles, so to speak, but that's where we find that no evidentiary value was found. Theory two is David Summerton. We know that in 1986, David confessed to the murder of Dana. He said that he was forced into this confession, but that makes me question
00:44:12
Speaker
what he could have gotten out of a false confession like the description of him earlier was ex-convict correct right so if you're an ex-convict it's not like you're looking for a lesser sentence or some type of plea deal or something yeah so what do you get out of this false confession other than getting to leave the interrogation room i guess right but
00:44:42
Speaker
You've been through this whole rigmarole before. You know how the system works. Right. And all that happened to you was you got two years of jail time for this false confession. So like you didn't really gain anything. Right. So I guess my question with him is could it have maybe not been false at all. Right. The third theory
00:45:11
Speaker
is that Dana was killed by a stranger from out of town. Like we talked about Allison, we have covered so, so many cases on coffee and cases where people hitchhike. It wasn't uncommon during that time.
00:45:29
Speaker
And so could she just have been a victim of opportunity? You know, buses run late, perhaps not wanting to be late for her mother's birthday celebration. She maybe had been late before and her mom was like, if you're late this time, you're in trouble. So she's like, oh, I better hitchhike. So maybe she decides to hitchhike her way home.
00:45:51
Speaker
So does this mean that she was just a crime of opportunity? Saging her body would throw off the investigators. And if this was an experienced killer, he or she would know that they would know what to do to kind of throw off the investigation. If they, to go a step further, could the staging of her body been like a signature move rather than how we talked about one of her morse?
00:46:22
Speaker
So maybe this wasn't their first crime and this was kind of what they did to stage the body. So this makes me wonder, did similar cases to Dana's happen in or around that area? Were there other cases with staging similar to this at that time? Interesting.
00:46:45
Speaker
And theory number four is that Dana was killed by someone she knew. In theory three, I talked about Dana's body being arranged in a certain way as perhaps a signature about her killer. But instead of it being a signature, is it possible that this was a sign of remorse? To me, it sounds that Dana's body was arranged with care. I mean, her face was even cleaned. Yeah.
00:47:11
Speaker
Yeah. Who's going to take time to do that? That's pretty significant detail. She was wearing her school clothes with her books tucked neatly at her side and at the time of her murder authorities mentioned that they thought the care taken with Dana's body was a significant sign of remorse but if Dana knew her killer wouldn't investigators have been able to quickly identify who it was?
00:47:36
Speaker
We do have that eyewitness account of her getting into the car with someone. This is the last person potentially that we know of at least to see her alive that day. So surely if this was someone she knew police would have been able to find this vehicle and potentially the killer. Okay, here are my thoughts. I'm with you on theory four.
00:48:02
Speaker
I while the act of placing her body in that particular position does seem to me to indicate more concern than a normal just random murder. I think you're right. I think that if this were committed by someone she knew then once
00:48:21
Speaker
people in her family and friends group heard the description of the vehicle, they would be like, oh, that's Billy's or oh, that's Sarah's and that didn't happen. With the stranger from out of town, I feel like the fact that this area was known to locals as a place to dump the trash, it would have to be somebody who was local. So they would know that, that detail to take her
00:48:47
Speaker
there. I mean, this was a place where you could have a large bundle of something and people wouldn't look at you strangely for driving out there. With theory two, okay, I get that somebody said it was him and then he confessed. But unfortunately, on the show, we talk a lot about people who give false confessions who really had nothing to do with the crime. And even though
00:49:13
Speaker
There isn't the DNA evidence that we would want for theory number one with Thomas Carey. In my mind, that is the strongest theory. I don't know what details RCMP gave to the public, but I feel like when Robert came forward, all of his details are so specific to what we know happened to Dana, that in my mind, it just makes sense that he is telling the truth.
00:49:44
Speaker
Dana's devotion to her family and friends was unmatched for a 14-year-old. She was brilliant. She was kind. She thoughtfully planned her day to spend time with everyone who was important to her. Sadly, someone saw fit to end her life in a brutal way. Sleuthhounds, week after week, we talk about people who had the world at their fingertips. All of them we could describe as brilliant, kind, funny. All of them were gone too soon.
00:50:09
Speaker
Each week we plead for you to think back and remember anything from that time. Did you see something suspicious? Did you see anyone with a little girl fitting Dana's description around this time? Did anyone inadvertently give you details that could lead to an arrest in Dana's case?
Call for Information and Conclusion
00:50:24
Speaker
If you have information about Dana's murder, you should contact the RCMP at 709-772-5400 or call the Anonymous Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 1-800-222-8477.
00:50:42
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
00:51:12
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
00:51:33
Speaker
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