Solving the 1979 Murder of Kathy Halle with M-Vac DNA | Jared Bradley of M-Vac Systems
Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.4 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 6 August 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jared Bradley is the president of M-Vac Systems, a cutting-edge forensic DNA collection company helping law enforcement solve cold cases once thought unsolvable. A military veteran and host of the podcast All Things Crime, Jared is a global leader in touch DNA recovery. He has worked with investigators around the world to identify suspects, exonerate the innocent, and bring long-awaited closure to victim families.
Learn more: M-Vac Systems
Podcast: All Things Crime
In this episode of Zone 7, Crime Scene Investigator Sheryl McCollum is joined by forensic innovator Jared Bradley to explore the newly solved cold case of Kathy Halle, a 19-year-old murdered in 1979. Her case remained unsolved for 45 years—until DNA recovered using the M-Vac system identified suspected serial offender Bruce Lindahl as the killer. Sheryl and Jared unpack the investigation, the science behind M-Vac, and how support from the nonprofit Season of Justice helped bring long-overdue answers.
Highlights:
- (0:00) Sheryl opens the episode with Kathy Halle’s story and introduces Jared Bradley
- (3:00) Kathy Halle disappears: a misplaced car, a rooftop purse, and early red flags
- (9:00) Quiet persistence: decades of case reviews, missed connections, and evolving DNA science
- (10:30) Cutting-edge DNA recovery leads to a 1-in-9.4-trillion match
- (12:45) Bruce Lindahl: a suspected serial predator whose violent end left unanswered questions
- (16:15) The psychology of predators: what makes serial offenders so hard to catch
- (18:45) M-Vac on the map: solving Krystal Beslanowitch’s murder with DNA from river rocks
- (23:00) “Every case. Every tool. Every time.”
- (25:30) Gang violence, shared clothing, and how M-Vac cut through the DNA mix
- (28:15) Clearing Chris Tapp: how M-Vac helped free a wrongfully convicted man
- (31:00) From burgers to crime scenes: M-Vac’s surprising origin story
- (33:15) Final reflections on persistence, partnership, and solving the unsolvable
- (33:30) “The M-Vac can vacuum 186 times more than a swab can.” – Jared Bradley
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Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnline, Forensic and Crime Scene Expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and a CSI for a metro Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook Cold Case: Pathways to Justice. Sheryl is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a collaboration between universities and colleges that brings researchers, practitioners, students and the criminal justice community together to advance techniques in solving cold cases and assist families and law enforcement with solvability factors for unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnapping cases.
Social Links:
- Email: [email protected]
- Twitter: @ColdCaseTips
- Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum
- Instagram: @officialzone7podcast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:11.6 | In 2024, Kathy Holly's case had been cold for 45 years. |
| 0:29.0 | Kathy was just 19 years old when her body was discovered in the Fox River. Police at the time collected and saved her clothing from 1979. Now just two years later in 1981, police found a man dead in an apartment. |
| 0:44.9 | It looked like he accidentally slashed the major artery in his own leg. How are these cases connected? Well, tonight we have my friend, Jared Bradley. |
| 1:01.2 | Jared is the president of the MVAT. Now, y'all have heard me talk about this DNA collection system |
| 1:08.8 | often on Zone 7. Well, Jared is here tonight and he's not only the |
| 1:15.3 | president of the Invats system. He's also a podcaster, All Things Crime. Jared Bradley, welcome to Zone 7. |
| 1:26.5 | Cheryl Mack, it is an absolute honor. |
| 1:30.5 | I tell you what, this is overdue, honey, because you have been involved in solving case after case after case, not just cold, but frozen cases. Well, I'm not sure many detectives will ever say |
| 1:48.1 | cases are completely frozen, but, you know, they just, investigators to me are some of the |
| 1:55.5 | most amazing people on the planet, including yourself, Cheryl. And I know you guys don't ever like to take credit for |
| 2:04.3 | what you do, but the fact that you will never give up on a victim or a case until it's actually |
| 2:11.2 | solved to me is one of the just absolute most awesomeest things I've ever witnessed in my life. |
| 2:18.6 | Well, let me tell you, when I introduce you by saying, my friend, I want people to |
| 2:24.0 | understand, you show up, you show up at times where it's not expected, it's not required, |
| 2:34.5 | but it is so appreciated. |
| 2:37.2 | Even when I was inducted into the Hall of Fame, you showed up. |
| 2:42.2 | You were there. |
| 2:43.6 | You will never know what that meant to me. |
| 2:46.4 | And you have been so good to my children. |
| 2:49.9 | You have been inclusive and friendly and kind and generous. |
| 2:55.2 | You showed up in Atlanta with a free MVAT and said, let's do some testing. I mean, it's beyond |
... |
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