034 - The Murder of Dana Bradley

Trace Evidence

Steven Pacheco

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2018

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fourteen year old Dana Bradley has gone to a friends house after school on December 14th, 1981 in St. John's, Newfoundland. She couldn't stay for too long, as it was her mother's birthday that night and she needed to get home. She planned to walk to a nearby bus stop and arrive home by 5:30pm.

When 5:30 came and went, and Dana hadn't returned home, her mother and stepfather became concerned and began making calls. When they could find no sign of Dana, they reported her missing. Search efforts for Dana came up empty, though two witnesses came forward and reported seeing Dana hitchhiking the day before and ultimately getting in to a sedan, either a Dodge or a Plymouth, with extensive body damage and rust.

Four days later, Dana's body was discovered in a remote, wooded location known as Maddox Cove. For the next thirty-six years, the search for Dana's murderer would lead investigators through thousands of interviews, hundreds of suspects and nearly one thousand vehicle searches. One man would come forward and confess to committing the murder, though he would later recant and no evidence could be found to prove it. Another man would come forward and say he witnessed the murder, though his story was inconsistent and contrary to evidence.

Many theories have risen up in the past three and a half decades, resulting in one of the most complex, expensive and complicated cases in the history of Canada. Who murdered Dana Bradley? Was it the man who once confessed to the crime? Did she fall victim to a suspected serial killer? Was a witness present who saw her murdered by a later convicted pedophile? Could it have been a stranger passing through and looking for trouble? Or is it possible that Dana was murdered by someone she knew and trusted?

Join host Steven Pacheco as he attempts to unravel what has been dubbed the most expensive and exhaustive investigation in Canadian history in Episode 34 - The Murder of Dana Bradley.

For more information please visit: https://www.trace-evidence.com
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Music Courtesy of: "Lost Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Sources: https://www.trace-evidence.com/dana-bradley

Transcript

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0:00.0	Throughout every step of your career, your trail has blazed brightly.
0:04.8	Don't let a busy schedule stall your progress.
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0:23.8	Unlock your career at Warwick Business School, search WBS.ac.uk
0:40.4	Dana Bradley was 14 years old and living in St. John's on the large Canadian island of Newfoundland
0:47.6	with her mother Don and stepfather, Jeff Levitz.
0:52.2	Your average teenage girl, she loved spending time with her friends, looking at and creating art,
0:58.4	and excelled in her studies, where she had recently begun as a ninth grader.
1:03.7	Her future lay open before her, and the possibilities for someone of Dana's talent and aptitude were endless.
1:11.4	In December of 1981, everything would dramatically and tragically change, and in a few short days,
1:19.0	Dana would go from being another young woman in Newfoundland to one of the most well-known names in all of Canada.
1:27.1	On December 14, Dana had made plans to hang out at a friend's house after school,
1:32.6	before she'd hop on a bus to get home where her family would be celebrating her mother's birthday.
1:39.0	Dana called home to acknowledge that she was going to take a walk down to the bus stop, and would be home within the hour.
1:46.1	When Dana failed to arrive home, panic didn't immediately set in, though it was somewhat unusual for her to be late.
1:54.5	After a series of calls around town, and still no Dana, her parents filed a missing persons report with the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary,
2:03.7	who tried to keep them calm, and explained that sometimes, kids lose track of time, will wander off for a bit.
2:11.2	But Dana's parents knew that she would never do that, especially on a day like her mother's birthday.
2:18.2	Over the next four days, the search for Dana became widespread, and there were few people who hadn't heard her story.
2:26.7	St. John's may be the capital city, but it isn't a massive metropolitan area with millions of inhabitants.
	...

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